Book Review: American Brutus by Michael Kauffman (Book Review Sample)

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American Brutus: Book Review
American Brutus was written by Michael Kauffman, a political historian who carried out the study on Abraham Lincoln’s assassination for more than thirty years. Kauffman is an ardent independent historian who is better known for his works on historical events like the civil war. Kauffman enlivens the American Brutus with energetic recounts outside the walls of academic endeavors.
American Brutus gives a detailed and chronological account of the political conspiracy of a plotted assassination that was carefully carried out by one of the most adored leading men of those days. The assassination was the fist political terrorism act and public spectacle act in the history of the United States. John Booths shot Abraham Lincoln in the balcony of Ford’s theatre. Booth was re-enacting a scene from Julius Caesar, which was his favorite since his childhood. He acted as the son of the great Shakespearean actor, Junius Brutus Booth, who was named after the man who killed Caesar. American Brutus’ major contribution is its eye opening accounts as well as its portrayal of how the country was at odds with itself. Political assassination, which was an alien concept even during the civil war, suddenly became a widely discussed topic. The secretary of state by then was William Seward. He pointed that during the war, Lincoln was carrying most of his duties unguarded. The White house was also barely guarded with visitors wandering through Lincoln’s family private resident without any interruption. They even helped themselves to furnishings ( Kauffman 26).
As the war continued, what used to be unthinkable became too conceivable as Lincoln’s democratic opponents railed against his authoritarianism, warning him that he could die the same way Julius Caesar did. The rage at Lincoln was mainly from the violent South. In 1864, Lincoln had won election without any support from the South where the republican did not even exist. By late 1864, the death toll from the civil war had reached over one million. Newspaper in the capital city, Richmond, started discussing openly the viability of assassination as a way to eliminate a man they considered dictatorial once and for all. They even pondered the venerability of Lincoln during his inauguration (Ifing 67).
The lopsided victory of Lincoln in 1864 was caused by the North’s sudden increasing fortunes in the war. This started with the capture of Atlanta by Sherman. This made some opponents accuse him of stealing the elections, something that led to more agitation that prompted opponents to take drastic measures to throw him out of office. At the same time, stage idol John Wilkes Booth, an ardent and passionate supporter of the confederate cause, was planning Lincoln’s death. He hatched a plan to kidnap Lincoln for exchange with war prisoners. However, the plan became irrelevant after the collapse of the South’s military forces (Archer, 450. After this failure, Booth plotted to overthrow the federal government by killing the president, his deputy, and the secretary of state in one night. This was to be the final victory hour for the South. Some people can read the civil war history through a political prism as Kauffman was a University of Virginia graduate and resident of south Maryland, which was the rebel stronghold that bred John Booth (Shalev 86).
It is clearly noted that Kauffman was sympathetic to charges of tough federal rules that ignited Booth’s anti-Lincoln thoughts. After Lincoln took power, he introduced martial laws that heavily affected Border States like Maryland, which were deemed to be against the union. Some of the unpopular actions executed by Lincoln included shutting down of newspapers, jailing of city officials like police marshals, and the incarceration of the mayor who was Booth’s friend after Massachusetts troops invaded Baltimore. Sympathizers were arrested and treated brutally. They were held in inhumane confines in navy iron boats before facing trial by a military tribune. According to Booth, it was hard for people to forget that kind of barbaric treatment. Kauffman seems attuned to the narrative of Lewis Powel, who was assigned the task of killing Seward, the secretary of state. Powel attacked Seward, stabbing him together with his two sons and his military attendant. However, none of the victims died of the wounds. Afterwards, the young Powel, whose two brothers had died in the war, felt deep remorse after committing the act. He apologized to the victims and accepted his fate of death by hanging alongside his other three conspirators at Washington prison ward. His grave remained mysterious for years as the government had no interest in creating monuments of Southern martyrs. However, Kauffman writes that he attended the dignified burial of Powell’s remains in Geneva, Fla., after the discovery of his skull at Smithsonian in 1993 (Java 103).
Kauffman’s sympathies to Booth are not clearly stated. Booth appears in Americas Brutus as a self-pitying and manipulative person. He is depicted as a glory seeker who sought greater immortality through political violence than he could attain through his acting career. Even though he came from one of the leading theater families in America, Booth felt that acting was beneath him. He dreamed of military heroism in fighting for his beloved South. The closest he came to serving in the war is when he stood guard at the execution of John Brown, preventing radical abolitionists from interfering (Karkus 6).
Booth was secretly engaged to Lucy Lambert Hale, a daughter of John Parker. Parker was a New Hampshire senator and a staunch abolitionist. The lady’s portrait was among the five photographs retrieved from the actor’s pocket diary when he was captured in a Virginia tobacco barn. He was strikingly handsome and very attractive to ladies. Kaufmann writes that by 1865, war and politics had turned Booth from a once beloved stage idol to an outcast who was openly mocked and taunted by people for his convictions. This made him feel that he ought to do something to prove he was not a coward. It is from that point that he resolved to carry out the monumental deed on April eleven. This was after President Lincoln addressed a crowd on the surrender of generals Robert .E, Ulysses, and S. Grant. Lincoln had indicated that he favored giving voting rights to the intelligent colored men who served in the union army. However, this did not go well with Booth as he vowed to kill the president (Maslin 5).
Booth’s anti-Lincoln zeal emanated from his beliefs on Southern white supremacy which considered slavery a boon for black Americans, whom he viewed as better off living as slaves than being in Africa. Booth used to spread the so called happiness to his family farm in Maryland by throwing candies from his saddlebag to the ground to watch blacks scramble for them (Jaffa 630).
When he was hiding after his escape, he sent his young gofer Dave Harold to get him a newspaper so that he could review the account of the assassination. However, he was very disappointed by what he read. The papers that had flayed Lincoln were hailing him as a martyr. The press universally panned his performance at Ford’s theater. Southern papers like Richmond Whig termed the act as the most deplorable act that had ever befallen the United States. Booth was very much offended by suggestions by some papers that shooting an unarmed middle-aged man from the back was an act of cowardice. He even took the pains to write in his diary stating that he struck boldly and not as the paper had reported (Marvel 436).
Booth’s plan was to escape to Mexico, which had started welcoming confederate refugees. However, his escape depended on assistance from confederates working in state house. To his disappointment, nobody was willing to help him, not even the most die hard rebel families, including a cousin of Robert Lee. The war secretary had warned of severe reprisals to anyone caught hiding the fugitive. Booth became hopeless and desperate after being hunted like a dog through swamps and woods. Eventually, he was shot in the neck by sergeant Boston Corbett while being smoked out of the burn. Colbert was a bizarre and tragic character. He had castrated himself to avoid any feature sexual temptation after the death his wife and their newborn baby. The South was defeated but Booths power sprout with legends coming up that he had managed to elude his pursuers. It is a fact that hate became a pre-occupation for Booth, which later became a fixation, before turning into fanaticism. He was ruthless and ready to do anything when pursuing his goal. He once fumed when one man refused to join his conspiracy, calling him a coward who was not fit to live. He was also a ve...