Trevi and I have been extremely sick this weekend. I am not sure if it is the flu or food poisoning, but it hit us hard and fast. All day Saturday we just slept and watched TV fighting off the fever and throwing up. Fortunately, we are feeling better today!
All that to say, the only advantage of being so sick is getting to watch some football I would have missed, and some documentaries from the History Channel.
Like many, I have always admired Abraham Lincoln. One of my all-time favorite books is Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals. In fact, I even grow an occasional Lincoln-style beard during the Christmas holidays (some have thought I looked more like Suge Knight).
Some fascinating things I learned from the documentary on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln:
John Wilkes Booth was considered the most handsome man in America in the years leading up to the assassination. He was a part of a famous family of actors.
Originally,the plan for Booth and his co-conspirators was to kidnap President Lincoln.
Once the Confederate Army seemed to have lost the war, the plot shifted to killing Lincoln, the Vice President Johnson, and the Secretary of State Seward all at the same time on the same night in hopes of giving the Confederates courage to restart the war.
Four of the co-conspirators were punished with death by hanging, including the first woman to ever face the death penalty in our country, Mary Suratt.
The powerful documentary reminded me how tremendous progress comes through great sacrifice.
