Lincoln's Last Moments by Quinn

Quinnof Charlotte's entry into Varsity Tutor's October 2017 scholarship contest

  • Rank:
  • 8 Votes
Quinn of Charlotte, NC
Vote for my essay with a tweet!
Embed

Lincoln's Last Moments by Quinn - October 2017 Scholarship Essay

President Lincoln, were you enjoying the play?
I believe the moments leading up to your death are the most important. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated during a play and I would like to share a meal with him to ask if he was at peace and able to enjoy it.
In my grandfather’s final moments, he was surrounded by his son, wife and daughter, those who he loved most in this world. He knew that he had battled leukemia that ravaged his body as best as he could, and reflected on his life with his family grasping his hands, ultimately realizing that he had lived a successful, happy life. He built his life from the ground up: born into a broken household, he had barely two nickels to rub together when he fell in love and got married. Pop, as we called him, managed to buy a house, raised two kids and sent them both to college, something he would never have thought he could have done. He lived a life surrounded by those he loved and made the best with what he had resulting in pure happiness and, as a result, true success. His last moments were made up of happiness and enjoyment, but not everyone is granted that in the end.
Just like I was robbed of several more years with my grandfather, America was robbed of a man who gave Americans so much. I would like to know in his last moments if Lincoln was enjoying the play; if it was a relieving moment from everything he set forth in the few days prior. He had just given African Americans freedom. They were celebrating outside that theatre but little did they know that behind the very wall separating them, they were being stripped of their savior Society now knows him as the man who ended the Civil War, but that was a sliver of his achievements for this country; he had signed the Homestead Acts, established the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and set forth the Morrill Land-Grant Act. Would these accomplishments be enough to satisfy him?
He was sitting next to his wife at the end, as my grandfather was, and I would like to know if that was all Lincoln needed. Was he at peace in his last moments?

Votes