Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 August 1881 — Was Booth Insane? [ARTICLE]

Was Booth Insane?

Probably the only history which gives color to the theory that Booth was insane is that by J. S. Blackburn, principal of an academy at Alexandria, Va., and \V. N. McDonald, principal of a male high school at Louisville, Ky. In their bis tory, which is being extensively used in Southern schools, they say: “Booth committed the act under the fanatical idea that the war would terminate and the South gain her freedom if Lincoln were killed.” This same history advances, among the causes of the failure of the rebels, the following: “The primary cause of the failure of the Confederacy was that the people of the South were not unanimous in their efforts to gain their liberty. In the history of the world a united people, struggling for liberty, have never been subjugated.” The italics are the work of Messrs. Blackburn and McDonald. Booth was shot in a bam at Garrett’s farm, near Bowling Gbreen, and died soon after. That was April 26, 1865. —Chicago In ter-Ocean.