The Civil War was finally over. The South surrendered on April 9, 1865. President Abraham Lincoln had led the country through four years of terrible fighting. He had signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed enslaved people in the South. People celebrated in the streets. Just five days later, on April 14, Lincoln went to Ford's Theatre with his wife. They planned to see a comedy called Our American Cousin. An actor named John Wilkes Booth snuck in. Booth was angry that the South had lost the war. He believed Lincoln was destroying the country. Booth shot Lincoln and then jumped onto the stage. He escaped on a waiting horse. Doctors carried Lincoln to a house across the street. He never woke up. He died the next morning at 7:22 a.m. The nation was devastated. Millions of people lined the railroad tracks as Lincoln's funeral train carried his body back to Illinois. Booth was hunted down and killed twelve days later. Lincoln is remembered as one of the greatest presidents because he held the country together and ended slavery. His legacy lives on in the words he spoke. That government should be "of the people, by the people, for the people.".