Thursday, April 15. 1965
University Daily Kansan
Page 13
If President Lincoln Were Alive Today...
By Ernie Ballweg
It was one hundred years ago Wednesday that Abraham Lincoln was shot by an assassin in Washington's Ford's Theatre, while he was attending a performance of "Our American Cousin."
A few minutes after ten o'clock on the night of April 14, 1865 an actor, John Wilkes Booth, entered the President's box and shot him in the back of the head. Booth then escaped to the stage but he caught his spur in the folds of the American flag. He fell and broke his leg, but managed to limp across the stage
Physics Professor Takes Carolina Post
L. Worth Seagondollar, professor of physics, has recently accepted a position as head of the department of physics at North Carolina State of the University of North Carolina at Raleigh.
North Carolina State is one of the three campuses of the university with the other two at Chapel Hill and Charlotte. Prof. Seagondollar, who joined the KU faculty in 1947, will begin his new position July 1.
Prof. Seagondollar, a native Kansas. received his BA from Kansas State Teacher's College at Emporia in 1941 and three years later received a PHM from the University of Wisconsin.
while holding a dagger and crying 'Sic semper tyrannis' (Thus ever to tyrants), the state motto of Virginia.
Lincoln was taken unconscious to a neighboring house where he died at 7:22 on the morning of April 15, 1865, surrounded by his family and high government officials.
The April 15, 1865 edition of the "New York Tribune" contained this dispatch by Lawrence A. Gobright, an Associated Press correspondent:
sider Lincoln as the Republican party's first great spokesman and Republicans still commemorate his birthday. I have a great personal feeling for Lincoln also as I consider him as one of our greatest statesmen. I feel that if he were alive today he would still be a great spokesman for the American way of life."
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Groneman added, "Lincoln was for the common man and should be universally respected. He would be active in politics of today because he was dedicated much like Kennedy. Both of them believed deeply in what they were doing. I believe that Lincoln would be one of the sponsors of many of the civil rights bills of today."
"Lincoln died a martyr's death which made him a semi-legendary character. With Lincoln's looks and public speaking abilities, I do not feel that he would be an influence in today's politics. Lincoln was not the great advocate of civil rights as many claim either, as he was one of the first to work out establishing an African colony for freed slaves."
"The theater was densely crowded, and everybody seemed delighted with the scene before them. During the third act, and while there was a temporary pause for one of the actors to enter, a sharp report of a pistol was heard, which merely attracted attention, but suggested nothing serious, until a man rushed to the front of the President's box, waving a long dagger in his right hand, and exclaiming, 'Sic semper tyrannis,' and immediately leaped from the box, which was on the second tier, to the stage beneath, and ran across to the opposite side, making his escape amid the bewilderment of the audience from the
George Groneman, Kansas City junior and president of the KU Collegelegiate Young Democrats, said, "Whenever I think of Lincoln I remember this specific comment of his. The legitimate objective of government is to do for the community of people whatever they need to have done but cannot do so well for themselves in their separate and individual capacities. It seems to me as if the Republican leaders have turned away from the philosophy of their founding fathers."
John Sapp, Havana, Ill., junior, majoring in history and political science had this to say:
Bill Porter, Topeka sophomore and president of the Collegiate Young Republicans, said, "I con-
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Rod Kuehn, Topeka senior and a political science major, said, "All great men are made great by the times. Lincoln was the nation's leader in a time of crisis and he lived up to what was expected of him. I would not, however, care to venture what he would do today."
The nearness of the late President Kennedy's death and its similarities to Lincoln's assassination make Lincoln's death much more realistic in the minds of some of today's KU students. A number of interviews show a variety of opinions on Lincoln and what he would do if he were alive today.
Nathaniel Sims, Pasadena, Cal., senior and Civil Rights Committee co-chairman, said, "Lincoln's ideas are somewhat cohesive with Edwin Burke's philosophy that good men do nothing. Although Lincoln did something in the way of civil rights it was mainly done to preserve the Union."
the country were endangered, much as President Johnson is doing. Politicians usually act for the majority of the people concerned."
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Sims added, "If Lincoln were alive today he would be involved in the cause of civil rights if the good of
Lincoln had become a legendary figure even in his own time. He had been born in a humble, Kentucky log cabin Feb. 12, 1809 and had spent much of his early life on the frontier of Indiana. From this humble origin he had developed into one of our nation's most famous leaders.
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rear of the theater, and, mounting a horse, fled."
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