Video: 'LINCOLN'S FINAL SPEECH'

(Tuesday, April 11, 1865, evening; during the American Civil War) — Two days after Lee’s army surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, President Abraham Lincoln spoke to a crowd outside the White House tonight, saying, “We meet this evening, not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart.”

Furiously provoked by Lincoln’s support for enfranchising former slaves, actor John Wilkes Booth, who attended the speech, decided on assassination and is quoted as saying to Lewis Powell, “That is the last speech he will ever give.”

Video: 'Abraham Lincoln - Final Speech - 1865 - Hear the Text'