Was Abraham Lincoln assassinated during his first or second term of office?

The fatal attack on Abraham Lincoln occurred just over a month after he was sworn into office for a second time. His second inauguration took place on March 4, 1865, where he delivered his famous address calling for a benevolent peace "with malice toward none." The assassination happened on the evening of April 14, 1865, as he and his wife Mary were watching a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. He died from his wound the following morning.

The timing of his murder is especially tragic given the events of the preceding week. The Civil War, which had defined Lincoln's entire first term, had effectively concluded just five days earlier with General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House. Lincoln was preparing to lead the nation through the immense challenge of Reconstruction and reuniting a fractured country.

The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was a well-known actor and a fervent Confederate sympathizer. Enraged by the South's defeat and by Lincoln's recent speech proposing voting rights for some African Americans, Booth's conspiracy cut short the life of the president who had successfully preserved the Union. Lincoln's death at the very dawn of peace profoundly altered the course of American history.