1865 Apr 14, On the evening of Good Friday, just after 10 p.m., Pres. Lincoln was shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth while attending the comedy "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater in Washington DC. Southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth burst into the presidential box and shot Lincoln behind the ear. Booth shouted out “sic semper tyrannis" (thus always to tyrants), Virginia’s state motto, after shooting Pres. Lincoln. He leaped to the stage, breaking his left leg on impact, and escaped through a side door. Lincoln was carried to a nearby house where he remained unconscious until his death at 7:22 the following morning. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who had kept vigil at Lincoln's bedside, said, "Now he belongs to the ages." As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy."