Truth Stranger Than Fiction Over and Over Again

John Wilkes Booth photographed by Charles Deforest Fredricks circa January 1860

This is an excerpt from a manuscript I wrote a couple of years ago for a class I took at University of Richmond. The title of the manuscript is "John Wilkes Booth Before the Civil War".   I have been unable to find any trace of this original material from the Governor's website (one of my resources) during a few recent searches.  However, these quotes are in their original form and exactly as I found them at the time that I was writing this manuscript.  We all know that now Bobby Mac has larger fish to fry and now is taking a lot of heat for other actions during his reign over the State of Virginia.  Since the writing of this material is dated from a couple of years ago, it is unlikely that the reader will be able to find any official web site from the state of Virginia with this information.

Excerpt:

On April 14, 2010. the headlines read, "Breaking:  Bob McDonnell Declares John Wilkes Booth Day in Virginia".  147.  The  article stated,

"In conjunction with his declaration of April as Confederate History Month Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell declared today John Wilkes Booth Day  in the state of Virginia.  'Booth was not only one of the brightest stars of the American stage in the antebellum era,' noted McDonnell, 'but he was a member of the stock company of Richmond Theatre in Virginia and often said to be the most handsome man in America.  I am also proud to honor Booth,'  the Governor added, 'for his military service with the Richmond Grays.'  McDonnell seemed nonplussed when pressed on whether it was appropriate to honor the murderer of the sixteenth President of the United States on the 145th anniversary of the crime. 'Mr. Booth was a fine actor and a true Southern gentleman.  With this proclamation I honor him for those parts of his career that are most important to Virginians."  148

It was one of those "truth is stranger than fiction" moments and it passed almost unoticed.  McDonnell probably wasn't the only one who was "nonplussed" when reading this announcement in the newspapers.  The fact that the governor was questioned on it, probably means that some staffer was later grilled for not filling the governor in on the full story.  One would hope that the governor would know the full story about the Lincoln assassination and that maybe honoring an assassin on the anniversary date of his act of assassination could be deemed by others as inappropriate.  However inappropriate, the proclamation was made and one can only assume that the McDonnell administration didn't know any better, or that they didn't care that they were dispensing political dynamite.  Today, no mention of John Wilkes Booth can be found on the governor's official web site, so somebody must have eventually been informed that they made a serious error.  Surprisingly, what McDonnell took heat for at that time was something else completely-- when proclaiming April to be Confederate History Month, he failed to give the institution of slavery its due.  Now, the new and improved version of the proclamation gives slavery its own "WHEREAS".  On the Proclamation page of the Governor's official web site, it now reads,

"Whereas" it is important for all Virginians to understand that the institution of slavery led to this war and was an evil and inhumane practice that deprived people of their God-given inalienable rights and all Virginians are thankful for its permanent eradication from our borders, and the study of this time period should reflect upon and learn from this painful part of our history:  149.

As absurd as it may seem, now as part of Confederate History Month, Virginia has the distinction of being the only state in the Union to have an official John Wilkes Booth Day.