Wow -- I did not know that! [1] But somehow, it makes sense. Now I'm wondering why that is...
[comes back later]
Wait a minute -- I think I remember something else -- some really obscure trivia book on presidential assassination attempts, I think -- and one of the weird things investigators (supposedly) learned was that the movement of the attempted killings began on a whim, when Booth heard from a friend earlier that day that the President was going to be at the theater.
And when I think about this, my first thought is "Man, these guys were real amateurs"; my second thought, "But they came so close, this was real different back then, when such powerful figures were so poorly protected"...
Am I confused here? Does anybody know what I'm talking about?
OOC: [1] No, really.
Booth's "diary" seems to confirm that the assassination was a last minute decision. The conspirators were part of a long-running plot to kidnap Lincoln and exchange him for Confederate PoWs, but the decision to kill him seems to have been taken almost "on the day".
The attempt on Seward makes sense in the context of a plan to paralyse the government. Under the 1792 Presidential Succession Act (still the applicable law in 1865) it would be Seward's job to notify the State governments of the double vacancy, and set in motion a new election of President and Vice President. However, this need not have been done until October (to allow 60 days for the Electors to be chosen and then meet and vote) by which time he would almost certainly have either died or recovered, so that Acting President Foster would have had ample time to make a recess appointment of a new SoS, should that have become necessary.
My own guess is that Booth and Co had simply never read the Act (was any of them a lawyer?) and that, vaguely remembering that it mentioned the Secretary of State, asssumed that he would be Acting president in such a case. They may also have missed the announcement of a President of the Senate being chosen, and supposed that position to be vacant.
You are so right about the security, or lack of it. Iirc my Bruce Catton, it was not unknown for a casual passer by to just walk into the White House, buttonhole the President and engage "that harrassed official" in conversation for some time. Security as we know it barely existed.