Overview

The action of this famous play is episodic, showing us the great American President at various stages of his career. He is seen accepting the nomination by the Republicans for the Presidency; deciding to override his Cabinet and carry his convictions to the point of war; talking "like an equal" to a black man; reading Artemus Ward to his colleagues when they were all agog to be talking about the abolition of slavery; giving a condemned man his reprieve, and finally suffering death at the hands of the fanatic, John Wilkes Booth.