 Forty years later , when the centenary of Lincoln 's birth was celebrated in 1909 , a border state official reflected on Booth 's assassination of Lincoln , " Confederate veterans held public services and gave public expression to the sentiment , that ' had Lincoln lived ' the days of reconstruction might have been softened and the era of good feeling ushered in earlier " . The majority of Northerners viewed Booth as a madman or monster who murdered the savior of the Union , while in the South , many cursed Booth for bringing upon them the harsh revenge of an incensed North instead of the reconciliation promised by Lincoln . A century later , Goodrich concluded in 2005 , " For millions of people , particularly in the South , it would be decades before the impact of the Lincoln assassination began to release its terrible hold on their lives " . 
