 Although Booth was pro @-@ Confederate , his family , like many Marylanders , was divided . He was outspoken in his love of the South , and equally outspoken in his hatred of Lincoln . As the Civil War went on , Booth increasingly quarreled with his brother Edwin , who declined to make stage appearances in the South and refused to listen to John Wilkes ' fiercely partisan denunciations of the North and Lincoln . In early 1863 , Booth was arrested in St. Louis while on a theatre tour , when he was heard saying he " wished the President and the whole damned government would go to hell . " Charged with making " treasonous " remarks against the government , he was released when he took an oath of allegiance to the Union and paid a substantial fine . 
