Background: This passage is an excerpt from William E. Doster’s defense of Lewis Powell.
What is Doster’s argument in this passage?
A leader is someone who demonstrates courage and makes sacrifices.
The assassination of Lincoln is fair and acceptable during wartime.
The assassination of Lincoln is unjust even during wartime.
A rebel soldier must show that he is just and willing to sacrifice for his country.
What, then, has [Lewis] done that every rebel soldier has not tried to do? Only this - he has ventured more; he has shown a higher courage, a bitterer hate, and a more ready sacrifice; he has aimed at the head of a department, instead of the head of a corps; he has struck at the head of a nation, instead of at its limbs; he has struck in the day of his humiliation, when nothing was to be accomplished but revenge, and when he believed lie was killing an oppressor.
