Edward Askew Sothern the play that Abraham Lincoln was watching when he was assassinated. Sothern's role was Lord Dundreary, a caricature of a brainless English nobleman. At first, he was reluctant to accept the role; it was so small and unimportant that he felt it beneath him and feared it might damage his reputation. He mentioned his qualms to his friend, Joseph Jefferson, who had been cast in the leading role of Asa Trenchard in the play. Jefferson supposedly responded with the famous line: "There are no small parts, only small actors." On 15 October 1858, "Our American Cousin" premiered in New York.
When Lincoln Paid When Lincoln Paid When Lincoln Paid is a 1913 American short silent historical drama film written by William Clifford and directed by Francis Ford, who also appears in the film as Abraham Lincoln. Ford portrayed Lincoln in at least seven silent films; all are now lost except for this one. The mother of a dead Union soldier attempts to convince President Lincoln to pardon a similarly condemned Confederate soldier whose unjust conviction was the result of her vindictive scheme. This was one of many films from the 1910s focusing on Lincoln's well-known practice of pardoning young Civil War soldiers condemned