Booth Family Tradition?

This is an interesting item. It turns out that Junius Brutus Booth, the Father of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, wrote a letter to President Andrew Jackson, threatening to slit his throat if he didn't pardon two prisoners who were on trial for piracy.

The actual term used was:

I will cut your throat whilst you are sleeping.

Apparently, threatening to kill the President was not a crime back then. At least that is the assertion of biographer Robert V. Remini.

While not a key event in history, it is an interesting historical anecdote. And a hat tip to that famous resident of Tennessee, Professor Glenn Reynolds.

Regards -- Cliff