The coup failed. Booth did kill Lincoln, who became the first president in American history to be assassinated. But the co-conspirators did not kill Vice President Johnson or Secretary of State Seward--although Seward was gravely injured. There was a national backlash against the conspirators. Booth was killed in a shootout with the authorities, and eight co-conspirators were tried and four were hanged. Thus the last effort of Democrats to save the institution of slavery ended in ignominy. But the Democrats were not finished. They were down but not out. Soon, as we will see in the next chapter, the Democrats moved on to a new nefarious scheme of oppression and theft, one that was almost as despicable as slavery.