Maybe? It may or may not be surprising to know that the motivations of John Wilkes Booth are not simple. One of the things JWB always wanted was fame. He was always envious of both his brother Edgar (known to be not only the better actor of the two, but widely considered the best actor of his generation) and his father Julius Brutus Booth, whom he resembled physically but could never match on the stage.

JWB's commitment to the Confederacy ran parallel, if in the opposite direction of his acting opportunities. As the quality of his theater engagements waned, his desire to fight the "tyrant" Lincoln increased. It could also be explained as a reaction to his brother's fervent support of Lincoln and abolition. In fact, Edgar Booth was part of a secret group who helped fund John Brown's slave rebellion a few years prior. While this might have been unbeknownst to JWB, he ironically attended the execution of Brown after bribing his way into a militia guard unit.

To me, the way JWB's assassinated the President says everything. He did it in a theater he had worked at many times and he did it in the most dramatic way possible. So much so, it seemed like an act. I think you could say he achieved his goal. The two most recognized names of the Civil War period are probably Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth (followed probably closely by Grant and Lee). He upstaged his brother, who in every way is a man who did so much more. He was the most famous actor of his time and helped change the way actors were viewed. Before Edgar, actors were still mostly treated as undesirable lower classes, even when they were famous like his father. By the end of his life Edgar was head of a prominent social club that even had presidents toasting his name. He even ironically saved one of the son's of Abe Lincoln after he fell into some train tracks, yet despite all that, nobody knows who Edgar Booth was...every American knows the name John Wilkes Booth.

Sources: Mostly "My Thoughts Be Bloody"