Lincoln Post-Presidency

If President Lincoln had not been assassinated, what would his post-Presidency career have looked like? I don't know much about what other Presidents of the era got up to after they left office, but I could definitely see a figure as powerful as Lincoln being an important statesman and party elder for a long time after leaving office.

Any thoughts?
 
You are going to have to factor in all the speculation about Lincoln's health and his wife's. What effect would a full second term have had on Lincoln: politically and personally?
 

Driftless

Donor
Lincoln before ACW & near the end

Lincoln - 1860
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Lincoln - 1865

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Five years - million miles. It's not the age, it's the mileage.....
 
Didn't Abe Lincoln want to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem after being president, or was he speaking metaphorically (I believe the conversation was with his wife just before he was shot!)? Maybe he'll travel about the Holy Land, have a nice rest. OTL Mary Lincoln spent some years travelling throughout Europe, maybe both Lincolns would do that.

I do think he'll take care of his wife himself in his later years and not have her institutionalised as Robert Lincoln had done OTL. I don't know that much about his actual health though, how long could he have lived once the stress of being President is no longer there?
 
So in 1868, Abraham Lincoln leaves the white house aged 59 and lets say he lives to be 70 (average age for that period) that gives him 11 years after office to spend in retirement.

He would travel Europe being welcomed as a hero in many capitals by monarchs, including Queen Victoria in London, and would visit Jerusalem to see the "Wailing Wall" and participated in a Friday night services, at the Hurva synagogue.

While traveling he would write his memoirs and advice to President Andrew Johnson during both his terms.

When in 1876, his failing health and the severity of Mary's migraine headaches and other illnesses, they both settle down in Springfield, Illinois setting up the Ellsworth County in honour of Elmer E. Ellsworth, Ellsworth was only 5' 6" tall, but Lincoln called Ellsworth "the greatest little man I ever met."

Lincoln would die a year later while, Todd lives for another 3 years, morning the loss of her husband and 3 sons, but being cared for by a group of nurses from Illinois who are paid for under Lincoln's will.
 
While traveling he would write his memoirs and advice to President Andrew Johnson during both his terms.

Would Johnson have had any shot at the Presidency without Lincoln's assassination? I know his conflicts with the Radical Republicans didn't blow up until after he was in office OTL, but it seems unlikely that he could have kept his positions on Reconstruction a secret all the way through the 1868 elections, by which point OTL he was trying for the Democratic nomination.
 
Would Johnson have had any shot at the Presidency without Lincoln's assassination? I know his conflicts with the Radical Republicans didn't blow up until after he was in office OTL, but it seems unlikely that he could have kept his positions on Reconstruction a secret all the way through the 1868 elections, by which point OTL he was trying for the Democratic nomination.


And Vice-Presidents hardly ever got the nod in any case.#

If Lincoln gave any advice, it would be to president Grant - his near-certain successor. AJ would be either back in private life or else a Senator from Tennessee.
 
And Vice-Presidents hardly ever got the nod in any case.#

If Lincoln gave any advice, it would be to president Grant - his near-certain successor. AJ would be either back in private life or else a Senator from Tennessee.

I wonder if Lincoln and Grant had worked together in cabinet whether Lincoln's view of Grant would have changed? What his assessment of Grant's political abilities have been?
 
Would Johnson have had any shot at the Presidency without Lincoln's assassination? I know his conflicts with the Radical Republicans didn't blow up until after he was in office OTL, but it seems unlikely that he could have kept his positions on Reconstruction a secret all the way through the 1868 elections, by which point OTL he was trying for the Democratic nomination.
In 1968, Johnson is seen as Lincolns protégé and as a Southern Unionist gained many support among Southern whites and with Stephen Johnson Field (Former Chief Justice of California and Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court) as his running mate would gain the West as well.

And Vice-Presidents hardly ever got the nod in any case.
If Lincoln gave any advice, it would be to president Grant - his near-certain successor. AJ would be either back in private life or else a Senator from Tennessee.
Richard Nixon? Martin Van Buren? George H. W. Bush?
Johnson was determined to continue to fix the union and would fight to become president and would run as a National Unionist to keep the two parties together just like Abe kept the two houses together.

Lincoln would not want Ulysses S. Grant in office, not out of spite but out of personal admiration, Lincoln knew Grant was unpopular with congress and the senate and was seen as a foolish drunk to outsiders.
Lincoln would worry about Grant.
 
I wonder if Lincoln and Grant had worked together in cabinet whether Lincoln's view of Grant would have changed? What his assessment of Grant's political abilities have been?

Don't see why. Grant would be executing Lincoln policies, and undoubtedly doing so loyally. He wouldn't be Lincoln's equal as a politician, but then neither would anyone else, so there's no real point in looking elsewhere for a successor.
 
Richard Nixon? Martin Van Buren? George H. W. Bush?
Johnson was determined to continue to fix the union and would fight to become president and would run as a National Unionist to keep the two parties together just like Abe kept the two houses together.

Lincoln would not want Ulysses S. Grant in office, not out of spite but out of personal admiration, Lincoln knew Grant was unpopular with congress and the senate and was seen as a foolish drunk to outsiders.
Lincoln would worry about Grant.
Of the three Veeps to become President's you mentioned, only one of them was from the 19th century. In 19th century American politics, the Vice-Presidency was a dead end, it was where you put people to either A) Satisfy some political faction within the party so the party could go in unified or B) Balance out the regional representation on a party ticket if the Presidential nominee was from the North, the VP-nominee would be from the south. Van Bueren is the only VP to be nominated and elected as President by the same party immediately following the President he served under (without resignation, assassination, or death) until George H.W. Bush. So it's very unlikely that Johnson would be considered for nomination, especially when he was picked primarily because Lincoln and the Republicans wanted to run as a unified coalition of Republicans and Democrats and Johnson fit the bill, not because he would be a good successor to Lincoln's presidency.
 
Lincoln would not want Ulysses S. Grant in office, not out of spite but out of personal admiration, Lincoln knew Grant was unpopular with congress and the senate and was seen as a foolish drunk to outsiders.



In 1862 maybe. That's not how he was viewed post-Appomattox.

After his 1868 nomination, Harpers Weekly (iirc) published a cartoon showing Grant standing on a plinth. Beside it was another, vacant plinth and the words "Match him". That's how he was seen after the war. He was national hero #1 - or at least #2, after Lincoln himself. If he wants the 1868 nomination, no one else is in the running.
 

jahenders

Banned
If Lincoln serves out his term, I definitely don't see Johnson ever becoming President. Lincoln thought he was politically useful as a VP when he was trying to avoid/reduce the civil war, but once that's won Johnson is just an annoying man from the other party.

Lincoln serving (and Johnson not) after the war, improves reconstruction and race relations considerably. It's not clear whether Lincoln would support/encourage a Grant presidency, but he'd certainly help it if it occurred, perhaps reducing the scandals with some good advice.

After leaving office, Lincoln avoids politics somewhat, but does occasionally meet with his successor. Other than that, he leads a quiet life in Illinois, writes his memoirs, and travels.
 
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