Lincoln not shot

[Evil Opus]

Probably been done before, but most everything has. WI Abe Lincoln had not been shot and killed by an assassin in 1865, and allowed to complete the rest of his term? How does this affect Reconstruction and the way the presidency is shaped?

 

[Wendell]

Probably been done before, but most everything has. WI Abe Lincoln had not been shot and killed by an assassin in 1865, and allowed to complete the rest of his term? How does this affect Reconstruction and the way the presidency is shaped?

Well, reconstruction would probably be more successful. Lincoln will probably remain a powerful figure within the GOP for the rest of his life post-presidency.

 

[The Mists Of Time]

Reconstruction would have probably gone a lot more smoothly and easily. Lincoln wanted the nation to come back together again "with malice toward none," so there probably would not have been the effort to punish the South for the Civil War as there was in OTL.

The effort during reconstruction to punish the South and make it pay for the war caused a lot of tension and bad feelings between Northerners and Southerners, and probably made things more difficult for Black people in the South. Those tensions would probably have been reduced had Lincoln lived and enacted a policy of reconstruction with malice toward none.

I'm wondering, if Lincoln had lived and put in place a reconstruction that really was "with malice toward none," and avoided some of that tension, how would that have effected conditions in the South for Black people during and after reconstruction? Would it have made things easier for them? Would it have effected Civil Rights later on? Would the Civil Rights movement in TTL have had easier going than in OTL? I've often wondered about that.

 

[David S Poepoe]

Its entirely likely that Lincoln could have faced stiff opposition from the Radical Republicans, just as Andrew Johnson did. I wouldn't consider it entirely unlikely that he may have faced impeachment charges from a vengeful Congress.

 

[Burton K Wheeler]

Its entirely likely that Lincoln could have faced stiff opposition from the Radical Republicans, just as Andrew Johnson did. I wouldn't consider it entirely unlikely that he may have faced impeachment charges from a vengeful Congress.

The almost hagiological regard in which Lincoln is held today is arguably due to his murder immediately after the Civil War. Popular perceptions before his death were not nearly as good as many people would imagine. Remember, he had only narrowly won his reelection bid.
Bringing moderation in the highly charged political climate of the time would have required political capital that Lincoln simply did not have.

 

[Derek Jackson]

Yes those radical republicans really wanted to punish the South with such evil acts (and this is the one the Confederates hated most) as giving former slaves the vote and giving everyone the right to educaton.

In OTL Lincoln thought that the South would respond well to generosity. He tried it.

He did not in OTL live to see the outcome. The outcome was that the South reaffirmed support for those involved in the greatest act of treason ("Making war on the United States") ever to have happened.

In OTL nearly all Republicans agreed that something radical needed to be done. Hence the Civil Rights acts and pushing for votes for African Americans.

Linclon, a moderate Republican who was getting a bit less racist a bit quicker than the average Norhterner would, I think, have reacted in the same way.

A fairly radical reconstruction more compentently carried out than in OTL is a real possibility.


It is of course possible he would have been persuaded to be "moderate" and allow "home rule" meaning the kind of white racist rule that happened in the South from the late 1870s on.