Andrew Johnson assassinated with Lincoln

The Lincoln assassination was part of a larger plot to kill the Secretary of State and the Vice president in order to eliminate the leadership. However, the assassin assigned to kill Andrew Johnson lost his nerve and did not carry out the assassination. What would happen if the assassin went through with the plan and killed Andrew Johnson? This would lead to a more punishing early reconstruction and there would be no clash between the president and the congress.
 
The conspirators get exactly what they deserve, a Connecticut Yankee in the White House, Senator Lafayette Sabine Foster of Connecticut, the senate's president pro tempore. (Too bad Foster was apparently not the frothing at the mouth radical Republican I would have liked for him to have been...)

With Foster, a Republican, in the White House, the agenda of Reconstruction is not thwarted at every turn by Andrew Johnson.

http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/...an-who-almost-became-president-after-lincoln/

http://news.yahoo.com/forgotten-man-almost-became-president-lincoln-101033224.html

Lafayette_Foster640.jpg
 
You would get Acting President Top 10 Moustaches of the Great War until he is replaced with Ulysses S. Grant in the special election that follows later that year. Reconstruction would go without resistance, and as Presidential elections now take place on odd number years, every Congressional race is now, technically, a midterm.
 

TFSmith121

Banned
Yes, yes he does...

Does he have a beard below his chinline?:eek:

Yes, yes he does...

Because the 101st Bearded Infantry.;)

Not to be confused with Major General John C. Robinson, MOH recipient, also known as "the hairiest general in a much bearded army..."
 
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Yes, yes he does...

Because the 101st Bearded Infantry.;)

Not to be confused with Major General John C. Robinson, MOH recipient, also known as "the hairiest general in a much bearded army..."

robinsonjc1.jpg

Thats a nice beard!

*beardjealouslyintensifies*

Greatest beard to come from the Civil War, though- Valentine Tapely. Pledged never to cut his beard again if Lincoln was elected...

ValentineTapley12feet1.jpg
 
Wonder what he did with it if he had to ride somewhere...

Spook the damn horse, I'd think.

Best,

He could probably weave it into some kind of beard turban in those cases, perhaps.

But anyway, back on topic on my part.

I think that Reconstruction will continue without any major bumps, though this might spur on white supremacist groups like the KKK to new levels. I imagine they and others like them will be not at all happy with the way things are going, even more than OTL. There may be some more violence related to them, as the government cracks down on their activities.
 
I think that Reconstruction will continue without any major bumps.


Depends what you call "bumps".

OTL, many Southern white voters ignored the State elections of 1867/8, partly because they were egged on to do so by Andrew Johnson, and partly because they hoped the Democrats would win in 1868 and cancel Congressional Reconstruction.

In 1865, of course, there would have been no such hope, so there would have been no point in boycotting the polls. So the white turnout will be substantially higher, and several states are likely to be readmitted under Conservative governments - as Virginia was even OTL. Thus "Redemption" would also get off to a quicker start.

This of course assumes that all Freedmen still get the vote. But that also is by no means certain. When Lincoln died, most politicians were talking only about enfranchising literate Blacks, and those who had served in the Union Army. Had Foster done this, it would probably have satisfied enough Congressional Republicans to secure the readmission of the South, while being insufficient to seriously challenge white rule there. In that case it is all "Redeemed" pretty much from the start.
 
One point - does Congress meet earlier than OTL?

The Act of 1792 placed the Pres of the Senate and Speaker of the House next in line after the VP. However, in April 1865 there was no Speaker, as the new HoR had not yet met, and only a Pres Pro-tem because the Senate had chosen one at a special session in March. So if anything happens to Foster, he has no legal successor.

In this case, might Foster not feel obliged to summon, at least, the HoR so that a Speaker could be chosen, and even perhaps both houses to consider a new Act adding Cabinet officers to the line of succession?

One further thought, if he does the latter, and is also seeking some way to dish the Radicals, might Foster ask Congress to consider an Amendment repudiating the Confederate debt, and precluding compensation to former slaveholders - IOW, Sec 4 of the 14th Amendment, but sent to the States as a "stand-alone" Article. If this happened, it might be harder to pass OTL's 14A, which passed with only three votes to spare in the Senate, and fourteen in the House. Without Section 4, such an Amendment might have failed to make it.
 
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