Conspirators suceed

What if on the night that John Wilkes booth murderd abe lincoln, what if the other conspirators had not been to afraid to commit the murders, and suceeded in killing the heads of states. What would have happened, and dont forget the goverment was so much less stable back then.
 
My guess is that Grant would have declared marshal law until the Senate could decide what to do next.

If the Confederates had an army left it may have rallied and the Civil War would have limped on for another year, but when the Union finally won the South would be punished for their actions.

I also think that Europe would have come out infavour of the Union thereby helping to mend the fences between USA and Britain sooner.
 
By the time Booth killed Lincoln, the Confederacy was already a lost cause; Lee and several others have already surrendered and most of the other Confederate forces were in the process of negotiating terms of surrender when news of the OTL assassination reached the frontlines. The war's already over.

Lafayette S. Foster becomes president of the United States. Don't know much about him beyond his wikipedia page since he's a fairly obscure figure. However, it is a safe bet that Reconstruction will be harsher than OTL; Johnston won't be around to make any efforts to moderate it, and there is going to be a lot of outrage over having the President, VP, and Secretary of State killed.
 
Keep forgetting about the Presidential Succession Act of 1792 , just jump to the 1933 Act of Sucession.

There would have been an election in December of that year and I guess that a more redical president would have been elected to "punish" the South.
 
Keep forgetting about the Presidential Succession Act of 1792 , just jump to the 1933 Act of Sucession.

There would have been an election in December of that year and I guess that a more redical president would have been elected to "punish" the South.


The President would be Grant, of course, but three years earlier.

As for "punishing" the South, I don't see it. The killing of Lincoln didn't cause that, and i can't see the deaths of Johnson and Seward really adding much. People were so horrified anyway that "you can't wet a river". Just conceivably, Dr Mudd and the others who got prison might have got death instead, but even that isn't inevitable.

Radfical Reconstruction starts a couple of years earlier, and probably ends a couple of years earlier.
 
By the way I am uncomfortable about this idea that giving civil rights and even compensation to people who had suffered slavery was harsh to the South.

NB It would have been legal to hang every rebel soldier for Treason there were in fact no executions for treason after the war.
 
But the actual conspirators plan was to murder many of the high ranking officials of america. THATS the question i am posing, which would include grant, and for a short while the country would be tremendously de-stabilized, and the south could gain a chance to rise again.
 
But the actual conspirators plan was to murder many of the high ranking officials of america. THATS the question i am posing, which would include grant, and for a short while the country would be tremendously de-stabilized, and the south could gain a chance to rise again.


They couldn't murder more than a handful. There just weren't enough of them, it was a very small group. And there's a lot of scope for things to go wrong. Note that they targeted three men, and managed to kill only one.

The best chance to get Grant would be for him to accept Lincoln's invitation to come to the theatre, so that Booth has a chance at both of them. However, if Lincoln and Grant are both in the theatre, it is likely to be better guarded.

If they do get Grant, the next officer in line is presumably Sherman. But he is no more likely than Grant to get vengeful. He received the news of Lincoln's murder while talking surrender terms with Johnston, but his only reaction was to place nearby towns off limits to his men, just in case any of them did get ideas about private revenge. The same would probably hold good for a majority of senior officers. The leading Rebs are old comrades whom they probably knew at West Point, and with whom they feel far more in common than with even the most loyal freedman. None of Booth's conspirators belonged to that circle (any more than Major Wirz did) so there was no problem about hanging them, but it was never going to go any further.
 
But the actual conspirators plan was to murder many of the high ranking officials of america. THATS the question i am posing, which would include grant, and for a short while the country would be tremendously de-stabilized, and the south could gain a chance to rise again.

The conspiracy had exactly three targets; Lincoln, Johnson, and Seward.

I suppose they could have tried to go after secondary targets after taking down the first three, but their odds of success would be miniscule, since by then word would have gotten out and everyone's guard would be up.
 
The conspiracy had exactly three targets; Lincoln, Johnson, and Seward.

I suppose they could have tried to go after secondary targets after taking down the first three, but their odds of success would be miniscule, since by then word would have gotten out and everyone's guard would be up.
Interestingly enough Grant was going to attend the play with Lincoln, but changed his mind about it and didnt go. If he did decide to go, its unlikely that Booth would have recognized who he was but it would be an interesting possibility if he was also shot.
 
The person that takes over after Johnson is the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, which would be Lafayette S. Foster. I suspect that Reconstruction would be very different, perhaps harsher on the south due to Foster possibly allowing himself to be influenced by President Lincoln's former advisors (or anybody else he might take on). The United States would probably be roughly about the same, although the south might be a bit more reactionary than OTL.
 
Interestingly enough Grant was going to attend the play with Lincoln, but changed his mind about it and didnt go. If he did decide to go, its unlikely that Booth would have recognized who he was but it would be an interesting possibility if he was also shot.

There was one timeline I wanted to write that followed a similar premise, though the Guard in front of the Booth also remained. When the Guard is offed by Wilkes Grant hears the man's muffled cry and makes his way to the door. Once Wilkes tries to burst in with the gun raised Ulysses slams the door right back onto Wilkes's arm causing the gun to discharge into the wall. It seemed nifty at the time but really didn't get anywhere.​
 
Top