What if U.S. President Abraham Lincoln would have gotten assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in 1865 (as opposed to having this assassination attempt fail, as was the case in our TL*)?
A TL where just the Lincoln assassination succeeds.Is this JUST the Lincon assassination succeeding, or are we looking at a timeline where all the conspirators get their targets? Because the two are DRASTICALLY different.
Well, yeah, that's OTL*.I find the prospects of him surviving a lot more interesting.
You mean by stripping the plantation owners of their land and property and giving it to the freedmen?People would have reacted emotionally instead of rationally. In OTL, the wrath was directed at Booth personally, and he was hanged. Had he succeeded, there would have been a concerted effort to punish the South as much as possible.
Well, or he might go back to his Democrat root.The Presidency passes to Andrew Johnson
Well, or he might go back to his Democrat root.
He might have tried to. OTL several votes were cast for him at the 1868 Democratic Convention. However, since neither he or any other Dem would have stood an earthly against Grant, it doesn't hugely matter what he does.
Lincoln's second term was just long enough to lay the foundation for today's strong
Republican Party in the South. This is
because Lincoln made sure that no dis-
criminatory, anti-black legislation was
passed by Southern states against the
former slaves. He also made sure that the
former slave's right to vote was not infringed. At the same time, by pardoning
Jefferson Davis(Andrew Johnson might
well have hung him)& encouraging northern
industry to re- locate @ least some plants
in the South, Lincoln did much to ease
Southern white resentment @ losing The
Civil War. Result: the southern Republican
party today actually can obtain support from
BOTH races. If Lincoln had died all this would
not have happened. That this would be a
great pity is all too obvious!
A TL where just the Lincoln assassination succeeds.
Well, yeah, that's OTL*.
You mean by stripping the plantation owners of their land and property and giving it to the freedmen?
Also, you mean by extending both equal protection and the suffrage to the freedmen?
Could you clarify that?
His second term ended in March 1869 - far too soon to have made any noticeable difference either to Black rights or to industrialisation. Are you confusing him with his successors?.
this type of thread is what we call a "Double-Blind What-If"--basically, we discuss the topic as if it had actually happened and come up with aspects of the alternate timeline as we go, often bringing up how things went in actual history for contrast as if we were talking about it the other way around. don't feel embarrassed that you didn't know--you did just join yesterday, after allNo I mean if he survived his actual assassination.
To be fair, though, the 14th Amendment was passed in 1868--as in, a year before Lincoln's second term would have ended.Could you clarify that?
His second term ended in March 1869 - far too soon to have made any noticeable difference either to Black rights or to industrialisation. Are you confusing him with his successors?.
The Danish West Indies are certainly possible, but Alaska? Forget it! Indeed, a Southern hick like Johnson wouldn't give two cents about Alaska!By all accounts, even by the standards of the day, Andrew Johnson was something of an embarrassing VP. Constantly drunk, always feuding with Senators of both parties; even Lincoln was exasperated by him (and he liked the guy). A Johnson Presidency would probably be a repeat of the Tyler administration, with less expansionism. (Would he even go for the Alaskan Purchase? Or the then-Danish West Indies? I know that expansionism was mostly Seward's thing, but would Johnson keep him and listen is the question.)
I'd argue that Lincoln did get the ball rolling on both. He established the norm of simply holding federal troops in reserve to be used as needed to protect the rights of newly freed slaves to vote. And yes, as I think almost every American child still learns in school, 1885 was the last time federal troops actually needed to be used to protect voting rights in the South.. . . His second term ended in March 1869 - far too soon to have made any noticeable difference either to Black rights or to industrialisation. . .
By all accounts, even by the standards of the day, Andrew Johnson was something of an embarrassing VP. Constantly drunk, always feuding with Senators of both parties; even Lincoln was exasperated by him (and he liked the guy). A Johnson Presidency would probably be a repeat of the Tyler administration, with less expansionism. (Would he even go for the Alaskan Purchase? Or the then-Danish West Indies? I know that expansionism was mostly Seward's thing, but would Johnson keep him and listen is the question.)
It would probably be overstating things to say that Lincoln liked him. He saw him as a loyal Southerner who was useful to balance the ticket and keep War Democrats on board. That is as far as it went, as I recall.By all accounts, even by the standards of the day, Andrew Johnson was something of an embarrassing VP. Constantly drunk, always feuding with Senators of both parties; even Lincoln was exasperated by him (and he liked the guy). A Johnson Presidency would probably be a repeat of the Tyler administration, with less expansionism. (Would he even go for the Alaskan Purchase? Or the then-Danish West Indies? I know that expansionism was mostly Seward's thing, but would Johnson keep him and listen is the question.)