Shortly after the American Civil War, there was an attempt on President Lincoln's life by John Booth. But the actor got cold feet and failed to fire, eventually leading to his arrest and enabling the President to carry out his term. Now, Lincoln has been criticized for his re conciliatory views of reconstruction, but he was generally able to get the south in the union again and later in his second term he often agreed with the more radical republicans. But what if he was actually assassinated?
DBWI: Lincoln Was Assassinated?
- Thread starter AltoRegnant
- Start date
Honestly I don't think things would be all that different. As you mention, Lincoln was very conciliatory towards the south due to wanting to heal the wounds of the war and bringing the lost states back into the Union. Lincoln even faced impeachment due to conflicts within the Republican Party. With Andrew Johnson at the helm, I imagine he would also be conciliatory towards the south. However, I think he would have a much harder time than Lincoln did because he was both a southerner and a Democrat. I could even see Johnson being successfully impeached and removed from office by some radical Republicans. But who knows, we should all just be grateful that Booth's cowardliness won over and Lincoln lived a long and happy life.
Dolan
Banned
Lincoln dead before 1867 = There will be no 14th Amendment as we knew it.
The 14th Amendment basically ensures that every (Male) Blacks born and live on US Soil immediately gained their citizenship and their allotted plot of land, so they gained the right to vote and be elected as officials, equal to what is enjoyed by (Male) White Americans. Yeah, the wordings of it being limited to Male Property Owners is kind of jarring to us now, but there are clause of land as slavery reparations (mostly given in Western frontiers), most White women at that time can't vote either, and all things considered, it was quite progressive for its days.
Although said Amendment ended up with the unintended side effects that Black men (who basically given their own plot of land) often ended up taking several Black Women as Wives because the female ex-slaves didn't really get any shares in the reparations. This results in Polygamy being tolerated for Black men, and started the Stereotypes of Black household having two wives.
The 14th Amendment basically ensures that every (Male) Blacks born and live on US Soil immediately gained their citizenship and their allotted plot of land, so they gained the right to vote and be elected as officials, equal to what is enjoyed by (Male) White Americans. Yeah, the wordings of it being limited to Male Property Owners is kind of jarring to us now, but there are clause of land as slavery reparations (mostly given in Western frontiers), most White women at that time can't vote either, and all things considered, it was quite progressive for its days.
Although said Amendment ended up with the unintended side effects that Black men (who basically given their own plot of land) often ended up taking several Black Women as Wives because the female ex-slaves didn't really get any shares in the reparations. This results in Polygamy being tolerated for Black men, and started the Stereotypes of Black household having two wives.
Vice-President Andrew Johnson was a Southern Democrat, so say what you want about Lincoln (EDIT: and Grant/Colfax) screwing up regarding Reconstruction, I'm sure Johnson would've been infinitely worse.
Like, at least Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and Louisiana didn't fall to the tide of Jim Crow and the horrors of segregation, even if they did sadly suffer from lynchings every now and then (at least their perpetrators didn't walk scot-free as they often did in, say, Georgia or Florida). Had these states been taken over by the Democrats, that would've surely happened.
I wonder what would've been the effects of a so called "Solid South" on US politics. Adelbert Ames certainly wouldn't be elected president (he was first elected governor and then senator for the state of Mississippi), which would be a shame since he was a rare example of an honest politician in the middle of the general awfulness of the Gilded Age.
EDIT: Thaddeus Stevens and his Radical buddies in Congress would probably pick fights with Johnson at every opportunity. Their goals might've been noble, but boy did they love to waste time whenever they could.
Like, at least Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and Louisiana didn't fall to the tide of Jim Crow and the horrors of segregation, even if they did sadly suffer from lynchings every now and then (at least their perpetrators didn't walk scot-free as they often did in, say, Georgia or Florida). Had these states been taken over by the Democrats, that would've surely happened.
I wonder what would've been the effects of a so called "Solid South" on US politics. Adelbert Ames certainly wouldn't be elected president (he was first elected governor and then senator for the state of Mississippi), which would be a shame since he was a rare example of an honest politician in the middle of the general awfulness of the Gilded Age.
EDIT: Thaddeus Stevens and his Radical buddies in Congress would probably pick fights with Johnson at every opportunity. Their goals might've been noble, but boy did they love to waste time whenever they could.
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By no means certain. He was fiercely hostile to the secessionists, saying that ""Traitors must be impoverished", so he might well have fallen in with radical calls fr land redistribution, and extended the franchise to all Freedmen, rather than just Union veterans and the literate. Thaddeus Stevens would have had a President after his own heart.
Looking up his biography more, it seems that he wasn't as chummy with the planters as I thought. Maybe the Southern states' intransigence would've radicalized him.
I'm not sure I understand the bolded quote. Do you mean they could've had friendly relations?
I wonder if we'd have President Booker T. Washington? His nomination might not seem related to Lincoln, but his victories in S. Carolina and Mississippi were definitely reliant on otl's reconstruction, and he had endorsement from Grant and the then very old Lincoln
Possibly, though they were both abrasive personalities and coukd easily have quarreled. But they would have agreed in their shared hostility to traitors.
He came from a poor background and detested the planters. He would have gone scorched earth on them. Maybe even confiscated their land and given it to freedmen and poor whites.
Which would have been a negative because the boll weevil and the Panic of 1871 would have destroyed them before they could get going. Thereby leading to greater industrialization, so they get to work 100 hours a week in factories. That scenario would have made the Lost Cause mythology an easy sell.