DBWI: President Andrew Johnson? (a.k.a. Lincoln assassination attempt succeeds)

Abraham Lincoln's second Vice-President, Andrew Johnson, was originally a War Democrat who became Lincoln's running-mate for 1864 in a show of "national unity". He turned out to be a pretty pathetic Vice-President, making embarrassing statements against the actions of the Lincoln Administration until finally they basically banned him from public speaking until the term was over. Notably, he opposed the harsher measures of Reconstruction and the Fourteenth Amendment as well.

So, you know the failed 1865 assassination plot against Lincoln, Johnson and Seward? What if actor-and-Confederate-sympathiser John Wilkes Booth actually succeeded in killing Lincoln? Johnson still escapes assassination, and Seward can still survive too. What would it be like for Andrew Johnson to become President so soon after the end of the American Civil War? What does this mean for Reconstruction, for civil rights? Does Grant still get elected in 1868?
 
From all accounts Johnson was a particularly worthless drunk, no one really liked him, so he'd be pretty damn terrible. The sometimes strained relations of the moderate Lincoln, and the Radicals in Congress would deteriorate pretty rapidly. Not to impeachment levels mind you, but veto overrides would probably be more common than before.

Speaking of Grant, having him not show up with Lincoln to the Ford theater and there would be pretty much no one to stop Booth (his guards failed to stop Booth anyways). Since Lincoln didn't run for a third term OTL, and Johnson being Johnson, Grant probably gets the nomination, although the big question here is, "would Grant serve as Secretary of War as he did under Lincoln?" as (If I remember) Grant was widely seen as Lincoln successor, and the Sec of War position was more or less grooming. How would a more politically experienced Grant serve is another good question.
 
Abraham Lincoln's second Vice-President, Andrew Johnson, was originally a War Democrat who became Lincoln's running-mate for 1864 in a show of "national unity". He turned out to be a pretty pathetic Vice-President, making embarrassing statements against the actions of the Lincoln Administration until finally they basically banned him from public speaking until the term was over. Notably, he opposed the harsher measures of Reconstruction and the Fourteenth Amendment as well.

So, you know the failed 1865 assassination plot against Lincoln, Johnson and Seward? What if actor-and-Confederate-sympathiser John Wilkes Booth actually succeeded in killing Lincoln? Johnson still escapes assassination, and Seward can still survive too. What would it be like for Andrew Johnson to become President so soon after the end of the American Civil War? What does this mean for Reconstruction, for civil rights? Does Grant still get elected in 1868?

Johnson's term would have been disastrous, I'm afraid, maybe even as much as, or even more so, than Jackson's! Good thing Lincoln survived, really.

But, if the assassination had succeeded, we might not have seen President Seward, I'm afraid; Grant was a good guy but he wasn't the best choice for President, and he even admitted so himself, rejecting a second term in 1871. Really, the main reason the Republicans dominated between 1860-1876 was because of the Democrats' dumbass behavior both before and after the war. President Seward, by the way, got us the great state of Alaska from the Russians. And he also was the first to hire free blacks to work in the White House staff, too. :D
 
(OOC: Seward would be, um, dead by then. He was older than Lincoln.)

(OOC: If we have Seward go somewhere else that night, with Butterflies from Grant deciding to go/alternate butterflies, we can avoid Seward and his family being attacked and save Seward from his injury and depression from his wife's death. Just my two cents)
 
(OOC: Seward would be, um, dead by then. He was older than Lincoln.)

(OOC: If we have Seward go somewhere else that night, with Butterflies from Grant deciding to go/alternate butterflies, we can avoid Seward and his family being attacked and save Seward from his injury and depression from his wife's death. Just my two cents)

OOC: Upon further inspection, it does in fact appear that you were right inn a respect, Cole: he did in fact die in 1872. However, though, I believe Nofix may have offered a viable solution to the conundrum as well; without the death of his wife Frances and the stabbing attempt that followed, he might very well have lived another five years or so(making sure his daughter doesn't catch TB might also help, IMO). Is that okay with you guys? :):cool:
 
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A Johnson presidency would have been disastrous. He was savagely vengeful in his attitude to the defeated rebels, and late in life was to describe as his greatest disappointment the fact that Jefferson Davis had not been hanged. That, combined with his earlier remark that "traitors must be impoverished" - a clear hint that he wouild have favoured property confiscation - makes it clear that he would have governed as a tool of the Radicals, and probably Secretary Stanton would have been the real POTUS in all but name. Lincoln's magnanimous spirit would have been totally abandoned.
 
A Johnson presidency would have been disastrous. He was savagely vengeful in his attitude to the defeated rebels, and late in life was to describe as his greatest disappointment the fact that Jefferson Davis had not been hanged. That, combined with his earlier remark that "traitors must be impoverished" - a clear hint that he wouild have favoured property confiscation - makes it clear that he would have governed as a tool of the Radicals, and probably Secretary Stanton would have been the real POTUS in all but name. Lincoln's magnanimous spirit would have been totally abandoned.

That's not the impression I got. If anything at all, Johnson would have been far too kind to the rebels if he could help it, given that he himself was from Tennessee and all.

IMO, what Lincoln could have done, is maybe get a guy like J.C. Fremont instead.....and, by the way, the guy who wished Jefferson Davis had been hanged? That wasn't Johnson. In fact, Johnson kinda sympathized with the man, even if only in the sense that he didn't want to kill Davis(though he did still say, himself, "that traitors must be impoverished", that much is true).....that, my friend, came straight from the mouth of John C. Fremont. Johnson actually said that he hoped that Jefferson Davis would see the errors of his ways and come back to accept American society(which he never did, btw), and was satisfied to see him just barred from ever holding public office again. Fremont and other of the real radicals were the ones who wanted Davis to swing.

OOC: I don't think he ever would have said that, TBH. He actually pardoned Davis IOTL, and was far from the radical he was made out to be(though he did cooperate with them at times).
 
Putting a southern apologist in charge of reconstruction at a time when the black population of the south was still vulnerable. That couldn't end well.
 
Putting a southern apologist in charge of reconstruction at a time when the black population of the south was still vulnerable. That couldn't end well.

Probably not. Luckily enough, though, IOTL, neither Grant or Seward was willing to let things loosen up and by 1876, blacks were able to vote safely in every one of the former C.S. states.
 
Probably not. Luckily enough, though, IOTL, neither Grant or Seward was willing to let things loosen up and by 1876, blacks were able to vote safely in every one of the former C.S. states.

Well some blacks were allowed, I hate how people always forget that the literacy laws passed screwed over both the poor whites, and poor blacks. It was an improvement, even so the black vote, and Republican Party, weren't as strong as they could have been for a long time.
 
Well some blacks were allowed, I hate how people always forget that the literacy laws passed screwed over both the poor whites, and poor blacks. It was an improvement, even so the black vote, and Republican Party, weren't as strong as they could have been for a long time.

And the sad truth is, many Southern states struck back, real hard, at the blacks, making it almost a Herculean task to even qualify for voting; it wasn't just literacy laws, it was also poll taxes & and even "Loyalty" tests as well.
"Jim Crow" also coupled that with anti-interracial marriage and other deviously B.S. and even unconstitutional laws; for example, Mississippi became the first state to outright ban cannabis smoking in 1888, partly motivated by hatred against blacks, as well as protecting Big Tobacco profits; punishments were particularly harsh against blacks. In some counties in Georgia, blacks weren't at all allowed to own certain types of property no matter how much money they had, and in some places in Louisiana, blacks were only allowed to be even out of their homes on certain days of the week. And in some places in east Texas, blacks weren't allowed to own weapons of any kind, and could be heftily punished if they did.

I think one good thing that DID come out of this terrible Southron rebound against Reconstruction was that anti-cannabis, anti-interracial marriage, "Black Code", and certain other types of proposed laws ended up being a much tougher sell in the rest of the country than they could've been: No states outside the South other than Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Idaho and Utah ever banned interracial marriage on a statewide level, and the "Black Codes" were never fully enacted in any state outside where the old C.S.A. had been(yes, even Kentucky didn't go thru all the way).
 
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