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?
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?