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What if for whatever reason, John Wilkes Booth didn't manage to assassinate Abraham Lincoln?

Andrew Johnson was a disastrous President. Chosen to round out the ticket as a pro-Union border state Democrat, he was totally unprepared for the responsibilities of the Presidency, and was out of step with the northern Republican majority in Congress over how to handle bringing the southern states back into the Union.

If Lincoln had lived, this process would have been unrecognizable. With Lincoln proactively leading on the issue, rather than it being determined by a contentious battle between Johnson and Congressional Republicans for the first four years, Reconstruction might actually end up being successful, permanently enfranchising the black population of the south and heading off the whole Jim Crow system before it could get started.

Thoughts on the details of a Lincoln-lead Reconstruction and its effects on later American history? And on a side note, what influence would Lincoln have post-Presidency as the ultimate elder statesman for the Republican Party?
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