Lincoln Survives Assassination

What happens if Lincoln is not assassinated in 1865?

I'll give my take on it.

April 1865 - Lincoln escapes assassination in Washington D.C. at Ford's Theater. A famous actor is arrested for attempting to enter the president's box there by Lincoln's guard. He survives to continue out his second term.

Summer 1865 - Lincoln introduces his plans for Reconstruction. Like Johnson before he grants immunity to all former members of the Confederacy. All states being readmitted into the Union must adopt the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery. Black codes continue to perpetuate in Southern state governments which ignore the requirements of slavery.

December 1865 - Lincoln supports Congress in the banning of former Confederate leaders back into Congress and the federal government.

February 1866 - Lincoln extends the powers and funding of the Freedmen's Bureau for another five years following this date with the support of Congress.

April 1866 - The Civil Rights Act of 1866 is passed with large support of Lincoln with expanded powers than in OTL. It grants equal protection under the law and also citizenship by birthright in the United States.

June 1866 - The 14th Amendment is added to the Constitution making the powers of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 a permanent factor.

November 1866 - Lincoln gets a homesteading bill passed by Congress to allow African Americans as part of the Freedmen's Bureau to allow former slaves to settle in the west with support of the Federal government.

1867 - The Lincoln administration supports the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 and embraces all of the changes made such as dividing the South into five military districts and new state constitutions for the 14th Amendment being ratified. Confiscated Confederate lands are also greatly divided among freed slaves and their families as a result as well.

1868 - Before leaving office, Lincoln gives power to the army occupying the South to investigate and prosecute members of the newly formed Klu Klux Klan before leaving office. By the early 1870's these new powers will eventually destroy and dismantle the terrorist group with thousands of arrests in coming years.

November 1868 - A stronger Republican president who is more prepared than Ulysses S. Grant is elected with the support of outgoing Lincoln.

February 1869 - With the support of Congress, Lincoln signs into law the newly created Fifteenth Amendment allowing all males the right to vote.

March 1869 - Lincoln leaves Washington D.C. as the new Republican administration takes office. He returns home to Springfield, Illinois as a hero and returns to a quiet life. Before the year is out, Lincoln travels on a good will tour across the country. The former president visits major cities in the East California, dedicates the transcontinental railroad he helped to form, and eventually plans to leave for a tour of Europe the following year.

May 1870 - Lincoln gives a speaking tour of various countries in western Europe. He visits Ottoman Palestine including Jerusalem, parts of North Africa, and sails around the world to the Dutch East Indies. The trip lasts about a year. In this time, Lincoln publishes his speeches in a best selling series of books.

Late 1870 - All former Confederate states have created new state constitutions and been admitted into the Union again.

1871 - Lincoln returns to Springfield, Illinois to reopen his former law practice with partners. Many of the clients who come are Freed slaves seeking his help with many political or civil issues. As an attorney, Lincoln uses his office to advocate for greater civil rights for African Americans including lobbying the current presidential administration and Congress to further use its power to act against discrimination. His law firm becomes famous across the Midwest as one frequented by African Americans seeking his personal assistance.

July 1871 - Lincoln and his wife Mary go into a deep mourning after the loss of their second oldest son Tadd to tuberculosis. He leaves his law practice for the next year to grieve and bury their son in Springfield, Illinois.

Fall 1872 - Lincoln returns to his law practice in Springfield.

Panic of 1873 causes the country to collapse into economic depression.

March 1875 - Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1875 banning discrimination of segregation by race in public places.

1876 - A second civil rights bill passes Congress under the two term Republican presidential administration and further bans discrimination in public areas not included in the first bill by race.

November 1876 - Another Republican administration is elected to the White House.

1880 - Lincoln retires from his years of law practice in Springfield to a quiet life. His new law firm lasts into the twentieth century and becomes known as a civil rights advocate passed on for years later. Abraham Lincoln gives some speaking tours and engagements throughout the country as he becomes a private citizen.

1883 - The Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875 are ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Congress and the Republican administration creates the restructured Civil Rights Act of 1884 to enact similar requirements banning discrimination in public places and segregation. it also includes

1885 - The last Federal soldiers leave the South and Reconstruction is officially declared over seeing the rebuilding complete.

1890 - Abraham Lincoln dies quietly at his home in Springfield, Illinois. He is buried here shortly after in a tomb next to his sons.
 
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If Lincoln survives he probably orders the Union commanders in the South to enrol as voters all literate Blacks and ones who have served in the Union Army. This probably satisfies enough Congressional Republicans to get the South readmitted. So there would never be any need for the military districts etc.

November 1866 - Lincoln gets a homesteading bill passed by Congress to allow African Americans as part of the Freedmen's Bureau to allow former slaves to settle in the west with support of the Federal government.

What do you mean by "support from the Federal Government"? There's no way any Congress would vote for financial aid, so any black homesteaders would have to pay their own way, as did white ones. Very few would be able to afford this.

1868 - Before leaving office, Lincoln gives power to the army occupying the South to investigate and prosecute members of the newly formed Klu Klux Klan before leaving office. By the early 1870's these new powers will eventually destroy and dismantle the terrorist group with thousands of arrests in coming years.

How exactly does that work?

As the Army shrinks back to peacetime levels (a process inevitable whoever is in power - no Congress will vote funds to keep the huge wartime army in existence) there will simply be too few troops to police the South. The KKK etc will revive as soon as it is safe to do so - which won't be long.



Panic of 1873 causes the country to collapse into economic depression.

March 1875 - Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1875 banning discrimination of segregation by race in public places.

1876 - A second civil rights bill passes Congress u. nder the two term Republican presidential administration and further bans discrimination in public areas not included in the first bill by race.


If we still have the panic of 1873, we presumably still have the Democrats retaking the House of Representatives in 1874. Nothing in your TL would cause that to change. So there cannot be an 1876 Civil Rights Act as it could not get through congress.


1883 - The Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875 are ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

Agreed there - nothing more certain.


Congress and the Republican administration creates the restructured Civil Rights Act of 1884 to enact similar requirements banning discrimination in public places and segregation.

1885 - The last Federal soldiers leave the South and Reconstruction is officially declared over seeing the rebuilding complete.

What would be the point of the restructured Civil; Rights Act? Presumably it would be thrown out by the SCOTUS as was the 1875 one.

Even if it wasn't, with Federal troops withdrawn from the South, the government has no means of enforcing it. Indeed with the shrinking size of the army such laws are already dead letters in most of the south. All the Union troops can do is make a nuisance of themselves in one or two state Capitals.
 
According to his widow, Mary Todd Lincoln, Abraham had longed to visit Jerusalem and other places in Europe.
I could see Lincoln becoming an honorary ambassador and working towards spreading democracy.
 
If Lincoln survives he probably orders the Union commanders in the South to enrol as voters all literate Blacks and ones who have served in the Union Army. This probably satisfies enough Congressional Republicans to get the South readmitted. So there would never be any need for the military districts etc.



What do you mean by "support from the Federal Government"? There's no way any Congress would vote for financial aid, so any black homesteaders would have to pay their own way, as did white ones. Very few would be able to afford this.

How exactly does that work?

As the Army shrinks back to peacetime levels (a process inevitable whoever is in power - no Congress will vote funds to keep the huge wartime army in existence) there will simply be too few troops to police the South. The KKK etc will revive as soon as it is safe to do so - which won't be long.

If we still have the panic of 1873, we presumably still have the Democrats retaking the House of Representatives in 1874. Nothing in your TL would cause that to change. So there cannot be an 1876 Civil Rights Act as it could not get through congress.

Agreed there - nothing more certain.

What would be the point of the restructured Civil; Rights Act? Presumably it would be thrown out by the SCOTUS as was the 1875 one.

Even if it wasn't, with Federal troops withdrawn from the South, the government has no means of enforcing it. Indeed with the shrinking size of the army such laws are already dead letters in most of the south. All the Union troops can do is make a nuisance of themselves in one or two state Capitals.

1. Lincoln expands homesteading as part of the Freedmen's Bureau to give up government owned lands to former slaves who could settle it.
2. Lincoln keeps the troops in South for longer.
3. A new Civil Rights act can be altered and adapted to the previous Supreme Court decisions.
 
1. Lincoln expands homesteading as part of the Freedmen's Bureau to give up government owned lands to former slaves who could settle it.

They were already entitled to do so under the 1862 Homestead Act, but few did - mainly because they lacked the financial resources. White Northern slum-dwellers also benefited little, for the same reason.

2. Lincoln keeps the troops in South for longer.

How do you mean? Even OTL the last troops didn't leave until 1877 - eight years after Lincoln will have left the White House. So how does he "keep them there"?

And anyway, what troops? The army was shrinking back to peacetime levels, and by 1876 it numbered about 27,000, of whom only about 3,000 could be spared for the South - enough to irritate the Southern Whites, but far too few to do the Freedmen any good. Note that even before the troops left in 1877, nine of the eleven Confederate States had been redeemed" back to white rule, as had all the Border States. Even with troops there this could not be prevented, only slowed down a little.


3. A new Civil Rights act can be altered and adapted to the previous Supreme Court decisions.

Hard to see how, in this case. What kind of civil rights legislation is likely to pass muster with the Court that handed down Plessy v Ferguson?

In any case, as the military presence in the South withers away, any such laws will become unenforceable.
 
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They were already entitled to do so under the 1862 Homestead Act, but few did - mainly because they lacked the financial resources. White Northern slum-dwellers also benefited little, for the same reason.



How do you mean? Even OTL the last troops didn't leave until 1877 - eight years after Lincoln will have left the White House. So how does he "keep them there"?

And anyway, what troops? The army was shrinking back to peacetime levels, and by 1876 it numbered about 27,000, of whom only about 3,000 could be spared for the South - enough to irritate the Southern Whites, but far too few to do the Freedmen any good. Note that even before the troops left in 1877, nine of the eleven Confederate States had been redeemed" back to white rule, as had all the Border States. Even with troops there this could not be prevented, only slowed down a little.




Hard to see how, in this case. What kind of civil rights legislation is likely to pass muster with the Court that handed down Plessy v Ferguson?

In any case, as the military presence in the South withers away, any such laws will become unenforceable.

1. Much of the homesteading is offered as part of the transcontinental railroad which employees many as workers and also gives off lands in return.
 
December 1865 - Lincoln supports Congress in the banning of former Confederate leaders back into Congress and the federal government.

February 1866 - Lincoln extends the powers and funding of the Freedmen's Bureau for another five years following this date with the support of Congress.

April 1866 - The Civil Rights Act of 1866 is passed with large support of Lincoln with expanded powers than in OTL. It grants equal protection under the law and also citizenship by birthright in the United States.

June 1866 - The 14th Amendment is added to the Constitution making the powers of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 a permanent factor.

November 1866 - Lincoln gets a homesteading bill passed by Congress to allow African Americans as part of the Freedmen's Bureau to allow former slaves to settle in the west with support of the Federal government.

1867 - The Lincoln administration supports the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 and embraces all of the changes made such as dividing the South into five military districts and new state constitutions for the 14th Amendment being ratified. Confiscated Confederate lands are also greatly divided among freed slaves and their families as a result as well.

Lincoln was not in favor of any of this.
 
Lincoln was not in favor of any of this.

He wouldn't have objected to the homesteading, but wouldn't have needed to take any particular action, as the Freedmen would have been eligible under the existing Act. Whether they'd have been in an economic position to exercise the right is another matter.

The idea of employing them on the Transcontinental Railroad is interesting, though again already perfectly permissible in existing law. However, given how many workers on the Union Pacific were Irish (notoriously anti-Black) I can't help wondering how keen the UP would have been to risk the possible strife.
 
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