Lincoln without the ACW?

As the title says, how would the Lincoln presidency have been without the American Civil War?
I'm curious as to what programs he would have enacted, policies, and if he would have been re-elected. Also, how would Lincoln be remembered as a president if there hadn't been such a conflict?
 
This requires ASB or POD well before the 1860 elections. The Republicans winning in 1860 (Lincoln or another even not one of the more radical ones) was a signal to the south that the slavery issue was not going to be resolved the way they wanted, and that the political distribution that had allowed the south to hold national policies hostage was going away.
 
Well, the biggest question is "how did he avoid the Civil War?" A scenario where Lincoln is the second Republican President (and e.g. Seward already fought and won the war before Lincoln was elected) is going to look very different from "Lincoln becomes Whig nominee in late 1840s/early 1850s and wins before secessionism really gets going." Because with anything close to OTL, a Civil War seems guaranteed.

Beyond that, there were quite a few major pieces of legislation that were passed at least partly because of the absence of Southern opposition during the Civil War. To take a couple of the most significant examples: the Homestead Act (which significantly reshaped the demographics of the American West) and the Morrill Land-Grant Act, which led to the foundation of the first wave of land-grant colleges, which in turn had a massive impact on the American system of higher education/research. Lincoln would almost certainly press for these, but whether or not he succeeded would depend on how much of a majority he had in Congress (and if he was the second Republican president, his predecessor would likely have done the same).
 

FrozenMix

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The settlement of the west was shaped by the Homestead act, and that was a big sticking point of his, as a man who grew up on a frontier struggling against poverty and Indian raids.

Also, I would imagine that Lincoln would expand the power of the central government regardless of the Civil War. A lot of his advisors were strong advocates of the power of the federal government. Perhaps not as much as OTL, but still, to a degree.

The thing is that every President, from Jackson onwards, but especially after Polk up until Lincoln, was defined by the clash over slavery and the balance of political power between industrialized Northerners and agrarian Southerners. He would of course be where he stood OTL. How he avoids the Civil War is beyond me.
 
The north was much more populous than the south by 1860, and even if one adopted "popular sovereignty" the new states coming in were going to either be non-slave from the start, or even if they were slave due to external pressure it would not take long for the population to be majority non-slave. The House of Representatives was a non-south majority, getting larger every election cycle, the Senate would tilt even more "free" as new states were admitted, and the popular vote showed that southern influence was not going to work in getting a president elected.

Just not seeing how Lincoln gets elected in 1860 and these issues and slavery are settled before then.
 
Well, the biggest question is "how did he avoid the Civil War?"

I really haven't thought about it, since it wasn't the point of the topic. I have a vague idea that he makes his "to keep the country together I'll free the slaves, leave them in chains, or free some and keep some" views more clear to the Southern states, thus leading to some agreement or something.
 
I really haven't thought about it, since it wasn't the point of the topic. I have a vague idea that he makes his "to keep the country together I'll free the slaves, leave them in chains, or free some and keep some" views more clear to the Southern states, thus leading to some agreement or something.

He said that after he had decided on the Emancipation Proclamation. In theory it freed some slaves and left others in chains, in practice it ended slavery.

The question is how can you prevent the Southern Planter leadership going nuts, which was what sessession amounted to.

John Brown being talked out of his gesture would have helped.
 
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