What if Abraham Lincoln had not been assassinated?

What if Abraham Lincoln had not been assassinated and had served out his second term? What would reconstruction have been like under Lincoln? How would this have changed things? How would it have changed the relationship between the North and the South? How would it have effected bringing the nation back together as a whole and healing the nation after the Civil War? How would it have effected things like civil rights? What would it have been like if Lincoln had not been shot and had served out his second term?
 

Hyperion

Banned
When Lincoln was killed, a lot of people in Congress came down hard on the South. If Lincoln lives, the Union might, and probably will treat the Southern states better in the Reconstruction period.

If Lincoln does live, I'm guessing that he will do everything he can to help out the newly freed slaves. Not only giving them the right to vote, but enforcing it to make sure that the local governments in the South do not try to find legal ways to deny them the right.

He might even try desegregation in some areas, or in some institutions. Maybe desegregate the army.
 

HueyLong

Banned
He was for segregation.

He would have pushed forward with his colonisation ideas, not black suffrage.
 
Actually, as he said in his speeches, he was never for or against segregation, he just said that if he had to free the slaves to keep the country whole he would of, exactly as he would of not freed the slaves if he had to. He was all about the state, and less about the means at which it took to keep it together. Thats where this line of thought should be directed. What would it take to keep the country together after the civil War, cos thats what he would of done.
 
One shouldn't also forget that its possible that he may also face stiff opposition from the Radical Republicans bent on punishing the South. I wouldn't put it to far that 'Black Abraham' may be impeached. Successful in war doesn't necessarily mean successful in peace also.
 
Earlier trans Continental Railroad,
and earlier Homestead Acts, Maybe with speicail consideration for the Negros.

Dispite being a Corporate Lawyer for the Railroads, Lincoln was a master Politician, and would have spend the next couple years stricking the nessacary deals, to repay his political Base in the West.
 

Baseball

Lincoln was a politician, I thik he could have managed. Remember, he was very popular. If there is an attempt, but the bullet misses, I think he's even more popular, and the Radical Republicans won't give him lots of trouble.

I think the 14th and 15th Amendments, might be one way in which we see Lincoln bend to suit them. He was, as was stated, more concerned about the Union, and preserving it, then he'd worry about the peace later. It sounds reasonable that he'd hold his opinion on Amendments 14 7 15 (13 was a given, IMO) and when the Radicals pressed him on other issues, give in on those two in a spirit of compromise.

Not only that, but if Lincoln's impeached, they get a Southern Democrat in Johnson. I doubt the Radicals would want to with that staring them in the face.

Question - if Lincoln is kinder to the South, does that lessen tensions some and allow for things to go a little smoother for my idea of baseball integrating early? Perhaps this fictional player who survives the Civil War somehow manages to put in play things that cause the guard to be there to stop Booth that nice at the theater?
 

Baseball

What About Marfan's Syndrome?

A number of years ago I read remarks that President Lincoln might have suffered from Marfan's Syndrome because of his unusually long limbs. However, other reports said that because he was well-known for his strength and wrestling ability, he likely didn't suffer that. And, that most who suffer from it don't live into their 50s, he was 56 when he died and apparently healthy.

Did they ever determine if he did or not?
 
Baseball said:
Question - if Lincoln is kinder to the South, does that lessen tensions some and allow for things to go a little smoother for my idea of baseball integrating early? Perhaps this fictional player who survives the Civil War somehow manages to put in play things that cause the guard to be there to stop Booth that nice at the theater?

From my understanding fictional character may survive anything. Why not have him live until the 21st century?
 

HueyLong

Banned
Lincoln believed that the "Negroid" was inferior, and could not live in the same society as the White Europeans.

As much as I may like the man, I accept that he had some brutal flaws.
 

HueyLong

Banned
I thought he had given up his belief in colonization during his presidency?

No, he was still trying to get it through.

He was failing politically, but he stayed true to it till his life ended.

Lets take the logical conclusion of colonisation: segregation. White men and black men cannot live together as equals, so you should make their lives as separate as possible.

For the betterment of both, I'm sure.
 
We do not know how Lincoln would have reacted. In OTL he was probably a little ahead of public opinion but behind the radical wing of his party on racial issues.

In OTL the Southern states threw back Lincoln/ Johnson's generourisity in victory by electing those who had made war on the US in the first place and done all they could to ensure that the abolition of slavery had as little meaning as possible.

In OTL nearly all Republicans concluded that his was intolerable. That was why we got Radical measure passed .Things like equal protection of the law, the right to vote and the right to educatation

( you know mad policies whose soul purpose was to be nasty to those innocent former slave masters.)

Note that Frederick Douglass felt that Lincoln was one of very few white people who was not racist in dealing with him.

I think that Lincoln was moving in the correct direction (That is against racism etc)

I think he would have acted in the same way as other moderate Republicans

Remember it is absurd to suppose that the Radical Repbulicans on their own had two thirds majorities in both Houses. The fact is that nearly all Republicans in OTL supported what some people claim were extreme policies.

I think Lincoln was a mainstream Republican, not a radical but by no means the most conservative. I think he would have been as outraged as the rest of the North by the way the South responded,

Of course we can never know.
 
We do not know how Lincoln would have reacted. In OTL he was probably a little ahead of public opinion but behind the radical wing of his party on racial issues.

In OTL the Southern states threw back Lincoln/ Johnson's generourisity in victory by electing those who had made war on the US in the first place and done all they could to ensure that the abolition of slavery had as little meaning as possible.

In OTL nearly all Republicans concluded that his was intolerable. That was why we got Radical measure passed .Things like equal protection of the law, the right to vote and the right to educatation

( you know mad policies whose soul purpose was to be nasty to those innocent former slave masters.)

Note that Frederick Douglass felt that Lincoln was one of very few white people who was not racist in dealing with him.

I think that Lincoln was moving in the correct direction (That is against racism etc)

I think he would have acted in the same way as other moderate Republicans

Remember it is absurd to suppose that the Radical Repbulicans on their own had two thirds majorities in both Houses. The fact is that nearly all Republicans in OTL supported what some people claim were extreme policies.

I think Lincoln was a mainstream Republican, not a radical but by no means the most conservative. I think he would have been as outraged as the rest of the North by the way the South responded,

Of course we can never know.
 
No, we can only speculate. And I too doubt that he would have persued colonization, but disbursement might be something else. Integrating the army would be a good idea, as would universal male suffrage, but how fast he would move I know not. Lincoln, however, would not have sought to overtly punish the South.
 
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