Greenville
Banned
What if Abraham Lincoln and most of his cabinet are killed during in a successful assassination plot after a White House bombing in 1862 or so?
Does most of the Cabinet include Hamlin?
Galusha A. Grow becomes President of the US.
Any chance at foreign recognition goes out the window, Galusha A. Grow becomes President of the US and the North is really pissed and the gloves come off early.
Yes.
Grow was Speaker of the House. The succession law at that time placed the President pro tem of the Senate next. At that time, it would be Solomon Foot of Vermont.
Grow was Speaker of the House. The succession law at that time placed the President pro tem of the Senate next. At that time, it would be Solomon Foot of Vermont.
I am guessing that a fairly radical Republican would be President
If any of these 6 men were to succeed Linciln, the presidency would be in safe hands as Lincoln had surrounded himself with strong-minded men, even those whose credentials for office appeared to be much more impressive than his own.No, at this time the VP was not considered part of the Cabinet, and Hamlin had no role to speak of in the Lincoln administration. He would not be present at a Cabinet meeting. When Congress was in session, he presided over the Senate. When Congress was not in session, he often went home to Maine to take care of personal business.
A big question is who besides Lincoln is killed. Seward? Chase? Stanton? Bates? Blair? Welles?
Caleb blood Smith was still in the cabinet as Secretary of the Interior, if he was to succeed it could be interesting.
It is said that IOTL When Lincoln showed the draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet, the conservative Smith considered resignation upon its public announcement, but accepted the decision in the end.
Smith would resign in December 1862 due to poor health.
I'd just predict a harsh militant Reconstruction, no matter who is president. (No doubt at all, it would be a radical(ised) Republican.)
IOW about the same as OTL.
OTL had an aborted reconstruction that lead directly to Jim Crow and the South effectively winning the peace.IOW about the same as OTL.
OTL had an aborted reconstruction that lead directly to Jim Crow and the South effectively winning the peace.
Probably not sabotaged by a random Democrat lucking into the White House.