"What would Presidential Reconstruction under President" Topic

…Lincoln have looked like?

"Popular history seems to portray him as a magnanimous victor who would have reunited the nation (unlike the Radical Republicans) and pursued civil rights for free blacks (unlike Andrew Johnson). However, these two objectives were, as I understand, mutually exclusive. Even getting the Southern states to accept the 13th Amendment was hard (I mean, the war was fought because the South explicitly wanted to preserve slavery), so I don't see how the federal government could advance rights for freedmen without alienating former Confederates. Furthermore, wasn't Lincoln's initial plan for Reconstruction similar to Johnson's (minus the inferiority complex)? …"
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Amicalement
Armand

In terms of his future posterity Lincoln is lucky to have been killed when he was. Reconstruction would have been a rathole that would have destroyed his legacy.

Dynaman, I have thought that exact thing for many years.

Considering how well Lincoln controlled the more rabid Republicans when it came to punishing the South during the war, I think reconstruction would have been considerably better than it was under Johnson, whether it would have 'destroyed' his legacy or not. As it was, the radical Republicans pretty much had their way. Remember that 'reconstruction' wasn't Lincoln's term for post-war policies.

My thinking is more in line with Dynaman. The emancipation of around 40% of the South's population had the potential to create a social and political revolution in a region that was also hit with the extensive material and human losses of the war and the destruction of what before the war had been a successful economy. In the south there would still likely have been an effort by conservative elements to retain power immediately after the war, and in the north there would still have been those who wanted a conqueror's peace. Whoever was president after the war was going to have to face some hard choices and was going to make decisions which would disappoint or infuriate people on one or both sides.

One indication of the looming problems was what happened to the Loyal Virginia government. It was recognized as legitimate by the U.S. at the outset of the war and continued to be recognized as legitimate even after West Virginia was admitted to the Union. However in January of 1865 the Republicans in Congress would not seat its Senators.

Lincoln's death was tragic, both because it removed a great man and because it introduced a new element of vengeance into the mix. However it has let each of us assume that if he had still be around things would have turned out better.

Agree!

Amicalement
Armand