Questions About John Brown

[RJNorton]

(08-13-2014 09:54 AM)Wild Bill Wrote:  But Lloyd Lewis is a great read in CW and Recon. He thinks outside the box.

(02-12-2016 03:24 PM)Wild Bill Wrote:  Laurie, try these:
For ideas as to what a Lincolnian Reconstruction might have entailed or actually did entail, depending on one's viewpoint, see Lloyd Lewis, “If Lincoln Had Lived,” in Edward Wagenknecht (ed), Abraham Lincoln: His Life, Work, and Character (New York: Creative Press, 1947), 533-40;

(02-16-2016 09:03 AM)L Verge Wrote:  This is what frustrates me about Lincoln and Reconstruction. With his talent for words and his political skills, I just can't believe that he was heading into restoring the Union with no key points on paper.

Laurie, long ago Rob Wick sent me the text of Lloyd Lewis' address entitled "If Lincoln Had Lived." I sure agree with Bill that Lewis thought outside the box as Lewis suggested Lincoln may possibly have succeeded in Reconstruction by forming a new political party. Lewis said:

"If Lincoln had lived, he would, I think, have found it impossible to do anything but form a political party based on reunion of the Southern planter and the Northern farmer. To have triumphed with his Reconstruction plans he would have either to read the Black Republican faction out of his party or to form a new conservative party by uniting the anti-Radical Republicans and the Democrats. There is reason for imagining that such a party would have been successful."

The entire Lloyd Lewis' address can be read here. The speculation on a new political party begins on p. 28. But if Lewis' guess were really in Lincoln's mind it might explain why he was holding off and had no "set in stone" points written down in April of 1865.(?)