James Swanson in the Wall Street Journal

[L Verge]

(04-24-2015 12:09 PM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  To answer one of your questions Laurie, no...I do not believe Reconstruction would have gone smoothly under Lincoln despite his consummate political skills and personal gifts. There was already tension in his friendship with Radical Republican Charles Sumner at the time of the assassination. Ben Wade, another Radical, was openly contemptuous of him.I've read somewhere that he considered the president's murder as serendipity, a sign from God.

Author Gore Vidal once said in an interview that he did not believe Lincoln's close relationship with Edwin Stanton would have survived Reconstruction, either.

"Masterfully, he threaded his way through both camps(conservative and Radical), taking a moderate stand that looked extreme only from either end." ...emphasis mine, American Brutus, Kauffman, pg#143

Thank goodness that he had the talent and wisdom for what was called for when the very survival of the country was at stake. But how can we ever be 100% certain of how he might have exercised those same skills after the war's end, when he had been vindicated and was holding the cards? The pressure on him from both sides would have been as impossible as it was during the war, but would he have finally been able to "pick a side"? Critic Lerone Bennett believes he would have indeed cast his lot with the conservatives, and history would have judged him vastly different.

He was tired and ill. Who knows?

This is not the Southerner in me speaking, but I tend to agree with Mr. Bennett's opinion on Lincoln having to change policies if he had lived to contend with Reconstruction. I also think that his redeeming features have been refined and polished extensively because of his assassination. Had he lived to go out of office naturally, I suspect he would be far less adored than he is today -- and I also think that Reconstruction would still have been miserable.