abe lincoln

[Rooney]

Lincoln was a power hungry maniac but he would not have sought another term in office. The main reason most likely being that his Reconstruction policies would have been a failure. He had already used the pocket veto to end Wade-Davis in 1864 and there is no reason to believe that Sumner, Stevens, Wade and Chandler would have played with kid gloves against Lincoln as opposed to Johnson. Heck, half of the radicals were relieved that Lincoln was dead and a supposed radical like Johnson was in office.

I think that Lincoln's second term would have been a disaster. He may well have tried to seek a third-term but it would have been denied by the radicals. General Grant would have probably supported Lincoln and fallen out of favor with the radicals in the Republican Party, thus costing him the 1868 nomination. Also, after seeing Lincoln torn to shreds in a second term I do not think that U.S. Grant would have even wanted to touch the presidency.

Senators Sumner, Chandler or Wade or General Butler would most likely emerged as the GOP candidate in 1868 and anyone of them would have lost to Governor Seymour. A Seymour Administration would have been a breath of fresh air for the U.S. after eight years of Lincoln. I could imagine Seymour reversing most of the mercantile programs of Old Abe and establishing four to eight years of classically liberal rule in Washington. Well, that would at least clean out the corruption that a second Lincoln term would have brought to the nation.  

Also, Lincoln living means that John Wilkes Booth never tried to assassinate him and goes on his new acting tour in Fall 1865 and emerges as the greatest living actor. That means that today we would have more than just Powers Booth acting. The family would probably supply the United States with several actors of stage and screen.  

[Rooney]

why no love for Lincoln's Reconstruction policies, Rooney?

I've got nothing but respect for the policies which Lincoln wanted to put forward in his second term with respect to Reconstruction. I called Lincoln a "power hungry maniac" out of hyperbole. By 1865 the former Whig swindler actually was behaving like a statesman. The fact that he was behaving like a statesman is why I think he would have had trouble with Congress. The Radicals had already forced Montgomery Blair out of his cabinet and had the long-knives out after the pocket veto of Wade-Davis. I think President Lincoln would have had just as difficult a time as Johnson because I do not think that he would have tried to play nice with Congress. I do not know if the Tenure of Office Act would have been implemented in Lincoln was in office (I doubt it) and I think that the 1868 impeachment would not have occurred, but I could see a very weary Lincoln on Inauguration Day 1869.

As for corruption, one needs only look at President Grant. Grant suffered from a society that wanted to exploit the government. The corruption surrounding the building of the Transcontinental Railroad shows me that a second Lincoln term would have just seen grant era-corruption earlier on. Also, I did not even mention that the pro-Native American policies of Andrew Johnson following the San Creek Massacre, the Evans Cover-Up and the Treaty of Fort Laramie. I could see Lincoln turning Red Cloud's War into a repeat of the Sioux Uprising in 1862, complete with massive pitched battles and military tribunals.