Vice President Benjamin Butler

[Diabolical Materialism]

Fun little ahistorical I was thinking about. Benjamin Butler, an antiwar Democrat state senator from Massachusetts and military governor of New Orleans was offered Lincoln's vice presidency in 1864. Although a northerner who would later become a staunch Radical Republican over the course of the war, Butler in his early career was opposed to the abolition of slavery and voted for Breckenridge in 1860. However, as the military governor of New Orleans, Butler refused to return escaped slaves to their masters and became a supporter of more radical reconstruction policies.

So the question is, had Butler accepted the VP offer, does Lincoln still win reelection? And assuming that John Wilkes Booth still manages to assassinate Lincoln, does President Butler pursue a more radical reconstruction plank? Does the war take longer to end? Do southerners fearful of a Butler presidency pursue an armed campaign of resistance against Reconstruction?