WI: Reconstruction goes better?

[shamiboy]

As it says on the tin, how would you get a Reconstruction that goes better and lasts longer in the American Civil War post-1865? 

[Rhand]

To continue Reconstruction, I think two things need to happen:

1) A stronger Radical wing of the Republican Party.

2) The destruction of a united Democratic Party as a viable political force.

I think one way to accomplish both would be a longer, bloodier war, in which case a victorious North would be less forgiving. I think another way would be an early Lincoln assassination and replacement with Hamlin, who was on the Radical wing of the Party (I think Turtledove used this as a POD once).

[Epic History]

Mar 13, 2016 17:45:19 GMT shamiboy said:

As it says on the tin, how would you get a Reconstruction that goes better and lasts longer in the American Civil War post-1865? 

It depends upon what you see the goal of Reconstruction as, is its sole purpose to rebuild the South and reintegrate us Southerners, or to achieve racial equality on top of that? If you want the first, just keep Lincoln around. He understood a moderate course had to be taken instead of the weird mixture we did in OTL. Total racial equality, however, is simply ASB (Unless you use a War PoD on the South's side) because there wasn't even a desire for it in the North little alone among the Southerners themselves.