Post by mcnutt on Apr 27, 2018 20:28:58 GMT
What if Lincoln wasn’t assassinated? The POD is simple. In those days the Washington DC Police were responsible for Presidential security. The officer who assigned to protect President Lincoln that night was John Fredrick Parker. Parker had been reprimanded but somehow not fired for being drunk on duty and for sleeping in a street car instead of walking his beat. On April 14, 1865, his laziness had tragic consequences, He was supposed to sit in the chair by the door to the President’s box. Instead he moved to a place where he could watch the play. During intermission, he went to a bar. There was no one to stop Booth from entering the President’s box. ITTL there is a competent officer there. He stops Booth. When Booth pulls out his knife. The competent officer quickly shoots Booth. There is an investigation that reveals Booth’s conspiracy. Edwin Booth’s career is not harmed. After Congress adjourns in April 1865, President Lincoln implements his ten percent plan in which the former Confederate stare could organize new governments after a tenth of 1860 voters took an oath of allegiance. The new Southern state legislatures enacted Black Codes that made the Freedmen second class citizens. When the Republican dominated Congress came back in December 1865 they were very angry. President Lincoln works with Congress to protect the rights of Blacks.. He has also evolved on the vote. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 not only guaranteed citizenship and equal rights to African Americans but it ended racial restrictions to voting. So did the Fourteenth Amendment that was sent to the states for ratification in the Summer 1866. There is no OTL Fifteenth Amendment. ITTL there is one less amendment to the US Constitution. With Lincoln and Congress working together there is no OTL Reconstruction Acts of 1867, There is also no Tenure of Office Act. In 1868 Ulysses Grant is still elected President. This TL has no effect on the Presidential elections of 1868 -2016. So the only change in the line up of Presidents is Andrew Johnson is not President. Because he is remembered fondly as the one Southern Senator who did not support the Confederacy and for his service as Military Governor of Tennessee. So his less obscure then most nineteenth century Vice Presidents. Because Johnson is not President, the first impeachment of a President come in 1997 -1998. Bill Clinton is still elected in 1992. He still is investigated for Whitewater and still has an affair with Monica Lewinsky. So ITTL the number of Presidents who have been impeached is one. Just as in OTL the number that have been removed is zero. One unknown is the seven Republican Senators who voted to acquit Johnson. OTL none of them were reelected. I don’t know what they do with their longer political careers, One of them is featured in Profiles in Courage. One result of this TL is Profiles in Courage is a shorter book.