Dishonest Abe Lincoln

[Seamus Fermanagh]

The tragedy of Lincoln's assassination is that he was not given the opportunity to set the tone of the Reconstruction. Rhetorically, at least, his second inaugural suggests that he favored a relatively benign reconstruction. Having been elected as a liberal Republican (oh how the times have changed!) and having prosecuted the war to its conclusion, he may have had the political clout to bring about a less exploitative and more culturally sensitive reconstruction and thereby put race relations on a different and more positive track. Sadly, thanks to a self-important egotist actor, we will never know.

Certainly Johnson, tainted with the label of "Democrat," was unable to effect a benign reconstruction and the Grant administration that followed was -- whatever Grant may have hoped for -- rife with corruption. Moreover, by failing to really enforce the Civil Rights Act of 1875, the South was allowed to reform itself under the control of superficially "reconstructed" Southern Democrats and create an apartheid South.

[Beskar]

Having been elected as a liberal Republican (oh how the times have changed!)

This is what is interesting with American politics, as a modern audience would expect the Democrats to abolish slavery whilst the Republicans would be fighting tooth'n'nail to keep it/reinstate it.