Every now and then, I get to wondering how things would be different in the world if certain people hadn’t overdosed or died in a plane crash or car accident, or been cut down by assassins’ bullets. Music unwritten and unsung, leadership and wisdom and inspiration lost.
Fresh in my mind is Abraham Lincoln, who never got to oversee and offer his insights and guidance on Reconstruction. The challenge would have been getting enough people to share his measured, less retributive approach. But that became a non-issue, as Andrew Johnson was thrust into the spotlight. Turns out he wasn’t gifted in the same way as Lincoln, to put it mildly.
In fact, one could say Johnson was a disaster from the get-go. His presence on the ticket was really nothing more than a political calculation, a means of securing votes from those who leaned pro-slavery in the north. So, who knows, perhaps he was such an effective hindrance that we couldn’t get off on the right foot and are feeling the effects to this day. Or maybe a healing of the Union was never meant to be, despite passage of some landmark Constitutional amendments in late 1865 (13th), and in 1868 (14th).
In any event, Lincoln’s was a monumental loss.
3 Cents' 