The Civil War ended on April 9, 1865, and the original goal of the North to preserve the Union was accomplished. The task that lay before Lincoln and Congress now was reintegrating the rebellious Southern states into the Union. For many white southerners “Reconstruction was a vicious and destructive experience – a period when vindictive Northerners inflicted humiliation and revenge on a pro-state South.” 

 President Lincoln was assassinated on April 14th, 1865. But what if Lincoln had led the nation through Reconstruction? Would the events and outcomes of Reconstruction have been different?