What If Lincoln Survived His Assassination?

Quite an interesting "what if" article, especially given that modern medicine could have very well saved President Lincoln's life.

But the better question is: would we think so highly of him as we do now? Would he have been just another war President? We can use the example of any celebrity who died young.

For example, Jimi Hendrix. If he was still living, he would have likely released albums that sucked, aged, and had his world views change and he may have said or done things that the American public might have chastised him for. However, he died young after releasing only a relatively short amount of musical material, and thus, cemented him into everyone's mind. He never got a chance to suck. :)

President Lincoln may have done things in a similar way. He may have done or said things that made him irrelevant to history. Of course, there are other bits of American history that had they not happened, America as a nation might be very different.

For example, it's well known that George Washington was offered to be King of America after the defeat of the British. However, he turned it down because he knew that's what everyone fled from to begin with.

Alas, history will never know. Even today, the actions we take now have a profound effect on the future. What happens if Iraq turns into one of America's closest allies? What happens if Iraq becomes a blossoming economy and everyone looks to these times as ones of turmoil, but one that was done for the right reasons? Would history be kind to George W. Bush?

What about Iran? What if they do develop a nuclear weapon and use it on Israel or America? Would history be kind of China and Russia for their foot dragging on the issue of stopping them from getting a weapon?

"What if" usually isn't what really would have happened. It's usually a best guess based upon the behavior of people who knew the person who died. However, history has shown that even people who think one way, might go another in various circumstances.

Travis
travis@rightwinglunatic.com