Tax Day and Abe Lincoln

Although remembering with sorrow the death of President Abraham Lincoln 150 years ago today, I also remember, just before heading to the Post Office with my returns, that his administration started the first income tax.

One of the biggest "what ifs" in all history is, what if Lincoln had not gone to Ford's Theater on April 14, 1865? He really didn't want to go, but felt that he had to because the newspapers had announced he would be there. (Of course Mrs. Lincoln really wanted to go, and she was an excellent nagger.) What would his survival have meant to Reconstruction? Perhaps permanent civil rights for the black population instead of their having to put up with 100 years of Jim Crow? We'll never know, and IMHO it's useless to speculate.

OM,

Sounds like a good Star Trek episode.

"Remembering" Lincoln's death? Come on, OM, one senior to another: you can't really be THAT old!

I've often wondered the same thing about Lincoln (and, with regard to Vietnam, about Kennedy, who was completely disillusioned about the war in November, 1963.) In the end, I suspect he couldn't have stopped Jim Crow - those laws were in the hearts and minds of the vanquished, who weren't particular fans of Lincoln (his election was why they seceded in the first place.) Likewise, given his somewhat divisive cabinet (think Team of Rivals), and a Congress that did not see eye to eye with him, and was bent on making the South pay, a gentler Reconstruction may not have been a political possibility. (It certainly wasn't when U.S. Grant, who also favored a gentler reconstruction, took office after Johnson a few years later.) Lincoln might have softened the burden on the freed slaves, perhaps done more to educate them, and might have eliminated much of the sectional hatred between Northern carpetbaggers and Southern landowners. But, in the end, his second term might have fizzled out on him. (And, again, the same might have happened to Kennedy.)

In another "good episode of Star Trek" vein, the Lincolns were looking for another couple to take with them, to share their box. The first choice was Ulysses and Julia Grant; they declined due to "pressing Army business" (though "Julia really doesn't like Mary" may have been more accurate.) Had they both been in the box, we might have lost a sitting president and a future president. (I can't remember though: did Booth's gun have more than one bullet?)

She did say something about going to the post office to mail tax returns...

Just having a little fun. I recently bought a car and had to special order a stick shift.