WI:John WIlkes Booth accidentally kills Mary Todd Lincoln...

[Darth_Kiryan]

SO, suppose that John Wilkes Booth slips somehow and accidentally shoots/kills Mary Todd Lincoln, and Booth, whether or not he he is captured or not at the theatre..,

...how does a surviving Lincoln, but a grief-stricken one, continue on with his policy of reunifying of the United States?

Obviously I would expect quite a bit of sympathy, especially for a widow, but at the same time, would this assassination energize the Radical Republicans as in OTL?

 

[farmerted555]

I'd imagine he won't let them up easy.

 

[Dolan]

I imagine Lincoln will pull an Andrew Jackson and start pummeling John Wilkes Booth until the later died.

 

[Mikestone8]

Booth will hang, of course - if he lives to stand trial. So will his co-conspirators, though Mary Surratt may ve more fortunate than OTL.

I don't see it changing Lincoln's attitude toward the defeated South, unless he has very soiid evidence that leading Confederates were behind the shooting.

 

[Ivan Lupo]

I want to believe there would be a timeline where Lincoln chokeslams Booth off the box and through a table.