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I have reached the last chapter titled "The Final Weeks". As I read I become more anxious. I don't want Pres. Lincoln to die! Lincoln's second vice-president - Andrew Johnson - was a nuts and should never never have been president. He would not have been nominated had people known that Lincoln was going to die. I watched a documentary recently about Andrew Johnson and the Reconstruction of the South. Johnson did a horrible job and as such the South languished. The economy was never rebuilt and Federal soldiers had to enforce martial law for several years. I believe that had Lincoln survived the South would have been generously rebuilt and the plight of the newly freed slaves would have been better addressed. I think that because Lincoln died prematurely a precedent was sent that allowed the South to remain sorry for itself. The continued marginalization and abuse of black people continued with the institution of Jim Crow laws. It wasn't until the Civil Rights movement that the South was again questioned about it's behavior.