What were some of the repercussions of Lincoln's assassination during the years following the Civil War? How might Reconstruction efforts have been redirected or altered had Lincoln not been killed?
Well, Andrew Johnson would not have become.president if lincoln was not assassinated. This puts a change in policies when it came to readmitting the South. I think both lincoln and johnson would've allowed the seceded states to join back quickly but lincoln knew how to face congress. Johnson, on the other hand, was hated by all the radical republicans of Congress.
In practical terms, his assasination mythologised Lincoln and gave him 'sainthood' status. Speaking brutally, it also gave him a way out of dealing with all the problems that reconstruction threw up and which to a certain degree the US has still not dealt with such as states independence versus federal rule.
I agree with tripletaker. While Lincoln did what he felt he had to do in declaring war on the South, he didn't hate them for seceding and didn't want to punish them for leaving (as the Northern Congressional reps did). Lincoln just wanted to hold the Union together. The way the reconstruction happened is why there's still a lot of deep-seated resentment for the North in the South today.
Johnson's rising to the presidency changed Lincoln's policies pretty dramatically, if I recall correctly.
