Question:
We don’t know words WHAT IF in the history and I realize this is a pure speculation but: Would be the course of the history very different for US without Abraham Lincoln in the White House? Whether the answer is YES or it is NO could you please elaborate on this?

Answers:

James M. McPherson, American Civil War historian, Princeton University

I think that the course of American history would have been much different if Lincoln had not been president. The United States might well have divided into two nations, with the possibility of additional divisions, and the institution of slavery might have lasted for several more decades. The Civil War transformed the United States into a modern, powerful, and free nation, and without Lincoln's leadership this transformation might not have happened, or would have taken a different course.

Michael F. Holt, Professor of History, University of Virginia

The answer must be Yes. For example, had one of the other presidential candidates in 1860 won the election--a very unlikely possibility--there would have been no southern secession, no Civil War, and no emancipation of the slaves as a result of that war.

I can think of only one plausible scenario that might have produced that result, but it too is improbable. Had the Republican nomination that year gone to someone other than Lincoln, say Seward who was the frontrunner going into the convention, it seems likely to me that Republicans would have lost Illinois, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, thus denying them a majority of the electoral vote. The election then would have gone to the House of Representatives which would have probably elected a Democrat.

Harold Holzer, Senior Vice President, External Affairs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Yes, American--and world--history would have been far different without Abraham Lincoln. For one thing, America would be the dis-United States today--two countries, not one--perhaps even 4 or even 8. Our consolidation, unlike Yugoslavia's, or Czechoslovakia's, or the U. S. S. R.'s, was based on a constitution and free elections, and had secession prevailed, it would have meant democracy itself could not be saved. Lincoln symbolized, articulated, and preserved the unique promise of America, and even rid it of its greatest hypocricy: human slavery. I'd call that a career of irreplaceable importance.

John Waugh, Lincoln biographer

I believe the answer to your question is probably Yes. if Lincoln had not won the election of 1860 and become President, we might not have had--very likely would not have had--a president with his vision and dogged determination to save the Union and Republican government--and to somehow end slavery, which for so long had bitterly divided the country. Any other Republican or Democrat on the scene would have perhaps caved in and let the South go, with all kinds of ramifications for a different future for the country. We had a whole series of presidents from Andrew Jackson to Lincoln, who could not handle the situation. Without a Lincoln, with his combination of humanity, ability, steel, and vision, we might have had another Taylor or Pierce or Buchanan. And everything would have been different.

We saw what happened in the country after Lincoln was assassinated. If Lincoln had lived, Reconstruction would have been handled a good deal differently and our history because of it might have been different. Lincoln was a man wholly wiithout any sense of vengeance in his heart against the South, unlike many of the Radicals in his party. He would have tried to bring the South back into the Union on the basis of true brotherhood and equality for Southerners and Northerners, white and black, alike. And I believe, unlike Andrew Johnson, he had the political smarts and skill to pull it off. It would not have been easy. The Radicals in Congress were out for blood and did not have the humanity Liincoln had. But Lincoln was perhaps the most astute politician in American history. He would have dealt with the Radicals and the South in a very even-handed and effective way. He would not have been impeached as Johnson was. It would have an entirely different ballgame had Lincoln lived.