Let’s see Lincoln “freed” the slaves in the Confederacy by EO ( where have we seen a EO happy President before) which did nothing, really. The results of which were race/draft riots all over the Union and a hatred towards Lincoln that was almost universal. But Booth made him a martyr and the North now had a salve to sooth their shared guilt over destroying the Constitutional republic.
Remember how he boldly freed the slaves in Maryland, at the war's outset in 1861?
Oh, wait...
You are, of course, right: Lincoln’s EO on slavery (the so-called “Emancipation Proclamation”) actually freed no one. Slavery did not end until the passage of the 13th Amendment.
Always remember that Kentucky, Missouri, West Virginia, Maryland and Delaware remained with the North as slave states, and most did NOT release their slaves till eight months after the Civil War ended.
In truth, several of these states were seized before they could join the South but they were still in the Union.
One might easily say that after the slaves were free in the South, slavery in the UNION ceased only after the thirteenth Amendment was passed.
If the hatred of Lincoln was almost universal, why did he win the 1864 election in a huge landslide?
But Booth made him a martyr and the North now had a salve to sooth their shared guilt over destroying the Constitutional republic.
I doubt there was any shared guilt over destroying the republic. I think there was a tremendous regret and sorrow that it took an armed and bloody conflict to preserve the union but they would not have perceived it as their fault. Don't confuse regret and sorrow with guilt.
I have always thought it ironic that Booth did immeasurable damage to the South. Lincoln had the political strength, vision, and desire to heal many of the wounds the war opened. When Johnson took over, he too weak to stop those who wanted to punish the South over the war. In all likelihood, many of the abuses which occurred during Reconstruction won't have started under Lincoln.