I would go with what Lincoln would have done!

Here’s the thing. Booth thought that if he assassinated Lincoln he would be hailed as a hero to the south. And that’s why he yelled “Sic Semper Tyrannis”. But when he was hiding in the swamps, he was given a newspaper, and he seen how much the South was appalled and devastated by Lincoln’s murder.

It’s is no doubt in any historian’s mind that Lincoln would have made Reconstruction easier. But the very fact that Lincoln had been murdered, made the North extremely bitter and angry, and did not let the South off as easily.