Task #1

Two of the friends resist,arguing that saving Lincoln's victory would be unnecessary or perhaps counterproductive. Wouldn't the election of a different president have prevented such a bloody civil war? The other two friends must garner persuasive arguments that the United States without a president Lincoln would have been a much worse affair!!!

Split up into two groups of two students each.
Pick teams - one pro going back to set history right, the other pro inaction.
Each group should now go online and gather evidence and argumentation using the resources below.
When sufficiently loaded up with data, the two groups should reconvene and prepare an informal "play" where they argue whether to go back in time or not.
Preform the play for the class!

Be sure there are at least 3 arguments for going and 3 arguments against, and that every argument has some sort of response from the other side.
The play should last approximately 10 minutes.
Students may use their internet-researched notes at all times.

Resources:

For the purposes of the simulation we'll assume the pro-[time travelers] won the argument, because the next assignment is...Task #2