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Radical Republicans | HearLore
— Ch. 1 · Origins And Ideology —
Radical Republicans.
~6 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
The Radical Republicans emerged from the ashes of the Whig Party in 1854, six years before the Civil War began. They called themselves "Radicals" because their goal was immediate, complete, and permanent eradication of slavery in the United States. This faction included strong currents of nativism, anti-Catholicism, and support for the prohibition of alcoholic beverages. These policy goals made it extremely difficult for the Republican Party as a whole to avoid alienating large numbers of American voters of Irish Catholic, German, and other White ethnic backgrounds. Even German-American Freethinkers and Forty-Eighters who sympathized with the Radicals' aims fought them tooth and nail over prohibition. Many Radicals were Protestant reformers who saw slavery as evil and the Civil War as God's punishment for slavery. The term "radical" was in common use in the anti-slavery movement before the Civil War, referring not necessarily to abolitionists, but particularly to Northern politicians strongly opposed to the Slave Power. Many and perhaps a majority had been Whigs, such as William H. Seward, a leading presidential contender in 1860 and Lincoln's Secretary of State, Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, and Horace Greeley, editor of the New-York Tribune, the leading Radical newspaper.
Wartime Opposition To Lincoln
During the war, Radicals opposed Lincoln's initial selection of General George B. McClellan for top command of the major eastern Army of the Potomac. They believed Lincoln was too slow in freeing slaves and supporting their legal equality. In 1864, some Radicals briefly formed a political party called the Radical Democratic Party, with John C. Frémont as their candidate for president, until Frémont withdrew. An important Republican opponent of the Radical Republicans was Henry Jarvis Raymond, editor of The New York Times and chairman of the Republican National Committee. The most influential Radical Republicans were U.S. Senator Charles Sumner and U.S. Representative Thaddeus Stevens. They led the call for a war that would end slavery. Lincoln later recognized McClellan as unfit and relieved him of his command. The Radicals tried passing their own Reconstruction plan through Congress in 1864. Lincoln vetoed it, as he was putting his own policy in effect through his power as military commander-in-chief. Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865. Radicals demanded uncompensated abolition of slavery, while Lincoln wished instead to partially emulate the British Empire's abolition of slavery by financially compensating former slave owners who had remained loyal to the Union.
Reconstruction Policy Implementation
After Lincoln's assassination, War Democrat Vice President Andrew Johnson became president. Although he appeared at first to be a Radical, Senator Chandler said the new president was "as radical as I am," but he soon broke with them. The Radicals now had full control of Congress after the 1866 elections. Johnson vetoed 21 bills passed by Congress during his term, but the Radicals overrode 15 of them, including the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and four Reconstruction Acts. These acts rewrote election laws for the South and allowed blacks to vote while prohibiting former Confederate Army officers from holding office. Through elections in the South, ex-Confederate officeholders were gradually replaced with a coalition of freedmen, Southern whites (pejoratively called scalawags) and Northerners who had resettled in the South (pejoratively called carpetbaggers). By 1874, only three Republican states were left: Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina, where the Army still protected them. The Radicals supported federal civil rights for freedmen, which Johnson opposed. They defined terms for suffrage for freed slaves and limited early suffrage for many ex-Confederates.
Impeachment Of Andrew Johnson
The Radical plan was to remove Johnson from office, but the first effort at the impeachment trial went nowhere. After Johnson violated the Tenure of Office Act by dismissing Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, the House of Representatives voted 126, 47 to impeach him. The Senate acquitted him in 1868 in three 35, 19 votes, failing to reach the 36 votes threshold required for conviction. By that time, however, Johnson had lost most of his power. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 made African Americans United States citizens, forbade discrimination against them, and it was to be enforced in Federal courts. The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution of 1868 was the work of a coalition formed of both moderate and Radical Republicans. As a result of the 1867, 1868 elections, the newly empowered freedmen set up Republican governments in 10 Southern states (all but Virginia). Radicals were targeted by the Ku Klux Klan, who shot to death one Radical Congressman from Arkansas, James M. Hinds.
End Of The Coalition
In state after state in the South, the so-called Redeemers' movement seized control from the Republicans until in 1876 only three Republican states were left: South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. In the intensely disputed 1876 U.S. presidential election, Republican presidential candidate Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner following the Compromise of 1877. He obtained the electoral votes of those states, and with them the presidency, by committing himself to removing federal troops from those states. Deprived of military support, Reconstruction came to an end. "Redeemers" took over in these states as well. As white Democrats now dominated all Southern state legislatures, the period of Jim Crow laws began, and rights were progressively taken away from blacks. This period would last over 80 years, until the gains made by the Civil Rights Movement. The economy then went into a depression in 1873 and in 1874 the Democrats swept back into power and ended the reign of the Radicals. Many former Radicals joined the "Stalwart" faction of the Republican Party while many opponents joined the "Half-Breeds," who differed primarily on matters of patronage rather than policy.
Historiographical Evolution
The earliest historians to study Reconstruction and the Radical Republican participation in it were members of the Dunning School, led by William Archibald Dunning and John W. Burgess. The Dunning School, based at Columbia University in the early 20th century, saw the Radicals as motivated by an irrational hatred of the Confederacy and a lust for power at the expense of national reconciliation. According to Dunning School historians, the Radical Republicans reversed the gains Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson had made in reintegrating the South, established corrupt shadow governments made up of Northern carpetbaggers and Southern scalawags in the former Confederate states, and foisted political rights on the newly freed slaves that they were allegedly unprepared for or incapable of utilizing. In the 1930s, the Dunning-oriented approaches were rejected by self-styled "revisionist" historians, led by Howard K. Beale along with W.E.B. DuBois, William B. Hesseltine, C. Vann Woodward and T. Harry Williams. They downplayed corruption and stressed that Northern Democrats were also corrupt. Since the 1950s, the impact of the moral crusade of the civil rights movement led historians to reevaluate the role of Radical Republicans during Reconstruction, and their reputation improved.
When did the Radical Republicans emerge from the Whig Party?
The Radical Republicans emerged from the ashes of the Whig Party in 1854, six years before the Civil War began.
Who were the most influential Radical Republicans during the war and Reconstruction era?
The most influential Radical Republicans were U.S. Senator Charles Sumner and U.S. Representative Thaddeus Stevens. They led the call for a war that would end slavery.
Why did the House of Representatives vote to impeach Andrew Johnson?
The House of Representatives voted 126 to 47 to impeach Andrew Johnson after he violated the Tenure of Office Act by dismissing Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
How many Southern states established Republican governments following the elections of 1867 and 1868?
Following the 1867 and 1868 elections, newly empowered freedmen set up Republican governments in 10 Southern states, all but Virginia.
What was the outcome of the Compromise of 1877 regarding federal troops in the South?
Republican presidential candidate Rutherford B. Hayes obtained the presidency by committing himself to removing federal troops from the disputed Southern states, which ended Reconstruction.