Radical Republicans

The Radical Republicans were a political faction within the Republican Party that first appeared in the mid-1850s and lasted until the end of the Reconstruction Era. Members referred to themselves as radicals because their initial goal was the full and permanent eradication of enslavement. The two leading members of the faction were Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania and Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts. During the American Civil War, Radical Republicans opposed their moderate Republican contemporaries, led by President Abraham Lincoln. After the war, they held control of Congress for a time and sought to take a more authoritative approach to Reconstruction in the South. In terms of policy, Radical Republicans strongly supported equality, civil rights, and enfranchisement for recently freed African Americans. Radical Republicans quarreled with President Andrew Johnson and were responsible for his impeachment. After Reconstruction, the faction lost its grip on power and faded away.

Background

The emergence of Radical Republicans is closely tied to the then-recent formation of the Republican Party itself. In the early days of the newly formed American nation, the first political parties to form were the Federalist Party and the Democratic-Republican Party. The Federalists, who were strong supporters of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, believed in the notion of a strong central government and a national banking system. On the other hand, the Democratic-Republicans supported Thomas Jefferson’s call for a limited government.

After the War of 1812, the Federalist Party dissolved. Later, the Democratic-Republican Party transformed into what became known as the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party of the 1830s was strongly supportive of President Andrew Jackson. Those who opposed Jackson’s policies in turn formed the Whig Party. By the 1840s, the Democrats and Whigs were firmly in place as the nation’s dominant political parties.

Escalating tensions over the issue of enslavement and the question of whether the practice should be allowed in new territories and states in the 1850s rapidly changed the status quo of America’s political coalitions. As the debate heated up, multiple short-lived political parties, such as the Free Soil and American (Know-Nothing) parties formed. Members of these parties, the remaining Whigs, and some discontented Democrats found common ground in their opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which aimed to allow enslavement in new territories by popular referendum in 1854. This ultimately led all those lawmakers who opposed slavery to join together to form a new joint party called the Republican Party that year.

The political dynamic in America changed as a result of the events of 1854, becoming primarily a two-party system with the Democratic and Republican Parties dominating. Even though the views and policies espoused by these parties changed dramatically over time, this dynamic continued to define the American political system into the twenty-first century.

Overview

The early Republican Party of the 1850s was mainly concerned with preventing the practice of enslavement from expanding into the West. Most Republicans were not immediately interested in pursuing the total abolition of the practice. Some strongly supported abolition and the idea of equal rights for African Americans. Individuals of this progressive faction within the Republican Party often referred to themselves as radicals in light of their hard stance against enslavement. Members of the faction in question soon became known as Radical Republicans, while their non-radical counterparts in the party were called Moderate Republicans.

The two most prominent Radical Republicans in Congress were Representative Thaddeus Stevens and Senator Charles Sumner. Other notable Radical Republicans were Representatives James M. Ashley, John A. Bingham, and James H. Lane. Well-known journalists like Horrace Greeley and William Gannaway Brownlow, as well as esteemed government figures such as one-time Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, also considered themselves Radical Republicans.

Although the Radical Republican faction existed from the time the party was created, it did not achieve significant power in Congress until the 1860 election. At that time, moderate Republican Abraham Lincoln was chosen as the nation’s next president. Lincoln’s victory was alarming to Southerners, who viewed him as an extremist. In response to his election, states across the South began planning for secession. Only a little more than a month after Lincoln’s inauguration, the Civil War began.

The Radical Republicans were often at odds with Lincoln during the Civil War. They formed a Joint Committee on the Conduct of War to monitor Lincoln’s wartime decisions and keep his executive powers in check. While Lincoln viewed the war as a means of preserving the Union, Radical Republicans saw it primarily as a way to finally end enslavement. They frequently criticized Lincoln for not being aggressive enough with his policies and tried to get him to support their legislation. Late in the war, the Radical Republicans opposed Lincoln’s Reconstruction plans. While Lincoln wanted to peacefully welcome the Confederate states back into the Union, the Radical Republicans wanted harsher consequences. Radical Republicans Senator Benjamin Wade and Representative Henry Winter Davis crafted an alternative to Lincoln’s plan. The Wade–Davis Bill sought to punish the Confederates by only allowing them to rejoin the Union after they abolished enslavement. Lincoln vetoed the bill.

After Lincoln’s assassination, the Radical Republicans took aim at his successor, President Andrew Johnson. He did not share their zeal for securing African Americans’ rights, and he vetoed many of the bills they passed. The Radical Republicans eventually concocted a plan through which they were able to ensure the House impeached the president, though Johnson was acquitted in the Senate by a single vote.

The Radical Republicans’ greatest successes were also some of the most important pieces of legislation in American history. Among these are the Thirteenth Amendment, which outlawed enslavement; the Fourteenth Amendment, which granted citizenship and equal protection under the law to formerly enslaved people and everyone else born or naturalized in the United States; the Fifteenth Amendment, which granted African American men the right to vote; and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which was meant to protect the civil rights of persons of African descent born in or brought to the United States.

Bibliography

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