Radical Republican (USA)
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Radical Republicans
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| Leader(s) | Senator John C. Frémont (CA) Senator Charles Sumner (MA) Representative Thaddeus Stevens (PA) President Ulysses S. Grant (OH) |
| Founded | 1854 |
| Dissolved | 1877 |
| Merger of | Ex Free Soils |
| Succeeded by | Stalwart |
| Ideology |
Abolitionism Reconstructionism |
| National affiliation | Republican Party |
The Radical Republicans were a faction of American politicians within the Republican Party of the United States from around 1854 (before the American Civil War) until the end of Reconstruction in 1877. They called themselves "Radicals" with a sense of a complete permanent eradication of slavery and secessionism, without compromise. They were opposed during the War by the moderate Republicans (led by President Abraham Lincoln), by the conservative Republicans, and by the anti-abolitionist and anti-Reconstruction Democratic Party as well as by conservatives in the South and liberals in the North during Reconstruction. Radicals led efforts after the war to establish civil rights for former slaves and fully implement emancipation. After weaker measures resulted in 1866 violence against former slaves in the rebel states, Radicals pushed the 14th Amendment and statutory protections through Congress. They disfavored allowing ex Confederates officers to retake political power in the south, and emphasized equality, civil rights and voting rights for the "freedmen" (recently freed slaves).
During the war, Radical Republicans opposed Lincoln's initial selection of General George B. McClellan for top command of the major eastern Army of the Potomac and his efforts to bring seceded Southern states back into the Union as quickly and easily as possible. Lincoln later recognized McClellan's weakness and relieved him of command. The Radicals passed their own reconstruction plan through the Congress in 1864, but Lincoln vetoed it and was putting his own presidential policies in effect by virtue as military commander-in-chief when he was assassinated in April 1865. Radicals pushed for the uncompensated abolition of slavery, while Lincoln wanted to pay slave owners who were loyal to the Union. After the war, the Radicals demanded civil rights for freedmen, such as measures ensuring suffrage. They initiated the various Reconstruction Acts as well as the Fourteenth Amendment and limited political and voting rights for ex Confederate civil officials and military officers. They keenly fought President Andrew Johnson, a former slave owner from Tennessee who favored allowing southern states to decide the rights and status of former slaves. After he vetoed various Congressional acts favoring civil rights for former slaves, they attempted to remove him from office through impeachment, which failed by one vote in 1868.
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