Radical Republican

Radical Republican, during and after the American Civil War, a member of the Republican Party committed to emancipation of enslaved people and later to the equal treatment and enfranchisement of the freed African Americans.

The Republican Party at its formation during the 1850s was a coalition of Northern altruists, industrialists, former Whigs, practical politicians, etc. While not publicly committed to abolition of slavery prior to the Civil War, the party nonetheless attracted the most zealous antislavery advocates. While Pres. Abraham Lincoln declared restoration of the Union to be his aim during the Civil War, the antislavery advocates in Congress pressed for emancipation as a stated war aim as well.

Britannica Quiz

Reconstruction Era Quiz

In December 1861, frustrated at the poor showing of the Union Army and the lack of progress toward emancipation, the Radicals formed the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. They agitated for the dismissal of Gen. George B. McClellan, and they favored the enlistment of Black troops. Angry at Lincoln for his reluctance to move toward speedy abolition, they broke with him completely over Reconstruction policy.

As certain areas of the South fell under Federal military control in the course of the war, Lincoln embarked upon a process of lenient Reconstruction under presidential control. Only the most prominent Confederates were excluded from participating in the restored state governments under Lincoln’s plan, and just 10 percent of a state’s 1860 electorate was required to take a loyalty oath before Lincoln would recognize the state government they established as lawful. The Radicals countered Lincoln’s “Ten Percent Plan” in 1864 with the Wade-Davis Bill, which required a majority of the electorate to take the loyalty oath and excluded far more former Confederates from participation in the restored governments. Lincoln pocket vetoed the Wade-Davis Bill, which angered the Radicals and launched them on a short-lived drive to deny Lincoln renomination.

After Lincoln’s assassination, the Radicals at first welcomed Andrew Johnson as president. But Johnson quickly indicated his intention to pursue Lincoln’s lenient Reconstruction policies. The Radicals turned on him, formed the Joint Committee on Reconstruction (the so-called Joint Committee of Fifteen, made up nine members of the House and six senators, with only three Democrats among them) to ensure congressional rather than presidential control of Reconstruction, and passed a number of measures for the protection of Southern Black people over Johnson’s veto.

Johnson attempted to break the Radicals’ power by uniting all moderates and by going on an extensive speaking tour during the 1866 congressional elections. But the strategy failed, and the Radicals won a resounding victory. They then showed their displeasure with Johnson by passing the Tenure of Office Act (over Johnson’s veto), restricting the president’s ability to remove civil officers. When Johnson proceeded to remove Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton in violation of the Tenure of Office Act, the House of Representatives voted to impeach him, and the Senate failed by just one vote to remove him from office.

The Radical Republicans’ most important measures were contained in the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 and 1868, which placed the Southern states under military government and required universal manhood suffrage. Despite the Radical program, however, white control over Southern state governments was gradually restored. Such terrorist organizations as the Ku Klux Klan and Knights of the White Camelia were successful in frightening African Americans away from the polls, and zeal for continued military occupation of the South waned in the North. By 1877 Reconstruction was at an end.

Radical Republicans never really existed as a cohesive group. They were united only by their common commitment to emancipation and racial justice. On other issues—such as hard/soft money, labor reform, and protectionism—they were often divided. Radical leaders included Henry Winter Davis, Thaddeus Stevens, Benjamin Butler, and George Sewall Boutwell in the House and Charles Sumner, Benjamin Wade, and Zachariah Chandler in the Senate.