Radical Republicans

Radical Republicans: Civil War

Just before the Civil War, the Radical Republican party was formed. Abraham Lincoln would do whatever it took to preserve the Union and that was what the Civil War was about for him. The Radical Republicans aimed to end slavery.

The Radicals created the Joint Committee on the Conduct of War to monitor Lincoln and other politicians in power during the war. The Committee aimed to pressure Lincoln into freeing the enslaved people. They got just that with the Emancipation Proclamation.

As the Civil War came to a close, American politicians were unsure of what to do with Confederates and African Americans. Abraham Lincoln wanted to allow them to swiftly re-enter the Union so that things could return to normal. In 1864 proposed the Wade-Davis Bill. The Radicals wanted to control Reconstruction and to do so, they needed to keep the former Confederates in check.

Fig. 1 - Andrew Johnson.

Lincoln was assassinated and his vice president, Andrew Johnson, took his place. Johnson lacked Lincoln's view and appeared to lack an understanding of Reconstruction. Before the war, Johnson was an enslaver who lived in Tennessee. Radical Republicans thought that he was on their side because Johnson favored harsher punishments for Confederates during the war. This proved to be a false assumption because Johnson also opposed equality for African Americans.

Radical Republicans: Definition

The Radical Republicans were a group of Republicans during the Civil War and Reconstruction who wanted suffrage for African American men. They also wanted to protect African Americans. Events like the Memphis Massacre made the Radicals realize that African Americans were in danger and needed help.

Fig. 2 - Radical Republican South Carolina Legislatures.

Leader of the Radical Republicans

Thaddeus Stevens led the Radical Republicans. Stevens was the most radical of all the Republicans. Not only did he believe that African Americans deserved the right to vote, but also that they were owed land and money. Stevens wanted to confiscate nearly 400 million acres of land in the South, taken from the wealthiest 70,000 (mostly enslavers), and redistribute 40 million acres to 1 million African Americans, granting them 40 acres and $100 to build a home on their new land.

Fig. 3 - Thaddeus Stevens.

Stevens provided three arguments for the suffrage of African American men:

• It was the right thing to do. African American men deserved to vote just like any white man.
• They wouldn't vote for former Confederates and would join the Republicans in Southern states to gain a majority.
• They would aid the rise of the Republican party across America.

Radical Republicans: Reconstruction

Andrew Johnson was openly opposed to reconstruction being led by African Americans and laws that would support them. After the Memphis Massacre, Radical Republicans wanted to pass the 14^th Amendment, but Johnson would not sign it. So Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 which gave more rights to freedmen and granted them access to the court system. Johnson attempted to veto it, but Congress overturned his veto with a 2/3 majority vote. In the 1866 election, Republicans won the majority with a three-to-one split.

14^th Amendment

In 1857, the Supreme Court decided that African Americans were not citizens with the outcome of the Dred Scott Case. This meant that when they were freed, they did not have the same protection rights as citizens.

The 14^th Amendment stated that anyone born in the United States was a citizen of the United States and the state in which they were born, overturning the Dred Scott Case. This Amendment was created by the Radical Republicans and was passed by Congress in 1866, but would not be ratified for another two years!

Reconstruction Act of 1867

Republicans understood that they had to make the South accept Reconstruction, so the Reconstruction Act of 1867 was passed. This Act explained the requirements for Confederate states to rejoin the Union. The former Confederate states were split into five regions, each having a US military general in charge. The general's job was to register all eligible men (black and white) to vote, preside over constitutional conventions, and maintain the safety of black people as they voted.

Fig. 4 - Military Districts during Reconstruction.

The states would have to draft a constitution, then the citizens would vote. A majority of citizens had to approve the new constitution before the state could rejoin. The voters had to include eligible African American men. The states also had to ratify the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments.

• The Reconstruction Act of 1867 divided Southern states into five regions with a military general in charge of each section.
• The terms for Confederate states to rejoin the Union were:
  • Accept the 13^th and 14^th Amendments
  • Create New Constitutions
  • The new Constitution must be voted in by a majority of voters (voters must include black people)

Tenure of Office Act (1867 - 1887)

Johnson was unhappy with the Reconstruction Act of 1867 though there was not much he could do about it. Congress had passed the Tenure of Office Act in 1867 which prohibited Johnson from firing members of his cabinet who were already approved by Congress. This meant that he could not fire his Republican cabinet members.

However, Johnson fired the Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in 1867, thus violating the Tenure of Office Act. In violation of breaking the act, Johnson was impeached in 1868.

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

Johnson was impeached by the House of Representatives on 24 February 1868. Impeachment meant that the president was charged with misconduct and could be removed from office. On 16 May 1868, the Senate voted on whether to remove Johnson from office. Johnson won the right to remain president by one vote. He won because the Senate believed that they were overstepping their roles by impeaching him.

Fig. 5 - The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson.

Though Johnson won, he was incredibly weakened. He would not be able to stand against the Radical Republicans for the duration of his presidency. In 1868, the US presidential election was held and the Republican Ulysses S. Grant was elected as Johnson's successor.

Grant supported the Radical Republicans and would go on to create more laws to protect and enfranchise African Americans. One of the most notable laws of this time was the 15^th Amendment, which gave African American men the right to vote.

The Compromise of 1877

It was unclear who won the election of 1877. Allies of the Republican nominee Rutherford B. Hayes met with Democrats to come to an agreement. If Hayes met their demands, then he could be president. In the unofficial Compromise of 1877 or the Great Betrayal, Hayes agreed to remove all troops from the South, place a Southern Democrat in his cabinet, build a transcontinental railroad in Texas, and introduce legislation that would assist in industrializing the South.

When the South was demilitarized, there was no one to protect African Americans. Southern politicians legalized segregation in a piece of legislation referred to as Jim Crow Laws. African Americans were barred from voting by literacy tests and voting taxes. The South steadily became more dangerous for African Americans. As the Reconstruction Era ended, the New South emerged.

Radical Republicans: Significance

Radical Republicans had to work against President Johnson for the rights of African Americans. Black people were able to join in on politics and began to gain some control over the country that for so long had kept them captive. While reconstruction was not perfect and figures like Thaddeus Stevens argued that it did not go far enough, it was still able to pass the 14^th and 15^th Amendments plus more laws and legislation that benefitted African Americans and poor white people. All of this would not have been possible without the radical republicans.