Lessons of the Radical Republicans: Race, revolution and Reconstruction

[marmar]

Lessons of the Radical Republicans: Race, revolution and Reconstruction
Their crusade to remake America after the Civil War fell short — but it was one of our nation's finest hours

By MATTHEW ROZSA
PUBLISHED APRIL 17, 2022 6:00AM


(Salon) Once upon a time in a country somewhat resembling this one, the Republican Party had a radical faction — and not because it believed in bizarre theories about election fraud or wanted to undermine democracy. By modern standards, the Radical Republicans of the 1860s would clearly be regarded as leftists: They fiercely supported racial equality, had no tolerance for insurrectionists and believed government should help the most vulnerable people in society. Their story is important for many reasons: They helped shape modern-day America, and they may even provide clues about how it can be saved.

As with so many great stories in American history, this one begins with Abraham Lincoln.

After Lincoln won the contentious presidential election of 1860 — in several states, his name wasn't even on the ballot — slave-owners across the South convinced that this meant the end of their "peculiar institution" decided to secede from the Union. That provoked the Civil War, of course, but as you probably know, it didn't immediately lead to the end of slavery. Indeed, for almost two years, many Republicans harshly criticized their own party's president for moving too slowly on that issue. Even after Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, the so-called Radical Republican wing noticed his loophole: It only applied to enslaved peoples in the rebellious states; those in states that had not seceded, such as Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri, were still in shackles.

Lincoln was unambiguous, however, in his contempt for rebels. Whether or not it's fair to compare the attempted coup of 2021 the insurrection that began in 1860, Lincoln viewed the latter as straightforward treason. If citizens in a democratic society are permitted to rebel simply because they dislike the results of an election, he reasoned, then democracy itself cannot endure. One law passed with Lincoln's support banned former Confederate leaders from holding political office of any kind — and even there, many of the Radical Republicans felt he was being too lenient.

....(snip)....

One more shoe needed to fall, and that was the tortuous presidential election of 1876, in many ways an eerie precursor to the 2020 contest. As I observed two years ago, the 1876 election had the highest voter turnout rate in American history, at 81.8%, while the 2020 election had the highest turnout (about 66%) in 120 years. At least in 2020 only one side tried to cheat, whereas in 1876 both sides did.

Republicans hoped their candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, could keep them in power another four years despite the apparent turning of the tide. It's still not clear whether Hayes or Democrat Samuel J. Tilden would have won a free and fair contest, but that tainted and deadlocked contest ended in the Compromise of 1877, in which Hayes won the White House at the cost of ending Reconstruction and effectively allowing the South to launch the Jim Crow regime of racist oppression and legal segregation. ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/04/17/lessons-of-the-radical-republicans-race-revolution-and-reconstruction/

[brush]

1. Thanks for refreshing us on the history, Marmar.

We need reminders from time to time.

[appalachiablue]

2. Good article, thanks K/R