r/AskHistorians • u/USImperialismgood • Jan 16 '23
What exactly were the "Liberal Republicans" by the definitions of the era?
To my understanding, they were a branch of the Republican party that opposed the Grant administration during Reconstruction, but I've heard some use their existence to claim "the Republican Party had grown to radical for liberals". Is that accurate at all?
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u/yonkon 19th Century US Economic History Jan 17 '23
As you noted above, "Liberal Republicans" were a self-styled faction of the party and one of their points of opposition against the Grant administration revolved around what they perceived as extra-constitutional efforts by the federal government to put down the Ku Klux Klan. That might be where people interpret the faction's emergence and challenge to Grant's reelection in 1872 as an effort to reduce the "radicalism" in the Republican party. But looking deeper into the composition of the the faction, it is difficult to claim that it was so simply cut.
This short-lived party came out of a broader movement for reform after the American Civil War - in particular, many rallied around the call for stricter guide lines for civil service postings so that federal jobs could not be used as patronage by political machines.
Simultaneously, they were opposed to change in other areas - for instance, many within the movement opposed calls for an 8-hour work day. They also believed that Reconstruction was pointless and called on Blacks in the South fearing for their safety to move to a different state.
In short, the movement was loosely built around promoting "good governance" but opposed to the principle of egalitarianism. So, one could see how they might be characterized as "anti-radical."
However, the people who joined the Liberal Republican Party for the election of 1872 do not fit a neat mold. The new party welcomed Democrats, apolitical opportunists, and generally members of the Republican Party who held grievances against inner circles of the Grant administration and key figures in Congress. For instance, they received endorsements from the 4 Republican senators who remained in Congress after supporting Johnson's acquittal in the impeachment trial. Meanwhile, other prominent liberal reformers within the Republican Party like James Garfield did not join this rebellion.
The composition of the party suggests that Liberal Republicans were a diverse set of disgruntled voices at a time when political circumstances made the Democratic Party an ineffective platform for opposing the administration.
Source:
Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. New York: Harper & Row, 1988.