Editing Radical Republicans (section)

==Reconstruction policy==
{{More citations needed|date=May 2016}}

===Opposing Lincoln===
[[File:Hwdavis.jpg|frame|right|[[Henry Winter Davis]], one of the authors of the [[Wade–Davis Bill|Wade–Davis Manifesto]] opposing Lincoln's "[[Ten percent plan|ten percent]]" reconstruction plan]]
The Radical Republicans opposed Lincoln's terms for reuniting the United States during [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]] (1863), which they viewed as too lenient. They proposed an "[[ironclad oath]]" that would prevent anyone who supported the Confederacy from voting in Southern elections, but Lincoln blocked it and once Radicals passed the [[Wade–Davis Bill]] in 1864, Lincoln vetoed it. The Radicals demanded a more aggressive prosecution of the war, a faster end to slavery and total destruction of the Confederacy. After the war, the Radicals controlled the [[Joint Committee on Reconstruction]].

===Opposing Johnson===
After [[Lincoln's assassination]], [[War Democrat]] [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]] [[Andrew Johnson]] became president. Although he appeared at first to be a Radical,<ref>Senator Chandler, a Radical leader, said the new president was "as radical as I am"; Blackburn (1969), p. 113; also McKitrick, ''Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction'' (1961) p. 60.</ref> he broke with them and the Radicals and Johnson became embroiled in a bitter struggle. Johnson proved a poor politician and his allies lost heavily in the [[United States House of Representatives elections, 1866|1866 elections in the North]]. The Radicals now had full control of Congress and could override Johnson's vetoes.

===Control of Congress===
After the [[United States Senate elections, 1866|1866 elections]], the Radicals generally controlled Congress. Johnson vetoed 21 bills passed by Congress during his term, but the Radicals [[Veto override|overrode]] 15 of them, including the [[Civil Rights Act of 1866]] and four [[Reconstruction Acts]], which rewrote the election laws for the South and allowed blacks to vote while prohibiting former Confederate Army officers from holding office. As a result of the 1867–1868 elections, the newly empowered freedmen, in coalition with [[carpetbaggers]] (Northerners who had recently moved south) and [[Scalawags]] (white Southerners who supported Reconstruction), set up Republican governments in 10 Southern states (all but Virginia).

===Impeachment===
{{further|Impeachment of Andrew Johnson}}
[[File:Edwin McMasters Stanton Secretary of War.jpg|thumb|left|[[Edwin Stanton|Edwin McMasters Stanton]], Lincoln's Secretary of War, whom Johnson tried to remove from office]]
The Radical plan was to remove Johnson from office, but the first effort at the impeachment trial of President Johnson went nowhere. After Johnson violated the [[Tenure of Office Act (1867)|Tenure of Office Act]] by dismissing [[United States Secretary of War|Secretary of War]] [[Edwin M. Stanton]], the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] voted 126–47 to impeach him, but the [[United States Senate|Senate]] acquitted him in 1868 in three 35–19 votes, failing to reach the 36 votes threshold required for a conviction; by that time, however, Johnson had lost most of his power.<ref>Michael Les Benedict, ''The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson'' (1999)</ref>

===Supporting Grant===
General [[Ulysses S. Grant]] in 1865–1868 was in charge of the Army under President Johnson, but Grant generally enforced the Radical agenda. The leading Radicals in Congress were Thaddeus Stevens in the House and [[Charles Sumner]] in the Senate. Grant was elected president as a Republican in [[1868 United States presidential election|1868]] and after the election he generally sided with the Radicals on Reconstruction policies and signed the [[Civil Rights Act of 1871]] into law.<ref>Brooks D. Simpson, ''The Reconstruction Presidents'' ch. 5, 6  (2009)</ref>

The Republicans split in [[1872 United States presidential election|1872]] over Grant's reelection, with the [[Liberal Republican Party (United States)|Liberal Republicans]], including Sumner, opposing Grant with a new third party. The Liberals lost badly, but the economy then went into a depression in 1873 and in 1874 the Democrats swept back into power and ended the reign of the Radicals.<ref name="Trefousse 1969">{{harvp|Trefousse|1969}}</ref>

The Radicals tried to protect the new coalition, but one by one the Southern states voted the Republicans out of power until in 1876 only three were left (Louisiana, Florida and South Carolina), where the Army still protected them. The [[1876 United States presidential election|1876 presidential election]] was so close that it was decided in those three states despite massive fraud and illegalities on both sides. The [[Compromise of 1877]] called for the election of a Republican as president and his withdrawal of the troops. Republican [[Rutherford B. Hayes]] withdrew the troops and the Republican state regimes immediately collapsed.<ref>Scroggs (1958)</ref>