Editing Radical Republicans (section)

==Reconstruction of the South==
[[File:Charles-Sumner-Tilton.jpeg|thumb|left|U.S. Senator [[Charles Sumner]]]]
In 1865, Radical Republicans increasingly took control, led by Sumner and Stevens. They demanded harsher measures in the South, more protection for the Freedmen and more guarantees that the Confederate nationalism was eliminated. Following Lincoln's assassination in 1865, Andrew Johnson, a former War Democrat, became president.

The Radicals at first admired Johnson's hard-line talk. When they discovered his ambivalence on key issues by his veto of [[Civil Rights Act of 1866]], they overrode his veto. This was the first time that Congress had overridden a president on an important bill. The [[Civil Rights Act of 1866]] made [[African Americans]] United States citizens, forbade discrimination against them and it was to be enforced in Federal courts. The [[Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution]] of 1868 (with its [[Equal Protection Clause]]) was the work of a coalition formed of both moderate and Radical Republicans.<ref name="Trefousse, 2001"/>

By 1866, the Radical Republicans supported federal [[civil rights]] for freedmen, which Johnson opposed. By 1867, they defined terms for suffrage for freed slaves and limited early suffrage for many ex-Confederates. While Johnson opposed the Radical Republicans on some issues, the decisive [[1866–67 United States House of Representatives elections|congressional elections of 1866]] gave the Radicals enough votes to enact their legislation over Johnson's vetoes. Through elections in the South, ex-Confederate officeholders were gradually replaced with a coalition of freedmen, Southern whites (pejoratively called [[scalawags]]) and Northerners who had resettled in the South (pejoratively called [[carpetbaggers]]). The Radical Republicans were successful in their efforts to impeach President Johnson in the House, but failed by one vote in the Senate to remove him from office.<ref name="Trefousse, 2001"/>

The Radicals were opposed by former slaveowners and [[white supremacist]]s in the rebel states. Radicals were targeted by the [[Ku Klux Klan]], who shot to death one Radical Congressman from Arkansas, [[James M. Hinds]].
[[File:Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper on January 23, 1875 art detail, entitled "Grant's Last Outrage in Louisiana" (cropped).jpg|alt=|thumb|"Grant's Last Outrage in Louisiana" art in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper of January 23, 1875]]
The Radical Republicans led the [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]] of the South. All Republican factions supported Ulysses Grant for president in 1868. Once in office, Grant forced Sumner out of the party and used Federal power to try to break up the Ku Klux Klan organization. However, insurgents and community riots continued harassment and violence against African Americans and their allies into the early 20th century. By the [[1872 United States presidential election|1872 presidential election]], the [[Liberal Republican Party (United States)|Liberal Republicans]] thought that Reconstruction had succeeded and should end. Many moderates joined their cause as well as Radical Republican leader Charles Sumner. They nominated ''New-York Tribune'' editor [[Horace Greeley]], who was also nominated by the Democrats. Grant was easily reelected.<ref>Patrick W. Riddleberger, "The Break in the Radical Ranks: Liberals vs Stalwarts in the Election of 1872." ''Journal of Negro History'' 44.2 (1959): 136–157 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2716035 online].</ref>