Radical Republican

The Radical Republicans were a faction of American politicians within the Republican Party of the United States from about 1854 (before the American Civil War) until the end of Reconstruction in 1877. They called themselves "Radicals" and were opposed during the War by the Moderate Republicans (led by Abraham Lincoln), by the conservative Republicans (led by Secretary of State William H. Seward), and the largely pro-slavery and later anti-Reconstruction Democratic Party, as well as by self-styled "conservatives" in the South and "liberals" in the North during Reconstruction. Radicals strongly opposed slavery during the war and after the war distrusted ex-Confederates, demanding harsh policies for punishing the former rebels, and emphasizing equality, civil rights, and voting rights for the "freedmen" (recently freed slaves).