116-741: The Radical Republicans were a political faction within the Republican Party originating from the party's founding in 1854—some six years before the Civil War —until the Compromise of 1877 , which effectively ended Reconstruction . They called themselves "Radicals" because of their goal of immediate, complete, and permanent eradication of slavery in the United States . The Radical faction also included, though, very strong currents of Nativism , anti-Catholicism , and in favor of
232-679: A coalition of centrist parties , spanning from the Socialists to the Christian-democrats. Ultimately the installation of the Fifth Republic in 1958, and the subsequent emergence of a two-party system based on the Socialist and Gaullist movements, destroyed the niche for an autonomous Radical party. The Radical Party split into various tendencies. Its leading personality, Mendès-France himself, left in 1961 in protest at
348-421: A "radical reform" of the electoral system . This led to a general use of the term to identify all supporting the movement for parliamentary reform. Initially confined to the upper and middle classes, in the early 19th century "popular radicals" brought artisans and the "labouring classes" into widespread agitation in the face of harsh government repression. More respectable " philosophical radicals " followed
464-639: A Bill to reform the British East India Company , dismissed the government and appointed William Pitt the Younger as his Prime Minister. Pitt had previously called for Parliament to begin to reform itself, but he did not press for long for reforms the King did not like. Proposals Pitt made in April 1785 to redistribute seats from the " rotten boroughs " to London and the counties were defeated in
580-635: A bitter struggle. Johnson proved a poor politician and his allies lost heavily in the 1866 elections in the North . The Radicals now had full control of Congress and could override Johnson's vetoes. After the 1866 elections , the Radicals generally controlled Congress. Johnson vetoed 21 bills passed by Congress during his term, but the Radicals overrode 15 of them, including the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and four Reconstruction Acts , which rewrote
696-597: A charter of rights as insufficient, potentially revocable by a whim of the monarch. Belgian Radicals closely followed the situation in France when, on 26 July to 1 August 1830, a conservative-liberal revolution broke out , overthrowing the autocratic monarchy for a liberal constitutional monarchy . Within a month a revolt had erupted in Brussels before spreading to the rest of the Belgian provinces. After Belgian independence,
812-633: A conservative-liberal rebranding, while Radikale Venstre maintained the radical tradition), took up a new orientation (as in France, where the Radical Party aligned with the centre-right, later causing the split of the Radical Party of the Left ) or dissolved (as in Greece, where the heirs of Venizelism joined several parties). After World War II , European radicals were largely extinguished as
928-457: A de facto liberal-conservative party of the centre-right: renamed as the 'Valoisien' Radical Party , it advocated alliances with the rest of the liberal centre-right, participating first in the pro- Giscard d'Estaing Union for French Democracy (1972), then with the conservative Union for a Popular Movement (2002). Irish republicanism was influenced by American and French radicalism. Typical of these classical Radicals are 19th century such as
1044-618: A historical affinity with radicalism and may therefore be called "liberal-radical". According to Encyclopædia Britannica , the first use of the term radical in a political sense is generally ascribed to the English parliamentarian Charles James Fox , a leader of the left wing of the Whig party who dissented from the party's conservative-liberalism and looked favourably upon the radical reforms being undertaken by French republicans , such as universal male suffrage. In 1797, Fox declared for
1160-500: A hundred had the vote. Writers like the radicals William Hone and Thomas Jonathan Wooler spread dissent with publications such as The Black Dwarf in defiance of a series of government acts to curb circulation of political literature. Radical riots in 1816 and 1817 were followed by the Peterloo massacre of 1819 publicised by Richard Carlile , who then continued to fight for press freedom from prison. The Six Acts of 1819 limited
1276-510: A journal for "philosophical radicals", setting out the utilitarian philosophy that right actions were to be measured in proportion to the greatest good they achieved for the greatest number. Westminster elected two radicals to Parliament during the 1820s. The Whigs gained power and despite defeats in the House of Commons and the House of Lords the Reform Act 1832 was put through with
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#17327658042941392-566: A large and socially diverse electorate including many artisans as well as the middle class and aristocracy and along with the county association of Yorkshire led by the Reverend Christopher Wyvill were at the forefront of reform activity. The writings of what became known as the " Radical Whigs " had an influence on the American Revolution . Major John Cartwright also supported the colonists, even as
1508-728: A major political force except in Denmark, France, Italy ( Radical Party ), and the Netherlands ( Democrats 66 ). Latin America still retains a distinct indigenous radical tradition, for instance in Argentina ( Radical Civic Union ) and Chile ( Radical Party ). The two Enlightenment philosophies of liberalism and radicalism both shared the goal of liberating humanity from the remnants of feudalism. However, liberals regarded it as sufficient to establish individual rights that would protect
1624-528: 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 . After Lincoln's assassination , War Democrat Vice President Andrew Johnson became president. Although he appeared at first to be a Radical, he broke with them and the Radicals and Johnson became embroiled in
1740-457: A much harsher Reconstruction for the defeated South, and other bills he considered unconstitutional, the Radicals attempted to remove him from office through impeachment , which failed by one vote in 1868 . The Radicals were heavily influenced by religious ideals, and many were Protestant reformers who saw slavery as evil and the Civil War as God's punishment for slavery. The term " radical "
1856-803: A penny periodical he called Pig's Meat in a reference to Burke 's phrase "swinish multitude". Radical organisations sprang up, such as the London Corresponding Society of artisans formed in January 1792 under the leadership of the shoemaker Thomas Hardy to call for the vote. One such was the Scottish Friends of the People society which in October 1793 held a British convention in Edinburgh with delegates from some of
1972-704: A political party called the Radical Democracy Party , with John C. Frémont as their candidate for president, until Frémont withdrew. An important Republican opponent of the Radical Republicans was Henry Jarvis Raymond . Raymond was both editor of The New York Times and also a chairman of the Republican National Committee. In Congress, the most influential Radical Republicans were U.S. Senator Charles Sumner and U.S. Representative Thaddeus Stevens . They led
2088-661: 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. 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
2204-691: A pro-Catholic Radicalism distinct from both the anticlerical Radicalism of France, and the Protestant Liberalism of the Dutch north. Following the political crisis of 1829, where the Crown Prince was named prime minister, a limited reform was introduced establishing constitutional rights, similar to the charter of rights of France's autocratic Restoration Monarchy; the Belgian Radicals, like their French counterparts, regarded such
2320-617: A time of tension between the American colonies and Great Britain , with the first Radicals, angry at the state of the House of Commons , drawing on the Leveller tradition and similarly demanding improved parliamentary representation. These earlier concepts of democratic and even egalitarian reform had emerged in the turmoil of the English Civil War and the brief establishment of the republican Commonwealth of England amongst
2436-494: Is in favor of going to the root of things; who is thoroughly in earnest; who desires that slavery should be abolished, that every disability connected therewith should be obliterated . The Radicals were never formally organized and there was movement in and out of the group. Their most successful and systematic leader was Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens in the House of Representatives. The Democrats were strongly opposed to
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#17327658042942552-486: The American Revolutionary War began and in 1776 earned the title of the "Father of Reform" when he published his pamphlet Take Your Choice! advocating annual parliaments, the secret ballot and manhood suffrage . In 1780, a draft programme of reform was drawn up by Charles James Fox and Thomas Brand Hollis and put forward by a sub-committee of the electors of Westminster. This included calls for
2668-626: The Civil Rights Movement . In the aftermath of the Civil War and Reconstruction, new battles took place over the construction of memory and the meaning of historical events. The earliest historians to study Reconstruction and the Radical Republican participation in it were members of the Dunning School , led by William Archibald Dunning and John W. Burgess . The Dunning School, based at Columbia University in
2784-836: The English Civil War with the Levellers and later the Radical Whigs . During the 19th century in the United Kingdom, continental Europe and Latin America, the term radical came to denote a progressive liberal ideology inspired by the French Revolution . Radicalism grew prominent during the 1830s in the United Kingdom with the Chartists and in Belgium with the Revolution of 1830 , then across Europe in
2900-570: The General Boulanger crisis in the 1880s, the Dreyfus Affair in the 1890s. The Radicals were swept to power first in a coalition government (1899) then in governments of their own from 1902. They finally managed to implement their long-standing programme of reforms, such as the separation of Church and State , or the introduction of secret ballotting . In order to ensure that their legacy would remain unreversed, they unified
3016-691: The 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. 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
3132-549: The London Working Men's Association (associated with Owenite Utopian socialism ), which called for six points: universal suffrage , equal-sized electoral districts, secret ballot , an end to property qualification for Parliament, pay for Members of Parliament and Annual Parliaments. Chartists also expressed economic grievances, but their mass demonstrations and petitions to parliament were unsuccessful. Despite initial disagreements, after their failure their cause
3248-657: The Netherlands , but also Argentina ( Radical Civic Union ), Chile and Paraguay . Victorian era Britain possessed both trends: In England the Radicals were simply the left wing of the Liberal coalition , though they often rebelled when the coalition's socially conservative Whigs resisted democratic reforms, whereas in Ireland Radicals lost faith in the ability of parliamentary gradualism to deliver egalitarian and democratic reform and, breaking away from
3364-675: The New-York Tribune , the leading Radical newspaper. There was movement in both directions: some of the pre-war Radicals (such as Seward) became less radical during the war, while some prewar moderates became Radicals. Some wartime Radicals had been Democrats before the war, often taking pro-slavery positions. They included John A. Logan of Illinois, Edwin Stanton of Ohio, Benjamin Butler of Massachusetts, Ulysses S. Grant of Illinois and Vice President Johnson; Johnson would break with
3480-748: The Parliament of Great Britain which itself was dominated by the English aristocracy and by patronage. Candidates for the House of Commons stood as Whigs or Tories , but once elected formed shifting coalitions of interests rather than splitting along party lines. At general elections , the vote was restricted to property owners in constituencies which were out of date and did not reflect the growing importance of manufacturing towns or shifts of population, so that in many rotten borough seats could be bought or were controlled by rich landowners while major cities remained unrepresented. Discontent with these inequities inspired those individuals who later became known as
3596-503: The Populist Party , composed of rural western and southern farmers who were proponents of policies such as railroad nationalization, free silver, expansion of voting rights and labor reform. In continental Europe and Latin America , as for instance in France, Italy , Spain , Chile and Argentina ( Radical Civic Union ), Radicalism developed as an ideology in the 19th century to indicate those who supported at least in theory
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3712-535: The Prohibition of alcoholic beverages . These policy goals and the rhetoric in their favor often made it extremely difficult for the Republican Party as a whole to avoid alienating large numbers of American voters from Irish Catholic , German , and other White ethnic backgrounds. In fact, even German-American Freethinkers and Forty-Eighters who, like Hermann Raster , otherwise sympathized with
3828-579: The Reform League . When the Liberal government led by Lord Russell and William Ewart Gladstone introduced a modest bill for parliamentary reform, it was defeated by both Tories and reform Liberals, forcing the government to resign. The Tories under Lord Derby and Benjamin Disraeli took office and the new government decided to "dish the Whigs" and "take a leap in the dark" to take the credit for
3944-539: The Seditious Meetings Act 1795 which meant that a license was needed for any meeting in a public place consisting of fifty or more people. Throughout the Napoleonic Wars , the government took extensive stern measures against feared domestic unrest. The corresponding societies ended, but some radicals continued in secret, with Irish sympathisers in particular forming secret societies to overturn
4060-666: The Thirteenth Amendment . During the war, Radicals opposed Lincoln's initial selection of General George B. McClellan for top command of the major eastern Army of the Potomac and Lincoln's efforts in 1864 to bring seceded Southern states back into the Union as quickly and easily as possible. Lincoln later recognized McClellan as unfit and relieved him of his command. The Radicals tried passing their own Reconstruction plan through Congress in 1864. Lincoln vetoed it, as he
4176-595: The interwar period , European radical parties organized the Radical Entente , their own political international . Before socialism emerged as a mainstream political ideology, radicalism represented the left-wing of liberalism and thus of the political spectrum. As social democracy came to dominate the centre-left in place of classical radicalism, they either re-positioned as conservative liberals or joined forces with social democrats. Thus, European radical parties split (as in Denmark, where Venstre undertook
4292-483: The utilitarian philosophy of Jeremy Bentham and strongly supported parliamentary reform, but were generally hostile to the arguments and tactics of the "popular radicals". By the middle of the century, parliamentary Radicals joined with others in the Parliament of the United Kingdom to form the Liberal Party , eventually achieving reform of the electoral system . The Radical movement had its beginnings at
4408-509: The " Radical Whigs ". William Beckford fostered early interest in reform in the London area. The " Middlesex radicals" were led by the politician John Wilkes , an opponent of war with the colonies who started his weekly publication The North Briton in 1764 and within two years had been charged with seditious libel and expelled from the House of Commons. The Society for the Defence of
4524-592: The 1832 Reform Act, the mainly aristocratic Whigs in the House of Commons were joined by a small number of parliamentary Radicals as well as an increased number of middle class Whigs. By 1839, they were informally being called "the Liberal party ". From 1836, working class Radicals unified around the Chartist cause of electoral reform expressed in the People's Charter drawn up by six members of Parliament and six from
4640-578: The 1840s–1850s during the Revolutions of 1848 . In contrast to the social conservatism of existing liberal politics, radicalism sought political support for a radical reform of the electoral system to widen suffrage . It was also associated with a variety of ideologies and policies, such as liberalism, left-wing politics , republicanism , modernism , secular humanism , antimilitarism , civic nationalism , abolition of titles, rationalism , secularism , redistribution of property , and freedom of
4756-474: The 1930s, that the Radicals were primarily motivated by a desire to selfishly promote Northeastern business interests, has seldom been argued by historians for a half-century. On foreign policy issues, the Radicals and moderates generally did not take distinctive positions. After the 1860 elections, moderate Republicans dominated the Congress. Radical Republicans were often critical of Lincoln, who they believed
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4872-460: The 1950s, the impact of the moral crusade of the civil rights movement led historians to reevaluate the role of Radical Republicans during Reconstruction, and their reputation improved. These historians, sometimes referred to as neoabolitionist because they reflected and admired the values of the abolitionists of the 19th century, argued that the Radical Republicans' advancement of civil rights and suffrage for African Americans following emancipation
4988-622: The Army still protected them. The 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. In 1865, Radical Republicans increasingly took control, led by Sumner and Stevens. They demanded harsher measures in
5104-408: The Bill of Rights which he started in 1769 to support his re-election, developed the belief that every man had the right to vote and "natural reason" enabling him to properly judge political issues. Liberty consisted in frequent elections and for the first time middle-class radicals obtained the backing of the London "mob". Middlesex and Westminster were among the few parliamentary constituencies with
5220-437: The Constitution of 1831 established a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary regime, and provided a list of fundamental civil rights inspired by the French Declaration of the Right of Man. As in Britain, Radicals in Belgium continued to operate within the Liberal Party, campaigning throughout the 19th Century for the property-restricted suffrage to be extended. This was extended a first time in 1883, and universal male suffrage
5336-448: The Dunning-oriented approaches were rejected by self-styled "revisionist" historians, led by Howard K. Beale along with W.E.B. DuBois , William B. Hesseltine , C. Vann Woodward and T. Harry Williams . They downplayed corruption and stressed that Northern Democrats were also corrupt. Beale and Woodward were leaders in promoting racial equality and re-evaluated the era in terms of regional economic conflict. They were also hostile towards
5452-498: The English corresponding societies . They issued a manifesto demanding universal male suffrage with annual elections and expressing their support for the principles of the French Revolution. The numbers involved in these movements were small and most wanted reform rather than revolution, but for the first time working men were organising for political change. The government reacted harshly, imprisoning leading Scottish radicals, temporarily suspending habeas corpus in England and passing
5568-413: The French Radicals created an Entente Internationale des Partis Radicaux et des Partis Démocratiques similaires : it was joined by the centre-left Radical parties of Europe, and in the democracies where no equivalent existed—Britain and Belgium—the liberal party was to allowed attend instead. After the Second World War the Radical International was not reformed; instead, a centre-right Liberal International
5684-498: The French Revolution needed to be completed through a republican regime based on parliamentary democracy and universal suffrage therefore tended to call themselves "Radicals" – a term meaning 'Purists'. Under the Second Republic (1848–1852), the Radicals, on a platform of seeking a "social and democratic republic", sat together in parliament in a group named The Mountain . When Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte launched his military coup , Radicals across France rose up in insurrection to defend
5800-592: The French Revolution: civic nationalism . Dismayed by the inability of British parliamentarianism to introduce the root-and-branch democratic reforms desired, Irish Radicals channelled their movement into a republican form of nationalism that would provide equality as well as liberty. This was pursued through armed revolution and often with French assistance at various points over the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries . Popular Radicals were quick to go further than Paine, with Newcastle schoolmaster Thomas Spence demanding land nationalisation to redistribute wealth in
5916-474: The House of Commons by 248 votes to 174. In the wake of the French Revolution of 1789 , Thomas Paine wrote The Rights of Man (1791) as a response to Edmund Burke 's counterrevolutionary essay Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), itself an attack on Richard Price 's sermon that kicked off the so-called "pamphlet war" known as the Revolution Controversy . Mary Wollstonecraft , another supporter of Price, soon followed with A Vindication of
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#17327658042946032-470: The House, but failed by one vote in the Senate to remove him from office. The Radicals were opposed by former slaveowners and white supremacists in the rebel states. Radicals were targeted by the Ku Klux Klan , who shot to death one Radical Congressman from Arkansas, James M. Hinds . The Radical Republicans led the Reconstruction of the South. All Republican factions supported Ulysses Grant for president in 1868. Once in office, Grant forced Sumner out of
6148-516: The Netherlands ( Radical League and Free-thinking Democratic League ), Portugal ( Republican Party ), Romania ( National Liberal Party ), Russia ( Trudoviks ), Serbia ( People's Radical Party ), Spain ( Reformist Party , Radical Republican Party , Republican Action , Radical Socialist Republican Party and Republican Left ), Sweden ( Free-minded National Association , Liberal Party and Liberal People's Party ), Switzerland ( Free Democratic Party ), and Turkey ( Republican People's Party ). During
6264-507: The Radical Republicans on some issues, the decisive 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
6380-454: The Radical Republicans' aims, fought them tooth and nail over prohibition. They later became known as " Stalwarts ". The Radicals were opposed during the war by the Moderate Republicans (led by President Abraham Lincoln ), and by the Democratic Party . Radicals led efforts after the war to establish civil rights for former slaves and fully implement emancipation. After unsuccessful measures in 1866 resulted in violence against former slaves in
6496-518: The Radicals after he became president. The Radicals came to majority power in Congress in the elections of 1866 after several episodes of violence led many to conclude that President Johnson's weaker reconstruction policies were insufficient. These episodes included the New Orleans riot and the Memphis riots of 1866 . In a pamphlet directed to black voters in 1867, the Union Republican Congressional Committee stated: [T]he word Radical as applied to political parties and politicians ... means one who
6612-579: The Radicals were corrupt and had imposed Reconstruction far too long on the South. They were overwhelmingly defeated in the 1872 election and collapsed as a movement. On issues not concerned with the destruction of the Confederacy, the eradication of slavery and the rights of Freedmen, Radicals took positions all over the political map. For example, Radicals who had once been Whigs generally supported high tariffs and ex-Democrats generally opposed them. Some men were for hard money and no inflation while others were for soft money and inflation. The argument, common in
6728-413: The Radicals, but they were generally a weak minority in politics until they took control of the House in the 1874 congressional elections . The " Moderate " and " Conservative " Republican factions usually opposed the Radicals, but they were not well organized. Lincoln tried to build a multi-faction coalition, including Radicals, "Conservatives," "Moderates" and War Democrats as while he was often opposed by
6844-478: The Radicals, casting them as economic opportunists. They argued that apart from a few idealists, most Radicals were scarcely interested in the fate of the blacks or the South as a whole. Rather, the main goal of the Radicals was to protect and promote Northern capitalism, which was threatened in Congress by the West; if the Democrats took control of the South and joined the West, they thought, the Northeastern business interests would suffer. They did not trust anyone from
6960-430: The Radicals, he never ostracized them. Andrew Johnson was thought to be a Radical when he became president in 1865, but he soon became their leading opponent. However, Johnson could not form a cohesive support network. Finally in 1872, the Liberal Republicans , who wanted a return to classical republicanism , ran a presidential campaign and won the support of the Democratic Party for their ticket. They argued that Grant and
7076-535: The Rights of Woman . They encouraged mass support for democratic reform along with rejection of the monarchy , aristocracy and all forms of privilege. Different strands of the movement developed, with middle class "reformers" aiming to widen the franchise to represent commercial and industrial interests and towns without parliamentary representation, while "Popular radicals" drawn from the middle class and from artisans agitated to assert wider rights including relieving distress. The theoretical basis for electoral reform
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#17327658042947192-425: The South except men beholden to them by bribes and railroad deals. For example, Beale argued that the Radicals in Congress put Southern states under Republican control to get their votes in Congress for high protective tariffs. The role of Radical Republicans in creating public school systems, charitable institutions, and other social infrastructure in the South was downplayed by the Dunning School of historians. Since
7308-441: 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
7424-438: The South, the so-called Redeemers' movement seized control from the Republicans until in 1876 only three Republican states were left: South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. In the intensely disputed 1876 U.S. presidential election , Republican presidential candidate Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner following the Compromise of 1877 (a corrupt bargain ): he obtained the electoral votes of those states, and with them
7540-431: The United Irishmen in the 1790s, Young Irelanders in the 1840s, Fenian Brotherhood in the 1880s, as well as Sinn Féin , and Fianna Fáil in the 1920s. Japan's radical-liberalism during the Empire of Japan was dissident because it resisted the government's political oppression of republicanism. Rikken Minseitō , who supported the Empire of Japan's system at the time, were classified as " conservative ". Therefore,
7656-492: The United States, George Washington , warned of political factions in his famous farewell address from 1796. He warned of political parties generally, as according to Washington, political party loyalty when prioritized over duty to the nation and commitment to principles, was considered to be a major threat to the survival of a democratic constitutional republic : Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight),
7772-508: The basis for what later became the Labour Party . The territories of modern Belgium had been merged into the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815. Aside from various religious and socioeconomic tensions between the Dutch north and proto-Belgian south, over the 1820s a young generation of Belgians, heavily influenced by French Enlightenment ideas, had formulated criticisms of the Dutch monarchy as autocratic. The monarch enjoyed broad personal powers, his ministers were irresponsible before parliament;
7888-436: The call for a war that would end slavery. The Radical Republicans opposed Lincoln's terms for reuniting the United States during 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
8004-425: The case of England's Radical Whigs . Sometimes, the radical wing of the liberals were hardline or doctrinaire and in other cases more moderate and pragmatic. In other countries, radicalism had had enough electoral support on its own, or a favourable electoral system or coalition partners, to maintain distinct radical parties such as in Switzerland and Germany ( Freisinn ), Bulgaria , Denmark , Italy , Spain and
8120-491: The centre-right Orléanists (conservative-liberal and monarchist), the far-right Legitimists (anti-liberal monarchist), and the supporters of a republican military dictatorship, the Bonapartists . Following the Napoleonic Wars and until 1848 , it was technically illegal to advocate republicanism openly. Some republicans reconciled themselves to pursuing liberalism through the socially-conservative monarchy—the 'opportunists'. Those who remained intransigent in believing that
8236-409: The centre-right governments dominated by the conservative-liberal centre-right often gave a portfolio to a Radical, who would join cabinet in a personal capacity as the most left-leaning minister. The party itself was discredited after 1940, due to fact that many (though not all) of its parliamentarians had voted to establish the Vichy regime . Under the dictatorship several prominent Radicals, such as
8352-528: The citizen against the state. He warned against all forms of power – military, clerical, and economic. To oppose them he exalted the small farmer, the small shopkeeper, the small town, and the little man. He idealized country life and saw Paris as a dangerous font of power. The Radical–Socialist Party was the main governmental party of the Third Republic between 1901 and 1919, and dominated government again between 1924 and 1926, 1932–1933 and 1937–1940;
8468-411: The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it [the formation and loyalty to partisan interests, over loyalty to principles or one's country]. Radicalism (historical) Radicalism (from French radical ) was a political movement representing the leftward flank of liberalism between
8584-925: The country's first major extra-parliamentary political party, the Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party , which became the leading party of government during the second half of the French Third Republic (until 1940). The success of French Radicals encouraged radicals elsewhere to organize themselves into formal parties in a range of other countries in the late 19th and early 20th century, with radicals holding significant political office in Bulgaria ( Radical Democratic Party ), Denmark ( Radikale Venstre ), Germany ( Progressive People's Party and German Democratic Party ), Greece ( New Party and Liberal Party ), Italy ( Republican Party , Radical Party , Social Democracy and Democratic Liberal Party ),
8700-434: The democratic republic. This experience would mark French Radicalism for the next century, prompting permanent vigilance against all those who – from Marshall Mac-Mahon to General De Gaulle – were suspected of seeking to overthrow the constitutional, parliamentary regime. After the return to parliamentary democracy in 1871, the Radicals emerged as a significant political force: led by Georges Clemenceau , they claimed that
8816-470: The early 20th century, saw the Radicals as motivated by an irrational hatred of the Confederacy and a lust for power at the expense of national reconciliation. According to Dunning School historians, the Radical Republicans reversed the gains Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson had made in reintegrating the South, established corrupt shadow governments made up of Northern carpetbaggers and Southern scalawags in
8932-434: 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). The Radical plan
9048-464: The former Confederate states, and to increase their power, foisted political rights on the newly freed slaves that they were allegedly unprepared for or incapable of utilizing. For the Dunning School, the Radical Republicans made Reconstruction a dark age that only ended when Southern whites rose up and reestablished a "home rule" free of Northern, Republican, and black influence. In the 1930s,
9164-630: The former rebel states, Radicals pushed the Fourteenth Amendment for statutory protections through Congress . They opposed allowing ex- Confederate politicians and military veterans to retake political power in the Southern U.S. , and emphasized equality, civil rights and voting rights for the " freedmen ", i.e., former slaves who had been freed during or after the Civil War by the Emancipation Proclamation and
9280-710: The government and encourage mutinies. In 1812, Major John Cartwright formed the first Hampden Club , named after the English Civil War Parliamentary leader John Hampden , aiming to bring together middle class moderates and lower class radicals. After the Napoleonic Wars, the Corn laws (in force between 1815 and 1846) and bad harvests fostered discontent. The publications of William Cobbett were influential and at political meetings speakers like Henry Hunt complained that only three men in
9396-467: The individual while radicals sought institutional, social/economic, and especially cultural/educational reform to allow every citizen to put those rights into practice. For this reason, radicalism went beyond the demand for liberty by seeking also equality, i.e. universality as in Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité . In some countries, radicalism represented a minor wing within the Liberal political family, as in
9512-439: The late 18th and early 20th century. Certain aspects of the movement were precursors to modern-day movements such as social liberalism , social democracy , civil libertarianism , and modern progressivism . This ideology is commonly referred to as "radicalism" but is sometimes referred to as radical liberalism , or classical radicalism , to distinguish it from radical politics . Its earliest beginnings are to be found during
9628-474: The legality of the parliamentary republic. The Radicals were not yet a political party as they sat together in parliament out of kinship, but they possessed minimal organisation outside of parliament. The first half of the Third Republic saw several events that caused them to fear a far-right takeover of parliament that might end democracy, as Louis-Napoléon had: Marshall Mac-Mahon 's self-coup in 1876,
9744-618: The local Radical committees into an elector party: the Radical-Socialist Party , the first major modern political party in French history. Intellectuals played a powerful role. A major spokesman of radicalism was Émile Chartier (1868–1951), who wrote under the pseudonym "Alain." He was a leading theorist of radicalism, and his influence extended through the Third and Fourth Republics. He stressed individualism, seeking to defend
9860-426: The main body of liberals, pursued a radical-democratic parliamentary republic through separatism and insurrection. This does not mean that all radical parties were formed by left-wing liberals. In French political literature, it is normal to make a clear separation between Radicalism as a distinct political force to the left of Liberalism but to the right of Socialism. Over time, as new left-wing parties formed to address
9976-519: The new social issues, the right wing of the Radicals would splinter off in disagreement with the main Radical family and became absorbed as the left wing of the Liberal family—rather than the other way around, as in Britain and Belgium. The distinction between Radicals and Liberals was made clear by the two mid-20th-century attempts to create an international for centrist democratic parties. In 1923–24,
10092-560: 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 presidential election , the 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
10208-537: The party's acceptance of De Gaulle's military coup and joined the small social-democratic Unified Socialist Party . A decade later, a second faction advocated maintaining an alliance with the Socialist-dominated coalition of the left; it broke away in 1972 to form the Radical Party of the Left , which maintains close ties to the Socialist Party. The remainder of the original Radical Party became
10324-444: The political party into two political parties. The Ley de Lemas electoral system allows the voters to indicate on the ballot their preference for political factions within a political party. Political factions can represent voting blocs . Political factions require a weaker party discipline . Research indicates that factions can play an important role in moving their host party along the ideological spectrum. The first president of
10440-545: The politics of French Radicalism with credibility derived from members' activism in the French resistance . In the 1950s, Pierre Mendès-France attempted to rebuild the Radical Party as an alternative to both the Christian-democratic MRP , while also leading the opposition to Gaullism which he feared to be another attempt at a right-wing coup. During this period the Radicals frequently governed as part of
10556-410: The presidency, by committing himself to removing federal troops from those states. Deprived of military support, Reconstruction came to an end. "Redeemers" took over in these states as well. As white Democrats now dominated all Southern state legislatures, the period of Jim Crow laws began, and rights were progressively taken away from blacks. This period would last over 80 years, until the gains made by
10672-529: The press . In 19th-century France, radicalism was originally the extreme left of the day, in contrast to the social-conservative liberalism of Moderate Republicans and Orléanist monarchists and the anti-parliamentarianism of the Legitimists and Bonapartists . Until the end of the century, radicals were not organised as a united political party, but they had rather become a significant force in parliament. In 1901, they consolidated their efforts by forming
10788-693: The radical liberal movement during the Japanese Empire was not separated from socialism and anarchism unlike the West at that time. Kōtoku Shūsui was a representative Japanese radical liberal. After World War II, Japan's left-wing liberalism emerged as a "peace movement" and was largely led by the Japan Socialist Party . Since Japanese conservatism was influenced by Shintoism , Japan's radical liberalism and democratic socialism against it were influenced by Christianity . One of
10904-510: The reform. As a minority government, they had to accept radical amendments and Disraeli's Reform Act 1867 almost doubled the electorate, giving the vote even to working men. The Radicals, having been strenuous in their efforts on behalf of the working classes, earned a deeply loyal following—British trade unionists from 1874 until 1892, upon being elected to Parliament, never considered themselves to be anything other than Radicals and were labeled Lib-Lab candidates. Radical trade unionists formed
11020-427: The right to demonstrate or hold public meetings. In Scotland , agitation over three years culminated in an attempted general strike and abortive workers' uprising crushed by government troops in the " Radical War " of 1820. Magistrates powers were increased to crush demonstrations by manufacturers and action by radical Luddites . To counter the established Church of England doctrine that the aristocratic social order
11136-503: The separation of powers was minimal; freedom of press and association were limited; the principle of universal suffrage was undermined by the fact that the largely Catholic south, despite possessing two-thirds of the population, received as many seats to the Estates-General (parliament) as the smaller Protestant north; and the Dutch authorities were suspected of forcing Protestantism onto Catholics. These concerns combined to produce
11252-477: The six points later adopted in the People's Charter (see Chartists below). The American Revolutionary War ended in humiliating defeat of a policy which King George III had fervently advocated and in March 1782 the King was forced to appoint an administration led by his opponents which sought to curb Royal patronage. In November 1783, he took his opportunity and used his influence in the House of Lords to defeat
11368-555: The socially-conservative liberal republicanism of Léon Gambetta and Jules Ferry had drifted away from the ideals of the French Revolution, and that the Radicals were the true heirs to 1791. In 1881, they put forward their programme of broad social reforms: from then on, the tactic of the main Radical Party was to have 'no enemies to the left' of the Republic, allying with any group that sought social reform while accepting
11484-432: The support of public outcry, mass meetings of "political unions" and riots in some cities. This now enfranchised the middle classes, but failed to meet radical demands. The Whigs introduced reforming measures owing much to the ideas of the philosophic radicals, abolishing slavery and in 1834 introducing Malthusian Poor Law reforms which were bitterly opposed by "popular radicals" and writers like Thomas Carlyle . Following
11600-733: The trends of the American radical movement was the Jacksonian democracy , which advocated political egalitarianism among white men. Radicalism was represented by the Radical Republicans , especially the Stalwarts, more commonly known as Radical Republican. A collection of abolitionist and democratic reformers, some of whom were fervent supporters of trade unionism and in opposition to wage labor such as Benjamin Wade. Later political expressions of classical Radicalism centered around
11716-607: The vague political grouping known as the Levellers, but with the English Restoration of the monarchy such ideas had been discredited. Although the Glorious Revolution of 1688 had increased parliamentary power with a constitutional monarchy and the union of the parliaments brought England and Scotland together, towards the end of the 18th century the monarch still had considerable influence over
11832-402: The years and decades following Reconstruction. In 2004, Richardson argued that Northern Republicans came to see most blacks as potentially dangerous to the economy because they might prove to be labor radicals in the tradition of the 1871 Paris Commune or Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and other violent American strikes of the 1870s. Meanwhile, it became clear to Northerners that the white South
11948-498: The young left-leaning former education minister Jean Zay , and the influential editorialist Maurice Sarraut (brother to the more famous Radical party leader Albert ), were assassinated by the regime's paramilitary police , while others, notably Jean Moulin , participated in the resistance movement to restore the Republic . The Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance was established after World War II to combine
12064-408: Was achieved in 1893 (though female suffrage would have to wait until 1919). After this Radicalism was a minor political force in Belgium, its role taken over by the emergence of a powerful social-democratic party . During the nineteenth century, the Radicals in France were the political group of the far-left, relative to the centre-left " opportunists " (Gambetta: conservative-liberal and republican),
12180-422: Was also nominated by the Democrats. Grant was easily reelected. By 1872, the Radicals were increasingly splintered and in the congressional elections of 1874 , the Democrats took control of Congress. Many former Radicals joined the " Stalwart " faction of the Republican Party while many opponents joined the " Half-Breeds ", who differed primarily on matters of patronage rather than policy. In state after state in
12296-559: Was divinely ordained, radicals supported Lamarckian Evolutionism , a theme proclaimed by street corner agitators as well as some established scientists such as Robert Edmund Grant . Economic conditions improved after 1821 and the United Kingdom government made economic and criminal law improvements, abandoning policies of repression. In 1823, Jeremy Bentham co-founded the Westminster Review with James Mill as
12412-513: Was established, closer to the conservative-liberalism of the British and Belgian Liberal parties. This marked the end of Radicalism as an independent political force in Europe, though some countries such as France and Switzerland retained politically important Radical parties well into the 1950s–1960s. Many European parties that are nowadays categorised in the group of social-liberal parties have
12528-513: 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 and after the election he generally sided with the Radicals on Reconstruction policies and signed the Civil Rights Act of 1871 into law. The Republicans split in 1872 over Grant's reelection, with
12644-476: Was in common use in the anti-slavery movement before the Civil War, referring not necessarily to abolitionists, but particularly to Northern politicians strongly opposed to the Slave Power . Many and perhaps a majority had been Whigs , such as William H. Seward , a leading presidential contender in 1860 and Lincoln's Secretary of State, Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, as well as Horace Greeley , editor of
12760-504: Was more significant than the financial corruption which took place. They also pointed to the African Americans' central, active roles in reaching toward education (both individually and by creating public school systems) and their desire to acquire land as a means of self-support. Democrats retook power across the South and held it for decades, restricting African American voters and largely extinguishing their voting rights over
12876-545: Was not bent on revenge or the restoration of the Confederacy. Most of the Republicans who felt this way became opponents of Grant and entered the Liberal Republican camp in 1872. Political faction A political faction is a group of people with a common political purpose, especially a subgroup of a political party that has interests or opinions different from the rest of the political party. Intragroup conflict between factions can lead to schism of
12992-565: Was provided by "Philosophical radicals" who followed the utilitarian philosophy of Jeremy Bentham and strongly supported parliamentary reform, but were generally hostile to the arguments and tactics of the "popular radicals". In Ireland, the United Irishmen movement took another direction, adding to the doctrine of a secular and parliamentary republic inspired by the American and French republican revolutions , another doctrine of
13108-663: Was putting his own policy in effect through his power as military commander-in-chief. Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865. Radicals demanded for the uncompensated abolition of slavery, while Lincoln wished instead to partially emulate the British Empire 's abolition of slavery by financially compensating former slave owners who had remained loyal to the Union. The Radicals, led by Thaddeus Stevens , bitterly fought Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson . After Johnson vetoed various congressional acts favoring citizenship for freedmen,
13224-509: Was taken up by the middle class Anti-Corn Law League founded by Richard Cobden and John Bright in 1839 to oppose duties on imported grain which raised the price of food and so helped landowners at the expense of ordinary people. The parliamentary Radicals joined with the Whigs and anti-protectionist Tory Peelites to form the Liberal Party by 1859. Demand for parliamentary reform increased by 1864 with agitation from John Bright and
13340-611: 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 by dismissing Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton , the House of Representatives voted 126–47 to impeach him, but the 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. General Ulysses S. Grant in 1865–1868
13456-526: Was too slow in freeing slaves and supporting their legal equality. Lincoln put all factions in his cabinet, including Radicals like Salmon P. Chase ( Secretary of the Treasury ), whom he later appointed Chief Justice, James Speed ( Attorney General ) and Edwin M. Stanton (Secretary of War). Lincoln appointed many Radical Republicans, such as journalist James Shepherd Pike , to key diplomatic positions. Angry with Lincoln, in 1864 some Radicals briefly formed
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