Republican Party (United States)

=== Civil War and Reconstruction era ===
{{main|Radical Republicans}}
[[File:Thaddeus Stevens - Brady-Handy-crop.jpg|thumb|upright|U.S. representative [[Thaddeus Stevens]], considered a leader of the Radical Republicans, was a fierce opponent of slavery and discrimination against [[African Americans]].]]

During the 19th century, Republican factions included the [[Radical Republicans]]. They were a major factor of the party from its inception in 1854 until the end of the [[Reconstruction Era]] in 1877. They strongly opposed [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]], were hard-line [[Abolitionism|abolitionists]], and later advocated equal rights for the [[freedmen]] and women. They were heavily influenced by religious ideals and [[Evangelicalism|evangelical Christianity]]; many were [[Christians|Christian]] reformers who saw [[Slavery as a positive good in the United States|slavery as evil]] and the Civil War as God's punishment for it.<ref name="Howard2015">{{cite book |first=Victor B. |last=Howard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6bIfBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1 |title=Religion and the Radical Republican Movement, 1860–1870 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-8131-6144-0 |access-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-date=December 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231215023724/https://books.google.com/books?id=6bIfBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> Radical Republicans pressed for abolition as a major war aim and they opposed the moderate Reconstruction plans of Abraham Lincoln as both too lenient on the [[Confederate States of America|Confederates]] and not going far enough to help former slaves who had been freed during or after the Civil War by the [[Emancipation Proclamation]] and the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]]. After the war's end and Lincoln's assassination, the Radicals clashed with [[Andrew Johnson]] over Reconstruction policy. 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 the rebel states, Radicals pushed the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]] for statutory protections through [[United States Congress|Congress]]. They opposed allowing ex-[[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] officers to retake political power in the [[Southern U.S.]], and emphasized liberty, equality, and the [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifteenth Amendment]] which provided [[voting rights]] for the [[Freedman#United States|freedmen]]. Many later became [[Stalwarts]], who supported machine politics.

[[Moderate Republicans (Reconstruction era)|Moderate Republicans]] were known for their loyal support of President [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s war policies and expressed antipathy towards the more militant stances advocated by the Radical Republicans. According to historian [[Eric Foner]], congressional leaders of the faction were [[James G. Blaine]], [[John A. Bingham]], [[William P. Fessenden]], [[Lyman Trumbull]], and [[John Sherman]]. In contrast to Radicals, Moderate Republicans were less enthusiastic on the issue of Black suffrage even while embracing civil equality and the expansive federal authority observed throughout the [[American Civil War]]. They were also skeptical of the lenient, conciliatory Reconstruction policies of President Andrew Johnson. Members of the Moderate Republicans comprised in part of previous Radical Republicans who became disenchanted with the alleged corruption of the latter faction. [[Charles Sumner]], a [[Massachusetts]] senator who led Radical Republicans in the 1860s, later joined reform-minded moderates as he later opposed the corruption associated with the [[Grant administration]]. They generally opposed efforts by [[Radical Republicans]] to rebuild the Southern U.S. under an economically mobile, [[Free market|free-market]] system.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Foner |first=Eric |title=Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 |year=1988 |edition=1st |pages=236–37 |author-link=Eric Foner}}</ref>