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 the former rebels, and emphasizing civil rights and voting rights for the
"freedmen" (recently freed slaves).