The Doom of Reconstruction: The Liberal Republicans in the Civil War Era

by Andrew L. Slap

Overview

In the Election of 1872 the conflict between President U. S. Grant and Horace Greeley has been typically understood as a battle for the soul of the ruling Republican Party. In this innovative study, Andrew Slap arguesforcefully that the campaign was more than a narrow struggle between Party elites and a class-based radical reform movement. The election, he demonstrates, had broad consequences: in their opposition to widespread Federal corruption, Greeley Republicans unintentionally doomed Reconstruction of any kind, even as they lost the election. Based on close readings of newspapers, party documents, and other primary sources, Slap confronts one of the major questions in American political history: How, and why, did Reconstruction come to an end? His focus on the unintended consequences of Liberal Republican politics is a provocative contribution to this important debate.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823227099
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	02/15/2007
Series:	Reconstructing America , #12
Edition description:	4
Pages:	306
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Andrew L. Slap is Assistant Professor of History, East Tennessee State University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     vii
Introduction     xi
Rehearsal in Missouri for the Liberal Republican Movement, 1865-1870     1
The Liberal Republican Conception of Party, 1848-1872     25
Preserving the Republic while Defeating the Slave Power, 1848-1865     51
The Liberal Republican Dilemma over Reconstruction, 1865-1868     73
Legacies of the Civil War Threaten the Republic, 1865-1872     90
Grant and the Republic, 1868-1872     108
The National Phase of the Liberal Republican Movement, 1870-1872     126
The Experience of a Third Party in the Nineteenth Century     164
The Lasting Effect of 1872 Campaign Rhetoric     199
The Liberal Republicans Try Again, 1872-1876     222
Conclusion     238
Notes     241
Bibliography     279
Index     295

Editorial Reviews

Slap offers an engaging and well-researched narrative that differentiates between the prolonged evolution, development, and political machinations of the liberary republican movement and the Liberal Republican Party.

For a nuanced treatment of how liberal Republicans' beliefs evolved and drew on classical republicanism, and a clear narrative of the tangled intrigues in the Cincinnati convention, [Slap] can't be bettered.

. . . A fine and necessary study.

From the Publisher

. . . An important addition to literature on Reconstruction.

Choice

Slap offers an engaging and well-researched narrative that differentiates between the prolonged evolution, development, and political machinations of the liberary republican movement and the Liberal Republican Party.

H-CivWar

. . . A fine and necessary study.

The Journal of Southern History

For a nuanced treatment of how liberal Republicans' beliefs evolved and drew on classical republicanism, and a clear narrative of the tangled intrigues in the Cincinnati convention, [Slap] can't be bettered.

Civil War History

Slap joins a growing company of historians who take seriously the ideas and beliefs espoused by political actors.

American Historical Review

Slap's study focuses on a small, elite political group using mainly manuscripts and newspapers.

Ohio History