Radical Republican

American  

[rad-ik-uhl-ri-puhb-lik-uhn] / ˈræd ɪk əl rɪˈpʌb lɪk ən /

noun

Radical Republicans plural

1. U.S. History. in the aftermath of the Civil War, any of a group of Republicans who advocated the strong federal enforcement of Reconstruction policies in the southern states and immediate emancipation and civil rights for formerly enslaved Americans.

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adjective

1. U.S. History. relating to the ideas or policies of a group of Republicans who, in the aftermath of the Civil War, advocated the strong federal enforcement of Reconstruction policies in the southern states and immediate emancipation and civil rights for formerly enslaved Americans.

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• Radical Republicans
  plural

Example Sentences

Stanton and the Radical Republican faction in Congress backed Lincoln’s reconstruction plan to advance the rights of Black people in the South.

From Washington Post • Jan. 26, 2021

Johnson, too, loved to vilify his opponents, like Frederick Douglass and Radical Republican congressmen.

From New York Times • Nov. 29, 2019

Indeed, Radical Republican leader Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, himself an ardent supporter of legal equality without exception to race, refused to vote for the amendment precisely because it did not address these obvious loopholes.

From Textbooks • Dec. 30, 2014

In Georgia, for instance, the Radical Republican state government took the initiative soon after the war ended. 

From Salon • May 25, 2012

Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Radical Republican party, or either of the organizations known as the "Loyal League" and the "Grand Army of the Re- public?". 3d.

From Ku Klux Klan Its Origin, Growth and Disbandment by Lester, J. C.