The Doom of Reconstruction: The Liberal Republicans in the Civil War Era
By Andrew L. Slap

Bibliography, notes, index, 306 pp., 2006. Fordham University Press, 2546 Belmont Ave, University Box L, Bronx, NY 10458, $70 plus shipping.

Reviewer: Richard M. McMurry
Richard M. McMurry's latest book (edited) is An Uncompromising Secessionist: The Civil War of George Knox Miller, 8th (Wade's) Confederate Cavalry.

Review:
In the election of 1872 a group known as the Liberal Republicans ran newspaper editor Horace Greeley against incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant. Rather that split the anti-Grant vote, the Democrats also nominated Greeley. Grant easily won a second term, and the Liberal Republicans have usually been portrayed as ineffective, naïve political bumblers.

In this important study of Civil War era politics Andrew Slap sets the record straight. The “liberal republicans” (as opposed to the “Liberal Republicans” of 1872) constituted a small group of men dedicated to preserving the American Republic from dangers that, they believed, threatened it.

These dangers included slavery, paper money, the protective tariff and the “spoils system” of political patronage.
Once the conflict ended, they turned their attention to the remaining dangers facing the nation. These then included the threat posed by a federal government that had grown too strong during the war. When they sought to organize in 1872 their movement was seized by political forces opposed to Grant.

Thereafter many liberal republicans drifted back to the Republican Party. Eventually much of what they advocated became national policy. Their criticisms, however, had helped to undermine public support for Reconstruction.
Slap gives us a fine study of the liberal republicans, their ideas, their political goals and their role in national politics.

Most CWN readers will probably be most interested in the roles of such former generals (and liberal republicans) as Carl Schurz, Jacob D. Cox and John Palmer. Grant appears as a background figure.

Any student of the politics of the 1840-1880 decades can learn a great deal from the book. Readers will also be intrigued to learn how the Liberal Republicans shaped the historical reputation of General Grant. They created the long-lasting image of “Grant the butcher — a general who won only by overwhelming force and the sacrifice of thousands of lives.