The Radical and the Republican

The Radical and The Republican is a book about slavery, abolition, racial discrimination, the Civil War, and of course the politics during the mid to late 1800's. The theme of this book is base around Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass and the trials and tribulations that they faced during these hard times.

Antislavery was a huge problem in the United States after the Revolutionary War. The Constitution clearly stated that "All men are created equal." But many people in the Southern states did not consider the African Americans to be people. They thought of them as beasts. In 1845 Frederick Douglass wrote his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and American Slave and in it he stated that slavery have major effects on the slave family and the slaveholders' families. He believe that it turned intelligent slaves into unintelligent people with no importance. That is also turned good white people into cruel and evil overlords. In his mind slavery made "ignorance a virtue and literacy a crime." Frederick was a reformer for most of his life. But during this time of his life he was a "Garrisonian." Which in short meant he denounced churches that supported slavery or let slaveholders congregate at their church, politics, and they even denounced the Constitution because they believed it recognized and supported slavery. Eventually Douglass started to pull away from this form of abolitionism. At one point in the book he had said "The best friend of a nation is he who most faithfully rebukes her for her sins. And her worst enemy, who, under the specious and popular garb of patriotism, seeks to excuse, palliate, and defend them." This is one of my favorite quotes from this book.

The Republican Party was created from the ashes of the Whig Party when it fell apart. The party promised not to interfere with slavery where it already existed, only to keep from expanding. Many of them opposed slavery not because of the moral issue, but it slowed the countries economic progress. The Republican Party was far from being abolitionists, since they openly embraced the "slaveholder's view" that the constitution protected slavery where it already existed. Douglass thought this "was like declaring rape and murder immoral in one state and not in another. He thought if he, or other abolitionists, sided with the republicans then it would bring the antislavery movement to an end. So obviously, Frederick Douglass was very suspicious and cautious to join the Republicans. The Republican Parties candidate for President in 1860 was none other than Abraham Lincoln. He and Douglas had many close related views about antislavery but were very different as well. Lincoln was very picky with the words he used, as are all politicians. He never called slaveholders sinners or sadists. Douglass wanted a swift action to take place to get rid of slavery but Lincoln knew that it was not possible. He also was a lawman and he did was the law said. He may not have agreed the Fugitive Slave Act but he said it was his duty to enforce it if it came across his path, even if morally he objected to it. He felt this way about many of the "proslavery" bills that were passed but he did what he thought was his duty as an American citizen. Douglass did not understand how someone who hated slavery could protect it in every southern state and how could someone insist on the humanity of African Americans while protecting the rights of whites to discriminate against blacks. He didn't like Lincoln for many years because he believed he would easily compromise and did not think he was "antislavery" enough to get the job done. He wanted someone that was more radical like him.

Abraham Lincoln grew up in a home that was against slavery. His parents were antislavery, even the church he attended as a boy preach against slavery. Throughout his life in politics he reiterated many times his hatred for slavery. He believed that blacks should have the same inalienable rights as white men; Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That they should be able to prosper from the fruits of their labor.

Lincoln had been silent about the issue of slavery until 1854 when the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed that allowed slavery in the western areas where it had previously been banned by the Missouri Compromise. This is when Lincoln made his conversion to antislavery politics. Though for Lincoln, this did not mean he was committed to racial equality. He often liked to say "Just because he did not want to have a black woman as a slave, Lincoln liked to say, did not mean he wanted to have her as his wife." He said he could oppose slavery on moral grounds, yet support discrimination against blacks. As a politician he never showed any real concerns for the African Americans. Most likely because he did not