CLEP US History II

Answer: A - The Radical Republicans were a very powerful faction of the Republican Party that formed in the years leading up to the American Civil War, but they fell apart by the end of Reconstruction due to their extremist attempts to punish the former Confederacy. The Radical Republicans were often in opposition to President Lincoln, who favored moderate methods for handling the Confederacy and reintegrating them into the country after the war ended. His successor, Andrew Johnson, sided with the radicals at one time, but he later broke with the group, only to have them respond with a successful campaign for his impeachment. Among the Radical Republicans’ more dramatic goals was their attempt to restrict or abolish voting rights for ex-Confederates.