Opinion of the "Radical Republicans"

[politicallefty]

I'm quite a fan of them, although they could have been more effective in implementing their ideals.

[politicallefty]

I'd prefer the South have been punished, but only insofar as that would have been productive. Reconstruction's biggest failure is that it inevitably relegated African-Americans to second-class status in the South, with the federal government effectively useless on the issue until several decades later. The Radical Republicans absolutely had the right ideals in promoting equality. Jim Crow should never have been allowed to happen. I don't pretend to know what the best solution would have been at the time. I wouldn't have ruled out relegating certain states back to territorial status (or even redrawn the Southern states altogether), with re-admission contingent upon very strict protections of civil rights and civil liberties for African-Americans (and indeed, all residents for that matter).