The corruption of Liberal Republicanism, 1864–1877
Abstract
Though the Liberal Republican movement has been studied at length, differences in definition and disparaging attitudes toward the subject have limited the reach of previous scholarship, inside and outside of the historical profession. This study offers a more encompassing definition of those who took part in the movement, before and after the Cincinnati convention of 1872, and seeks to extend credit where recognition is due while not mitigating culpability where blame is deserved. In doing so, various aspects of what might be called "Liberal Republicanism" will be analyzed. With common roots that extended back to 1864, those who would become Liberal Republicans and those who sympathized with their cause made the wide-ranging issue of corruption, first under Andrew Johnson, then under Ulysses S. Grant, central to their critique of politics during Reconstruction. Identifying and devising ways to end corruption in American society was what the Liberal Republican cause was fundamentally about. Those who have looked at the movement without understanding that concern have missed how consistent this movement largely was, which in turn has corrupted historical explanations of the ebb and flow of Liberal Republicanism. A skewed conception of the movement and a dismissal of its importance have been the result. Besides improving historical understanding of the Johnson and Grant administrations as well as the end of Reconstruction, a revised assessment of Liberal Republicanism will also illuminate the course of politics in the United States during the Gilded Age. Combining liberalism with republicanism in a political and ideological universe where liberalism was on the verge of displacing republicanism, Liberal Republicans offered third-party voters a moderate oxymoron---a "liberal republicanism"---that effectively rejuvenated republican sentiments and delayed, even corrupted, the nation's march towards liberalism.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
May, Purdue University.
Subject Area
American history
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