I'm quite a fan of them, although they could have been more effective in implementing their ideals.
Which would have assuredly led to another Civil War.
Seriously though, turning the South in a despotic military state is a very un-American idea if you get down to it.
As is slavery. Funny how that works out.
Yeah, but no one is calling the slaveowners "Freedom Fighters".
Yeah, we're only calling their strongest opposition Freedom Fighters.
Radical Republicanism had very little to do with slavery after a the Reconstruction Amendments were passed. It was much more about subjugating the Southern people and treating them as a conquered nation. Of course, that's terribly hypocritical considering that Republicans made the argument that the South never had actually seceded in the first place.
Of course, pitty the poor electorates whose first actions were to pass the Black Codes. 100 years of Southern History after the civil war demonstrate nothing if not that the Radical Republicans were right