The Republican Party
Monday, November 2nd, 2009In the election of 1868, the victory of Ulysses S. Grant paved the way for the dominion of the radical republicans. However, the excesses of the radical republicans and the open scandals of the administration created a new split in the party and gave rise to the formation of the Liberal Republican Party. However, in the election of 1872, its candidate, Horace Greeley who was also supported by the Democrats, was not popular enough to defeat Grant, and corruption became even more widespread.
In 1904, Theodore Roosevelt was elected and he can be identified as a conservative republican who firmly laid down policies championing the gold standard and so called conservative economic doctrines. Under Roosevelt, the US embarked on a controversial imperialist path represented by the Spanish-American War. Due to the rift between conservative and moderate republicans, the Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson was elected president in 1912. In 1918, the republicans won the Congressional election and they were able to defeat Wilson’s peace program. The republicans nominated Warren G. Harding in 1920 and his administration was like Grant’s: corrupt.
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Eric Raymond
