During the late nineteenth century, Republicans struggled to
reinvent America in the wake of civil war-and were consumed by the
question of how the South should fit within the reconstituted
Union. But the unity that Republicans had shown during the war was
far from evident in facing this new challenge.
Conceiving a New Republic examines the Republicans' ideological
struggle, focusing on how party thought-particularly concerning the
concept of republicanism-determined the contours of that effort and
was in turn shaped by it. In relating how Republicans strove to
fashion a new democratic polity in the face of fierce southern
opposition, Charles Calhoun focuses on what they thought about
their actions, particularly their beliefs about the meaning and
nature of the American Republic.
Calhoun revolutionizes our understanding of this era by showing
that although it eventually failed in its lofty purpose, the party
set out to reconstruct a nation that would abide by the promises of
the Declaration of Independence. While earlier scholars have blamed
Republicans for not being more steadfast advocates for blacks,
Calhoun shows that southern Democrats so strongly resisted the
breakdown of white supremacy that Republicans ultimately could not
prevail. He assesses their actions in the election of 1876 and the
ensuing electoral crisis less as an abandonment of black rights
than as an effort to salvage as much of the republican experiment
as possible. He also examines their struggle to revive the
experiment with the Lodge Federal Elections bill of 1890-the last
serious attempt at civil rights legislation until the 1950s.
Offering new insights into Presidents Grant, Hayes, Harrison,
and McKinley, Calhoun shows that even before the latter's
administration had begun, a confluence of forces had conspired to
defeat the Republicans' attempt to create a new Republic. He spells
out the reasons why Republicans, defeated by southern and
Democratic intransigence, ultimately abandoned the effort to remake
the Republic and found ways to accommodate themselves
intellectually and morally to the failure of their earlier
ideals.
In showing how Republican leaders envisioned nothing less than an
essential reordering of the Republic, Conceiving a New Republic
offers a bold reinterpretation of the Gilded Age that reflects a
deep understanding of the period and its issues.
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