Liberal Republican Movement

The Liberal Republican movement was a political schism that originated among dis­affected Republicans, including prominent German Americans, during the first term of Ulysses S. Grant’s presidency.

German Americans were an important voting bloc as a result of rapid emigration before the Civil War. Yet increasing class and religious tensions produced wedge is­sues that fragmented the community’s in­fluence. Political parties freely vied for the support of German Americans as a result. The war temporarily united a majority of German Americans—including Forty- Eighters who immigrated to the United States after failed revolutions in Europe— behind the Republican Party in a “second

fight for freedom” against slavery. But last­ing differences quickly emerged within this majority as well. Several German Americans were among those who nomi­nated John Fremont to run against Presi­dent Abraham Lincoln in 1864, and some of these Radical Democrats would rally behind another cause that stressed effi­ciency and honesty in the administration of government: the Liberal Republican movement.

As the issue of Reconstruction waned in importance after the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s suc­cessor, and with the ratification of the Fif­teenth Amendment to the Constitution, Liberal Republicans sought to place new is­sues on the national agenda. Tariff, rev­enue, and civil service reform became the rallying cries of political and ethnic clubs in cities like Chicago, Cincinnati, Louisville, New Orleans, San Antonio, and St.

As the popularity of the Liberal Re­publican movement grew rapidly around the country in 1871, Grant (in an effort to preserve party unity) addressed the con­cerns this development raised during the last session of the Forty-First Congress (December 1871-March 1872). Cog­nizant of the possibility that their issues were in danger of being co-opted, Liberal Republicans in turn sought to use this ses­sion to their advantage; thus a series of in­vestigations based on Congress’s right to oversee and inquire allowed them to refine and reinforce their case against Grant. Of the investigations Liberal Republicans called for, perhaps the French arms scandal was the most significant.

During the Franco-Prussian War, the American government sold hundreds of thousands of surplus rifles (and newly manufactured rounds of ammunition) to the French. Though not against the law, the sale, which was discontinued in 1871, ran contrary to America’s stated position of neutrality (as expressed in relations with Great Britain and Spain). The scandal was raised anew a year later when it was charged that the War Department had been cheated of its rightful share of the sale’s profits.

To Liberal Republicans, this demon­strated the incapacity and corruption of the Grant administration. The facts of the initial sale, however, were just as troubling, if not more so, to German Americans who championed the cause of their homeland. Though damage to the reputation of the United States was largely avoided as a result of Prussia’s victory, had not the fall of the French emperor, Napoleon III, occurred before the war’s end (in favor of a republi­can government), outrage at the adminis­tration’s aid to a country that had recently worked against American interests (by vio­lating the Monroe Doctrine in Mexico) might not have been mitigated easily. Am­bassador Elihu Washburne’s willingness to shield Prussians in Paris from French reprisals similarly mollified Chancellor Otto von Bismarck.

The accusations Liberal Republicans lodged against the administration were dif­ficult to prove, and a congressional com­mittee made up largely of Grant supporters quickly put the issue to rest, but not before harm had been done to the Republican Party’s reputation in the German American community. Grant’s position improved after the Liberal Republicans selected Gree­ley (who was not as popular among Ger­man Americans as other candidates might have been) as their nominee, though not to the extent that Republicans could assume victory was foreordained; Grant’s reelection depended on his party’s ability to limit de­fections, particularly among German Americans.

To counter the injury done by the French arms scandal and generate turnout among German Americans, Republicans took several steps during the campaign. Major General Franz Sigel, the highest- ranking German American officer during the Civil War, was recruited to speak on Grant’s behalf, most notably in September at a soldiers’ and sailors’ convention in Pittsburgh. Lesser-known federal bureau­crats like Simon Wolf, the register of deeds from the District of Columbia, made speeches in German—head-to-head with followers of Schurz like Joseph Pulitzer— in swing states like Indiana. The party also subsidized the German-language press, so much so that by one tally in August, 119 German American papers supported Grant to the 105 such papers that supported Greeley. Organizations loosely tied to the party, like the German-American United and the German-American Progressive As­sociations, also worked diligently on Grant’s behalf, coming together at a cele­bratory Grand German National Conven­tion in New York in October. The Repub­lican Party (through the Union Republican Congressional Committee) put out several German-language pamphlets as well.

Grant’s military fame, concerns about the progress of Reconstruction, and the Liberal Republican failure to fuse with the Democratic Party would prove too much for the movement to overcome in light of the success Republicans had in minimizing their vulnerabilities.

Robert Burg

See also Forty-Eighters; Newspaper Press, German Language in the United States; Politics and German Americans; Schurz, Carl; Sigel, Franz

References and Further Reading

Engle, Stephen D. Yankee Dutchman: The Life of Franz Sigel. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas, 1993.

Levine, Bruce. The Spirit of1848: German Immigrants, Labor Conflict, and the Coming of the Civil War. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1992.

Nevins, Allan. Hamilton Fish: The Inner History of the Grant Administration. 2 vols. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1936.

Trefousse, Hans L. Carl Schurz: A Biography.

Knoxville: University of Tennessee, 1982.

Wittke, Carl. Refugees of Revolution: The German Forty-Eighters in America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1952.