Relationship And Conflicts In In The Radical And The Republican

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The Radical and The Republican

In the Radical and The Republican by James Oakes, the relationship and conflicts between two of the most influential men in American history during the period of the civil war are unveiled. Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas in the text are presented as having many conflicts in their beliefs and actions toward the conflicts that they were encountered with. In the passage the author describes Frederick Douglass as a radical individual who has strong unwavering opinions about the institutions of slavery and their morals. He highlights in the novel that Douglass is a man who will do anything for his beliefs and is very resistance. While describing Abraham Lincoln as a man who is strongly against the institution …show more content…

Over the next couple of decades, both the ¨radical¨ Douglass and ¨republican” Lincoln began to move towards a compromise, with Lincoln altering his opinion on issues, such as racial equality and radical liberation of slave in North America rather than political pragmatism, and Douglass eventually acknowledging that there is an extreme need for strategy in his political maneuvering rather than morality and purity in …show more content…

After this act, the president’s political position moved to emphasize the importance of national improvements towards slavery being the new center of attention. James Oakes argues in the text that during Lincoln’s 1860 presidential election campaign in order to gain the vote of the majority non abolitionist in America, Abraham Lincoln used calculated racism to get votes from the high population of non-abolitionists by diverting questions on racial