Beginnings of the Liberal Republican Party
In 1870, a faction of the Republican Party in Missouri bolted because it felt that the Republican Party was being too vindictive in its treatment of former Confederate sympathizers. The group called for a repeal of all legislation which “discriminated” against ex-Confederates. In the election of 1870, Missouri’s Liberal Republicans (with the support of state Democrats) elected B. Gratz Brown Governor and won two of the state’s nine seats in the U.S. House.
Following this dramatic victory, a movement began to take the party to a national level. A nascent LRP had existed in New York since 1870, when four candidates contested races for the U.S. House there. Carl Schurz, a U.S. Senator from Missouri, began to travel throughout the nation, urging the creation of a new national party which addressed the issues of concern to the average person [e.g., his speech in Nashville TN was covered by the New York Times on 9/21/1871]. One month later, the St. Louis Republican stated in an editorial that since the Democratic Party had no contender who could defeat President Grant in 1872, the Democrats should not offer a candidate but should allow the Liberal Republican Party to field a candidate [New York Times 10/17/1871]. The immediate names raised as presidential material included U.S. Senator Lyman Trumbull (R-IL), Charles F. Adams, and U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice David Davis.