Radical and the Republican James

¶ … Radical and the Republican

James Oakes' purpose for writing The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln and the Triumph of Anti-Slavery Politics is fairly ambitious. The author attempts to demonstrate how the end of slavery was created by two not entirely similar viewpoints: that of moderate and of radical Republicans. In hoping to show how a synthesis of efforts from these two perspectives resulted in the end of chattel slavery in the U.S., the author provides a prolonged case study of two of the most emblematic representatives from each respective movement: Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. To that end, the author illustrates varying points of divergence and convergence between their philosophies, which eventually resulted in the repeal of slavery.

The author has chosen these two men to compare because they are symbolic of both of the viewpoints they supported and because they met (three times, exactly). They are similar in that eventually, they both desired to see slavery abolished. Lincoln largely adopted this viewpoint as a political maneuver to preserve the Union and win the Civil War -- Douglass did so from a moral standpoint in which he wanted equality and full rights for African-Americans. The strengths of each man that the author emphasizes are the mutability they displayed throughout their careers.

Douglass, for example, at various times opposed Lincoln and even the political process in the U.S. Lincoln also changed his views throughout the years, from advocating African-Americans leave the country to eventually believing that slavery should be abolished and that certain rights be given to freedmen. The author believes that Douglass' indecisiveness in selecting which branch of the Republican Party to champion was a potential weakness; the primary weakness which Oakes attributes to Lincoln is the fact that his views were largely determined by political necessity which may have revealed a lack of sincerity in his actions.

The author's writing style is definitely scholarly and based on persuading the reader of his various points based on logic. This technique is effective for using historical evidence to support his observations. Many of Oakes' sources are primary and include editorials, speeches, and works of literature from these two men. The author takes great pains to provide the social, historical, political and even personal context that is necessary to understand Lincoln's and Douglass' evolving stances on politics and the issue of slavery. He relates some of the most salient incidents in U.S. history around this issue -- the rebellion and conviction of John Brown, the issues debated during the 1860 presidential campaign election, for example -- and shows how these affected the political directions of Douglass and Lincoln.

Other authors have assessed Oakes' book as a fairly credible piece of work which is well researched. Still, there are some notable points of contention found in Oakes' views and those of other scholars. For instance, Oakes alludes to the fact that Lincoln was not the great emancipator which he is nearly universally accepted as in contemporary popular culture. There are other scholars and works of literature which contest this characterization of Lincoln and argue that he was anything but such an emancipator.