CHAPTER XXIII

THE LIBERAL REPUBLICANS

The Liberal Republican movement begins in Missouri--Its leaders--Enfranchisement of the ex-Confederates, civil service reform, and revenue reform, the issues--Meeting of revenue reformers at New York, November 22, 1871--James G. Blaine, Speaker of the House, offers them a majority of the Committee of Ways and Means--The Missouri movement alarms the Republican leaders--They pass the Ku-Klux Bill for the employment of military force in the South--Trumbull and Schurz oppose the Ku-Klux bill--Trumbull pronounces it an unconstitutional measure--Schurz advocates the removal of all political disabilities--Congress passes an act of universal amnesty after the meeting of the Liberal Republican Convention 351