The Radical Republicans were a political faction of Americanpoliticians within the Republican Party. They existed from 1854 until the end of Reconstruction in 1877. They called themselves "radicals". They were opposed during the War by the Moderate Republicans (led by Abraham Lincoln). One of the fears of the radicals was that if Northern and Southern Democrats came back together again as they had before the Civil War the Republican party would no longer be the dominant political party.