ABSTRACT
Founded in 1856 with a commitment to the abolition of slavery, the Republican Party gained national office in 1860 and has remained one of the two major parties in the United States since then. Throughout its history, the Republican Party has addressed many civil liberties issues. The "Radical" Republicans during Reconstruction supported civil liberties for African Americans by passing the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. In return for an agreement with the Democrats giving the Republican nominee, Rutherford B. Hayes, victory in the 1876 presidential election, the Republican Party agreed to end Reconstruction policies in the South. During the 1920s, Republican administrations continued the anti-Communist policies of President Woodrow Wilson's attorney general, A. Mitchell Palmer. In the late 1940s and into the 1950s, some members of the Republican Party were associated with the anti-Communist congressional hearings of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
