Social Darwinism—far from defining the age became an outlier. Hofstadter mistook a liberal army in retreat for conquerors and then described Sumner’s extreme minority opinion as in the vanguard. Liberals retained relevance in the 1880s, but most were not Social Darwinists. Their opponents ridiculed them as Mugwumps, self-important and supposedly aloof from party politics. They were leaders without followers. Liberals ensconced themselves in the judiciary and, far less reliably, in the executive; their power in Congress, never substantial, was receding.
