The split between radical, moderate, and conservative that defined the wartime party’s divisions yielded to a split between those Republicans whose beliefs mirrored those of the old Whig Party, and liberals. Whiggish Republicans believed in a strong and interventionist government, and during the Civil War they put those beliefs into practice, passing the Homestead Act; the Morrill Tariff; the Morrill Act, funding state land grant universities; and subsidizing transcontinental and other railroads.
