The “Radical” Republicans, so-called by their opponents, attempted to do this but were stymied both by Southern resistance and by Northern unwillingness to expend the resources and energy that would be required to transform the South sufficiently to make it reliably liberal. This, combined with the indifference, at best, of most Northerners to the plight of the formerly enslaved Black people, practically ensured that the South would emerge with white supremacy intact.
