Were congressional leaders who urged that the civil and military leaders of the confederacy be punished, that large numbers of southern whites be disfranchised, that the legal rights of former slaves be protected, and that the property of wealthy white southerners who had aided the confederacy be confiscated and distributed among the former slaves.

All of these examples above are Issues of Reconstruction: Radical Beliefs. These radical beliefs arose from a fear that the federal government should play a big role in the transition of slaves to free men in order to guarantee an end to slavery, some sought revenge because they believed the south was responsible for the war and some just had political concerns that the Republican party would loose ground and wanted to maintain it as the power in both the North and South.