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Permanent Feature Republican: Reconstruction Period.—Barely a month after he began his second term, Lincoln was fatally shot on April 14, 1865, and was succeeded by Andrew Johnson. While other factors were involved, the compelling issue in the struggle Johnson seemed foredoomed to encounter was: Should the Congress or the president reconstruct? Relations between Johnson and the Radical Republicans steadily worsened. Some measure of this discontent is evidenced by the establishment of the separate Republican Congressional Campaign Committee in 1866 by congressional leaders—an organization that became a permanent feature Republican feature of Republican campaign efforts in national elections.
National Committee and Party Conventions.—Organizationally, the National Committee is the top governing body of the Republican Party. Membership is composed of one man and one woman from each state, and, under an amendment to the rules adopted in 1952, the state party chairman of every state currently regarded as a Republican stronghold on the basis of any one of several tests: (1) a Republican majority in the last presidential election; (2) a Republican majority among the state's representatives to both houses of Congress; or (3) a Republican governor.
The GOP held the Senate 51 to 41. As a measure of Republican internal disaffection, it is significant that such a large number of Republican incumbents in Congress were defeated in primary elections by acknowledged Republican progressives.Despite his faltering party leadership, Taft's administration left an important legacy of legislative achievement. |
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