Grand Radical Caucus

Republican politicians and speakers visit Richmond to address the factions in the Radical party in Virginia.They want to unite the party in order to gain power in Virginia and keep the government from Conservative hands.They come to Richmond for peace in the party and set a date for a meeting in August to further unify the party.

Grand Radical Caucus. VISIT OF NORTHERN REPUBLICANS. BOTTS'S SCHEME DEFEATED. A Convention Called in Richmond. We noticed yesterday the arrival in Richmond of a number of prominent Republicans, hailing from New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. It seems that these gentlemen were delegates from the Union League Clubs of New York and Philadelphia, and from the Massachusetts Reconstruction Association, and visited our State upon a mission of peace; the great object being to harmonize the two wings of the Radical party in Virginia. The more prominent persons of the party were Senator Wilson, Hon. Charles Gibbons, Speaker of the House of Delegates of Pennsylvania; George H. Booker, Poet Laureate of the Loyal Leagues; and T. B. Van Buren, of New York. On Tuesday evening the northern delegation met their brethren of Virginia at the Gubernatorial mansion, and immediately resolved themselves into secret session to consider the affairs of the nation. Here a most extraordinary scene was presented in the reconciliation of two longseparated representatives of Virginia Radicalism. Hunnicutt, whose abuse of Peirpoint it has often been our lot to record, met the Governor so much admired by a Richmond journal as a paragon of moderation in politics, and the two were reconciled, shaking hands with vows of eternal allegiance to the Republican party of Virginia. They had not exchanged words before for more than twelve months. This touching scene being finished, the great business of the evening was commenced; and we are informed that it was successfully accomplished, although a few particulars were not attended to until yesterday at a second caucus held at the Ballard House. At the latter gathering addresses were made by Underwood, Chandler, Hunnicutt, and Bickley; and the following call for a convention recommended by the State Central Committee was unanimously agreed upon: "To the Unconditional Union Men of Virginia:"The Republican Executive State Committee and the undersigned citizens of the State of Virginia, who here avow ourselves unconditional Union men and members of the great Republican party of the United States, call upon all others of like condition, as common sufferers, not to throw away this golden opportunity to rescue ourselves, our children, and the State, from the hands of those who have brought nothing but ruin, desolation, want, and wretchedness upon our land, to meet in council at Richmond, as more convenient than Charlottesville, on the 1st day of August next, at 12 M., in the African church, for the purpose of extending and perfecting the organization of the Republican party commenced by the convention assembled at Richmond on the 17th of April last." It will be seen by the above that Hunnicutt and Lipscomb are triumphant in the contest over Botts and the small faction which owned his leadership. The Charlottesville Convention - Botts's pet scheme - was abandoned, and the old war horse yielded as gracefully as possible to a majority which he could not control. The call is signed by all the members of the Radical State Central Committee and by about 300 Republicans hailing from various parts of the State.

“Grand Radical Caucus,” Reconstructing Virginia, accessed June 1, 2023, https://reconstructingvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/629.