Union League

The Union Leagues were a group of men's clubs established during the American Civil War to promote loyalty to the Union, the Republican Party, and the policies of Abraham Lincoln. They were also known as Loyal Leagues. They were composed of upper middle class members who provided financial support for organizations such as the United States Sanitary Commission, which provided medical supplies to treat soldiers wounded in battle. The clubs supported the Republican Party with funding, organizational support, and activism.

The Union League of Philadelphia, established in 1862, was the first to be formed, and still exists, as do the Union League Clubs of New York and Chicago. Membership in the league is selective, and is comparable in social status to membership in a country club. Union League buildings often serve as private social clubs.

During Reconstruction, Union Leagues were formed across the South after 1867 as working auxiliaries of the Republican Party, financed entirely by Northern interests. They were secret organizations that mobilized freedmen to register to vote and to vote Republican. They taught freedmen Union views on political issues and which way to vote on them, and promoted civic projects. Eric Foner reports:

The Ku Klux Klan was a secret organization of whites that terrorized and sometimes assassinated Union League leadership.

After the Civil War, members of the Union League Club of New York helped to found the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and to build the Statue of Liberty's pedestal and Grant's Tomb. The building of the former Union League Club of Brooklyn now serves as a senior citizens' home, while the home of the former Union League Club of New Haven is used as a restaurant.

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