National Union Party (United States)

This article is about the political party during the Civil War. For the 1850s political party in the Lower South, see Union Party (United States, 1850). For the 1860 party made up of former Whigs, see Constitutional Union Party (United States).
National Union Party
LeadersAbraham Lincoln
Andrew Johnson
Founded1861 (1861)[1]
Dissolved1868 (1868)
Merger ofRepublican Party
War Democrats
Unconditional Union Party
Merged intoRepublican Party
Democratic Party
HeadquartersWashington, D.C.
IdeologyAmerican nationalism
Unionism
Big tent
Abolitionism
Reconstruction
Colors  Red   White   Blue
(United States national colors)

The National Union Party, commonly the Union Party or Unionists, was a wartime coalition of Republicans, War Democrats, and border state Unconditional Unionists that supported the Lincoln Administration during the American Civil War. It held the 1864 National Union Convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln for president and Andrew Johnson for vice president in the 1864 United States presidential election.[2] Following Lincoln's successful re-election and assassination, Johnson tried and failed to sustain the Union Party as a vehicle for his presidential ambitions.[3] The coalition did not contest the 1868 elections, but the Republican Party continued to use the "Union Republican" label throughout the period of Reconstruction.[4][5]

Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 United States presidential election, receiving 180 electoral votes and 53% of the popular vote of the free states; opposition to Lincoln was divided, with most northern Democrats voting for Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas.[6] Following the Republican victory, Douglas strongly condemned secession and publicly supported the federal government's efforts to preserve the Union.[7] As the large majority of Democrats vehemently opposed Lincoln's wartime policies, especially emancipation, pro-administration War Democrats sought to cooperate with the Republicans through the formation of Union parties in key states.[8] Besides allowing voters of diverse pre-war partisan allegiances to unite under a common banner, the Union label served a valuable propaganda purpose by implying the coalition's opponents were dis-unionists.[9]

The preeminent policy of the National Union Party was the preservation of the Union by the prosecution of the war to its ultimate conclusion. They rejected Copperhead proposals for a negotiated peace as humiliating and ultimately ruinous to the authority of the national government. The party's 1864 platform called for the abolition of slavery by constitutional amendment, a "liberal and just" immigration policy, completion of the transcontinental railroad, and condemned the French intervention in Mexico as dangerous to republicanism.[10]

  1. ^ Waugh, John C. (1997). Reelecting Lincoln. New York: Crown Publishers. p. 21.
  2. ^ McPherson, James M. (1988). Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Oxford University. pp. 716–17.
  3. ^ Foner, Eric (2014). Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–77 (Revised ed.). New York: HarperPerennial. p. 260.
  4. ^ Ely; Burnham; Bartlet (1868). Proceedings of the National Union Republican Convention, Held at Chicago, May 20 and 21, 1868. Chicago.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ^ Smith, Francis H. (1872). Proceedings of the National Union Republican Convention Held at Philadelphia June 5 and 6, 1872, Which Nominated for President and Vice-President Ulysses S. Grant and Henry Wilson. Washington, D. C.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. ^ Dubin, Michael J. (2002). United States Presidential Elections, 1788-1860. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. p. 159. ISBN 978-0-7864-6422-7.
  7. ^ McPherson, 231; 263.
  8. ^ Waugh, 20.
  9. ^ McPherson, 509.
  10. ^ Murphy, D. F. (1864). Proceedings of the National Union Convention Held in Baltimore, Md., June 7th and 8th, 1864. New York. pp. 57–58.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)