Union League
A Union League is one of a number of organizations established 1863-64 during the American Civil War to promote loyalty to the Union side and the policies of Abraham Lincoln. They were also known as Loyal Leagues. They comprised upper middle class men who supported the United States Sanitary Commission (see USSC article below) which helped treat wounded soldiers after the battle had ended. The Clubs also supported the Republican Party, with funding, organizational support, and political activism. Many of these organizations survive to this day. Membership in the League is selective, and is comparable in social status to membership in a country club albeit with a generally urban location and minus the golf . Union League buildings often serve as venues for lavish social events.
During the post-civial war Reconstruction era, Union Leagues were formed all across the South after 1867 as working auxiliaries of the Republican party. They mobilized freedmen to register to vote and to vote Republican. They discussed political issues, promoted civic projects, and mobilized workers opposed to certain white employers. Most branches were segregated but there were a few that were racially integrated. The leaders of the all-black units were mostly urban Blacks from the North, who had never been slaves. Foner (p 283) says "virtually every Black voter in the South had enrolled." Black League members were special targets of the Ku Klux Klan's violence and intimidation, so the Leagues organized informal armed defense units.
After the Civil War, the Union League Club of New York founded the Metropolitan Museum of Art, built the Statue of Liberty's pedestal and built Grant's Tomb. The Union League of Philadelphia stills exists as do the Union League Clubs of New York and Chicago. The former Union League Club of Brooklyn now serves as a senior citizen's home, while the former Union League Club of New Haven is used as a restaurant.
The Union League Civic and Arts Foundation was established in 1949 as a public, not-for-profit charitable and educational organization. The Foundation's mission is one of community enrichment; it is funded largely by contributions from members of the Union League Club of Chicago.
USSC / United State Sanitary Commission
The United States Sanitary Commission was an official agency of the United States government, created by legislation signed by President of the United States Abraham Lincoln on June 18, 1861, to coordinate the volunteer efforts of women who wanted to contribute to the war effort of the Union states during the American Civil War.
Arising from a meeting in New York City of the Women's Central Relief Association of New York [Stille, 1866], the organization was also inspired by the British Sanitary Commission of the Crimean War. The volunteers raised money ($25 million), collected donations, worked as nurses, ran kitchens in the Army camps, administered hospital ships, made uniforms, and organized Sanitary Fairs to support the Federal army with funds and supplies.
The USSC worked with Union Veterans after the war to secure their bounties, back pay, and apply for pensions until it was finally disbanded in May of 1866.
Henry Whitney Bellows, a Massachusetts clergyman, planned the USSC and served as its only president. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Its first executive secretary was Frederick Law Olmsted, the famed landscape architect who designed New York's Central Park."
USSC is the forerunner of the American Red Cross
External links
See also
- Gentlemen's club
- List of American gentlemen's clubs
- List of Australian gentlemen's clubs
- List of London's gentlemen's clubs
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