National Union Party (United States) facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

The National Union Party was a special name used by the Republican Party during the United States presidential election of 1864. This election happened in the middle of the American Civil War. The Republicans used this temporary name to get support from people who might not usually vote for them. This included War Democrats (Democrats who supported the war) and people from states that were on the border between the North and South.

The party nominated the current Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, for president. For vice president, they chose Andrew Johnson, who was a Democrat. Lincoln and Johnson won the election by a huge amount of votes.

Forming the National Union Party
- The Baltimore Convention
The War Changes
Frémont Steps Aside
Election Results
After Lincoln: Andrew Johnson's Presidency (1865–69)
Later Appearances
Images for kids
See also

Forming the National Union Party

The National Union Party was formed just before the 1864 election. The Civil War was still happening. Some Republicans, called Radical Republicans, thought Lincoln was not doing a good job. They believed he could not win re-election.

A group of these Radical Republicans started their own party called the Radical Democracy Party. They met in Cleveland in May 1864. They chose John C. Frémont as their presidential candidate. Frémont had also been the first Republican presidential candidate in 1856.

The Baltimore Convention

Republicans who supported Lincoln met in Baltimore, Maryland, in June 1864. They decided to use a new name for their party. This was to welcome War Democrats who supported the war. These Democrats wanted to be different from other Democrats who opposed the war.

This is why Andrew Johnson, a War Democrat, was chosen as the vice presidential candidate. The current Vice President, Hannibal Hamlin, was not nominated again. The National Unionists hoped the new party name would show that the war was important for the whole country.

The convention's temporary leader, Robert Jefferson Breckinridge from Kentucky, explained why he supported Lincoln on this new ticket:

As a Union party I will follow you to the ends of the earth, and to the gates of death. But as an Abolition party, as a Republican party, as a Whig party, as a Democratic party, as an American [Know-Nothing] party, I will not follow you one foot.

The National Union Party decided on several main goals:

They would continue the war until the Confederacy gave up completely.
They wanted a change to the Constitution to end slavery.
They would help Union soldiers who were hurt in the war.
They wanted European countries to stay neutral (not pick sides) in the war.
They supported the Monroe Doctrine, which warned European powers not to interfere in the Americas.
They wanted to encourage people to move to the United States.
They wanted to build a transcontinental railroad across the country.

The party also praised the use of African American soldiers and Lincoln's leadership during the war.

After being nominated, Lincoln shared a famous thought on June 9, 1864:

I am very grateful for the renewed confidence which has been accorded to me, both by the convention and by the National [Union] League. I am not insensible at all to the personal compliment there is in this; yet I do not allow myself to believe that any but a small portion of it is to be appropriated as a personal compliment. The convention and the nation, I am assured, are alike animated by a higher view of the interests of the country for the present and the great future, and that part I am entitled to appropriate as a compliment is only that part I may lay hold of as being the opinion of the convention and of the League, that I am not entirely unworthy to be entrusted with the place I have occupied for the last three years. I have not permitted myself, gentlemen, to conclude that I am the best man in the country; but I am reminded, in this connection, of a story of an old Dutch farmer, who remarked to a companion once that 'it was not best to swap horses when crossing streams.'

In August 1864, Lincoln wrote a secret promise. He said that if he lost the election, he would still defeat the Confederacy with a full military effort before leaving office. He did not show this promise to his cabinet. Instead, he asked them to sign a sealed envelope containing it.

The War Changes

The situation in the war changed as the election got closer. Confederate General Robert E. Lee's last big victory was on June 3, 1864, at Cold Harbor. Union General Ulysses S. Grant's strong attacks trapped Lee's army near Richmond.

Admiral David Farragut successfully closed Mobile Bay as a supply route for the Confederacy in August 1864. Most importantly, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman captured Atlanta on September 1, 1864. This made even the most doubtful people believe that the Confederacy was losing.

Frémont Steps Aside

Frémont and his supporters disliked Montgomery Blair, who was Lincoln's Postmaster General. Frémont knew that if he stayed in the race, it might help the Democrats win. So, he made a deal: he would drop out of the presidential race if Blair was removed from office.

On September 22, 1864, Frémont left the race. The next day, Lincoln asked Blair to resign, and he did. The National Union ticket of Lincoln and Johnson then easily won the 1864 election. They defeated the Democratic candidates, General George B. McClellan and George H. Pendleton.

Election Results

In the 1864 elections for Congress, the National Union Party did very well. They won 42 seats in the Senate. They also won 149 seats in the House of Representatives. These candidates ran under different names like National Union, Republican, or Unconditional Union. But they were all part of the larger Republican/National Union effort.

After Lincoln: Andrew Johnson's Presidency (1865–69)

When Lincoln died in 1865, Andrew Johnson became the only other National Union President.

Johnson later had big disagreements with the Republicans in Congress over how to rebuild the South after the war. He tried to build a new group of supporters, but it did not work well. Johnson's friends held the 1866 National Union Convention in Philadelphia. This was part of his effort to keep his supporters together. The convention tried to unite moderate Republicans and Democrats who had left their party. They hoped to create a strong group to support President Johnson and his plans for rebuilding the South.

In the fall of 1866, Johnson went on a speaking tour to gain support for his policies. This tour was called the "Swing Around the Circle." However, it was not successful, and more of his opponents were elected to Congress. The National Union movement slowly became more like the Democratic Party. Republicans who had joined the movement went back to their old party.

The last congressman who represented the National Union Party left the party in March 1867. Johnson was later impeached (accused of wrongdoing) by the Republican-led House of Representatives in 1868. He was found not guilty by one vote in the Senate. When Johnson's term as President ended in 1869, the National Union Party came to an end.

The Republican Party's platform in 1868 strongly disagreed with President Johnson. The Democratic Party's platform in 1868 thanked Johnson. Johnson received some votes for the Democratic nomination, but the party chose Horatio Seymour. Meanwhile, the main Republicans decided to call their 1868 convention the National Union Republican Convention. They nominated Ulysses S. Grant for President and Schuyler Colfax for Vice President. By 1872, the word "Union" was no longer used in the party's name. Historians today see the National Union group formed in 1864 as part of the Republican Party's history.

Later Appearances

In 2014, the National Union Party name was used again, but not officially. A candidate from Washington State named Mike The Mover (born Michael Patrick Shanks) used the name. Mike is not a member of the Republican Party or any other political party. However, in the 2014 election for Washington's 1st congressional district, he ran as a candidate for the National Union Party. He could do this because of a state law that lets candidates say they belong to any party, even if it does not officially exist. Mike is a fan of Civil War history, which likely influenced his choice of party name.

Images for kids

The Republican Party called itself the Union Party in 1864 and gave out this ballot for supporters to vote for Lincoln
Ulysses S. Grant/Schuyler Colfax 1868 National Union Republican campaign poster
1864 National Union Party presidential nominee, Abraham Lincoln
1864 National Union Party vice presidential nominee, Andrew Johnson