CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THIS BOOK IS ONE OF 
 A COLLECTION MADE BY 
 
 BENNO LOEWY 
 
 1854-1919 
 
 AND BEQUEATHED TO 
 CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
DATE DUE 
 
 m^i mil ^ 
 
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 Cornell University Library 
 HS2725.P5 U572 
 
 History of the Union league of Phijadeip 
 
 3 1924 030 283 802 
 
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HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNION LEAGUE 
 
 OF 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030283802 
 
HISTORY 
 
 UNION LEAGUE 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, 
 
 FROM ITS ORIGIN AND FOUNDATION TO THE YEAR 1882. 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE PAESONS LATHROP. 
 
 ' Noii exefcltit>!,iieque theftauri, pri^yiditt rctjui ^iiint ; vcriim ttinit!," 
 
 Salliist. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 J. B. LIPPIlfCOTT & CO. 
 
 18 84. 
 
^s^n 
 
 Copyright, 1883, by J. B. Lippincott & Co. 
 
 rS 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. — Significance op the Subject .... 7 
 
 II. — Philadelphia at the Beginning op the War . . 10 
 III. — The Union Club: Germ op the League ... 24 
 IV. — The League Founded — Effect on New York and 
 
 Boston 
 
 V. — First Tear op the League . 
 
 YI. — The Board of Publication 
 
 VII. — Committee on Enlistments 
 
 VIII. — The Eaising op Negro Troops 
 
 IX. — The Close op the War . 
 
 X. — The League's Course after the War . 93 
 
 XI.^ — Eleven Prosperous Tears . . 107 
 
 XII. — Closing Observations . . . . 122 
 
 36 
 45 
 64 
 
 70 
 
 75 
 82 
 
 DOCUMENTAET histoet. 
 
 I. — Articles of Association op the Union Club . . 129 
 
 II. — Articles op Association op the Union League 130 
 
 III. — Date and Origin op the Union League Club op New 
 
 ToRK . . 133 
 
 5 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 IV. — Speeches Delivered at the Inauguration op the 
 
 First League House . .... 138 
 
 Y. — Original By-Laws op the League .... 141 
 
 VI. — Circular to Organizers op other Leagues . . 147 
 
 VII. — Address op September 16, 1863 . . . 149 
 
 VIII.^ — Correspondence on Enlistment op Colored Troops . 151 
 
 IX. — Eenomination op President Lincoln . . . 153 
 
 X. — Correspondence with Hon. William M. Meredith . 155 
 
 XI. — Eesolutions to Mr. Claghorn 157 
 
 XII. — Constitutional Convention Preamble and Resolu- 
 tions . . 158 
 
 XIII. — The League House 163 
 
 XIV. — Oppioers op the League prom December, 1862, to 
 
 December, 1881 .... ... 166 
 
HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 I. 
 
 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 
 
 The voluntary banding together of citizens to aid the 
 government of their country is characteristic of our age 
 and of the growth of liberty. History shows many ex- 
 amples of heroic devotion to arbitrary rulers on the part 
 of cities or peoples; but the spectacle of private citizens 
 uniting to take on themselves a portion of the cares and 
 expenses of the established government is reserved for 
 those times and countries in which the people themselves 
 create the government and are represented in all its 
 branches. 
 
 The progressive spirit which, in the fourteenth century, 
 
 1 
 
8 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 prompted the Hanseatic League, — an alliance of towns 
 for the protection and development of commerce against 
 the exactions and hinderances of princes, — takes with us 
 a different form and direction. That great association of 
 popular and corporate powers extended its activity to the 
 functions of government, dictating treaties and declaring 
 wars ; but by these means it came into conflict with exist- 
 ing authorities. In a republic like the United States, ideas 
 of new freedom and advancement, social or political, may 
 be labored for by the people without this opposition to 
 authority. Having first delegated their legislative and ad- 
 ministrative rights to certain persons, they bring to the 
 aid of those persons a reserved power, which manifests 
 itself in print and speech, in conferences, associations, and 
 in helpful deeds ; so that, on an emergency, the entire 
 nation may resolve itself into a sort of sub-government, 
 or vast committee, auxiliary to the appointed heads of 
 affairs. 
 
 This was exemj)lified during the War for the Union 
 by the Union League organized in Philadelphia, and by 
 other societies, modelled after it, in other cities and States 
 of the North. It was one of those growths embodying a 
 sublime conception, which among a free population spring 
 spontaneously into life. Its full scope and stature may 
 not have been foreseen by all those who took part in its 
 beginnings ; but as they worked for it in a common spirit, 
 from that spirit it took life, form, and motion, and stood 
 at last like a Titan in the community, a realization of 
 large and harmonious ideas. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 9 
 
 To observe, then, the phases of its growth ; to review 
 its measures, the character of the men who conducted it, 
 and its influence on the course of public affairs, becomes 
 a matter of deep interest and significance. 
 
10 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 II. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA AT THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR. 
 
 To understand precisely the political and social conditions 
 whicli gave rise to the Union League we must look back to 
 the beginning of the War for the Union. 
 
 Before the Presidential election of 1860, Pennsylvania 
 had been a Democratic State. The delegates which it sent 
 to the convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln went as 
 from the "Peojole's Party," — a coalition which was not ready 
 to array itself definitely under the name of the Republican 
 organization ; and although Pennsylvania was carried for 
 Lincoln, it did not give him its electoral vote as a Repub- 
 lican State, but simply as one which had been conquered 
 from the divided Democrats by the successful coalition called 
 the Peoj)le's Party. Hence, after the inauguration of Mr. 
 Lincoln, the old elements of variance remained extant and 
 powerful in Philadelphia, the metropolis of the Common- 
 wealth. 
 
 On December 13, 1860, a great assembly met in Inde- 
 pendence Square, composed of men of almost all parties and 
 factions, to urge as an antidote for secession, concession. The 
 tone of the addresses there delivered, and received with en- 
 thusiasm, was entirely in favor of granting to the South 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. \\ 
 
 whatever it might demand as a condition precedent to re- 
 maining in the Union ; in favor of repealing the " liberty 
 bills" passed by Northern States, and preserving the Union 
 by compromise ; patching up, in fine, a Marcolfa's peace of 
 the feeblest sort. It was there, too, that an influential 
 speaker pronounced slavery "an incalculable blessing." The 
 strong bias towards the South in the minds of many indi- 
 viduals accustomed to weigh questions carefully may be in- 
 ferred from the declaration of one such person, the sjDcaker 
 just referred to, Mr. Justice Woodward, of the Supreme Court 
 of the State, who said, on another occasion, " If the Union is 
 to be divided, I want the line of separation to run north of 
 Pennsylvania." 
 
 On the 3d of January, 1861, a meeting, composed, accord- 
 ing to the account of The Press of that time, of about one 
 hundred and fifty from among "our most prominent citizens, 
 representing the influences which control Philadeljohia in 
 the present public emergency," was summoned at the Board 
 of Trade rooms. The call for this meeting indicates plainly 
 the current drift of sentiment. It stated that the object was 
 " to consider what measures should be adopted by the citi- 
 zens of Philadelphia on the present condition of our national 
 affairs, to aid the constituted authorities of the State and gen- 
 eral government in the enforcement of the laws, to remove all 
 just ground of complaint against the Northern States, and to 
 secure the perpetuity of the Union." Obviously there ex- 
 isted in the minds of those who drew up this appeal a strong 
 belief that open hostility might yet be averted by timely con- 
 cessions on the part of the North ; albeit among the signers 
 
12 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 were such men as Henry C. Carey, Morton McMichael, 
 C. G. Childs, Charles Gilpin, William D. Lewis, and Daniel 
 Dougherty. Mr. C. G. Childs presided, and in his opening 
 remarks he said, " While there is yet time let us speak for 
 the Union." The Hon. Ellis Lewis, one of the signers of 
 the call, spoke next, asking to be allowed to withdraw his 
 name, because he could not agree to the resolutions that were 
 to be offered. It turned out that these were too decisively in 
 favor of the government and against secession to suit his 
 taste. Mr. Dougherty jDresented the fourth resolution first. 
 It strongly apjoroved the conduct of Major Anderson, and 
 called for prompt reinforcements. This was adopted with 
 enthusiasm ; but other resolutions denying the right of peace- 
 able secession brought on debate. It was moved to commit 
 them. The Hon. Ellis Lewis then proposed resolutions very 
 conciliatory towards the South, and demanding the enforce- 
 ment of the Fugitive Slave Law. At last the discussion 
 degenerated into a many-sided and demoralized parley. 
 The meeting was adjourned amid excitement and confusion, 
 without any result having been reached, excepting the dem- 
 onstration of the fact that among those citizens "represent- 
 ing the influences which control Philadelphia" there was an 
 absolute and hopeless division of opinion respecting the 
 secession question and the duties incumbent on Pennsyl- 
 vania at that hour. 
 
 A little later — January 16, 1861 — an "anti-coercion meet- 
 ing" was held in National Hall, at which speeches against 
 using force towards the South were made by Vincent L. 
 Bradford, Eobert P. Kane, George M. Wharton, Charles 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 13 
 
 IngersoU, and Benjamin Harris Brewster, — gentlemen of 
 position and force. Mr. Brewster, since appointed Attorney- 
 General of the United States under the administration of 
 President Arthur, at this time held indeterminate views. 
 " The South," he said, " has been wronged. ... If this 
 goodly fabric falls, what will Pennsylvania do ?" The press 
 report of that meeting says the question was answered by 
 cries of " Go Avith the South !" Mr. Brewster, continuing, 
 declared, " It is an eventuality I have no wish to realize ; 
 but this I may safely say, that Pennsylvania will, whether 
 she be detached or not, — whether she is compelled to go with 
 the North or with the South, or stand by herself, — she will, 
 if she is true to her own honored story, be ready to pacificate 
 and reconcile and reconstruct, even if the ruin be complete." 
 If Mr. Brewster, who afterwards entered into active sym- 
 pathy with the North in upholding the Federal government 
 by force of arms, hesitated thus, it may easily be seen how 
 others would hesitate. The National Hall meeting even 
 adopted one resolution which plainly announced a pref- 
 erence for secession,* though the language was somewhat 
 guarded. 
 
 * This twelfth resolution read as follows : " That, in the deliberate 
 judgment of the Democracy of Philadelphia, and, so far as we know 
 it, of Pennsylvania, the dissolution of the Union by the separation of 
 the whole South — a result we shall most sincerely lament — may re- 
 lease this Commonwealth to a large extent from the bonds which now 
 connect her with the Confederacy, except so far as for temporary 
 convenience she chooses to submit to them, and would authorize and 
 require her citizens, through a convention to be assembled for that 
 
14 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 A few days later* similar tendencies of timidity and 
 surrender found expression in an important gathering of 
 workingmen, who sent a committee of thirty-three to Wash- 
 ington, to urge uf)on Pennsylvanians in Congress a vigorous 
 support of the Crittenden Compromise. Irresolution and a 
 fellow-feeling with the South were, in fine, shown by repre- 
 sentatives of all classes ; and the welfare of manufacturers, 
 artisans, and traders, it was insisted, made temporization and 
 conciliation a duty. 
 
 In April, 1861, a weekly paper was started boldly under 
 the title The Palmetto Flag, — a title which the publishers 
 declared " has been adopted after mature reflection." This, 
 they asserted, was done " with no intention to adopt sectional 
 views or extreme ^^artisan opinions, but simply to afford to 
 our Southern friends and their Northern sympathizers a 
 liberal vehicle for the expression of their views and op)in- 
 ions." But the real purpose of the publication was not 
 disguised. Its colunms were filled with defences of slavery 
 and attacks upon the Ilej)ublican party. One editorial 
 characterized "the President of the United States, Abraham 
 Lincoln," as " the head and front of the trouble that now 
 agitates this country ;" another, entitled " Pennsylvania a 
 War State for the North or for the South," asked why it 
 
 purpose, to determine with whom her lot should be cast, — whether 
 with the IsTorth and East, whose fanaticism has precipitated this 
 misery upon us, or with our brethren of the South, whose wrongs we feel 
 as our own; or whether Pennsylvania shall stand by herself as a 
 distinct community," etc. 
 * January 26, 1861. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 15 
 
 was that Governor Curtin should have summoned the Legis- 
 lature to put the militia of the State on a war footing ; why, 
 in fact, he could not " wait awhile, and watch which way the 
 current of events will turn." This valiant sheet set forth 
 that there were many " Constitution lovers" in the State, 
 who were not ready to have the arms of the militia turned 
 against " their long and patiently suffering brethren of 
 Maryland, Virginia, and the extreme Southern States ;" and 
 it hinted that when these citizens should discover how they 
 could become "the manufacturing head of the Southern 
 Confederacy," they would throw off their allegiance to the 
 United States, and call upon New York to go with them. 
 
 Sumter fell, and the Pennsylvanians, who in the main had 
 believed that war would be averted, were so stunned by the 
 event that at first they seemed aj^athetic. Gradually this 
 appearance passed, and in a few days the seething indigna- 
 tion of the people reached the climax of eagerness to fight. 
 The city and State, like the rest of the North, were wrapj)ed 
 in one broad, sheeted flame of patriotism. Yet war had 
 actually been waged for nearly a year, when the phalanx 
 of " constitutional" opinion found its chief philosophical 
 chamjDion in the person of Mr. Charles J. Ingersoll, who, in 
 March, 1862, published a pamphlet which he called "A 
 Letter to a Friend in a Slave State." The purpose of this 
 letter, as announced by the author, was to explain to his 
 Southern friend " the views of some of the persons in this 
 State who regard conciliation as our only available resort, 
 and look upon the extreme course of the government as 
 ruin." He proceeded to consider the possibilities of peaceable 
 
16 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 separation, which, he considered, would but engender cease- 
 less quarrels. " The sword must make our map at last," he 
 affirmed. Next, he treated the question whether it would be 
 practicable, in case of Northern success, to hold the South 
 by military occupation, and settled this debate in the nega- 
 tive. Finally, he reviewed the political history of the 
 Union, and demonstrated, to his own satisfaction, that, even 
 at this late hour, peace could be made, and would readily be 
 made by the South, if the terms were honorable and fair, 
 "not following their programme, and omitting disunion. 
 The difficulty, I repeat, is not with the South ; it is with the 
 North. Doubtless there are other difficulties. . . . But the 
 main difficulty is with the North, — the North ruled by the 
 Abolitionists. While their dominion lasts, the difficulty is 
 insujjerable." 
 
 Insuperable, indeed, it remained, though the result was 
 very different from that which the pamphleteer predicted. 
 His argument was thorough, thoughtful, and sincere. He 
 drew abundant illustration from ancient and European 
 history. His great mistake was that he was discussing a 
 phenomenal revolution which was neither ancient nor Euro- 
 pean, but American and modern, and, moreover, totally new 
 in its kind of modernness. Still, his performance retains 
 value as a pungent and able statement of the opinions held 
 at the time by many Philadelphians of cultivation and good 
 standing. 
 
 The utterance was not allowed to pass unchallenged, but 
 met with a vigorous and polished reply in another pamphlet 
 by Judge M. Eussell Thayer. Keferring to the future his- 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 17 
 
 torian who might turn to Mr. Ingersoll's pamphlet for en- 
 lightenment, Mr. Thayer wrote : " While he will observe 
 that you proclaim yourself the friend of the Union, he will 
 at the same time perceive that your talents are chiefly de- 
 voted to an elaborate apology for the traitors who vainly 
 attempt to destroy it." Cutting through the ingenious web 
 of attempted historic parallels which his antagonist had put 
 forward as a snare for the unwary, he showed their in- 
 applicability, and firmly laid down the plain, unalterable 
 principle on which the war must be maintained. "The 
 Constitution of the United States was formed, it is true, by 
 compromises ; but is it a corollary from that, that it must be 
 broken by compromises, or, in other words, that it is to be 
 preserved by breaking it? The advice you give to the 
 people of the United States is to compromise in some un- 
 mentioned manner and upon some impossible terms (for you 
 do not venture to hint at them) with bands of armed insur- 
 gents. ... It does not a whit alter the fact that these 
 individuals have obtained in some States the control of the 
 local government, and use it for purposes hostile to the 
 national government. Still, the war is against rebels, and 
 not against States." 
 
 In direct, ringing sentences like these, and with tersely 
 cogent reasoning, the plausible " Letter to a Friend" was 
 refuted. But that single combat in print should have been 
 necessary in order to uphold the Union cause at home, 
 while battles were being fought at the front, and the papers 
 teemed with lists of the sick and wounded coming back to 
 Philadelphia, shows how dangerous a power the unpatriotic 
 
18 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 element retained in that city. An obscure incident which 
 occurred in November, 1862, may be mentioned as instan- 
 cing the hostility sometimes exerted against those who were 
 sacrificing themselves for the preservation of the RejDublic. 
 A mutual benefit society in the lower part of the city, chiefly 
 composed of persons belonging to a single church congrega- 
 tion, voted to exchide from relief all members who enlisted 
 in the service of the country. At about that time one of 
 the oldest members died from the effect of wounds received 
 at Antietam, and, although his monthly dues had been j)aid 
 regularly, the society refused to give his widow the sum to 
 which those payments entitled her. So late as December, 
 1862, the North American newsjiaper, in an item of Balti- 
 more news, averred, "The Union feeling in Baltimore is 
 stronger at this time than it is in Philadelphia." 
 
 On the other hand, Pennsylvania had taken her stand 
 most sturdily on the Union side, and Philadelphia had 
 exhibited in many ways an enthusiastic loyalty. Two days 
 after the attack on Fort Sumter, sixty-seven influential citi- 
 zens drew up and signed a declaration to the President of 
 the United States, responding to his proclamation, and de- 
 claring their " unalterable determination to sustain the gov- 
 ernment in its efforts to maintain the honor, the integrity, 
 and the existence of our national Union." A number of the 
 signers afterwards became active and valuable members of 
 the Union League.* The seventy-fourth anniversary of the 
 
 * Among them were the following : J. I. Clark Hare, Charles Gib- 
 bons, Samuel C. Perkins, Daniel Smith, Jr., Morton McMichael, Horace 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 19 
 
 signing of the Constitution of the United States was, on the 
 petition of numerous citizens, officially celebrated by the 
 city government. Public schools were closed, business was 
 suspended, a military procession took place, and an immense 
 multitude thronged to hear the oration of the Hon. George 
 M. Dallas before a mass - meeting, which passed strongly 
 patriotic resolutions and denounced the theory of secession. 
 Furthermore, just one year to a day after the great anti- 
 coercion meeting at National Hall, a " town-meeting, without 
 distinction of party," was held at noon in Independence 
 Square, "to express the devotion of the peoj)le of Phila- 
 delphia to the Union." Up to May, 1862, Pennsylvania 
 had sent to the war more troops than any other State, and 
 of those one hundred thousand men the ancient seat of the 
 Federal government had contributed a becoming share. 
 The city distinguished itself in still another way, — by its 
 humane provision for the refreshment of regiments as they 
 passed through it on their way to service or on the return 
 from campaigning. Again, on the President's call for fresh 
 levies of three hundred thousand recruits, the merchants, 
 manufacturers, and leading men of Philadelphia quickly 
 assembled, and subscribed in a few days the sum of seven 
 hundred thousand dollars, to be used in paying bounties to 
 volunteers. 
 
 Binney, Jr., Daniel Dougherty, Henry C. Carey, and James W. Paul. 
 It is interesting to observe how promptly these gentlemen took that 
 position which, later on, they were to enforce \ij a powerful organiza- 
 tion. 
 
20 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 These facts, however, and the position of Philadelphia as 
 the social and financial centre of a loyal Commonwealth, 
 made the presence and activity of a faction opposed to the 
 government all the more anomalous and injurious. Almost 
 at the moment when the bounty fund was being subscribed 
 with such liberal readiness, the local friends of the South Avere 
 congratulating themselves that in a few days the rebel army 
 would take Philadelphia, and they went so far as to "assign" 
 among themselves General Lee's headquarters.* It was not 
 so much the size or actual power of this faction which was to 
 be dreaded as its boldness of speech, its possibilities of cre- 
 ating division, its encouragement to the opposition in other 
 States, and its social influence. 
 
 Social convention and the scorn of the jjolite are the dun- 
 geon and stake prepared for the modern martyr in the cause 
 of reform. Great movements may be hindered and noble 
 minds be driven almost to des2:)air by the subtle and seem- 
 ingly intangible instruments of oppression which society 
 uses against those who attack the prejudices it may have 
 chosen to uphold ; and even when a majority of the peojile 
 have adopted an unfashionable idea, the minority which 
 reigns in drawing-rooms may still do much to thwart its 
 successful development. We have seen that, at the outset 
 of the civil conflict, many Philadelphians discovered in the 
 relations of manufacture and trade good reason for making 
 common cause with the South. Others found it in the ties 
 
 * The house which they had fixed upon for this purpose was the 
 Dundas mansion, at the corner of Broad and Walnut Streets. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 21 
 
 of long association, intimate friendship, kinship, and mar- 
 riage, which bound them to the inhabitants of the seceding 
 States. They were in many instances not Northern men with 
 Southern views, — not merely " dough-faces," — but Southern 
 men living in the metropolis of a Middle State, which stood 
 for the Union despite strong temptations to waver. This 
 much may fairly be said on behalf of sundry among them. 
 These persons at the same time enjoyed a traditional author- 
 ity in circles which claimed to decide who was, or who was 
 not, part and parcel of that mysterious yet positive organism 
 calling itself — as distinguished from the social body at large 
 — "society." Hence it was of moment to counteract what 
 they said and did. Doubtless they persuaded themselves 
 that their attitude was dictated by a true regard for the 
 Constitution ; but doubtless, also, they would have been glad 
 of rebel successes, which would have justified by bitter force 
 their personal opinions, and again reinstated them as popular 
 leaders, in addition to their dignity as the heads of society. 
 
 Current comment is invaluable in historic retrospect. 
 The editor of The Press, in November, 1862, remarked on 
 the condition of affairs in Philadelphia in these words : " We 
 should all do faithfully what we can to unite and intensify 
 public sentiment in favor of the administration. . . . The 
 enemy is busy in influencing and changing public ojjinion. 
 In Philadelphia we see them diligently comforting one an- 
 other, counselling together, gathering strength, and quietly 
 combining to undermine and destroy the nation. All the 
 splendor of brilliant society and the fascination of social 
 intercourse are combined to accomplish this woful j)urpose." 
 
22 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 The tone of conversation is well indicated in an essay, pub- 
 lished more than ten years ago, by one of the founders 
 of the Union Club, now President of the Union League.* 
 "The social condition," says Mr. Boker, "had changed 
 vastly since the traitors among us had slunk away before 
 the spirit which blazed out at the news of the firing upon 
 Sumter. Gradually our secret foes had emerged from their 
 seclusion, taking their wonted social j)laces, and boasting to 
 their foreign visitors that, in what was called 'unmixed 
 society,' they ordered matters, and that all gentlemen would 
 soon be of their way of thinking. The President was vulgar, 
 the administration was vulgar, and the people who waged 
 it were of the common sort, who would shortly receive a 
 merited castigation from the gentlemen of the South, whom 
 the herd was vainly endeavoring to deprive of their biblical, 
 heaven-decreed, constitutional, natural carnal property." 
 
 The dissentients here referred to undoubtedly warped the 
 minds of visitors from abroad, whom they entertained and 
 impressed. Anthony Trollope, among other Englishmen 
 who hastened to this country in order to take notes of its 
 throes in articulo mortis, found, for the first time on his tour 
 through the North, "live secessionists" in Philadelphia, — 
 " secessionists who pronounced themselves to be such. . . . 
 I generally found in mixed society, even there, that the 
 discussion of secession was not permitted ; but in society that 
 was not mixed I heard very strong opinions expressed on 
 
 * A Memorial of the Union Club of Philadelphia. By George H. 
 Boker. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1871. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 23 
 
 each side." There were a few, in the very strongholds of 
 the social autocrats, who remained true. But even Trollope, 
 who regretfully believed that secession would triumph, was 
 moved by the prevalent declarations of disloyalty which he 
 observed here to exclaim, "Surely these people of the 
 United States have fallen from the proud patriotism of their 
 forefathers. Their devotion to their flag is a vain boast, an 
 absurd and unmeaning rhapsody. They see their friends 
 and countrymen dying to sustain their country, and yet to 
 them it is nothing more than the jest of an idle hour. What 
 can be hoped for in a nation when its intellect and wealth 
 and education are thus found aiding its enemies ?" 
 
 Such imputations were intolerable to those who knew on 
 what partial accounts they were founded. To provide an 
 antidote for them, and to suppress likewise the incipient 
 rebeldom from which they emanated, became the object of 
 a few resolute friends of the Union, who determined to bring 
 together by some new compact those who were of like mind 
 with them. 
 
24 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 in. 
 
 THE UNION CLUB: GERM OF THE LEAGUE. 
 
 The year 1862 opened with a series of brilliant successes 
 for the Northern arms, but drew towards its close amid dark 
 shadoAYS of defeat; so that the outcome of the struggle looked 
 even more doubtful than if victory had not at first raised 
 such sanguine hopes that the rebellion would speedily be 
 crushed. 
 
 In February, Fort Henry had succumbed to Commodore 
 Foote, and Fort Donelson to General Grant, the State of 
 Kentucky and part of Tennessee being thus liberated from 
 Confederate control. The dearly-bought victory at Shiloh 
 and the capture of Corinth followed. Island Number Ten 
 had surrendered, and the main obstacle to the descent of the 
 Mississippi was thereby removed ; while Admiral Farragut, 
 moving from below, effected the capture of New Orleans and 
 Baton Rouge. The rebels had been driven out of New 
 Mexico, and were giving way in Arkansas. Even Alabama 
 had been invaded by General Mitchell. On the south, 
 Fort Pulaski, at the mouth of the Savannah, had early been 
 reduced. In the east, also, Roanoke Island was forced to 
 yield to Burnside and Commodore Goldsborough ; Norfolk 
 and Newberne were occupied ; Fort Macon, in South Caro- 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 25 
 
 lina, was taken. All this had been accomplished before the 
 middle of the year, and in March a " Grand Union Ball" 
 was given at Philadelphia " in honor of the recent brilliant 
 yictories." Meanwhile, too, after long delay, McClellan had 
 brought his army to within a few miles of Richmond. The 
 fall of that capital was deemed a foregone conclusion. What 
 had been styled the " anaconda" 2:)olicy of slowly surround- 
 ing the Confederacy with a huge mailed coil and squeezing 
 it to death, was supposed to be on the eve of its consumma- 
 tion. 
 
 Suddenly reverses began in the terrible Seven Days' 
 Battle, which resulted in a withdrawal from the Peninsula. 
 This was quickly followed by Pope's bloody defeat in the 
 second Battle of Bull Run ; and McClellan's return to com- 
 mand brought nothing better than the costly sacrifice made 
 at Antietam, without preventing the escape of Lee. Buell's 
 drawn battle with Bragg, at Perryville, Kentucky, was 
 hardly more encouraging. Inaction prevailed along the 
 rest of the line. Antietam and Perryville checked the 
 invasion of Maryland and Kentucky ; but the fact that the 
 Union forces were now so largely on the defensive empha- 
 sized the great change which had taken place in the situa- 
 tion. At the same time, the rebel General Stuart's raid into 
 Pennsylvania carried the war distinctly into the North. 
 
 Encouraged by these disasters, the Democrats opposed to 
 the war rallied their forces and elected Horatio Seymour 
 Governor of New York. Their friends in Pennsylvania 
 became active and exultant ; and if a formidable barrier had 
 not been opposed to the movements of the revived peace 
 
 4 
 
26 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 party in this State, a Democratic governor would probably 
 have been chosen at the next election in Pennsylvania, with 
 results possibly fatal to the cause for which so many gallant 
 men had already laid down their lives. Such a barrier was, 
 however, formed. It first took shape as the Union Club. In 
 the minds of several citizens the thought had arisen that 
 something might be done by combination to overcome the 
 cumulative influence of the treasonous. These gentlemen, 
 among whom were Judge J. I. Clark Hare, Mr. George H. 
 Boker, Mr. Charles Gibbons, the late Benjamin Gerhard, and 
 the late Horace Binney, Jr., had from the time of the first 
 threats against Fort Sumter adopted the custom of meeting 
 informally to talk over public affairs at the office of the North 
 American newspaper. In the person of the editor, the late 
 Morton McMichael, previously High Sheriff" of Philadelphia 
 for several years, and warmly esteemed for his large heart 
 and strong mental grasp, no less than for his gift of sponta- 
 neous and glowing eloquence, they found a congenial friend. 
 There existed in the casual association of these earnest 
 thinkers a ready nucleus for the club, so soon as its forma- 
 tion was suggested. The immediate occasion of that project 
 was furnished in part by an incident in the social history of 
 the city. From the year 1798 there had existed in Phila- 
 delphia a custom of weekly reunions of gentlemen during 
 the winter season, which had its rise in entertainments given 
 by Dr. Caspar Wistar. After his death, in 1818, the at- 
 tendants at these receptions resolved themselves into an 
 association called "The "Wistar Party," and continued to 
 meet. The social intercourse afforded by the Wistar Party 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 27 
 
 was highly prized by those who enjoyed its privileges, either 
 as members or guests ; but when the civil war broke out, 
 diflferences of opinion became so sharp, and so much bitter 
 discussion penetrated the circle, that the association ceased. 
 Political rancor, in fact, marred all forms of social assembly 
 for those whose principles made it hard for them to let 
 disloyal utterances pass unchallenged ; and as the war went 
 on, the friends of the Union felt more and more strongly the 
 need of meeting where they should not be made to feel that 
 their dearest principles and most solemn convictions marked 
 them as objects of ridicule, scorn, or commiseration. 
 
 "In this miserable condition of ^aublic and j)rivate affairs," 
 says Mr. Boker's Memorial, " on one of the darkest days of 
 that gloomy month of November, 1862, Judge J. I. Clark 
 Hare and the writer of this article met in Seventh Street 
 between Chestnut and Sansom Streets. We fell into a con- 
 versation which was little better than a comj)arison of sor- 
 rows. The thought that seemed to move Judge Hare most 
 deeply was that while we, the inhabitants of a loyal city, 
 were thus cast down before the ill fortunes of our country, 
 men who were almost leagued with the Southern traitors 
 were walking with high heads among our people, openly 
 exulting in our discomfiture, and eagerly waiting for the day 
 of our utter overthrow. ' Is there no remedy for this state of 
 things ?' said Judge Hare. ' Can we not, at least, withdraw 
 from all social relations with disloyal men and set up a 
 society of our own?' He continued the subject by sketching 
 the plan for an association which, substantially, was that 
 which was soon after adopted by the Union Club." Mr. 
 
28 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Boker agreed to go at once to the office of Mr. McMichael 
 and talk the scheme over with him. This he did, and the 
 two were drawing up a list of those who were to be asked to 
 join the club, when Mr. Gerhard entered. He was at once 
 informed of the design, and enthusiastically approved it, 
 offering to have the first meeting at his own house. It took 
 place there, accordingly, " on or about the 15th of Novem- 
 ber, 1862." 
 
 So tentative was this beginning that the notes of invitation 
 were sent out unsigned, and merely stated that there would 
 be a meeting of loyal men at Mr. Gerhard's house, 226 South 
 Fourth Street, for a patriotic purpose. This was not done 
 from a want of courage, for the movers in the scheme were 
 determined to assert loyalty as a social force at all hazards, 
 and however few their coadjutors might be. But in those 
 days there was no certainty as to how their proposition would 
 be received even by men of their own political faith ; and 
 it was necessary to proceed cautiously. A small number — 
 from a dozen to fifteen — answered to the call, and listened 
 to the plan submitted for their consideration ; but nothing 
 more was done then, and not much enthusiasm was shown. 
 A second meeting was held one week later, on the evening 
 of November 22, at the house of George H. Boker, 1720 
 Walnut Street. Here twenty-four gentlemen were present. 
 A standing committee had meanwhile been formed,* and 
 
 * Composed as follows: Morton McMichael, Chairman; J. I. C. 
 Hare, Charles Gibbons, Benjamin Gerhard ; George H. Boker, Secre- 
 tary. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 29 
 
 brief articles of association for the new Union Club of 
 Philadelphia had been drawn up, which were now adopted. 
 These limited the number of members to fifty, and added, 
 " The condition of membership shall be unqualified loyalty 
 to the government of the United States, and unwavering 
 support of its measures for the suppression of the Rebellion." 
 It was further provided that the Club should meet, during 
 months to be named by the committee, every Saturday night, 
 at eight o'clock, at the house of a member, and that the 
 member giving the entertainment should be free to invite 
 persons not belonging to the Club, provided their opinions 
 were in harmony with th^ condition of membership just 
 quoted. 
 
 It will be seen that by this j)lan the Wistar Party tradi- 
 tion of assembling on Saturday evenings at members' houses 
 had been skilfully seized upon, at the same time that all 
 disaffected persons were rigorously excluded. That was a 
 sagacious measure, for it imj^lied that this group of unquali- 
 fied Unionists had succeeded to the high social rights and 
 privileges of the Wistar Party, and meant to make its 
 opinions fashionable. A sympathetic observer, who was 
 prevented by absence from taking part, has since said that 
 the purpose of the Union Club was virtually to create " an 
 organized respectability of Federalists or Unionists, as op- 
 jjosed to the aristocracy of Secessionists." Now that a deci- 
 sive step had been taken, enthusiasm and support increased 
 rapidly. One instance will show how eager those were to 
 join who believed in the purposes of the association, and how 
 important it was thought to give in their adhesion. Mr. 
 
30 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 J. B. Lippincott, the eminent publisher, was at the turning- 
 point of a typhoid fever just when it was desired that he 
 shouhl become a member ; so that it was not thought safe 
 to bring the subject before him. The attending physician 
 was asked to watch for the first opportunity to propose to 
 him his accession, when it could be done without risk to the 
 j)atient, and Mr. Lippincott signed the articles while still 
 unable to rise from his bed. The Club had been formed 
 quietly, and, as we have seen, with a certain amount of 
 hesitation. Its numbers were small, and its function was 
 to be limited to moral support of the government, without 
 taking public political action as a body. But its power was 
 soon felt. It produced a social revolution. 
 
 The indignation and opposition of those whom it shut out 
 were prompt and intense. Hitherto Philadelphia society 
 had been ruled by rigorous distinctions, often arbitrary, but 
 entirely irreversible ; and those who had made the distinc- 
 tions were in general Southern in their leanings. For 
 people in " mixed society" to band together with an express 
 proviso that reflected on the desirability of intercourse with 
 these reigning powers seemed a daring offence against the 
 canons of the old coteries. Worse than that, sundry of the 
 members of those very coteries were among the new cov- 
 enanters on behalf of the Union. Again, the fact that they 
 stepped into the place left vacant by the disbanded Wistar 
 Party was exasperating, and it may have added to the irri- 
 tation that the new circle adopted a card of invitation closely 
 modelled on that which had been used by the older associa- 
 tion. In place of the portrait of Dr. Wistar there appeared 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 31 
 
 on the Union Club card an engraving of the United States 
 flag upon a slanting staif, surrounded by a circle of thirty- 
 two stars against a shaded ground, with the name of the 
 Club above. Otherwise, in size and the form of wording, 
 it was almost precisely the same. Shortly after the Union 
 Club went into operation there appeared in a virulent Cop- 
 perhead evening paper a paragraph giving the names of all 
 the members, and announcing that within the next few 
 weeks the houses of those gentlemen would be sacked. The 
 threat was never carried out, and emanated from no very 
 responsible source ; but, in its blatant way, it doubtless re- 
 flected the animosity existing among more cultivated oppo- 
 nents of the war. But their ridicule and anger were alike 
 unavailing. Their influence from that hour began to wane, 
 and was never recovered. The struggle continued for several 
 years, both in the social field and that of journalism and 
 politics ; but, with the end of the war, the old standards 
 passed away, and society in Philadelphia was no doubt 
 materially changed and liberalized as a result of the stand 
 taken by the Union Club. I have thought it worth while 
 to dwell on this side of the subject, because at the time it was 
 a vital one. Trivial though a social opposition may seem in 
 looking back, after it has been ovei-powered, it was a serious 
 consideration to those who experienced or exercised it. An- 
 other important consideration is that the Club's success in 
 creating a centre of loyalty in local society cleared the ground 
 for that larger work which it was to accomplish, the estab- 
 lishment of the Union League. Alluding to this period, 
 of which he had full personal knowledge, the Hon. John 
 
32 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Russell Young writes, " I do not think anything during the 
 war was of more value to the cause of the Union than the 
 vigorous and self-denying efforts of these gentlemen who 
 founded the Union League, and who laid down the principle 
 that in a crisis like that which then existed even social 
 influences should be devoted to strengthening the adminis- 
 tration, reorganizing the Republican party, and giving life 
 and force to the Union movement." 
 
 The personal quality of the Union Club is discernible 
 through a glance at the following list of its constituents : 
 
 MEMBERS OF THE UNION CLUB. 
 
 MOETON McMlCHAEL, 
 
 J. I. C. Hare, 
 Charles Gibbons, 
 Benjamin Gerhard, 
 George H. Bokee, 
 A. E. BoRiE, 
 John M. Read, 
 Singleton A. Mercer, 
 E. Spencer Miller, 
 Horace Binney, Jr., 
 Stephen Colwell, 
 James W. Paul, 
 John Ashhurst, 
 Henry C. Carey, 
 William Henry Rawle, 
 Samuel J. Reeves, 
 Alfred D. Jessup, 
 Abraham J. Lewis, 
 Charles L. Borie, 
 
 Frederick Fraley, 
 J. G. Fell, 
 Alexander Brown, 
 William H. Ashhurst, 
 Dr. W. C. Swann, 
 Daniel Dougherty, 
 George H. Trott, 
 Fairman Rogers, 
 Robert B. Cabeen, 
 John B. Myers, 
 William M. Tilghman, 
 A. J. Antelo, 
 C. H. Clark, 
 Ferdinand J. Dreer, 
 James L. Claghorn, 
 Edwin M. Lewis, 
 Henry M. Watts, 
 Thomas A. Biddle, 
 Daniel Smith, Jr., 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 33 
 
 Theodore Frothingham, S. V. Merrick, 
 
 Charles J. Peterson, Gen. George Cadwalader, 
 
 George Whitney, "William Sellers, 
 
 Joseph Harrison, Jr., Joseph B. Townsend, 
 
 William D. Lewis, B. H. Moore, 
 
 Joshua B. Lippincott, James Milliken, 
 
 John H. Toavne, Abraham Barker, 
 
 Ward B. Haseltine, John P. Verree, 
 
 S. M. Felton, Dr. John F. Meigs, 
 John Eussell Young. 
 
 Here were men of the highest character, and representing 
 many kinds of ability. Mr. Rawle, Mr. Tilghman, Judge 
 Hare (son of the distinguished chemist, Robert Hare), and 
 Charles Gibbons brought to the cause their reputation as 
 among the most brilliant and able men of the Philadelphia 
 bar. The presence of Horace Binney, Jr., carried with it 
 the sanction of his distinguished father's sympathy and the 
 grace of his own scholarship. Retiring and a student, he 
 had taken command of a volunteer company during the riots 
 of 1844, and now again came forward to exercise the higher 
 duties of citizenship. Mr. Boker, a man of leisure who had 
 earned fame as a poet, Daniel Dougherty, renowned for 
 political and forensic oratory, Mr. J. Gillingham Fell, and 
 Mr. Antelo, were all Democrats, whose warm co-oj)eration 
 indicated the unpartisan aim of the Club. The name of 
 Henry C. Carey, as that of the most original American 
 political economist, was in itself a power. Then, again, the 
 banking interest had for exponents the Bories and Mr. 
 Barker ; that of manufacturers, William Sellers and George 
 
34 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Whitney ; and Mr. Claghorn stood for mercantile affairs. 
 The father of Abraham Barker was that Jacob Barker who 
 took the whole government loan in the War of 1812, and at 
 a later day maintained in New Orleans abolition principles 
 which his son inherited. Mr. Peterson and Mr. Lippincott 
 were, as they still remain, the heads of large publishing 
 houses ; while Mr. McMichael and Mr. Young supplied links 
 of vital contact with the press. Holding a high place in the 
 faculty of medicine, Dr. John F. Meigs, although a Greorgian 
 by birth, illustrated in his own person the maxim that true 
 patriotism should not be confined to any one section of the 
 country. Almost without exception, in short, the member- 
 shij) was significant, — deeply and widely so. Another ele- 
 ment of strength included by it lay in the diversity of ages. 
 Many of the members were in the prime of life ; others 
 were getting well beyond the meridian : so that with the 
 glowing force of younger manhood was combined the mod- 
 eration of riper age. The spirit which prevailed at the 
 meetings was one of great cordiality, and, though they were 
 marked by the ceremonious dress of evening parties, the 
 general footing was one of informal friendship. Authors, 
 journalists, and strangers of distinction often came as guests, 
 and the conversation was brilliant. But it was impossible 
 that an assembly jjossessing such varied and remarkable 
 traits of force as this one did should rest satisfied with these 
 results. 
 
 The best means of enlarging their sphere of action soon 
 came under consideration ; and when the Union Club had 
 been in existence just seven weeks, articles of association for 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 35 
 
 the Union League were presented to the members, and were 
 signed by nearly all the large company present. This was 
 done at the house of Dr. John F. Meigs, 1208 Walnut 
 Street. Dr. Meigs himself was soon after obliged, by the 
 pressure of professional engagements, to resign from the 
 Union Club, and the same cause prevented his taking any 
 active share in the work of the League. The Union Club 
 continued its meetings independently until November 11, 
 1865, when it was resolved to give them up and hold an 
 annual dinner only. 
 
 Thus out of the gloom which had disheartened men was 
 evolved that agency which was to do much towards securing 
 the triumph they desired. As a prism refracts ordinary 
 daylight, dispersing it into its component rays, so the moment 
 this Club had crystallized, it showed that so long as there 
 was any light left at all there could be found in it — when 
 passed through a proper medium — the rainbow hues of hope. 
 
36 HISTORY OF THP: 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE LEAGUE FOUNDED -EFFECT ON NEW YORK AND BOSTON. 
 
 The only outward sign that anything unusual was con- 
 templated at the regular meeting of the Union Club at Dr. 
 Meigs's house on December 27, 1862, was given in the 
 words "business meeting," written on the invitation cards, 
 near one of the lower corners. 
 
 When, however, the company had assembled, the scheme 
 which had been perfected was presented to their attention, 
 the late Stephen Colwell presiding, and Mr. Charles Gibbons 
 acting as secretary. Fundamental articles for the proposed 
 association had been drawn up by Mr. Gibbons, whose posi- 
 tion as a lawyer and uncompromising devotion to the prin- 
 cijjles involved qualified him well for the task.* 
 
 Debate arose as to whether a new name should be selected 
 for the new body, or whether it should simply transfer to 
 itself the title of the Club already existing. Mr. Gibbons 
 had originated the term "Union League;" but others favored 
 retaining the appellation of Union Club. Arguments were 
 advanced to support the former ; and perhaps the precedent 
 of the "solemn league and covenant" made at Boston in 
 
 * See Documentary History for the articles as finally adopted. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 37 
 
 1774, to ratify as against Great Britain the non-importation 
 and non-consumption agreement recommended by the Gen- 
 eral Court, — added to some association with that earlier 
 Solemn League and Covenant in 1643, for preserving 
 the Eeformed religion in Scotland and England, — had 
 an influence in shaping the decision. The designation 
 Union League was finally chosen. The articles at first 
 prescribed that members should not maintain any business 
 or social relation with persons whose loyalty was open to 
 question, showing how strenuous was the desire to define 
 beyond all cavil the jDOsition and purpose of the new asso- 
 ciation. Two individuals of the party at Dr. Meigs's, how- 
 ever, refused to pledge themselves to this condition ; and 
 since it was important to secure unanimity, the clause was 
 amended, though not without protest, and social j^roscription 
 of individuals belonging to the peace 23arty was not made 
 obligatory. But ultimately the result was much the same 
 as if it had been accejDted, for party feeling ran so high that 
 the majority of those signing the League covenant did actually 
 cut off all social connection with their political opponents, 
 and in many cases ceased to recognize them on the street. 
 
 A standing committee was appointed at this meeting, 
 consisting of Benjamin Gerhard, Charles Gibbons, William 
 H. Ashhurst, George H. Boker, James L. Claghorn, Horace 
 Binney, Jr., Morton McMichael, J. I. C. Hare, and Joseph B. 
 Townsend. But even at this time the full range of the League's 
 possibilities was not generally foreseen by the subscribers. 
 The j)revalent conception was that a reading-room should be 
 opened, where the well-disposed might assemble to learn the 
 
38 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 latest news and to hold salutary consultation. Some, however, 
 knew that more than this would be necessary ; and Messrs. 
 Ashhurst and Claghorn speedily resolved on taking a com- 
 modious house for the new loyal club. The building selected 
 by them was the old Hartmann Kuhn house, 1118 Chestnut 
 Street, which they engaged at a rent that appeared to many of 
 the more timid entirely unwarranted. On January 6, 1863, 
 Mr. Claghorn, as Treasurer, issued a circular requesting the 
 payment of fees, " the League being now organized," and on 
 February 6, 1863, there appeared in one of the newspapers 
 a notice to "the members of the association known as the 
 Union League," that the club-house in Chestnut Street would 
 be open the following Monday night, February 9. The day 
 before this a long letter was published in the same journal* 
 defending the recently formed Club against bitter attacks 
 which had been made upon it publicly in print, and in the 
 same issue is found a communication signed " Democracy," 
 breathing threats that a Democratic Committee of Safety 
 might soon be formed to retaliate for arrests on the part of 
 provost-marshals, by taking into custody prominent Republi- 
 cans. Such was still the divided state of popular feeling. 
 
 The League house was not opened formally until February 
 23, 1863, although the first general meeting was held Janu- 
 ary 22, in Concert Hall. Before that date Mr. Boker had 
 gone to' work in his capacity of Secretary, and sat at his desk 
 daily, taking the names of additional subscribers. Quite 
 early during this process two elderly and respected citizens 
 
 * The Press. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 39 
 
 came to him, saying, " We think this is a good movement, 
 and would like to put our names down. But, Mr. Boker, 
 what is it that you really intend doing ?" 
 
 " We intend to take treason by the throat !" was the reso- 
 lute answer. 
 
 The two candidates turned pale for a moment, startled by 
 so vehement a declaration ; but they presently gave in their 
 adhesion to the terse programme it embodied. 
 
 While the work of the committee was going on it became 
 ajDparent that something could be done to assist the building 
 up of an organization in New York similar to that which 
 they were directing. Some time in November, 1862, several 
 members of the Union Club who were engaged in the Sani- 
 tary Commission met Dr. Bellows in the cars, returning from 
 Washington. They told him of the movement already set 
 on foot in Philadelphia. Correspondence had sprung up 
 shortly before this between Professor Wolcott Gibbs and 
 Frederick Law Olmsted, of New York — both friends of 
 Dr. Bellows — concerning the advisability of an association 
 among the loyal men of that city ; but nothing had been 
 accomplished. The project received a fresh impetus from 
 this conversation with the Philadelphia gentlemen ; but be- 
 fore any final step had been taken the Union League was 
 developed. A little earlier than this — in December, and 
 before the first battle of Fredericksburg — Judge Hare met 
 Professor Gibbs on the street in New York, and unfolded to 
 him the larger scheme which had been matured as an out- 
 growth of the Union Club. His listener was apparently 
 much struck ; and as a consequence of these two conferences 
 
40 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 the Philadelphia Union League sent over to New York, in 
 January, 1863, a committee, to explain, for the benefit of 
 those in New York who wished to follow their example, the 
 plan which had been hit upon in Philadeljahia.* They 
 were received at the house of Mr. George Strong, and set 
 forth their views at length. Dr. Bellows then rose and said, 
 " Gentlemen of New York, I am satisfied with what we have 
 heard, and I move that we adjourn to the next room for 
 conference." His motion was acted upon, and after a short 
 time the group returned. President King of Columbia Col- 
 lege turning to the visitors with the words, " Gentlemen of 
 Philadelphia, we hope to organize here a club which shall 
 exceed yours in numbers and equal it in efficiency." Later 
 in the month of January an informal committee headed by 
 Judge Hare went to New York to renew the conclave al- 
 ready held, and on this occasion, the New York Union 
 League Club not having been as yet perfected, the Phila- 
 delphia delegates gave to their New York friends a dinner 
 at the Astor House. It may have been at this dinner that 
 the proposal was made that some of the patriots who pur- 
 posed a similar combination in New York should attend 
 the public opening of the Philadelphia League's house on 
 February 23. 
 
 The Union League of Philadelphia ratified its articles and 
 came into being December 27, 1862. The Union League 
 Club of New York did not adopt the report of its Committee 
 
 * This committee consisted of J. I. Clark Hare, Horace Binnej', Jr., 
 William Welsh, Alexander Brown, Ellis Yarnall, and Georire Trolt. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 41 
 
 on Organization until February 21, 1863, nearly two months 
 later. Its formation was effected almost wholly at the sug- 
 gestion, and certainly with the immediate advice and guiding 
 aid, of the Philadelphia League, from whose articles it bor- 
 rowed the first section, word for word, with two exceptions.* 
 
 It was one of the ardent wishes of the parent organization 
 to stimulate the creation of leagues harmonious with itself in 
 other cities and States. This early success in producing so 
 marked an effect upon New York was a striking testimony 
 to the moral impression it had begun to make in the very 
 first weeks of its existence. An understanding was also ar- 
 rived at that, in the task of promoting further organization, 
 the Union League Club should take New York and New 
 England for its field, while the Union League of Philadel- 
 phia should direct its efforts upon all places to the west of 
 that region ; but, as a matter of fact, the Union Club of 
 Boston drew its inspiration immediately from the League in 
 Philadelphia. The preliminary meeting of the Boston or- 
 ganization was held February 4, 1863, at the house of Dr. 
 Samuel G. Ward, " for the purpose of considering the expe- 
 diency of forming a club in this city on principles resembling 
 those of the Union League of Philadelphia."t Mr. Edwin 
 
 * For further details as to the date of beginning the Union League 
 Club of ISTew York, see Documentary History. 
 
 f Of this meeting, Edward Everett was chairman, and Martin 
 Brimmer secretary. A letter was read, recounting what had been 
 achieved in Philadelphia; and a committee of fifteen gentlemen of 
 the highest character and influence was appointed, which prepared 
 articles. The preamble and first clause were copied almost literally 
 
42 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 P. Whipple, who was a member of the club thus formed, 
 writes that "its effect was to make patriotism fashionable. 
 Its political power consisted, I think, in informing the rich 
 and fashionable people that they would lose caste if they 
 became Copperheads." The fact that this was thought 
 needful in Boston throws into still stronger relief the neces- 
 sity which had existed in Philadelphia. But the Boston 
 club was less aggressively courageous, and expressly bound 
 itself not to take any associate action "on any political 
 question or subject." 
 
 William Morris Meredith, eminent in the annals of Penn- 
 sylvania jurisprudence, was unanimously chosen President 
 of the League at the first general meeting, January 22, 1863, 
 and the choice was a wise one. Efficient in State politics. 
 Secretary of the Treasury under President Taylor, carrying 
 great weight by his character and social standing, and at 
 the date of the war made Attorney-General of Pennsyl- 
 vania by Governor Curtin, his position was such as to 
 command general attention to his act in accepting the 
 headship of the new body. Moreover, since he had been 
 a member of the Peace Congress at the beginning of seces- 
 sion, it was to be supposed that his attitude would be a 
 judiciously conservative one as regarded the present move- 
 ment ; so that his presence would naturally draw many 
 moderate and hesitating men into its current. The four 
 
 from the Philadelphia document. The second clause was altered to 
 suit the local conditions. Instead of the words " discountenance and 
 rebuke ... all disloyalty,'' etc., it read, " the encouragement and dis- 
 semination of patriotic sentiment and opinion." 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 43 
 
 Vice-Presidents — W. H. Ashhurst, Horace Binney, Jr., 
 John B. Myers, and Adolph E. Borie — were also elected 
 unanimously. The choice of directors fell with equal 
 unanimity upon Messrs. McMichael, Hare, Gibbons, Clag- 
 horn, Gerhard, Townsend, Boker, George Whitney, and 
 John B. Kenney. 
 
 At length the preparations of the Standing Committee 
 were so far advanced that they decided to celebrate Wash- 
 ington's birthday at the League house. The anniversary 
 fell on a Sunday, and the celebration — which brought about 
 the first large social assembly of members — did not come off 
 until Monday, February 23. Mr. Meredith's ofiicial duties 
 detaining him, Horace Binney, Jr., presided, introduced by 
 Mr. McMichael. The rooms were brilliantly decorated ; 
 flags draped the windows and doorways, and at an early 
 hour the house was crowded. Governor Curtin, who had 
 been the first executive to reinforce the demoralized national 
 army after Bull Run, and the first governor who had his 
 State ofiicially represented at Washington in caring for the 
 interests of soldiers in the field, attended the reception, and 
 spoke after Mr. Binney had offered him a permanent and 
 hearty welcome on behalf of the League. The Union 
 League Club of New York was represented by Dr. Bellows 
 and President King. The first said, " After looking around 
 on this assembly and hearing your Governor speak, it seems 
 as if Pennsylvania alone should crush the rebellion, and I 
 feel I should not offer you New York to aid in the under- 
 taking." President King was cordial in his acknowledgment 
 of the important action which had been taken. " In New 
 
44 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 York," he said, " we will gladly imitate the example set us 
 and co-operate with you. . . . We are in New York very 
 powerless of good. ... It is fit that in the city of the Hall 
 of Independence we should come here and learn that our 
 government must last forever. We carry out your precepts." 
 Messrs. James Milliken, Frederick Fraley, William D. 
 Lewis, Daniel Dougherty, M. Kussell Thayer, and Rev. 
 J. W. Jackson also made addresses,* after which Mr. Bin- 
 ney announced that the League house would be open every 
 Monday night for members, to give opportunity for a general 
 meeting and conversation. 
 
 The maledictions of the dissatisfied had been loud, in 
 both speech and print, and political opponents had even 
 averred that the Leaguers would never be allowed to take 
 possession of their building peaceably. The committee made 
 arrangements to thwart the riot thus predicted by laying in 
 a supply of axe-helves and stationing a force of police in the 
 grounds at the side of the house ; but the turbulent spirits 
 of the opposition were cowed, and the inauguration went 
 off peaceably, amid an enthusiasm which augured well for 
 the success of the League. 
 
 * See Documentary History. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 45 
 
 V. 
 
 FIRST YEAR OF THE LEAGUE. 
 
 The League had no sooner been set in motion than it was 
 imitated in other places, and a growing wave of enthusiasm 
 flowed forth from it, bringing invigoration to all whom it 
 touched. Men of sound sentiment everywhere felt them- 
 selves strengthened by this timely influence, and soldiers at 
 the front sent back to the founders a hearty hail of gratitude 
 and encouragement, and in some cases asked to be enrolled 
 as members. That which Judge Hare had looked forward 
 to as the outcome of this movement — a general " touching of 
 the elbows," to make friends of the Union feel that they 
 stood firm in the midst of a great homogeneous mass — was 
 coming to j)ass : they were now joined in a mighty phalanx. 
 And this moral cohesion, previously so much missed, was 
 destined to exert an influence of almost immeasurable im- 
 portance. 
 
 Not the least striking of the first effects was the revolution 
 in popular sentiment which soon began to manifest itself in 
 Philadelphia; and with this there appeared a boldness of 
 self-assertion on the part of the loyal, which had not existed 
 until then. Indeed, their spirit once aroused, it became 
 difiicult to restrain some of the hotter heads from acts of 
 
46 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 violence in retaliation for the threats and revilings bestowed 
 upon them by their opponents. When the tide of feeling 
 had begun fairly to turn, sedate citizens were sometimes 
 surprised of a morning to find halters hanging from street 
 lam23-posts, with inscriptions attached, stating that this was 
 the remedy designed for virulent peace advocates, who were 
 specified by name. The men who directed the League, 
 however, discouraged such ebullitions, and the conservative 
 counsel of the Secretary, Mr. Boker, was especially effica- 
 cious in this way. The President having little time for the 
 actual superintendence of League affairs, the Secretary, who 
 gave his days and nights unremittingly to the work, assumed 
 charge of them, and became naturally a target for hostility. 
 Nor must it be imagined that the post was without actual 
 danger. These active members of the League, though re- 
 maining at home in a Northern city, were sometimes exposed 
 to as much peril as they would have been on the battle- 
 ground. One night, during a period of great excitement 
 and in the midst of a dense crowd, an enemy of the cause 
 confronted Mr. Boker in front of the League house and 
 levelled a revolver at him. " I've got you now !" cried the 
 would-be assassin, with a burst of profanity, putting his 
 finger on the trigger. The Secretary was unarmed and only 
 a few feet from the muzzle of the revolver ; but he defied 
 his assailant in language as energetic as the emergency de- 
 manded, telling him to fire like the coward he was. Fortu- 
 nately, a friend in the crowd struck the revolver aside, and 
 the man was dragged off" by his more prudent comrades. 
 Facing opposition of this extreme kind, as well as of others, 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 47 
 
 the Leaguers preserved a resolute front, but were not hurried 
 into any answering violence, and pursued their objects with 
 increased tenacity and success. 
 
 The practical conduct of the enterprise was promptly 
 taken in hand by the Standing Committee, which held its 
 first meeting January 5, and came together at intervals 
 of from two to five days. Mr. Chai^les Gibbons was ap- 
 pointed a committee to draft By-Laws for the League, with 
 power to associate with himself Messrs. Kenney and S. B. 
 Thomas ; and measures were taken to procure a charter. 
 The By-Laws were unanimously adoiated January 22, at 
 the first League meeting. Early in March, also, it was re- 
 solved, on Mr. Gibbons's motion, to celebrate the national 
 anniversary.* 
 
 Among other resolutions taken at this time was one ad- 
 mitting to the privileges of the League, without fee, any 
 clergyman who should subscribe to the fundamental articles ; 
 and there was also an Elective Committee-}- appointed by the 
 President, to pass upon applicants for membership. 
 
 The immediate inspiration of tke League extended to 
 Washington, Baltimore, Delaware, and westward even to 
 San Francisco ; so that it became necessary to create a com- 
 mittee for the purpose of encouraging and assisting the 
 
 * The committee in charge of this entertainment consisted of 
 Messrs. McMichael, Whitnej', Gibbons, Claghorn, and Boker. 
 
 ■j" Messrs. Charles Gibbons, Wilson C. Swann, James Milliken, Cad- 
 walader Biddle, William H. Kern, James W. Paul, W. Eotch Wister, 
 George Erety, E. Spencer Miller, John Eice, George J. Gross, Edwin 
 Greble, and Fairman Eogers. 
 
48 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 organization of Union Leagues in Pennsylvania and else- 
 where, and to answer the applications in regard to this 
 matter, which poured in from all parts of the country. This 
 they did in part by means of a printed circular.* Even the 
 different wards in the city of Philadelphia set to work to 
 establish their special and subsidiary Leagues; and a popular 
 institution called the National Union Club, exacting only 
 nominal fees, was started in sympathy with the League 
 proper and received its co-operation. It was complained by 
 some of the friends of the Union that the League itself was 
 taking too nearly the mould of an ordinary social club. 
 They asserted that a body meeting in an elegant house, 
 " with lace curtains in the windows," never could produce a 
 revolution. But these persons were lacking in discernment. 
 About the middle of February, Mr. Gerhard moved that a 
 committee of three be named, with power to add to its num- 
 bers, for the purpose of printing and circulating information ; 
 and Mr. Gerhard himself, with Messrs. Ashhurst and Town- 
 send, were constituted such a committee. This was the 
 beginning of one of the most extensive and effectual func- 
 tions exercised by the League during the whole war period. 
 With a changed membershij), and under the name of the 
 Board of Publication, it circulated during 1863 more than 
 one million copies of the League's own publications, besides 
 many from other sources, sowing broadcast the seeds of a 
 healthier public opinion. A simple badge of light blue 
 silk, bearing the name of the League in gold, was brought 
 
 * See Documentary History. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 49 
 
 into use as a means of fostering the general spirit of brother- 
 hood in patriotism. 
 
 If the days had been gloomy when the Union Club sprang 
 into existence, the months since then had brought such a 
 freight of untoward events, both political and military, as 
 might have filled with despair men less determined than the 
 Leaguers. Burnside had suffered a terrible rout at Fred- 
 ericksburg in December; Sherman had been repulsed at 
 Vicksburg; and the campaign in Tennessee, despite the 
 favorable result of the Battle of Murfreesboro', had not yet 
 taken a decisive turn. The spring elections of March and 
 April showed New Hampshire so evenly divided that the 
 Republican candidate for governor had not even a plurality ; 
 Rhode Island was carried by a reduced majority; and the 
 majority in Connecticut, though decisive, was less than at 
 the previous election. It was evident that dissatisfaction at 
 the war, and hopelessness as to the restoring of the Union, 
 were gaining a continually stronger hold on the minds of 
 voters. In Philadelphia, the opposition thought it could de- 
 tect the dawn of a returning supremacy for itself in State 
 and national affairs. An indignation meeting of Peace 
 Democrats was held in Independence Square, to censure the 
 Federal government for the arrest of Mr. Vallandigham ; 
 and towards the last of March a new daily paper — The Age 
 — had been started to advocate their views. It met with 
 immediate success. An attempt was made to counter the 
 effect of the League by opening a Democratic club ; but this 
 was not so successful, since by the nature of its aims, which 
 were negative, it was debarred from coming before the people 
 
50 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 with a positive and consistent course caj)able of exciting 
 enthusiasm. Nevertheless, great encouragement was fur- 
 nished to this party by the majority of the Supreme Court 
 of Pennsylvania, which pronounced the Enrollment Act of 
 March unconstitutional ; and they were accordingly ready to 
 enter with high hopes into the struggle which arose in the 
 autumn over this issue, and over the general suspension of 
 the writ of habeas corpus by President Lincoln in SejDtember. 
 The Age, while printing in one column the movements of 
 " our forces" in the field, in another column brought to bear 
 upon those who were supporting the power that directed such 
 forces all the ingenuities of satire, abuse, and political con- 
 troversy that seemed likely to weaken the Union cause. It 
 accused the Leaguers of being " wolves in sheep's clothing," 
 not satisfied with destroying the Constitution, but also brand- 
 ing as traitors those who " clung to the provisions of that 
 sacred instrument." Their purpose, it averred, was to estab- 
 lish a consolidated government in the North, "operating 
 directly upon individuals without regard to State relations 
 and duties." At another time it offered a series of sarcastic 
 resolutions for the Leaguers, the purport of which was that 
 so long as any money could be made out of the war it should 
 be continued. Again, it called upon them tauntingly to 
 prove their patriotism by volunteering for military service. 
 Doubtless the editors of such a journal would have been glad 
 to see marching away to the war the men who so persistently 
 sought to trammel public enemies at home ; but the League 
 had been created precisely to do a work which could not be 
 effected by cannon and bayonet ; and they continued steadily 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 51 
 
 to prosecute it, bringing more energy to bear the more they 
 saw that it was needed. 
 
 An interesting acquisition to the properties of the house 
 was made in February through the purchase, by Mr. Ferdi- 
 nand J. Dreer and others, of Thomas Sully's portrait of 
 Washington, which they presented to the League. The 
 artist had already been voted the privileges of the League, 
 as an acknowledgment of his courtesy in loaning the picture. 
 Later on, Brigadier-General Birney sent to the association 
 General Kearney's battle-flag, which was cherished as a 
 memento of a singularly gallant officer. The flags of various 
 Pennsylvania regiments were collected, stained with faithful 
 blood and shredded by the enemy's bullets, but carrying 
 emblazoned on their faded folds the names of well-fought 
 fields, — symbols of the memories which should never fade, 
 though the banners themselves might crumble to dust. 
 Swords captured in the fray were hung crossed upon the 
 walls here and there, and other interesting relics of battle 
 were kept in sight. Over the cornice of the building rose 
 the effigy of an American eagle, with the starry national 
 ensign ceaselessly waving from a long stafl^ still higher in the 
 air ; and the martial souvenirs that greeted the eye on enter- 
 ing the lower rooms might well stir in those who beheld 
 them a fresh sense of how much was owing to the men who 
 had perished in action. Doubtless the sjDectacle awoke in 
 them a thought akin to that of Montrose, in his ringing 
 lines to the murdered Charles : 
 
 " I'll sing thy obsequies with trumpet-sounds, 
 And write thy epitaph in blood and wounds.'' 
 
52 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 . The enlistment of new legions, to avenge the dead and 
 justify their sacrifice by helping towards the final triumph, 
 afterwards became the special care of the Committee on 
 Enlistments, under the chairmanship of Mr. Joseph R. 
 Fry, whose labors will be described in another chapter. A 
 second committee, appointed April 8, was charged with 
 " providing employment for disabled soldiers who have been 
 honorably discharged from the United States service."* An- 
 other matter of great importance came up in the proposed 
 enrollment of negro troops, which involved so much conflict 
 with latent prejudice that the officers of the League were 
 unwilling to commit the organization to its advocacy. A 
 Supervisory Committee for the Enlistment of Colored Troops 
 was, however, formed by individuals of the League, which 
 had the moral support of the Board of Direction ; and the 
 eloquent poem written by the League Secretary, Mr. Boker, 
 on the Second Louisiana (the black regiment which dis- 
 played its gallantry at Port Hudson) was circulated by the 
 Board of Publication with its other documents. The chron- 
 icle of this committee must also be reserved for a separate 
 chapter. 
 
 The directors early saw the advisability of observing all 
 
 * For this service were selected Messrs. W. Welsh, W. B. Thomas, 
 John H. Town, George IST. Tatham, John D. Taylor, Charles Knecht, 
 M. Baird, Thomas Kimber, Jr., M. Errickson, James Dougherty, James 
 Pollock, John Thompson, Thomas Potter, Dell Noblit, Charles Wheeler, 
 W. Struthers, John Eice, Edwin Greble, James H. Bryson, W. F. Mis- 
 key, W. H. Merrick, Joseph S. Lovering, Thomas G. Hollingsworth, 
 John Sellers, Isaac F. Baker, W. C. Baker. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 53 
 
 anniversaries which could be turned to account in affecting 
 public sentiment. The chief effort in this direction was to 
 be made on July 4, 1863. It was determined to carry out 
 a celebration of the national holiday which should surpass 
 everything of the kind attempted before. Members of the 
 League subscribed a large sum to defray the expenses ; a 
 magnificent procession was planned, and numerous commit- 
 tees were appointed to take charge of every particular of the 
 ceremonies. Other Leagues throughout the country were 
 invited to participate ; the clergymen of Philadelphia were 
 to be asked to deliver, on the Sunday, the day following the 
 4th, sermons from one text, — that inscribed on the bell of 
 Independence Hall : " Proclaim liberty throughout the land 
 and to all the inhabitants thereof." President Lincoln had 
 promised to be present. Citizens were requested to decorate 
 their houses, and it was expected that a demonstration would 
 be made which would carry conviction in all quarters that 
 the manufacturing metropolis of the country was fully im- 
 bued with an invincible loyalty. This conviction, however, 
 was to be conveyed, as it turned out, by means very different 
 from those contemplated. 
 
 By the twelfth day of June it had become clear that, leav- 
 ing Hooker at the Rappahannock weakened by his severe 
 defeat at Chancellorsville, General Lee was moving upon 
 Pennsylvania; one of his main objects, it was afterwards 
 believed, being to take advantage of the disaffection still 
 rampant there, and precipitate, if possible, an insurrection in 
 the North. Pennsylvania was at once divided into military 
 departments, under Generals Couch and W. T. H. Brooks. 
 
54 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Governor Curtin called on the people to raise a departmental 
 corps for State defence. Four days later (June 16) he issued 
 a second proclamation, demanding volunteers at once, to 
 assist in meeting the President's requisition for fifty thousand 
 short-term soldiers from the threatened State. Mayor Henry 
 followed with a proclamation urging citizens to close their 
 places of business and connect themselves with existing 
 military organizations. The State-House bell rang a public 
 alarm for the first time in fourteen years. A little later the 
 Home Guard and Gray Reserves were ordered out. But 
 j)eople in general were half paralyzed by the suddenness of 
 the emergency, and delayed about volunteering. In this 
 emergency the League felt that its duty was clear to abandon 
 the projected celebration and throw itself into the work of 
 defence against the invader. The Committee on Enlistment 
 was appointed from among the subscribers to the Fourth of 
 July fund, with power to equij) forces. In a few days they 
 had raised eighty thousand dollars, and it was not long be- 
 fore they sent three newly-formed regiments to the front, at 
 their own expense. Business was now suspended ; citizens 
 began to arm and drill : instead of the clergymen preparing 
 sermons on the chosen text, one hundred of them went out 
 to assist in digging intrenchments for the protection of the 
 city. A general meeting of the League was called, to be 
 held at four o'clock on the afternoon of July 1, the call being 
 signed by William D. Lewis, who said, " It is expected, as a 
 duty to the cause of the Union, for which the League was 
 formed, that every member will be present." A great num- 
 ber responded ; and, as the object of their assembling was to 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 55 
 
 form among themselves a military company, to offer its 
 services to General Dana, commandant of the defences of 
 Philadelphia, a roll was opened, which was promptly signed 
 by two hundred members. They then formed in the gardens 
 attached to the house, and issuing forth with the League 
 banner, preceded by music, paraded through the streets. 
 Many of the foremost manufacturers, merchants, clergymen, 
 and officials of Philadelphia were in the line, which was 
 reviewed by General Dana ; and it was thus made plain that 
 these citizens were ready to take their places in the ranks 
 the moment that they believed they could best serve the 
 country by so doing. The parade drew out much enthu- 
 siasm, and its effect on other citizens was inspiriting. But 
 the next day brought the crisis of the camj)aign. Lee and 
 Meade met and clashed at Gettysburg, and on the " prom- 
 ontory of bayonets" which there jutted out against the foe, 
 the tide of rebel invasion was broken. 
 
 The enemies of the government, confident that Lee would 
 soon enter the city, had placarded the names of prominent 
 individuals in the League, hoping thus to mark them for 
 special punishment at the hands of the rebels. But their 
 season of vindictive anticipation was brief, and, instead of 
 being themselves singled out for special chastisement in re- 
 turn, they were left to the more bitter fate of their increasing 
 insignificance. So soon as the first half-uncertain tidings 
 came that the enemy had been beaten back at Gettysburg, 
 the League assembled and marched to the house occupied 
 by the wife of General Meade, in Pine Street, where they 
 serenaded her and assured her of their belief that the com- 
 
56 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 mander's victory would prove to be complete and triumphant. 
 A little after the news of Lee's defeat came the intelligence 
 that Vicksburg had been taken by Grant, with thirty-seven 
 thousand prisoners. Mr. George Trott, of the Committee on 
 Enlistments, recalls that while he was engaged in paying 
 bounties for the League regiments just raised, he heard the 
 bells of the city break out in a tumultuous ringing, and 
 demanding the cause, was answered, " Grant has taken Vicks- 
 burg !" He immediately quitted the League house ; a band 
 of music was engaged to post itself in the belfry of Indepen- 
 dence Hall, crowds having collected below ; and a sort of 
 popular Te Deum service was held. Rev. Phillips Brooks 
 and the Kev. Dr. Brainerd made prayers, and at a given 
 signal the band, in the belfry of the venerable and hallowed 
 edifice, raised the sonorous strains of " Old Hundred." 
 
 A fortnight later three gentlemen were brought before 
 United States Commissioner A. H. Smith, on charges of 
 "conspiracy against the government, correspondence with 
 rebels, and high treason." One of them was the president 
 of a Philadelphia college, who was accused of writing to a 
 rebel friend, " The cry in the streets, of the fall of Vicksburg, 
 is killing me by inches." The fact is of moment as showing 
 how, in the midst of national jubilation over two victories so 
 obviously the beginning of extinction for the rebellion, the 
 old disloyal poison, to which the League had provided such 
 potent antidotes, continued to work. Deprived of their hope 
 that disaster would overcome the Union armies, the anti-war 
 party now began fresh efforts to attain success at the polls. 
 Judge Woodward — the same whose desire to have Pennsyl- 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 57 
 
 vania included in the Southern Confederacy has been noted* 
 — was put in nomination by the Democrats, for the governor- 
 ship, as against the able incumbent, Andrew G. Curtin, 
 who had used his utmost powers in furtherance of the war. 
 Judge Woodward had also been of the Supreme Court 
 majority adverse to the Enrollment Act. The Union League, 
 recognizing no issue between parties beyond that of support 
 or non-support of the government in putting down rebellion, 
 threw itself heartily into the campaign on the side of Gov- 
 ernor Curtin. Mr. Wayne MacVeagh, who at that time was 
 chairman of the State Central Committee of the Eepublican 
 party, had the full confidence and sympathy of his fellow- 
 Leaguers, and they gave him powerful assistance. The 
 League Treasurer, Mr. James L. Claghorn, who also held 
 the post of treasurer to the several committees, went about 
 among the members of the League, acting on his own re- 
 sponsibility, and collected for use, in the legitimate expenses 
 of the canvass, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, — a 
 donation so much beyond absolute needs, and so well hus- 
 banded by Mr. MacVeagh, that a substantial portion of it 
 was afterwards returned and passed over to the Board of 
 Publication. That board, meanwhile, was incessantly active 
 in circulating papers on the habeas corpus and other ques- 
 tions. Virtual insurrection had broken out in New York 
 in the form of the Draft Riots in July ; and, were the De- 
 mocracy to gain power in Pennsylvania as it had done there, 
 it was felt that the battle of Gettysburg might have to be 
 
 * Chapter II. 
 
58 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 repeated, with tlie adverse condition of a State executive 
 inclined to treat with the rebels and cripple all resistance. 
 
 The result of the election on October 13 was a majority of 
 fifteen thousand votes for Governor Curtin, and the Eepub- 
 licans controlled every branch of the State government. At 
 about the same time Ohio was carried for the same party by 
 more than one hundred thousand majority. As Vermont, 
 Maine, and California had all gone heavily Eepublican in 
 the previous month, the return of the jjeople to their alle- 
 giance appeared to be decisive. For these triumphs the 
 League, which had toiled unstintedly to effect them, no 
 doubt deserved a large share of the credit. Its influence 
 had gone out through all the Northern States. On October 
 10 it once more appeared in procession, this time to receive 
 Governor Curtin at the close of the campaign, and escort 
 him to the League House. 
 
 " The Union League of Philadelphia," says the Secretary 
 in his first annual report, " moved slowly, and we may even 
 say reluctantly, into active public life ; but we were impelled 
 towards this career by the very law of our being." When, 
 therefore, the association took sides in the gubernatorial 
 campaign, it set forth its reasons for so doing in an address 
 adopted at a special meeting, September 16.* From the 
 
 * Extracts from the address will be found in the Documentary His- 
 tory. The Committee on Address and Resolutions comprised Messrs. 
 J. 0. Knox, Charles Gibbons, N. B. Browne, Edward Shippen, B. H. 
 Brewster, W. H. Ashhurst, Charles Gilpin, Daniel Dougherty, Benjamin 
 Gerhard, James Milliken, Morris S. Halliwell, H. C. Carey, John W. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 59 
 
 beginning regular Monday evening meetings had been held, 
 at which orators, both local and of other States, sjwke to the 
 members ; and these meetings, interrupted for a time, were 
 resumed with good effect in the course of the campaign. 
 
 During the year a medal had been devised, which the 
 Directors designed for presentation to officers of the govern- 
 ment or of the army and navy, to whose services they wished 
 to pay tribute in a form which the sentiment of gratitude 
 naturally takes, — a form not dependent for its value on the 
 intrinsic worth of the token offered, but on the feeling repre- 
 sented by it. In August they voted a gold medal of this 
 kind to President Lincoln, and silver ones to his Cabinet, 
 together with the following public men : Major-Generals 
 Grant, Meade, Kosecrans, Halleck, Banks, Burnside, Q. A. 
 Gillmore, McDowell, Butler, Hooker, Sigel, Couch, Dana, 
 and Cadwalader, and Brigadier-Generals Lorenzo Thomas 
 and W. D. Whipj^le. Governor Curtin and Colonel George 
 A. Crosman were similarly distinguished. In the navy. 
 Admirals Farragut and Porter, Captain Wordeu, and the 
 widow of Admiral Foote were the recipients of medals. 
 Others were sent to Josiah Quincy and to those French and 
 English advocates of our Union who had done us so dis- 
 interested a service abroad, — Laboulaye, Gasparin, John 
 Bright, Richard Cobden, Cairns. 
 
 There had been many men in the League who had lent it 
 willing and priceless service of time, thought, and assiduous 
 
 Forney, Daniel Smith, Jr., James L. Claghorn, J. G. Pell, J. I. Clark 
 Hare, Morton McMiehael, George H. Boker. 
 
(50 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 attention to details ; none more so than Daniel Smith, Jr., 
 and the late William D. Lewis, who, without being promi- 
 nent in any office or committee, were always at hand to 
 help with the wisdom of experience and with fires of en- 
 thusiasm unquenched by age. Mr. Lewis, formerly Col- 
 lector of the Port, although at this period a man of seventy 
 years, had been the first to call together a Committee of 
 Defence and Protection after the attack on Sumter, and sug- 
 gested the military exertions of the League, which began in 
 1863. Uncompromising towards all foes of the Union, he 
 was bold, prompt, and untiring in his efforts to defeat them. 
 Mr. Smith, who survives at the date of this writing in his 
 ninety-first year, was the trusted and revered companion of 
 those younger than himself, whose shoulders were steadily 
 set to the wheel. In love of country and fervor of principle, 
 he became coeval with them. His earnestness, his frankness 
 and affection, his many-sided interest in the situation of the 
 hour, sujDplied an inspiration to all who came under the 
 influence of his 23resence. No record would be complete 
 which should omit the significant part taken by JNIr. Smith 
 and Mr. Lewis, — " venerable gentlemen," as Mr. McMichael 
 happily characterized them in later years, " co-servitors in 
 their fresh youth, co-mates in their robust prime, coadjutors 
 in their serene decline." But there were two other members 
 who had especially distinguished themselves by making the 
 League's duties the chief concern of their daily lives. These 
 were the Secretary, Mr. Boker, and the Treasurer, Mr. Clag- 
 horn. The former, in the midst of vexatious private affairs, 
 gave himself up almost wholly to the formal conduct of the 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 61 
 
 League's business, to its correspondence, and the drafting 
 of important documents; but he found time at intervals 
 to write those eloquent ballads and other lyrics of the war, 
 which ran their course through the press of the land, and 
 woke eager echoes in the hearts of the people and the armies. 
 However discouraging the situation might be, he was never 
 known for an hour to give way to depression, but constantly 
 reanimated the drooping spirits of his associates. Mr. Clag- 
 horn, on his part, neglecting opportunities for private gain 
 in business, governed the j&nancial interests of the Leaigue 
 with a hand at once prudent and generous, and was present 
 in its halls day and night, ready to help or advise. More- 
 over, it was largely due to his skill and industry that the 
 enormous subscriptions needed for the several enterprises 
 of the League were so readily obtained ; all of them being 
 gained by individual appeal, since no other tax than the 
 annual dues could be imposed by the Directors. Hence it 
 was natural that certain of their coadjutors should have 
 singled out these gentlemen as the objects of a compli- 
 ment at the close of their first year in office. The anni- 
 versary of the foundation of the League occurred on Sunday, 
 so that its celebration was put off until the next day ; 
 but, an exceptional storm preventing the calling together 
 of members, those who had prepared the testimonials sent 
 them to the houses of the two officers just referred to. 
 For the Secretary they had procured a pen-holder of gold, 
 made from melted coin of the United States, and for the 
 Treasurer a silver check-cutter, the material of which was 
 also obtained from the National mintage. The two gifts 
 
62 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 were as appropriate as they were merited, and both were 
 cordially acknowledged. 
 
 The second annual meeting of the League took place 
 December 14, 1863, and the entire government as at first 
 constituted was re-elected. The Board was authorized to 
 apply for an act of incorporation, and the acknowledgments 
 of the meeting were tendered to the officers and Directors 
 " for the fidelity and ability with which they have conducted 
 the affairs of the League during the first year of its organ- 
 ization." From the sixty-odd names first signed, the roll of 
 the League had grown until it now embraced nine hundred 
 and sixty-eight members, and the Strangers' Register showed 
 the signatures of fifteen hundred visitors to the house ; 
 among them were the Episcojoal Convention and the Presby- 
 terian General Assembly. It was significant that officers 
 of the army and navy made the club-house their frequent 
 resort; and we must not forget that at that time these 
 branches of the public service still needed much training to 
 prepare them for recognition of the true issue involved in 
 the war, — namely, the restoration of Union without slavery. 
 In educating them to this view, the League performed a duty 
 not the least of those it fulfilled. 
 
 Such is the brief outline of what was accomplished during 
 the first twelve months of the League's life. Let no one 
 hereafter, because all the particulars of that stirring period 
 cannot be reproduced with the vividness and thrill of their 
 actual occurrence, presume to cast any reflection upon the 
 true-hearted citizens who, remaining at their homes, per- 
 ceived the deadly disease that lurked in the very bosom of 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 63 
 
 the nation, and applied themselves to its cure! It would be 
 difficult to over-estimate their deeds, or to imagine adequately 
 the anguish and the courage and the endurance which were 
 part of their experience. They poured out their money like 
 water, contributing during this year, besides the fifty thou- 
 sand dollars required for the support of their house, probably 
 close upon a quarter of a million dollars to renew the sinews 
 of war, both military and political. They had given of their 
 blood and brain, not indeed by offering them to the swift 
 annihilation of sword or shell, but by the waste attending 
 strenuous exertion, intense and anxious thought, and the pro- 
 longed physical labor which had to be accomplished after 
 business hours or by the sacrifice of their own affairs. Not 
 content with corporate action, individuals of the League had 
 constantly been associated with the Sanitary Commission, the 
 Christian Commission, and the Union Volunteer Refresh- 
 ment Saloon for soldiers. The local Soldiers' Claim and 
 Pension Agency also was composed of League members. In 
 fine, the members had striven as a whole and severally to 
 maintain and strengthen every agency which could in any 
 way unify the reserve forces of the nation, and bring them to 
 bear on the great, ultimate object of the struggle. 
 
64 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 
 
 The Board of Publication grew immediately out of a 
 motion made by Mr. Benjamin Gerbard, in tbe Board of 
 Directors, February 17, 1863, that a committee of three, with 
 power to add to their number from members of the League, 
 should be appointed to print and distribute useful informa- 
 tion ; but it was provided that the fund for their use should 
 be raised entirely by voluntary subscription. Messrs. Ger- 
 hard, Ashhurst, and Townsend were appointed, and soon 
 associated with themselves Mr. Lindley Smyth and several . 
 others. Their first plan was to raise a sum the interest of 
 which should sufiice for their purposes, and the members of 
 the committee began the subscription by each giving two 
 hundred and fifty dollars, which was fixed upon as the mini- 
 mum contribution to be received from any individual. In 
 this way thirty-five thousand dollars were soon obtained; 
 but it was found that an invested fund would not sufiice for 
 the work ; that the money must be spent as fast as required, 
 and more must be raised for subsequent needs. So extensive 
 did the field thus entered upon prove to be, that a simple 
 committee could not cover it. In this way the Board of- 
 Publication, with its several sub-committees, was developed. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 65 
 
 It was comijosed of twenty-eight gentlemen. The oflficers 
 of the Board were these: Chairman, Benjamin Gerhard; 
 Treasurer, James L. Claghorn ; Secretary, M. H. Messchert ; 
 and Assistant Secretary, C. Izard Maceuen. The members 
 were W. H. Ashhurst, Alexander Brown, Stephen Colwell, 
 George M. Conarroe, J. Gillingham Fell, John W. Field, 
 Benjamin P. Hunt, Henry Lewis, Bloomfield H. Moore, 
 N. B. Browne, Henry C. Lea, James W. Paul, George D. 
 Parrish, Samuel C. Perkins, Evan Eandolph, W. Henry 
 Eawle, Lindley Smyth, Joseph B. Townsend, George Trott, 
 W. M. Tilghman, Thomas Webster, Andrew Wheeler, Ellis 
 Yarnall. 
 
 These, again, were subdivided into three committees of 
 the Board, — one on Finance, with Mr. Lindley Smyth as 
 chairman; a second on Publication, under Mr. Stephen 
 Colwell ; and the third on Distribution. Of the last, Mr. 
 W. H. Ashhurst was chairman. 
 
 The size and constitution of this Board indicate in them- 
 selves the magnitude of the task which it performed. There 
 was, first, the selection of suitable matter to be considered ; 
 then came the details of publication, and the still more 
 complicated duty of ascertaining where documents could be 
 sent to the best advantage. The Committee on Finance sup- 
 plied the means required, and Mr. Smyth became in addition 
 the head of the Board, succeeding Mr. Gerhard on the latter's 
 untimely death. Under his management the functions of 
 the Board were conducted with eminent success until its 
 activity ceased, in November, 1866, .with the advent of a 
 more settled period. Below the committee-room was an 
 
66 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 apartment where printed matter was folded and mailed, and 
 a force of a dozen clerks was constantly employed during the 
 first two and busier years of the Board. The publications 
 were various in character, being adapted to different classes 
 of minds, and containing arguments in answer to all objec- 
 tions brought against the j)olicy of the government or the 
 continuance of the wax, from whatever quarter. Among the 
 first issued were letters from General Rosecrans, together 
 with protests and resolutions passed by regiments in service, 
 against the jjerversion of the Democratic party to an indirect 
 abetting of the public enemy. These were followed in 
 March, 1863, by a pamphlet which detailed the precedents 
 in our own history for the use of negro soldiers ; this by 
 way of j)i"ej)aring the poj)ular mind for that measure which 
 thoughtful men already saw to be inevitable. Later on a 
 masterly brochure by Dr. Charles J. Stille, on " How a Free 
 People conduct a Long War," was taken up. It reviewed 
 the history of English opinion during the Peninsular war, 
 to show how the same popular impatience, the same quick 
 despondency over defeat, which had been noticeable in the 
 Northern States during the prevailing struggle, had existed 
 in England at that earlier period, and how it had been 
 eclipsed by the slowly-formed determination to succeed in 
 spite of all drawbacks of military reverse, increasing debt, 
 and opposition in Parliament. It was easy to demonstrate 
 how much better was our situation than that of Endand 
 had been, and to draw from her success a lesson of encour- 
 agement. This pamphlet was a clarion voice, reviving the 
 faint-hearted at one of the most trying epochs of the civil 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 67 
 
 strife. Wherever the Board found brave words apt to the 
 crisis, whether uttered in speech or silently sent forth from 
 the scholar's study, it seized upon and multiplied them by 
 the press, so that all might read and heed. Sj)eeches, letters, 
 essays, the product of the best minds, were thus circulated. 
 Among the men represented by these publications were 
 Stille, Francis Lieber, Governor Curtin, Salmon P. Chase, 
 Horace Binney, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell 
 Lowell, George H. Boker, Goldwin Smith, Dr. W. H. 
 Bellows, Carl Schurz. Collected, the documents sent out 
 by the Board form to-day a curious and complete arsenal of 
 logical weapons wrought for the defence of the Union, and 
 show in what sturdy fashion the war of ideas was waged, 
 which sujDplemented so effectually the valor of our armies. 
 
 In 1863 the Board distributed more than a million copies 
 of pamphlets in English and German ; in 1864, one million 
 forty-four thousand nine hundred. In the year after the 
 end of the war it still circulated fifty-six thousand three 
 hundred and eighty, and in 1866, eight hundred and sixty- 
 seven thousand more. The distribution for 1867 amounted 
 to thirty-one thousand nine hundred and eighty-two; that 
 for 1868 reached the enormous total of one million four 
 hundred and sixteen thousand nine hundred and six docu- 
 ments. But this is only a part of what it did ; for it sent 
 out large numbers of publications, not recorded, which were 
 printed by other associations. It undertook, likewise, the 
 important task of securing for doubtful voters subscriptions 
 to loyal newspapers, which by steady iteration day after day 
 educated the wavering into Union beliefs. 
 
68 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 In the Presidential campaign of 1864 the Board effected a 
 thorough canvass of the State of Pennsylvania, put itself in 
 communication with the local chairman of every school- 
 district in the Commonwealth, and, having ascertained by 
 name what voters were doubtful, concentrated upon these with 
 signal success a stream of ideas in print. Another mode 
 in which its influence 0]3erated must not be overlooked. 
 Postmasters, school-teachers, and other persons were induced 
 to act as distributing agents for the Board ; and the mass of 
 information and argument which thus came under their 
 notice, as they disseminated it, had its effect on their own 
 minds, so that where they had jierhaps hitherto been luke- 
 warm they became fired with a fresh zeal. 
 
 The sums of money collected by the committee from 
 League members were very large ; but, unfortunately, no 
 record of the amount is now accessible. Breaking the con- 
 tinuity of this chronicle for a moment, and passing on to 
 the time when the chairman, Mr. Smyth, resigned his ofiice, 
 we may learn at a glance what estimate his co-members 
 placed on the achievements of the committee. At the annual 
 meeting of the League, December, 1868, on motion of Mr. 
 N. B. Browne, these resolutions were unanimously adopted : 
 
 "Resolved, That the members of the Union League of Philadelphia 
 have learned with unaffected regret that Lindley Smyth, Esq., late 
 chairman of their Committee of Publication, has declined to allow his 
 name to be presented as a candidate for re-election to the Board of 
 Directors. 
 
 "Resolved, That no department of the work of the League has been 
 of more real service to the country, or reflected more true and lasting 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 69 
 
 honor upon the League itself, than its department of publication, at 
 that most critical period in our country's history, the autumn of 1863, 
 when Governor Curtin was a candidate for re-election. He declared 
 openly that he owed his success to the Union League of Philadelphia, 
 which, as he playfully said, ' had plastered the State with its handbills.' 
 Other publications by the committee, of calmer tone and higher argu- 
 ment, insti-ucted and encouraged the minds and the hearts of our 
 fellow- citizens throughout the whole of the great struggle, now 
 through the Divine Providence so happily ended; and in this work 
 nearly four and a half millions of documents have been by us distrib- 
 uted. This and all the laborious and useful work of the Committee of 
 Publication, from its establishment in March, 1863, to the present time, 
 has been directed by Mr. Lindley Smyth as its chairman, whose perse- 
 verance first collected the large necessary funds, and whose sagacity, 
 political wisdom, administrative jjower, and untiring industry, exercised 
 for nearly six continuous years, have, as we believe, conferred upon 
 our Commonwealth and our whole Eopublic benefits which, though 
 difficult to estimate and impossible to compensate, it now becomes our 
 duty thus publicly to acknowledge. 
 
 "Resolved, That for the services to which we have now most im- 
 perfectlj' referred, we hereby tender to Lindley Smyth, Esq., the cordial 
 thanks, the unlimited respect, and the profound gratitude of the Union 
 League of Philadelphia. 
 
 " Resolved, That the Directors are hereby requested to tender to Mr. 
 Lindley Smyth, on our behalf, the gold medal of the League, as a 
 slight tribute from his friends and fellow-members, and to accompany 
 it with a copy of these resolutions." 
 
70 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 VII. 
 
 COMMITTEE ON ENLISTMENTS. 
 
 A PEOMPT result of the excitement caused by Lee's inva- 
 sion of Pennsylvania was that the League, at a meeting held 
 June 27, 1863, appointed a committee to organize a regiment 
 under its auspices. Of the gentlemen designated, J. Reese 
 Fry was made chairman. His associates were Samuel Felton, 
 J. Edgar Thomson, Ellerslie Wallace, M.D., James L. Clag- 
 horn, Horace Binney, Jr., Morton McMichael, George H. 
 Crosman, J. I. Clark Hare, W. D. Lewis, George Whitney, 
 and Andrew Wheeler. 
 
 Their first proceeding was to advertise in the public prints 
 for volunteers to enter a three months' regiment, under the 
 Governor's call. A high bounty was offered, and it was 
 explained that " such necessary expenses as are not properly 
 borne by the government will be defrayed from a fund raised 
 by the members of the League." So rapidly did the ranks 
 begin to fill up that by July 4 — only a week after the com- 
 mittee came into existence — recruits were called for to be 
 enrolled in a second regiment. Before December three full 
 regiments, known collectively as the Union League Brigade, 
 had been raised and placed at the disposal of the national 
 government, under the command of Colonel William D. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 71 
 
 Whipple. The first of these, which at the start was called 
 the First Regiment of Pennsylvania Chasseurs, was headed 
 by Lieutenant-Colonel T. Ellwood Zell, the second by Colo- 
 nel George P. McLean, and the last by Colonel Gray. In 
 addition to the above forces, five companies of League cavalry 
 were recruited at the same time. The winter of 1863-64 
 saw another full regiment put into the field by the com- 
 mittee, — the Fourth Union League, — which was mustered 
 in as the One Hundred and Eighty-Third Pennsylvania 
 Volunteers. This regiment was enlisted for three years. 
 One hundred days' men were required in July, 1864, and 
 the Fifth Union League, or One Hundred and Ninety-Sixth 
 Pennsylvania Regiment, Colonel Neff, responded to the de- 
 mand. Shortly afterward the Sixth Union League (One 
 Hundred and Ninety-Eighth Pennsylvania) was organized, 
 under Colonel Sickel, to serve for a year. It consisted of 
 three battalions, numbering about fourteen hundred men. 
 Again, in December of 1864, during the chairmanship of 
 Mr. James H. Orne, the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Union 
 League Regiments were formed, under command of Colonels 
 John A. Gorgas, D. B. McKibben, and Francis Wister, con- 
 stituting respectively the Two Hundred and Thirteenth, Two 
 Hundred and Fourteenth, and Two Hundred and Fifteenth 
 Pennsylvania Volunteers. Thus, in all, the Committee on 
 Enlistments gave to the service, during these two closing 
 years of the war, a body of ten thousand troops. The sums 
 raised and disbursed by them in this remarkable enterprise 
 amounted to one hundred and eight thousand dollars. 
 
 By the time the last regiment was completed, the war 
 
72 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 came abruptly to an end and the committee dissolved ; but 
 some of the forces despatched by them to the front had been 
 able to take an active and important share in the campaigns. 
 The One Hundred and Eighty-Third Eegiment, led by 
 Colonel George P. McLean, went at once into the fight at 
 the Wilderness, and continued with Grant through the whole 
 of the severe campaign which there began, being engaged in 
 many of the battles that took place on the march to Peters- 
 burg. In the siege of Petersburg it went frequently into 
 action, always with consiaicuous gallantry. After a few 
 months its numbers had become reduced to one hundred and 
 fifty men, so great was the depletion by death and disease ; 
 but, with ranks partially refilled by disbanding veterans and 
 fresh recruits, it kept its place in the field, constantly active, 
 until the surrender of Lee. Colonel Horatio G. Sickel's 
 One Hundred and Ninety-Eighth (Sixth Union League) 
 Regiment gained the highest kind of reputation in the Army 
 of the Potomac. It was victorious in its very first struggle, 
 which involved a difiicult charge on the position of the 
 enemy in front of Petersburg; and, with one New York 
 regiment and a battery of artillery, it defeated and drove for 
 a long distance, at the Battle of Lewis Farm, three of the 
 best brigades in the Southern army, as was subsequently 
 attested by General Ewell and other ex-Confederate ofiicers. 
 This was one of the last battles in Virginia, and was fought 
 in March, 1865. Occurring on the extreme left, it was a 
 critical engagement, and the valor of the One Hundred and 
 Ninety-Eighth prevented serious disaster. Colonel Sickel 
 was wounded on that occasion, and the two majors of the 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 73 
 
 regiment, Glenn and Macenen, were killed. It jiushed on, 
 nevertheless, assisted in the Battle of Five Forks, and co- 
 operated with Sheridan in the final manoeuvres which termi- 
 nated at Appomattox Court-House. 
 
 The hundred days' men of Colonel Neflf were employed in 
 guarding rebel prisoners in Illinois ; but even in that com- 
 paratively obscure duty they distinguished themselves for 
 discipline and efficiency. Although the last three regiments 
 recruited by the League were not called upon to do battle, 
 they all proved to be useful in performing garrison and other 
 duty throughout the unsettled period of the months follow- 
 ing the surrender of the Southern armies, when the country 
 was making the transition to a state of peace. The Two 
 Hundred and Fourteenth (Eighth Union League) was not, 
 in fact, mustered out until March, 1866, almost a year after 
 the rebellion was over. 
 
 Thus the name and inspiration of the Union League were 
 carried forward amid the clash of arms, over the fields of 
 fire and death, to meet the foe in front, as they had already 
 been made to oppose the enemy at home ; and some of the 
 League troops remained in the service when o|)en insurrec- 
 tion had long ceased, just as the League itself, as we shall 
 see, continued to battle for the principles of its foundation 
 when the military attack had been exchanged for a civil one. 
 
 The first chairman of the Committee on Enlistments, Mr. 
 J. Eeese Fry, died in ofiice early in 1864, and was succeeded 
 by Mr. James H. Orne, a public-spirited merchant, who had 
 become one of the committee after its appointment, and had 
 manifested extraordinary devotion to its aims. His energy 
 
 10 
 
74 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 and efficiency were such that, under his supervision, the 
 One Hundred and Ninety-Eighth Eegiment completed its 
 organization in the short space of five weeks. The last 
 three regiments were also raised with uncommon rapidity, 
 recalling the enthusiasm of the early months of the war. 
 Mr. Orne, Mr. George Trott, and Mr. N. B. Browne were 
 unremitting in their activity. Mr. Trott himself took a 
 short course of military instruction, and drilled some of the 
 recruits for the first League Regiment, besides which the 
 committee had many duties not included in the organizing 
 of troops. Their correspondence was extensive; they kept 
 uj) communication with officers at the front, and took a quick 
 interest in looking after everything that promised to be of 
 use to the War Department or to foster enlightened opinion 
 in the army. Mr. Orne, too, became convinced that the 
 prevailing system of local bounties was disadvantageous to 
 the recruiting interest ; and a memorial on this subject was 
 presented by the committee to Congress, with the effect of 
 bringing about important changes in the Enrollment Act. 
 
 The Committee on Enlistments and the Board of Publica- 
 tion, which embraced some of the same members, were both 
 virtually in perpetual session, and the gentlemen conducting 
 their affairs never permitted private interests to interfere 
 with the larger obligations they had assumed. These two 
 bodies performed a work which was unique. No other organ- 
 ization in the country could show such results as the League 
 accomplished through these two committees, and the record 
 of their career presents, in a striking and objective form, the 
 general spirit of the Union League which gave them life. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 75 
 
 VIII. 
 
 THE RAISING OF NEGRO TROOPS. 
 
 Not a little of what the League accomplished sprang out 
 of the casual but regularly recurring encounters at the 
 League house of different kinds of minds imbued with a 
 sentiment in common. Dreamers, thinkers, men of practical 
 affairs, met and conversed ; a suggestion, a passing thought, 
 at once received consideration in various lights, and, if it 
 had value, began to assume substantial shape. One or two 
 groups, like that which came to be known as " The Five- 
 Twenties," assembled regularly and discussed various meas- 
 ures which it seemed to them advisable to agitate, or meas- 
 ures which they could carry out for the general benefit when 
 there was not time for the governing board to convene and 
 act upon the matter. But a great deal was also done by 
 individuals without the aid of any such concerted agency ; 
 and it was in this manner that the project of enlisting negro 
 soldiers was executed. Although undertaken under the 
 auspices of a number of citizens, some of whom were not 
 members of the League, its inception was in that association, 
 and the leader of the enterprise was Mr. Thomas Webster, 
 who had entered the League at an early date in its history. 
 
 The question of arming the blacks in defence of the 
 
76 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Union had been brouglat into Congressional debate about 
 the middle of 1862, when Senator Henry Wilson, of Massa- 
 chusetts, presented a bill which amended the act of 1795, 
 as to the manner of calling out militia. Finally, on the 
 motion of Senator Preston King, of New York, an amend- 
 ment was adopted authorizing the employment of "persons 
 of African descent for constructing intrenchments, or any 
 war service." Previous to that, Representative John Hick- 
 man, of Pennsylvania, had introduced a bill authorizing the 
 enlistment of colored troops, in March, 1862 ; but he with- 
 drew it again before it could be acted upon or even recorded. 
 The whole subject was approached with timidity, and not 
 until February 10, 1863, was the amendment to the Enroll- 
 ment Act, offered by Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, 
 accepted and recorded, authorizing the reception of negro 
 volunteers into the United States army. The issue involved 
 was as bitterly contested as had been the Emancipation 
 Proclamation of President Lincoln. It was in the spring of 
 1863 that the Governor of Massachusetts, John Andrew, ob- 
 tained permission from the Secretary of War to raise three 
 years' companies of colored men for the artillery and the 
 infantry service. Thus empowered, he enrolled two negro 
 regiments ; but when it was proposed that they should march 
 through the city of New York on their way to the seat of 
 war, the chief of police of that metropolis stated that it 
 would be impossible in such event to protect them from 
 insult and probable assault; hence they were transported 
 from Boston by water, without stopj)ing at New York. 
 
 For months it had been in the minds of certain members 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 77 
 
 of the Union League of Philadelphia to take action for the 
 organizing of colored regiments ; but the prejudice still 
 existing against such a measure in the chief city of Penn- 
 sylvania was so strong that the time was not deemed ripe 
 for decisive procedure until June, 1863. On the 8th of 
 that month a meeting to consider the subject was held in 
 the League house. It was presided over by William D. 
 Lewis, and addressed by Colonel Lafayette Bingham, and 
 by Major George L. Stearns, of Boston. It was found that 
 more than eleven hundred negroes in Pennsylvania had 
 been enrolled for regiments in other States ; and the opinion 
 gained ground that the State ought itself to secure credit for 
 such of its colored inhabitants as were disposed to volunteer, 
 by hereafter forming them into regiments hailing from 
 Pennsylvania. By June 18 there appeared in one of the 
 morning journals a copy of correspondence between certain 
 gentlemen of Philadelphia and Secretary Stanton, in which 
 it was set forth that two hundred and seventy-six citizens 
 had presented a memorial begging to be allowed to raise 
 " three regiments of colored men from this part of Pennsyl- 
 vania" for the war, and that permission to that effect had 
 been granted.* A committee of sixty citizens, with Thomas 
 Webster for Chairman, Cadwalader Biddle, Secretary, and 
 Singleton A. Mercer, Treasurer,-|- was thereupon formed, 
 under the name of Supervisory Committee for the Enlist- 
 ment of Colored Troops, and took up its quarters at 1210 
 Chestnut Street, not far from the League house. Major 
 George L. Stearns, of Massachusetts, was deputed by the War 
 
 * See Documentary History. f ^"^^ members of the League. 
 
78 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Department to superintend the recruiting ; and Lieutenant- 
 Colonel C. F. Euff, of the Third United States Cavalry, was 
 instructed to receive and muster into service one regiment of 
 ten companies, each to be eighty strong. A large meeting 
 of respectable colored citizens assembled at Franklin Hall 
 on the evening of the 24th, to encourage enlistments. The 
 work went forward briskly and with enthusiasm. Camp 
 William Penn was established at Chelton Hills soon after- 
 ward, and placed in charge of Colonel Louis Wagner of the 
 Eighty-Eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers. The first squad 
 of eighty colored recruits was sent thither June 26. By 
 July 24 the first regiment was full, and it became a part of 
 the National forces, with the title of Third United States 
 Eegiment, Colored Troops. It was publicly announced to 
 make a street parade in Philadelphia on the 1st of August ; 
 but so much excitement was known to exist among those 
 who disapproved the employment of negroes in the war, that 
 the Republican Mayor of the city sent advices to Wash- 
 ington which resulted in an order from the War Department 
 to Colonel Wagner to embark the troops without parading. 
 
 The Supervisory Committee, continuing to enlist men 
 with unabated vigor, had its second regiment (Sixth United 
 States) completed by September 14, and proceeded with the 
 formation of still another, to be known as the Eighth United 
 States, Colored Troops. As soon as a battalion of the latter 
 had been filled up and sufficiently drilled, a review of both 
 the regiment and the battalion at Camp William Penn was 
 advertised for September 24, which citizens were invited to 
 attend. This made a good intermediate step in the carrying 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 79 
 
 out of the purpose to which the committee had all along 
 clung, of holding a parade in the city. Free blacks had 
 been employed in the Eevolutionary army and highly es- 
 teemed by Washington : even slaves had been manumitted 
 to take their places in the patriot ranks ; Jackson again had 
 appealed for and received the aid of colored freemen at New 
 Orleans ; and in the existing civil war liberated slaves had 
 distinguished themselves on the field at Port Hudson and in 
 South Carolina, fighting for the Union and Emancipation. 
 But all this made no impression on the minds of the peace 
 party in Philadelphia, or served merely to enrage them the 
 more against the radical measure which they now saw suc- 
 cessfully prosecuted in their midst. Even the Unionists were 
 in many cases strongly prejudiced against these sable allies. 
 They saw in their enlistment the forerunner of great changes 
 in the status of a race whose inferiority had, up to this time, 
 been strongly insisted upon by a scornful and unjust mode 
 of treating them in public ; and they feared, likewise, that 
 the adoption of this new policy would react unfavorably on 
 the Administration and imperil Republican success in the 
 next Presidential election. When, therefore, it was learned 
 that the Sixth United States, under Colonel John W. Ames, 
 and a battalion of the Eighth, would positively march through 
 Philadelphia on October 3, serious apprehensions were enter- 
 tained by many of the friends of the government. It was 
 generally thought that an outbreak would occur somewhere 
 on the line of march ; and doubtless any imprudence, either 
 of timidity or aggression, on the part of those who planned 
 and led the parade, would have precipitated a combat. The 
 
80 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 members of the Committee and the commander of the troops, 
 however, were at once cautious and confident. They did not 
 believe in the supposed danger ; but the officers carried 
 loaded revolvers, to be used in an emergency. The soldiers, 
 on the contrary, were not trusted with any ammunition ; 
 those of the Sixth had merely their muskets, and the com- 
 panies of the Eighth marched entirely without arms. There 
 was no police escort ; but Colonel Wagner rode at the head 
 of the column, and his stern, determined expression con- 
 vinced those who had indefinitely meditated disturbance that 
 they would be worsted in any attack. The troops followed 
 their route through a number of the principal streets, stopped 
 at the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon, and passed in 
 review before General George Cadwalader, who took his 
 station on the steps of the Union League House. Every- 
 where the streets were thronged with crowds, anxious, im- 
 pressed, secretly hostile or openly exultant ; but the expected 
 collision did not occur. Moral bravery, quiet confidence in 
 a just cause, loyalty and freedom, had triumphed completely 
 in face of a noisy opposition. It was felt that the tread of 
 the black soldiery on the pavement that day would echo 
 long through the future. The parade had marked the 
 beginning of a new era, and its success sent a thrill through 
 those who greeted the advance of larger ideas, for they 
 recognized the great stride taken since the Mayor's inhibition, 
 two months before. One sturdy Quaker abolitionist, stand- 
 ing beside another member of the League as they watched 
 the files go by, exclaimed, " I have been an abolitionist all 
 my life, but you gentlemen of the Supervisory Committee, 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 81 
 
 in bringing about this parade, have gone further than I ever 
 would have done !" Nothing could show better the hesitant 
 mood in which some of the firmest friends of the negro had 
 remained until the decisive move had been made. 
 
 The Supervisory Committee, which had begun by raising 
 thirty-three thousand three hundred and eighty-eight dollars, 
 with the intention of forming only three regiments, conducted 
 matters so well that it was able to create two more — the 
 Twenty-Second and Twenty-Fifth United States — without 
 further subscrij)tion. These were ready, the first on January 
 6, 1864, and the second on February 3. The swiftness and 
 economy with which the recruiting of these troops, number- 
 ing nearly five thousand men, had been effected were almost 
 unexampled in the history of the war. 
 
 The ofiicering of black regiments was a very important 
 matter, and many veterans who had risen to captaincies and 
 colonelcies in the field failed to satisfy the Board of Exam- 
 iners at Washington, when applying for the command of 
 negroes. Observing this, the Suj)ervisory Committee oj)ened 
 at its headquarters a Free Military School, to train applicants 
 for such commands. It was under the direction of Colonel 
 John H. Taggart, and had an attendance of over one hun- 
 dred and sixty students. Few who went through its brief 
 but thorough and practical course of instruction failed to 
 pass the Board examination ; and as the colored volunteers 
 of the Union soon aggregated more than one hundred 
 thousand, the committee, by means of this school, rendered 
 invaluable aid to the government in making the new con- 
 tingents effective under competent command. 
 
 11 
 
S2 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE CLOSE OF THE WAR. 
 
 At a special meeting of the League, January 11, 1864, 
 Vice-President Borie in the chair, it was, on motion of 
 Morton McMichael, seconded by William D. Lewis, unani- 
 mously agreed that President Lincoln ought, in the best 
 interests of the country, to be renominated for the chief 
 magistracy of the United States.* At the same time, on 
 motion of William D. Lewis, seconded by John B. Myers, 
 it was resolved that, as Sanitary Fairs had recently been held 
 under the auspices of the Sanitary Commission in Chicago, 
 Cincinnati, and Boston, " the Union League strongly rec- 
 ommend to the Philadelphia branch of the United States 
 Sanitary Commission to organize here, under its auspices, a 
 Sanitary Fair, the proceeds of which shall be devoted by the 
 Commission to promote the health, comfort, and efficiency of 
 the soldier in active service." 
 
 By this action the League initiated, and pledged itself to 
 sustain, two very important measures, which, with its various 
 other undertakings, provided a copious jDrogramme of em- 
 ployment for the year 1864. 
 
 * For the resolutions embodying this conviction, see Documentary 
 History. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 83 
 
 The Birthday of Washington, which was also the anni- 
 versary of the League's formal induction into its house, 
 became the occasion of an interesting and graceful ceremony, 
 on the presentation of a flag which had been made by certain 
 Philadelphia ladies to the League. The general celebra- 
 tion of the day throughout the city was more brilliant and 
 enthusiastically patriotic than any local observance of a 
 National holiday for many years had been, and this largely 
 through cumulative League influence in the preceding year. 
 At one o'clock, February 22, about three thousand ladies and 
 gentlemen having assembled in the house, under the care of 
 a Reception Committee,* Mr. McMichael called the company 
 to order, and introduced Mr. Daniel Dougherty, who pre- 
 sented the banner on behalf of the donors. Alluding to 
 them, he said, " They have given more than their lives, — 
 they have sacrificed their hearts, their hopes, their happiness. 
 . . . This on our part is the noblest struggle, the most mo- 
 mentous issue, the most glorious war ever waged on earth ; 
 and its vigorous prosecution, though it last thirty years, is 
 the sleeping and waking thought, — the business and a part 
 of the religion of true American women. ... To you, mem- 
 bers of the Union League, the ladies of Philadelphia present 
 this flag, touched by no hireling hand, but shaped and 
 wrought into beauty by these fair ladies, who, born under its 
 protecting folds, hope yet to see the day when, blessed with a 
 lasting peace, it shall be hailed with universal joy as it floats 
 over every inch of American soil." 
 
 * Dr. Wilson 0. Swann, Messrs. Fairman Eogers, Henry M. Watts, 
 George Trott, Alexander Brown, and James W. Paul. 
 
84 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Mr. George H. Boker, the Secretary of the League, replied 
 in fitting terms. " I need not say to you, ladies," he observed 
 in the course of his remarks, "that from the day of its 
 organization you have cordially recognized the services which 
 the Union League has done for the National cause which 
 engrosses our individual sympathies. We are proud of that 
 acknowledgment. One of the chief sources of our strength 
 has been in the applause which greets our labors from the 
 domestic circle. . . . After the League, through an entire 
 year, has to a greater or less degree deprived you of the 
 companionship of your husbands, your fathers, and your 
 brothers, you come to our doors with your gentle company, 
 decorated by the glorious symbol before me, and reverently 
 bestow the standard on our institution. The flag is woman's 
 visible benediction upon the League. It says as plainly as 
 your orator could utter it, ' Well done !' It says more. It 
 says, ' There is the crimson of our blood ; here is the white- 
 ness of our purity ; here is the heaven of our faith ; here are 
 the stars of our hopes. Take them all ! Take all that is in 
 woman's nature and use it ungrudgingly in our country's 
 service ! Noble offering ! Nobler sacrifice !" 
 
 In June the Sanitary Fair was opened, with brilliant 
 success. Many of those who conducted it were Leaguers, 
 and the Board of Directors of the League, by opening cor- 
 respondence on the subject with Leagues throughout Penn- 
 sylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, had excited much 
 interest and stimulated valuable co-operation in rendering 
 the exhibits complete and attractive. The war trophies 
 belonging to the association were also loaned to the Fair. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 85 
 
 President Lincoln attended its opening, and was afterwards 
 invited to the League house, where he was welcomed in a 
 speech by Mr. Dougherty and gave a reception to the mem- 
 bers. The time was near when the League was to afford him 
 memorable support in his second campaign for the Presi- 
 dency. Its resolutions had been sent to him long in advance 
 of the Baltimore Convention, and doubtless had a cogent 
 influence upon its final choice ; for there were some Repub- 
 licans there whose individual preferences inclined them to 
 overlook his just claims and to risk a change of leaders even 
 in so critical a situation. General McClellan being the 
 nominee of the opposition, his enormous popularity made it 
 necessary to put forth all possible strength in order to keej) 
 the central power in those hands which the Unionists believed 
 could alone wield it to the destruction of the already 
 weakened rebellion. The campaign became one of intense 
 interest, and was conducted with unflagging energy on both 
 sides. The Publication Committee used its resources to the 
 utmost, and among many other documents which it circu- 
 lated was a campaign newspaper called the Union League 
 Gazette, made up of useful political information bearing on 
 the issues of the time. Five hundred and sixty thousand 
 copies were distributed in six weeks. The Committee of 
 Seventy-Six was unceasingly busy, and for greater efficiency 
 divided itself into various sub-committees. One of these was 
 a Committee on Public Meetings. Concert Hall, just oppo- 
 site the League house, was hired before the October State 
 election, and meetings were held there on the night of every 
 day except Sundays for six weeks continuously. " Its walls 
 
g6 HISTORY OF 7HE 
 
 nightly rang," says the Annual Report of the Directors, 
 "with the eloquent voices of distinguished orators and with 
 the plaudits of numerous audiences. A greatly increased 
 Union majority in the city was the result of this awaking of 
 public spirit." The speakers volunteered their services ; and 
 as they often came from long distances, their conduct in this 
 respect was a striking proof of the high esteem in which 
 they held the League and the efforts it was making. The 
 State Central Committee in its public addresses, after the 
 victory had been won, warmly acknowledged the important 
 services of the League in contributing to the success of the 
 Union cause at the polls. 
 
 During the year the Methodist Episcopal Conference, the 
 Baptist Conference, and the Presbyterian General Assembly 
 of the State, meeting in Philadelphia, were offered the hos- 
 pitalities of the League, and many of the delegates made 
 spirited addresses at the League house ; thus strengthening 
 for good the tie between this association and an important 
 and intellectual class of the community. The work of the 
 Committee on Enlistments for this period has already been 
 described. At the annual meeting in December, the Hon. 
 William M. Meredith having formally declined a renomina- 
 tion for the Presidency of the League,* Mr. J. Gillingham 
 Fell was elected to fill his place, with Messrs. William H. 
 Ashhurst, Morton McMichael, Adolph E. Borie, and Horace 
 Binney, Jr., as Vice-Presidents. The gold medal of the 
 League was voted to the retiring President. 
 
 * For the eorrespondenco, see Documentary History. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 87 
 
 The League entered its third year (1865) and passed 
 through the first quarter. But while it was still engaged in 
 zealously consolidating loyal elements, and reaching its strong 
 arm out to take part in the war in Virginia, almost before it 
 had quite lost the thrill of campaign excitement, and while it 
 watched the progress of Sherman's march and Grant's can- 
 nonading, with no doubt as to their result, yet with uncer- 
 tainty as to the time required; while it was thus waiting, 
 watching, and working ; suddenly, with as little resistance 
 at last as a puff-ball, the rebellion collapsed : Lee and John- 
 ston surrendered. The news that the Army of Northern 
 Virginia had capitulated came to the League house in a 
 manner involving a peculiar coincidence. The sister of the 
 Treasurer, Mr. Claghorn, returning with another lady from 
 a visit in the evening of April 10, 1865, met on the street a 
 telegraph-boy, who volunteered the announcement that he 
 was carrying the news of General Lee's surrender. Miss 
 Claghorn asked where he was going. He replied, " To the 
 ofiice of the Press." She followed him, and, leaving at the 
 editorial rooms a copy of the despatch, she obtained the 
 original to take to the League house, whither Mrs. John W. 
 Forney accompanied her. These two ladies brought it to 
 the door, and retired. In this way the most important 
 tidings received by the League since its foundation were 
 transmitted by the hands of ladies. As they had been true 
 in their sympathy with its objects, and one year before had 
 signalized this sympathy by the presentation of a flag, so 
 now they were able to inform the members that the imme- 
 diate goal which had been set out for was won. The news 
 
88 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 spread rapidly ; members flocked in from every quarter, and 
 a scene of unbounded rejoicing ensued. 
 
 On February 21, at an adjourned meeting of the Board 
 of Directors, it had been decided that, in honor of the recent 
 recapture of Fort Sumter, the house of the Union League 
 should be decorated with the National flag, during the next 
 day, and illuminated at night. On motion of Mr. Henry C. 
 Lea, it was also ordered that the following telegram should 
 be sent on the anniversary of Washington's birthday to 
 President Lincoln : 
 
 " To THE President op the United States : 
 
 "The Union League of Philadelphia congratulates the President of 
 
 the United States ujjon the success of the Federal arms under his wise 
 
 administration, and especially upon the restoration of the National 
 
 Flag to the ramparts of Fort Sumter, the scene of its first humiliation. 
 
 " By order of the Board of Directors. 
 
 " J. GiLLiNGHAM Fell, President." 
 
 It was the last opportunity which this loyal body had of 
 communicating their sympathy to the leader of the people ; 
 for before the confusion and congratulation attending the 
 announcement of Lee's surrender had passed, the intelligence 
 of Lincoln's assassination fell upon the jubilant North like a 
 thunderbolt from the clearing sky. A special meeting of 
 the Directors was called, and the President, Mr. Fell, ad- 
 dressed them in these words : 
 
 " Gentlemen, — I have called you together for the purpose of an- 
 nouncing officially the awful calamity which has befallen the nation in 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 89 
 
 the assassination of its chief mafjistrate at the critical period when wc 
 have 80 much need of bis ability, disciplined judgment, and patriotism. 
 We are overwhelmed by the suddenness and terrible circumstances of 
 his death. We stand in wonder at the providence of God, and are 
 made to know that his waj^s are not our ways. As the mind reverts 
 to his dealings with his people in times ]iast, its thoughts fall naturally 
 upon the historj- of the great leader of Israel, who, after conducting 
 his children through their protracted perils, breathed his last on the 
 brink of the Promised Land. We mourn our leader with as sincere a 
 sorrow, but we know that the same God who sustained them still 
 lives, and has placed in the hands of our peojjle the preservation of a 
 great nation. Therefore, while we bow our heads in deep submission, 
 let us address ourselves with energy to the responsibilities thus sud- 
 denly thrust upon us. To maintain order, obedience to the laws, and 
 respect for the constituted authorities is the immediate duty of every 
 citizen." 
 
 The gold medal of the League was at once sent to the 
 new President, Andrew Johnson, and at a special meeting of 
 the League on April 17 the co-operation of the organization 
 was pledged to President Johnson, " to sustain him by all 
 our efforts in the same principles and purposes which his 
 predecessor has now sealed, as a martyr, with his blood." 
 At this same meeting, Mr. McMichael made an impressive 
 address, and prayer was offered by the Kev. PhilliiJS Brooks. 
 Mr. Charles Gibbons, in seconding the resolutions, spoke with 
 great feeling and eloquence of the national loss, and Mr. 
 Frederick Fraley pronounced a eulogy upon the dead Presi- 
 dent. It was also decided that a mourning badge should be 
 devised, to be worn by members. The Directors named a 
 committee to attend the funeral of President Lincoln, and 
 
 12 
 
90 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 members of the League were requested to join in the escort 
 which should assist at the obsequies in Philadelphia. 
 
 Throughout the eventful term over which we must now 
 glance so rapidly, the League had given much care to the 
 perfecting of its organization. A charter was received and 
 adopted, May 22, 1864 ; and on January 1, 1865, a new code 
 of By-Laws, being accepted, came into force. Meanwhile, 
 in July of the former year, steps had been taken to secure 
 new and permanent quarters. Unable to extend its lease of 
 the Baldwin house, the association took up its abode tempo- 
 rarily at No. 1210 Chestnut Street, to await the completion of 
 its present building on South Broad Street. This was opened 
 to the use of members May 11, 1865. It had been intended 
 to conduct inaugural ceremonies and to give a ball on that 
 occasion, but all formal celebration was waived out of respect 
 for the memory of the murdered Lincoln and the resulting 
 state of popular sentiment, in which the League itself shared. 
 At the close of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Fair, however, in 
 the autumn, Lieutenant-General Grant held a brilliant re- 
 ception at the League house, on the invitation of a committee 
 of the Directors; and Major-General Meade and Chief 
 Justice Chase were also entertained there. In furtherance 
 of the appropriate decoration of the edifice, a Committee of 
 Fine Arts and Trophies had been called into being ; and 
 during the two years reviewed in this chapter, silver medals 
 had been presented to a number of persons. Among these 
 were Major-Ceneral Sheridan and Major-General George H. 
 Thomas, Captain John Winslow, Lieutenant Gushing, U.S.N., 
 Rear-Admiral Porter, Professor Goldwin Smith, Hugh Mc- 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 91 
 
 CuUoch, Secretary of the Treasury, and Ishmael Day, of 
 Maryland. In September the Treasurer, Mr. Claghorn, after 
 long and devoted service to the League, resigned on the eve 
 of an absence from the country, and was released from duty, 
 though not without cordial testimony to the esteem in which 
 he was held.* At the annual election of 1865 the President 
 and Vice-Presidents in office were re-elected, and Mr. Edward 
 S. Clarke was soon after aj^pointed Treasurer, to take Mr. 
 Claghorn's place. 
 
 Although the most stirring episodes that its history was 
 likely to furnish for a long time to come had now passed, the 
 League, with a membership increased to nearly eighteen 
 hundred, and an unsettled political horizon straining the 
 eyes of the nation, did not feel that its aims were materially 
 altered or to be lost sight of. The Directors, through Mr. 
 Boker, declared that " certainly the Union League, which 
 from its organization to the present day has been the un- 
 wavering herald and civic soldier of the grand princij^les 
 which animated the late war, should not, because the open 
 contest is over, resign itself to a fatal torpor, and permit the 
 fruits of all our exertions to slip from our grasp, while 
 machinations more dangerous than military strategy are 
 being stealthily advanced and as adroitly withdrawn before 
 they can meet with popular rebuke. The high uses of this 
 association of loyal men will not pass away until the last 
 embers of the Kebellion are trampled out and no spark 
 remains with which to rekindle it; until the very passions 
 
 * See Eesolutions, Documentary History. 
 
92 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 whicli arrayed the two sections of our country in hostility 
 have become matters of history, and the whole people from 
 ocean to ocean and from Canada to Mexico have become one 
 homogeneous mass of contented and sympathetic men." 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 93 
 
 X. 
 
 THE LEAGUE'S COURSE AFTER THE WAR. 
 
 With the beginning of the year 1866 the Union League en- 
 tered a phase of existence in some respects distinctly different 
 from that under which it had previously appeared. The im- 
 mediate practical demands of the war situation had been fully 
 satisfied ; but many things remained to be done in order to 
 perfect the cohesion of the States, recently arrayed against 
 one another in mortal combat, and now brought face to face 
 in the trying attitude of reconciliation between victor and 
 vanquished. Nothing more remarkable, it is safe to say, has 
 ever been witnessed in the course of human history than the 
 process of healing which now ensued upon the terrible wound 
 that armed strife had inflicted upon the civil body of this 
 people. Two powerful sections of a young, great, and ardent 
 nation, after being thrown into a state of deadly discord 
 which endured for four years, were to be reunited in the 
 peaceful task of governing themselves together for the com- 
 mon good: more than that, with all the old passions of 
 rivalry still alive, they were to learn how to conduct this 
 mutual self-government on a higher plane, with larger toler- 
 ation and wider views, than had ever been recognized under 
 the conditions antecedent to the war. The accomplishing of 
 
94 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 such a result may be called a supreme piece of political 
 surgery, in which the genius of republicanism manifested a 
 triumphant skill, an inborn aptitude for the government of 
 men. But the operation was attended with extreme peril, 
 and with exigencies requiring nice management and a firm 
 hand. In transferring its activity from the region of oj^en 
 warfare between the government and violent rebellion, to the 
 sphere of statecraft and popular debate in which reconstruc- 
 tion was carried on, the League proved itself to be instinct 
 with true civic vitality and thoroughly equal to the emer- 
 gency. 
 
 The first problem which it had to encounter was the 
 recreancy of Andrew Johnson, who had succeeded to the 
 Presidency of the United States, in attempting to compro- 
 mise and finally to abandon the principles of his illustrious 
 predecessor. The oligarchic spirit speedily reasserted itself 
 in the South : an attempt was made to establish the former 
 condition of society there in a new guise, and, by means of 
 unjust laws, to fasten slavery again upon the liberated blacks. 
 The President, with a misguided ambition that ended in 
 treachery, sought to throw the local government of the 
 Southern States into the hands of those who had led them to 
 rebellion, and a breach was thus at once made between him- 
 self and Congress. In February, 1866, memorials signed 
 by large numbers of the Leaguers were presented to the 
 Board of Directors, praying them to call a general meeting 
 to sustain Congress ; but at that time definite action was 
 deemed inexpedient, and the proposition was rejected. The 
 government of the League was evidently determined to pro- 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 95 
 
 ceed with due care and deliberation in the novel and serious 
 complications which had arisen. Meanwhile, however, it 
 took severe measures towards one of the members, — James 
 M. Scovel, of New Jersey, — who was accused of favoring the 
 disloyal party, and of lending his influence to the defeat of 
 the Republican candidate for Senator in the Legislature of 
 his State. After a full hearing, Mr. Scovel was suspended 
 from the ^^rivileges of the League. In August a convention 
 of Southern Unionists was held in Philadelphia, and the 
 delegates were formally welcomed and entertained by the 
 League. The cor230ration was steadily gravitating towards 
 that position of pronounced^ antagonism with the President 
 which it was shortly forced to take up. In the resolutions 
 adopted by the general meeting of the League, called for 
 August 22, to welcome the Southern Unionists, Andrew 
 Johnson and William H. Seward were drastically censured 
 for their sympathy " with the prominent traitors of the 
 country and their political adherents." The co-operation of 
 all loyal Pennsylvanians was further invited in effecting the 
 election of General John W. Geary as the Executive of the 
 State, " and the election of members of Congress from this 
 State who will sustain the action of the present Congress in 
 their efforts to secure the re-establishment of the Union on 
 the basis proposed in the Amendment to the Constitution 
 now before the peoj)le, and also the election of a Legislature 
 that will approve and ratify the said Amendment." To aid 
 in carrying out these objects a committee of seventy-six, 
 with the President as a member ex officio, was appointed, 
 which entered actively into the political campaign. 
 
96 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 What followed will best be given in the words of the 
 Secretary, found in his rejDort for the year : " With the 
 whole official power of the Union party in the hands of a 
 traitor, with our late political enemies and their rebellious 
 brothers as his allies, with many of our best canvassers still 
 in office, and either paralyzed by the fear of removal or 
 cajoled by the promise of retention ; with our former organ- 
 ization almost shattered by these causes ; with nothing, in 
 short, but our wise principles and the individual votes of our 
 faithful people, we entered upon the political contest which 
 has just closed in our victory and the irremediable confusion 
 of our adversaries." The success of the loyalists was unquali- 
 fied, and the beneficent power inherent in the League became 
 more manifest than ever. Heretofore, under whatever per- 
 plexities of a divided public opinion it had made its way to 
 a commanding place, it had at least enjoyed the advantage of 
 perfect accord with the Federal government. Now, thrown 
 upon its own resources and pitted against the formal organ- 
 ization of that government, for the sake of preserving intact 
 its fundamental spirit, the League summoned, as potently as 
 it had done under more favoring circumstances, the forces of 
 good citizenship to the rescue of Union principles. The 
 services of its Committee of Seventy-Six were publicly ac- 
 knowledged by the Governor-elect and by the State Central 
 Committee of the Republican party. 
 
 The camj)aign had been one of excessive bitterness, and 
 at one time the League house was placed in a state of siege. 
 A mob attack was threatened, and many members remained 
 all night on the premises, to meet the expected assault. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 97 
 
 Forcess were assembled in tlie grounds behind the house on 
 the night which had been fixed for tlie attack, and sentinels 
 kept a watchful lookout. These precautions frightened off 
 the turbulent element of the political enemy; but on Sep- 
 tember 7 some emissary of the latter succeeded in setting the 
 building on fire. A heavy loss was caused by this confla- 
 gration ; but the damage was soon repaired under the auspices 
 of a Rebuilding Committee, which took care to improve the 
 edifice and to render it comj)aratively fire-jDroof thereafter, 
 by carrying the partition-walls up above the roof The 
 firemen who assisted in saving the house displayed great 
 gallantry, some of them risking their lives to rescue the 
 battle-flags belonging to the corporation ; and they were 
 suitably rewarded with presents of money and badges of 
 honor, accompanied by a written testimonial. 
 
 In July of this year a number of gentlemen,* desiring to 
 mark in a special manner the gratitude of loyal Philadel- 
 phians to General Meade, ordered a gold medal to be designed 
 and executed, which was presented to him on behalf of the 
 League on the evening of the anniversary of national inde- 
 pendence. The usual silver medal of the League was also 
 conferred, in September, on Major-General Joseph Holt, 
 Judge- Advocate of the Army of the United States. 
 
 As soon as practicable, after the restoration of peace, the 
 
 * Messrs. A. E. Bovie, Jay Cooke, C. H. Clark, G. W. Chikls, A. J. 
 
 Drcxol, John Rice, H; P. McKean, Thomas Smith, B. W. Clark, AV. G. 
 
 Moorhead, J. H. Orne, E. W. Bailey, H. C. Gibson, and Charles Macal- 
 
 oster. 
 
 13 
 
98 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 League had begun to busy itself with the formation of Union 
 Leagues in the Southern States, — a work of extreme deli- 
 cacy, owing to the persistence of old antipathies in those 
 parts of the country, and the intimidation exercised by for- 
 mer rebels towards all who attempted to place themselves 
 heartily in relation with the victorious party. In June, 
 1867, the Hon. John Jay, President of the Union League 
 Club of New York, opened a correspondence with the Di- 
 rectors of the Philadelphia corporation, on the subject of a 
 reorganization of the Southern wing of the Republican party. 
 Courtesies were exchanged between the two bodies ; delega- 
 tions from Boston and New York were entertained at the 
 League house, and a committee of five was apj)ointed to 
 co-operate in the work of holding meetings and furnishing 
 political speakers in Virginia. When the time drew near for 
 judicial elections in Pennsylvania and the choice of municipal 
 ofl&cers in Philadelphia, the League again came to the front in 
 the canvass. A committee of five was appointed to confer 
 with an existing " committee of citizens" as to the city elec- 
 tions, while at a general meeting held September 18, forcible 
 resolutions were passed favoring the Reconstruction Acts, 
 and plainly intimating that impeachment was the sole remedy 
 left to cure the ills which President Johnson had brought 
 upon the country. The election of Judge Henry W. Wil- 
 liams to the Supreme Court bench, and of M. Russell Thayer 
 as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, was counselled ; a 
 committee of fifty League members being empowered to 
 represent the organization in the campaign. For the first 
 time since it had entered U230n its career, the League found 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 99 
 
 itself on the defeated side when the vote was cast ; but this 
 event was attributable partly to the apathy which long- 
 continued success had brought upon the party with which it 
 acted, and partly also — it was strongly suspected — to frauds 
 practised by the opposition at the polls. This led, in the 
 following year, to the offering of rewards by the Board of 
 Directors for the detection of electoral conspirators, or the 
 arrest and conviction of fraudulent voters of any kind. 
 
 Meanwhile, the League had had O20]3ortunities to pay honor 
 to several distinguished men. The Hon. Schuyler Colfax 
 was entertained, May 7. The Hon. Edwin M. Stanton visited 
 the League house at another time. On the 27th of Septem- 
 ber Major-General Sheridan came to Philadeljohia, and was 
 welcomed by the League in procession ; General Sickles 
 being also present on that occasion, and making a powerful 
 address, directed against the conspiracy for renewed Southern 
 supremacy, of which Andrew Johnson had so singularly 
 become the head. In November, again, Commodore Worden 
 was received. 
 
 In March, 1867, Mr. William Sellers proposed to the 
 Board to offer the sum of eleven hundred dollars in prizes 
 for essays on the best mode of making nominations to office. 
 The precise object aimed at is indicated in the preamble 
 offered by the mover of the resolutions : 
 
 " Whereas, In a Eepublican form of government it is of the highest 
 importance that the delegates of the people to whom the sovereign 
 power is intrusted should be so selected as to truly represent the bodj' 
 politic, and there being no provision of law whereby the people may 
 be organized for the purpose of such selection, and all parties having 
 
100 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 recognized the necessity of such organization bj' the formation of 
 vohmtary associations for this purpose; and, whereas, there are grave 
 defects existing under the present system of voluntary organization, 
 which it is beHeved may be corrected by suitable provisions of law ; 
 now, therefore, be it 
 
 "Resolved, by the Board of Directors of the Union League of Phil- 
 adelphia, that the Secretary be and is hereby directed to offer eleven 
 hundred dollars in prizes for essays on the legal organization of the 
 people to select candidates for office." 
 
 This proceeding attracted mucli attention and drew forth 
 a number of essays, four of which obtained prizes, in July, 
 1868, and were afterwards printed. No immediate change 
 in the system discussed could be expected to result; but 
 much indirect good was doubtless effected by thus bringing 
 the subject before the public, and the interest of the League 
 in political reform and progress was wholesomely asserted. 
 
 At the annual meeting, December, 1867, Mr. Charles 
 Gibbons introduced a resolution, which was adopted, nomi- 
 nating General Grant as the candidate of the Republican 
 party for the Presidency, in the election to be held the follow- 
 ing November. The League was thus the first organized body 
 to place General Grant in the field for the campaign of 1868. 
 It had the satisfaction of seeing him nominated by the 
 Chicago Convention, May 21, 1868, and on that day, in 
 general meeting, passed resolutions approving of his candi- 
 dacy. Philadelphia was carried by the Democrats in Octo- 
 ber, but the League's campaign committee of fifty labored 
 so well that at the Presidential election in November this 
 result was reversed ; and not long afterward the President- 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 101 
 
 elect of the United States attended a private recejstion in the 
 League house, whence his name had first been formally sent 
 forth to the people as the choice of many influential Eepub- 
 licans. 
 
 The President of the League, Mr. Fell, contemplating 
 absence from the country, had resigned his ofiice in April ; 
 but the resignation was tabled, a leave of absence was granted, 
 and the Vice-Presidents were instructed to take the control. 
 At the annual election of 1868, Horace Binney, Jr., received 
 the Presidency. The first subject of importance brought up 
 under his administration was that of frauds at elections. 
 The Republican defeat in the previous October was believed 
 to have been accomplished by gross frauds, which the proffer 
 of rewards for detection had been inadequate to prevent. A 
 radical preventive was obviously needed. Accordingly, on 
 motion of Mr. Gibbons, it was resolved to appoint a com- 
 mittee of five, " with authority to confer with counsel and 
 with any committee of the Legislature, on behalf of the 
 League, on the subjects of a law for the registration of voters 
 in this State, and such amendments of the laws of the State 
 as may be necessary for the prevention of fraud and violence 
 in the election of public officers." Messrs. Gibbons, Perkins, 
 Rice, Orne, and Cope were appointed to fulfil the duty thus 
 enjoined. By the 11th of May they were able to report that 
 a law had been drafted and passed by the Legislature to 
 accomplish the end in view. But this by no means settled 
 the matter. Judge Sharswood promptly declared the regis- 
 tration law unconstitutional. Thereupon the Directors of 
 the League commissioned three of their number to retain 
 
102 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 counsel to argue the appeal taken from the decision just 
 referred to, rendered in the Supreme Court at nisi prius. 
 The case was carried before the Supreme Court of Pennsyl- 
 vania, where it was argued with zeal and ability by the Hon. 
 William M. Meredith and Mr. Gibbons. The constitution- 
 ality of the law was fully vindicated by the decision they 
 obtained; and the Directors returned formal thanks to the 
 two advocates for their generous service. That part of the 
 law regarding the city of Philadelj)hia was framed by Mr. 
 Gibbons, and had been carried in the Legislature mainly by 
 his perseverance ; so that the League owed him a double 
 debt, which it was quick to acknowledge. 
 
 Although the spirit and energy of the association remained 
 unimpaired, and constantly sought new channels through 
 which to make themselves felt, changes caused by lapsing 
 time, by resignations, and deaths accompanied the League's 
 progress through the lustrum extending from 1866 to 1870. 
 Mr. Lindley Smyth, who for nearly six years had presided 
 over the Board of Publication with consummate ability, de- 
 clined re-election as a Director at the close of 1868 ; but, in 
 relinquishing his services, his fellow-members testified their 
 high appreciation thereof in glowing language, and the gold 
 medal of the League was tendered to him. One year later 
 the League assembled at a special meeting, December 27, 
 1869, to do honor to the memory of the Hon. Edwin M. 
 Stanton, who had finally succumbed to the exhaustion con- 
 sequent on his great labors as Secretary of War. During 
 the continuance of armed hostilities he had kept up the 
 liveliest interest in all the movements of the League, finding 
 
LNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 103 
 
 time to maintain close relations with its officers touching 
 public matters, and always listening to their suggestions with 
 a respect that showed how well he understood the importance 
 of their function in the crisis of that day. Subsequently he 
 had publicly set forth, in a speech delivered from the steps 
 of the League house, his opinion as to the incalculable 
 benefit which the association had done in general, and the 
 warm sentiments of gratitude which the administration of 
 Mr. Lincoln had felt for its stanch and vigorous support. 
 Hence the death of the ex-Secretary was to the League like 
 the loss of one of its own most valued members. This latter 
 calamity it was doomed to suffer in very truth by the sudden 
 demise, in February, 1870, of its recently re-elected Presi- 
 dent, Horace Binney, Jr. A meeting of the Directors, 
 specially convoked, resolved, " That in the death of Horace 
 Binney, Jr., not only the Union League, but all good citi- 
 zens who lived within the influence of his precept and exam- 
 ple, have lost a friend, a comforter, and a courageous leader. 
 In the darkest hours of that bloody history through which 
 our country lately passed, when man and the schemes of man 
 seemed to fail us one by one, and human hope was driven to 
 Heaven for refuge, the voice of our late President was ever 
 firm, cheerful, and filled with righteous confidence ; his coun- 
 sel was ever wise and boldly provident ; and he looked the 
 threatening future in the face with a faith so warm, so pure, 
 and so complete, that it cast a glow upon the most doubtful 
 and warmed into activity the most timid and despairing 
 hearts." The sincere condolence of the organization was 
 conveyed to the venerable father who survived Mr. Binney, 
 
104 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 and the League house was draped in mourning for thirty 
 days. On the 1st of June, Dr. C. J. Stille was invited to 
 repeat before the League an eulogy on the late Horace 
 Binney, Jr., which he had pronounced at a meeting of the 
 Philosophical Society; and the Directors attended on this 
 occasion in a body, with Mr. Morton McMichael at their 
 head. Mr. McMichael had been elected by the Board viva 
 voce and unanimously to the chair of the deceased President ; 
 Mr. William Sellers being at the same time unanimously 
 chosen one of the Vice-Presidents, to fill the place vacated 
 by Mr. McMichael. 
 
 In December, 1870, Mr. James H. Orne, by whose com- 
 prehensive management the success of the Committee on 
 Enlistments had chiefly been attained, withdrew from the 
 Board of Directors, greatly to the regret of his fellow- 
 officers. 
 
 In the autumn of that year, however, the government of 
 the corporation had directed its attention to a reform in State 
 affairs, which was of the utmost urgency and promised to 
 bring wide-spread benefits to the peojjle. The manner in 
 which legislation was carried on at Harrisburg had become a 
 source of 2)ublic scandal. Every year new codes of laws 
 were enacted, affecting all manner of vested interests and 
 entailing great confusion and cost upon important industries 
 in every part of the State. To avert the evils of such reck- 
 less enactments, citizens and corporations were often led to 
 resort to the most demoralizing means of controlling votes in 
 the Legislature, as their only defence against ruthless spolia- 
 tion. A two-edged temptation had free play, corrupting 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 105 
 
 both the public on one side and the law-makers on the other. 
 In short, the men to whom the people had intrusted the 
 management of their affairs too often proposed statutes for 
 the simple purpose of alarming capital and levying upon it 
 a gigantic blackmail, under cover of legal changes ; while 
 those who wished to gain special favors by law did not hesi- 
 tate to avail themselves of means so easily purchasable. This 
 condition of things became so unendurable that, on the 13th 
 of SejDtember, Mr. Gillingham Fell, then in office as Director, 
 moved the appointment of a committee of ten, to consider 
 the subject of reforms in the State Constitution, which should 
 render such abuses impossible. Agreeably to the terms of 
 Mr. Fell's motion, the President aj^pointed from the Directors 
 Messrs. Fell, Gibbons, Sellers, Verree, and Perkins, and from 
 among the unofficial members of the League Messrs. Fraley, 
 Stille, Lilly, Lea, and N. B. Browne. Mr. Gibbons, at a 
 special meeting on October 8, rejwrted from the committee 
 thus constituted a preamble with resolutions, recommending 
 that a Constitutional Convention should be called by appli- 
 cation to the Legislature. The resolutions were accepted at 
 a special meeting of the League, on the 18th of October, after 
 being sustained by Mr. Gibbons in a cogent address,* and by 
 Messrs. Fraley and Goforth. Mr. Frank Jordan, Secretary 
 of the Commonwealth, was present and urged sj)eedy action ; 
 and in order to make the movement an unjjartisan and wholly 
 pojDular one, Mr. Thomas Webster suggested that the Demo- 
 
 * For the preamble and resolutions, and Mr. Gibbons's remarks, see 
 
 Documentary Histojy. 
 
 14 
 
106 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 cratic party should be invited to co-operate with the com- 
 mittee to be appointed by the League to lay the subject before 
 the Legislature. His j)roposition was subsequently adoj^ted. 
 What was the issue of this public-spirited action on the part 
 of the League, and what beneficial changes it wrought, are 
 now matter of common and well-known record ; but the fur- 
 ther j)rogress of the movement will be alluded to in the next 
 chajDter. With these initiatory passages of a momentous 
 epoch in the civil history of Pennsylvania the year closed, 
 and under the guidance of Mr. McMichael, who was con- 
 tinued as President by the suffrages of members at the annual 
 meeting, the League went forward to prosecute the work 
 mapped out for it. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 107 
 
 XI. 
 
 ELEVEN PROSPEROUS YEARS. 
 
 In 1871 the League experienced the loss of two among its 
 earliest and most esteemed members. Mr. Stephen Colwell, 
 who had presided at its foundation and had been the first to 
 sign the fundamental articles, died suddenly on the 16th of 
 January. Alluding to his relations with the League, the 
 Directors in their memorial resolutions said of him, " He 
 grew with its growth, ever in the forefront of whatever move- 
 ment was planned for giving aid and comfort and su2325ort to 
 his country and its government throughout the course of its 
 struggle for existence." The decease of James H. Orne, in 
 November, made another gap in the ranks which had so long- 
 been permitted to advance unbroken. Yet the natural grief 
 felt at his removal from their association was qualified in the 
 minds of his former companions by the memory of his in- 
 spiring energy and devotion. " It is one of the proudest 
 boasts of the League," the Directors recorded, " that, during 
 the War of the Kebellion, at a time when men were most 
 needed, we recruited, equipped, and sent into the field ten 
 full regiments of stalwart men. To the exertions of Mr. 
 Orne, Chairman of the Military Committee of the League, 
 
108 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 we were mainly indebted for this important result. Casting 
 aside his private affairs, as of no value to him before the 
 peril of his country, he devoted himself to the work of his 
 committee with a vigor, a zeal, and a skill which have seldom 
 been rivalled in any dej)artment of our institution. . . . 
 While he was Chairman of the Military Committee, with 
 great power in his control, he never sought to use his posi- 
 tion for the advancement of selfish ends ; but he bent the 
 whole force at his disposal to the single purpose which we 
 had in view, and found his only reward in our cordial ap- 
 proval of his measures." 
 
 At the annual meeting in December the corporation was 
 called upon to bid farewell to the Secretary, who had so 
 assiduously served it. President Grant having apjDointed 
 Mr. Boker Minister Resident at the court of the Sultan, to 
 succeed the Hon. Wayne MacVeagh, the League resolved, 
 " That we see in the selection of Mr. Boker a just recognition 
 of his eminent services as a ^^atriot and his cultivation as a 
 gentleman, and express our gratification that our country 
 should be represented by one so well qualified to protect her 
 dignity and her interests ;" and further, " that we record 
 our acknowledgments of the faithful devotion to the social 
 and political advancement of this League which has marked 
 his official conduct with it since he was elected Secretary at 
 its first organization, and return our thanks to him for the 
 success which has crowned his labors." 
 
 The members of the Union League offered him a reception 
 on the 22d of the month, which was brilliantly successful, 
 and eloquent tributes were on that occasion paid to his worth 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 109 
 
 by those who had watched his action throughout the history 
 of the League. 
 
 In the course of the year a regulation was adopted admit- 
 ting oiScers of the army, the navy, and the marine corps to 
 the privileges of the institution, on the footing of correspond- 
 ing members. The Directors passed resolutions in June call- 
 ing upon members to contribute for the relief of sufferers by 
 the great conflagration at Chicago ; and the movement for a 
 Constitutional Convention was so successfully pushed that 
 the convocation of such an assembly became an assured fact. 
 In bringing this about the League committee had been 
 actively assisted by a committee representing the Democratic 
 party, to which thanks were returned for its hearty co-opera- 
 tion. On the 22d of May, 1872, the League assembled and 
 renominated General Grant for the Presidency of the United 
 States. A committee of thirty was appointed to take charge 
 of the campaign.* Their efforts culminated in the election 
 of Hartranft as Governor of Pennsylvania, and the continu- 
 ance of General Grant in the ofiice of chief magistrate of 
 the country, at the November election. Resolutions were 
 
 * The tfentlemcn named for this committee were Messrs. James H. 
 Campbell, ]Sr. B. Browne, Matthew Baird, Isaac Hazlehurst, Henry 
 Perkins, Henry C. Howell, J. Price Wetherill, J. L. Lawson, Samuel 
 Bell, John P. Verree, E. P. Gillingham, William B. Mann, L. Wain 
 Smith, Clayton McMichael, James B. Alexander, G. Morrison Coates, 
 Charles K. Ide, Francis Blackburne, Jr., Eobert Gray, W. B. Littleton, 
 Edward Browning, C. J. Hoffman, Myer Asch, William H. Kern, 
 Francis Wells, William C. Houston, C. A. AValborn, R. E. Campion, A. 
 P. Colesberry, M. Hall Stanton. 
 
no HISTORY OF THE 
 
 adopted, November 8, relative to the death of General Meade, 
 and three days afterward the League paraded, under the 
 marshalship of Charles Gibbons, in the imposing procession 
 which attended the obsequies of the former commander of 
 the Army of the Potomac. The League's position, assigned 
 by the United States military authorities of the de23artment, 
 made it the twenty-first in line among the organizations 
 participating in the ceremony. 
 
 Mr. McMichael retained the post of President of the 
 League, with the same set of Vice-Presidents, from Decem- 
 ber, 1870, until December, 1874. On Mr. Boker's resigna- 
 tion as Secretary, Mr. S. A. Caldwell served in his stead up 
 to October, 1875, when William H. Camac succeeded him. 
 After a brief interval, during which Mr. J. Frailey Smith 
 acted as Secretary fro tern., Mr. Silas W. Pettit entered upon 
 the office, issuing his first call September 13, 1876, and was 
 followed by Mr. W. E. Littleton, in 1879. Since then, Mr. 
 Samuel B. Huey has been the Secretary of the League. In 
 1873 the Constitutional Convention met at Philadelphia, and 
 the privileges of the League were hospitably extended to this 
 body during its session of several months. It was the Hon. 
 William M. Meredith, first President of the League, who, 
 as chairman, conducted the deliberations of the Convention ; 
 and this, indeed, was the closing act of his life, for he died 
 in August, as its labors were drawing to a close. The Direc- 
 tors ordered the League house to be draped in mourning for 
 thirty days in his honor ; and among their resolutions refer- 
 ring to his decease were these : 
 
 " That we bear willing testimony to the valuable services rendered 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. \\\ 
 
 to this League by Hon. William M. Meredith, no less during his mem- 
 bership than while he held the office of its President; and we place upon 
 record this expression of our a])preciation of the unswerving fidelity, 
 unflinching courage, and generous devotion witii which he upheld, de- 
 fended, and sustained the government of the United States in a spirit 
 of true loyalty and patriotism. 
 
 "That gratitude is due no less to one who, by the free and hearty 
 exercise of his high qualities as a statesman and of his distinguished 
 intellectual powers, as well as by the weight of his character and the 
 moral force of his example, has aided in maintaining the power and 
 integrity of his country's government in the hour of her peril, than to 
 those who rendered her military service." 
 
 The new Constitution embraced sundry alterations in the 
 rights and duties of the city of Philadelphia, which necessi- 
 tated the framing of new laws for its government, and the 
 League was prompt to lead in obtaining the proper legisla- 
 tion. Mr. Lewis Wain Smith moved, January 13, 1874, that 
 the President appoint a committee of twenty, of whom seven 
 should be members of the Board, " to jDrepare and promote" 
 such legislation. 
 
 When the Commissioners of the Centennial Exhibition 
 first met, in 1872, the League entertained them, and through 
 a committee appointed February 23, 1874, to wait uj)on Con- 
 gress, it threw the weight of its influence in favor of extend- 
 ing government aid to that national enterprise which was to 
 do honor to the Republic in its hundredth year. But the 
 Federal government refusing to give the Exhibition material 
 support, the public sj)irit of individuals had to be a23pealed 
 to in order to make the project a success. In the munificent 
 response to such apjoeal, and in the endeavor to forward the 
 
112 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Exhibition by all available means, members of the League 
 took an important part, maintaining in that emergency, as in 
 so many others, the high standing of the organization as an 
 agency always ready to place itself at the service of the best, 
 and to assist in carrying out large ideas, whether relating to 
 politics or the indirect cultivation of a robust national sen- 
 timent. While the Exhibition was in f)rogress, Mr. Boker — 
 who had meanwhile been promoted to the Russian mission, 
 and was chiefly instrumental in securing from the govern- 
 ments of Russia, Turkey, and Egypt due assistance for the 
 representation of those countries at the great industrial dis- 
 play in Philadelphia — returned on leave of absence, and was 
 given a reception by the League. Rutherford B. Hayes, then 
 Governor of Ohio, and candidate for the Presidency of the 
 United States, was also welcomed and entertained in October, 
 1876, on the "Ohio day" of the Exhibition. 
 
 In 1874 precautions were taken to secure, if jjossible, the 
 nomination of suitable candidates for municipal officers at the 
 sj^ring election of the ensuing year. A committee of sixty- 
 two having been appointed to labor for that object, and Mr. 
 John P. Verree having been elected President of the League 
 at the December meeting, some of the Republican candidates 
 were endorsed by the committee, and from others their ap- 
 proval was withheld. These latter candidates gained their 
 election only by reduced majorities, and the circumstance 
 caused much excitement and division of opinion among 
 League members. The policy of participating in municipal 
 politics as a body has not been pursued by the corporation 
 since that time. In December, 1876, Mr. Charles E. Smith 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 1]3 
 
 was elevated to tlie Presidency of the League, holding the 
 position two years, after which Mr. Boker, on his final return 
 from St. Petersburg, was elected. In March, 1880, also, Mr. 
 Boker received the gold League medal. 
 
 President Hayes's Southern policy had been upheld by 
 the League, which had also manifested its sympathy with 
 his advocacy of Civil Service Keform. On the return of 
 General Grant from his tour around the world, the League 
 invited him to a reception, which occurred on the 23d of 
 December, 1879, and was perhaps the most brilliant en- 
 tertainment ever given by the organization. Under Mr. 
 Boker's guidance it continued to take an active interest in 
 national affairs, and at an early day made ready for re- 
 asserting and maintaining its original princijDles in the 
 struggle of parties for supremacy, which was to take place 
 in 1880. When the campaign had fairly opened, with Gen- 
 eral Garfield and General Hancock as the opposing leaders, 
 the contest proved to be a momentous and critical one. 
 The purpose of the Southern Democrats to annul many of 
 the most significant and radical results of the war was 
 gradually revealed, and the League mustered its forces to 
 win the victory, with an energy and a closeness of appli- 
 cation not surpassed at any period in its history, in the 
 face of heavy discouragement at the loss of Maine in Sep- 
 tember. Its specially appointed campaign committee worked 
 upon the public mind with pamphlets and meetings, and 
 employed with good effect the ready contributions of mem- 
 bers, both in these directions and the organizing of pro- 
 cessional displays. On the 2oth of September the League 
 
 15 
 
114 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 paraded in the streets, carrying with it for the first time 
 since the war its banner, which had become a symbol and 
 herald of success. So manifest was the zeal and so promi- 
 nent the activity of the organization, that it became a source 
 of strength to the party it represented, throughout the 
 country, and was called upon for counsel by delegations from 
 other States. The wisdom of its continuance as a political 
 association was now made manifest to those among even its 
 older members, who had at one time thought it best that it 
 should by a resolution relinquish all direct share in the con- 
 tests of parties, except when the nation's life should be im- 
 perilled, — a resolution which would have made it extremely 
 difficult for it to concern itself with any Presidential election, 
 since opinions might be divided as to whether the prescribed 
 emergency had arisen. 
 
 The years 1878 and 1879 each deprived the League of an 
 ex-President, — the first, of Mr. J. Gillingham Fell, and the 
 second, of the Hon. Morton McMichael. In addition to the 
 dignity of the office held by them, these gentlemen had en- 
 joyed in uncommon degree the cordial esteem and confidence 
 of their fellow-members at all times. The death of Mr. 
 McMichael removed the last of those four Presidents who 
 had received the headship of the League in immediate suc- 
 cession, from the time of its founding down to the accession 
 of Mr. Verree. But as there was no break in the line of 
 tradition and purpose which the corporation had pursued, 
 members in looking back uj)on the careers of those now 
 passed away, who had so prominently co-operated with them, 
 could feel that even death wrought new bonds of strength, 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. II5 
 
 holding the League more and more firmly to its objects by 
 the influence of sacred associations. 
 
 At a special meeting of the Directors, October 28, 1878, 
 it was resolved, " That by the death of J. Gillingham Fell 
 the League is deprived of the wise counsels of one of the 
 chief pillars of the institution, of the precepts and the 
 example of a man who, amidst the darkest and most dis- 
 heartening days of our country's history which fell to the lot 
 of this generation, stood always firm, calm, and unshaken in 
 his faith as to the result, who bore the worst shocks of our 
 ill fortune with a serene fortitude that gave courage to the 
 timid, reassured the wavering, and added strength to the 
 strong, and who, in the hour of our triumj)h, was among the 
 first to dejorecate extreme measures, and to counsel forbear- 
 ance and conciliation towards those who had been divided 
 from us by the cruel estrangement of the sword." They also 
 made mention of "his winning social qualities, his generous 
 tolerance, and his many manly virtues," which had lent dig- 
 nity to the ofiice he had filled so well. 
 
 The Board of Directors met specially to take action on the 
 death of the Hon. Morton McMichael, January 7, 1879, 
 President Boker in the chair, and caused the following 
 minute to be entered : 
 
 " The organization of tlie Union League was preceded by the forma- 
 tion of a social gathering, which, under the name of the Union Club, 
 sought to propagate those doctrines to the advancement of which the 
 League was afterwards devoted. Among the original members of that 
 club the name of the Hon. Morton McMichael was most prominent. 
 With the organization of the League he was identified ; with the entire 
 
ll(j HISTORY OF THE 
 
 existence of the League his name was closely allied. It is fitting, 
 therefore, that his associates should bear testimony to the unfaltering 
 patriotism and courageous devotion to duty which marked his entire 
 career. Although elated by national success and depressed by national 
 disaster, he never wavered in his adherence to the principle of national 
 unity, and through good fortune and bad he stood the undaunted and 
 uncompromising patriot. Elected as a Vice-President of the League in 
 1864, his conspicuous merits were still further recognized and he became 
 its President in 1870, and remained so until his voluntary retirement 
 in 1874 deprived this organization of his faithful and conscientious 
 services. 
 
 " It is unnecessary for this Board to record the unbroken geniality 
 of his intercourse with its members during all these years. It is only 
 when the rare qualities he possessed are brought into stronger relief 
 through his death, that his associates are able fully to appreciate how 
 much of their hapj^iness was due to the light which ever accompanied 
 his presence in every social meeting. He combined in a most extraor- 
 dinary degree the qualities of a patriot, an orator, a writer, a wit, and 
 a friend." 
 
 The minute was also published in the daily papers ; the 
 Directors in a body attended the funeral of IMr. McMichael, 
 and the League house was drajjed with mourning for thirty 
 days. 
 
 Another member who had not only been identified in the 
 closest manner with the League, but was among those who 
 had been called from its ranks to high government position, 
 was Mr. Adolph E. Borie, who died in February, 1880. On 
 the 5th of that month, upon motion of Mr. Fitler, Messrs. 
 Boker, Claghorn, and Benson were made a committee, and 
 reported resolutions to this effect : 
 
 " Resolved, That in the death of the Hon. Adolph E. Borie the Union 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 117 
 
 League ha8 sustained a loss that reminds us how few of the original 
 oiflcers of the institution remain among our members. Mr. Borie held 
 the office of Yice-Prcsident of our body from the organization of the 
 League, in the year 1862, until the time of his death. During that 
 long term of oiHee he endeared himself to our association by his un- 
 flinching loyalty and devotion to the country during the Eebellion, his 
 liberality in offering his large means towards the support of eveiy 
 public movement, and the high-spirited counsel which he offered and 
 put into practice when the hearts of other men were disposed to falter 
 and their actions to become feeble. In his intercourse with his fellow- 
 members his conduct was marked by a courtesy and a kindness of 
 heart that won universal regard, and that through all changes of sen- 
 timent made his name one of the most popular among our officers,— a 
 name at which none could cavil, and to which all gave the willing 
 support of their confidence. 
 
 "The Board of Directors know, from the voice of that private fame 
 which should be dearer to man than the clamor of glory, that Mr. Borie 
 moved among his family and his friends as a visible blessing of Heaven; 
 and we therefore sorrowfully sympathize with those who have been 
 deprived of the advice, the example, and the assistance of so good, so 
 magnanimous, and so generous a benefactor. 
 
 " "When Mr. Borie was called upon to assume the high office of Sec- 
 retary of the Navy, and to sit at the councils of his friend. President 
 Grant, we shared in the confidence which the President reposed in 
 him; and with the President we lamented that Mr. Borie's failing 
 health forbade him, in his own conscientious opinion, from longer per- 
 forming the .duties of an office in which he had gained universal respect 
 and approval." 
 
 In conclusion, the Directors resolved to pay to the memory 
 of Mr. Borie the same outward tribute of respect which had 
 been rendered to that of Mr. Fell and Mr. McMichael. 
 
 After an interval of only a few months another serious loss 
 
118 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 was inflicted upon the membershii3 and government of the 
 League, through the death of Mr. J. Frailey Smith, the senior 
 Vice-President. The Directors of that year may best be 
 allowed to si^eak for themselves concerning him, in these 
 extracts from their minute entered upon the record June 28, 
 1880: 
 
 " Whereas, His associates in the direction of the Union League have 
 heard of the unexpected death of their senior Vice-President, Mr. 
 Joseph Frailey Smith, they desire to give expi-ession to the highest 
 respect and admiration entertained for his character by each and every 
 Director, and held by the entire membership of the organization. 
 Within short intervals the Union League has lately suffered severely 
 in the loss of its most prominent officers. Two ex-Presidents and as 
 many Yice-Presidents have lately passed away, whose services were 
 worthy of lasting remembrance. But if fidelity to duty is ever deserv- 
 ing of recomjoense, no one is entitled to the high regard of his fellow- 
 members more than the gentleman whose sudden death has just occa- 
 sioned so much sincere regret. He was truly a model Director, and 
 his great ability and energy have ever been recognized and appreciated. 
 His manly bearing, genial manners, and bright social qualities obtained 
 for him a widespread popularity and a warm, enduring friendshijD. As 
 in the course of time the older must give way to younger men, the 
 members of the Union League looked upon Mr. Joseph Prailey Smith 
 as one to fill any vacancy, no matter how prominent, and felt assured 
 that he would be equal to the position. . . . But while his loss will be 
 specially felt in the Union League house as a most prominent member, 
 able Director, and efficient Vice-President, the community in which he 
 lived will feel that a leading and successful merchant has been taken 
 away, whose mercantile career was marked by an unsullied commercial 
 honor, and whose brilliant qualities and untiring industry were re- 
 warded by a pro8f>erity unusual in one of his years. . . . 
 
 " Resolved, That the Board of Directors desires that this minute be 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. ■ 119 
 
 entered upon record as a sincere but inadequate tribute of their affec- 
 tion and esteem." 
 
 By the tragic death of President Garfield in 1881, at the 
 hands of an assassin, the League became a sharer in a great 
 grief common to all organizations and individuals through- 
 out the land ; a grief which affected in like manner all the 
 civilized peoples of the earth to an extent beyond any pre- 
 vious experience. The Directors, on the day after the Presi- 
 dent breathed his last, exjjressed their sense of sorrow as 
 being not merely one due to a national calamity, " but a per- 
 sonal bereavement, which brings the shadow of grief into 
 every home." The high hopes which had been formed as to 
 the administration to be shaped by this man, in whose elec- 
 tion the League had been so vital a factor, were now arrested, 
 and the future was clouded with suspense ; but the Directors, 
 obeying the duty of good citizenship, incorporated with their 
 resolutions, on this occasion, a pledge to support President 
 Arthur cordially " in all honest effort to administer the great 
 trust which has devolved upon him." 
 
 In accord with the policy of President Hayes and the pre- 
 sumed intention of President Garfield, to build up political 
 freedom in the South while cultivating fraternal relations 
 among all the States of the Union, the League has recently 
 interested itself in the question of education in the Southern 
 States. Colonel John E. Bryant, of Georgia, addressed a 
 stated meeting, October 10, 1881, on the condition of the 
 Kepublican party at the South, and the best means of bring- 
 ing the Southern people into harmony with their Northern 
 fellow-citizens. This gentleman came before them as the 
 
120 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 representative of the Southern Advance Association, formed 
 for the purpose of teaching the Southern peojDle national 
 ideas, " in the schools, by the press, and from the rostrum," 
 in order to counteract the influences of surviving sectional 
 opinion antagonistic to the Unio]i. A committee of fifteen, 
 appointed by the League, reported uj)on the subject of his 
 address, expressing their belief that he should receive such 
 aid as would secure the vigorous prosecution of the work ; 
 and remarks were made, at the meeting which received this 
 report, recommending a Congressional appropriation for com- 
 mon school education. 
 
 The latest public action of the League to be chronicled in 
 these pages, therefore, indicates its persistence in the path of 
 enlightened opinion and of duty to the general body of society 
 in its national political relations. Meanwhile, although suf- 
 fering those losses of old and tried constituents inevitable to 
 any large organization, it has entered upon its twentieth year 
 under circumstances favoring a long continuance of useful- 
 ness, and without showing any appreciable abatement of its 
 original ardor, notwithstanding the indifferentism and the 
 laxity of aim which might be expected to assert themselves 
 on the accession of large numbers of younger men, unfa- 
 miliar with the earlier period of its history. The member- 
 ship, over nineteen hundred at the close of the war, fell in 
 1871* to eight hundred and fifty, but has since by wise policy 
 and a liberal management of the institution been increased 
 to eleven hundred, — a number considerable in itself, and still 
 more formidable when regarded as a nucleus for possible en- 
 largement, should any great national emergency ever again 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 121 
 
 call for a renewal of the extensive functions exercised by the 
 League in the days of the War for the Union. A financial 
 administration thorough and economical from the beginning 
 to the present, has made its last eleven years a period of 
 growing prosperity ; and the liberality of its members has 
 rendered possible the extension and adornment of its build- 
 ing in a manner which will give the corporation greater 
 sources of attraction and better opportunities for jDublic 
 assemblies than it has ever possessed heretofore. 
 
 16 
 
122 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 XII. 
 
 CLOSING OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 We have now reviewed succinctly, but also with essential 
 completeness as to outline, the origin, growth, and career of 
 the Union League of Philadelphia. From this review it 
 appears that from a small, experimental beginning it rose, 
 by the steadfast and courageous assertion of deep principles, 
 to a commanding position which enabled it to overthrow dis- 
 loyalty in the great manufacturing capital of the North, and 
 to contribute materially to the establishment of Union with 
 Emancipation, notwithstanding the conservatism which for a 
 time handicapped many of those who sympathized with its 
 main purpose of inculcating national ideas. Its success 
 affords a convincing lesson as to the value of uncomjjromis- 
 ing integrity in individuals at great public crises ; for it was 
 solely by the adherence of a few men to the ideas which they 
 believed radically American and right that any such move- 
 ment as is recorded in the preceding pages became possible, 
 or, having been begun, was pushed to so glorious an issue. 
 
 Not only did the Union League revolutionize the state 
 of affairs in Philadelphia : it also led directly to the forma- 
 tion of similar bodies in all parts of the Northern States, and 
 brought into being a living network of hearts and brains 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 123 
 
 tlirough which it could distribute its own prompting enthu- 
 siasm, receiving from it again by reflex action fresh stimulus 
 of comradeship, suggestion, and supjiort. It enlisted and 
 placed at the command of the government a small army of 
 soldiers, numbering, if we include the negro troops raised by 
 the Supervisory Committee (composed of League members) 
 more than fifteen thousand men. It published patriotic ideas 
 with greater copiousness, and distributed them with a more 
 telling accuracy, than any other civil organization in the 
 country 'can claim to have done at the same period. It con- 
 trolled, by the force of moral enthusiasm and unconquerable 
 industry, critical elections, the loss of which to the Union 
 party would undoubtedly have j)rolonged the war and greatly 
 complicated its settlement, if indeed it had not altogether 
 changed the result. For these reasons the Union League of 
 Philadelphia must be considered an institution of national 
 importance, the decisive acts of which should never be for- 
 gotten nor carelessly passed by. 
 
 The association has never called itself a club, in fact, has 
 expressly avoided doing so, in order that its very name might 
 indicate that its objects were larger than those ordinarily 
 embraced in the plan even of political clubs. In one respect 
 it differs strikingly from the political clubs of the world. 
 Instead of being created as the exponent of any one party in 
 the customary sense, it was founded simply on the idea of 
 Union, in its fullest sense of original American freedom, and 
 shutting out all possibility of disruption which might defeat 
 the grand aims of this Eepublic. In its later course, in days 
 of peace and with longer intervals between the emergencies 
 
124 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 in which it is required to act, the League has naturally taken 
 on more and more the characteristics of a social club on a 
 large scale. But the vital idea which it embodied in a new 
 and permanent form must not for that reason be overlooked. 
 It is this, — that, in a nation constituted as ours is, a great 
 duty devolves upon citizens to assist in the work of govern- 
 ment, not merely by the use of the ballot, but by strong 
 organization outside of parties, for the purpose of encour- 
 aging all good political tendencies, promoting and improving 
 the conception of nationality, and suggesting beneficial legis- 
 lation, which it can also forward to enactment by the elected 
 law-making powers. 
 
 The opinion is sometimes advanced that an association like 
 the League should either be devoted purely to social aims or 
 solely to political ones ; that a mixture of the two is inexpe- 
 dient. The history of the League is itself the best refuta- 
 tion of such a view. The agency of which it availed itself 
 in its very inception was that of social influence ; and this is 
 the agency which multiplied its forces and gave it the means 
 for effecting all the valuable results it has achieved. The 
 essence of its life has been the union of social intercourse 
 with ideas, with civic duty and political activity. Of clubs 
 centring upon one or the other of these classes of interest 
 there are many, but of Union Leagues there can be few, since 
 critical junctures equalling in magnitude that which brought 
 the League into being occur with comj^arative rarity. Hence 
 it will be desired by every discerning observer of the public 
 welfare that an organization of this kind, once created, shall 
 remain true to its primary inspiration, and that, however it 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 125 
 
 may interest itself in the pleasures of peace at the proper 
 times, or however it may concern itself with rendering daily 
 life agreeable to its members, it shall never lay aside the solid 
 armor of its principles, but always stand prej^ared to enter 
 iipon any struggle that may justify its participation. 
 
DOCUMENTARY HISTORY. 
 
 127 
 
DOCTJMENTARY HISTORY. 
 
 ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION OF THE UNION CLUB. 
 
 I. The name of this Association shall be the "Union Club 
 of Philadelphia." 
 
 II. The number of members shall be limited for the present 
 to fifty, and the condition of membership shall be unquali- 
 fied loyalty to the government of the United States, and un- 
 wavering support of its measures for the suppression of the 
 Rebellion. 
 
 III. The Club shall meet every Saturday evening at eight 
 o'clock, during the months appointed by the Standing Com- 
 mittee, at the house of a member, who shall provide a mod- 
 erate entertainment for his guests at an hour not later than 
 ten o'clock. No more than three dishes of various kinds 
 shall be served, and the wines shall be limited to sherry 
 and Madeira, and to one other. The entertaining member 
 shall be privileged to substitute Friday evening for that of 
 Saturday. 
 
 IV. The entertaining member may invite any persons, not 
 members, to meet the Club whose opinions are in harmony 
 with the second of these Articles of Association. 
 
 17 129 
 
130 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 II. 
 
 ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION OP THE UNION LEAGUE. 
 
 ADOPTED DECEMBER 27, 1862. 
 (First signatures obtained Januarj' S, 1863.) 
 
 The undersigned agree to associate under the name of 
 The Union League of Philadelphia, and to adopt the 
 following fundamental Articles of Association, to wit : 
 
 1. The condition of membership shall be unqualified loy- 
 alty to the government of the United States, and unwavering 
 sujsport of its efforts for the suppression of the Rebellion. 
 
 2. The primary object of the Association shall be to dis- 
 countenance and rebuke by moral and social influences all 
 disloyalty to the Federal government, and to that end the 
 Association will use every proper means in public and private. 
 
 3. To meet the necessary exj)enditure for house-rent, fur- 
 niture, subscriptions to newspaj^ers and periodicals, and such 
 things as may be necessary for the use of the League, each 
 associator shall pay an entrance fee of twenty-five dollars and 
 an annual tax of the same amount. 
 
 4. No cards, billiards, or other games, except chess, shall 
 be allowed in the League house, and no spirituous liquors 
 shall be kept or sold therein. 
 
 5. There shall be a Standing Committee, consisting of nine 
 associators, who shall have a general supervision of the con- 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 131 
 
 cerns of the League, and who shall be appointed annually at 
 a meeting of the League, in such manner as the meeting may 
 decide. 
 
 6. The Standing Committee shall jDrejoare such by-laws as 
 may be necessary to secure a proper and orderly administra- 
 tion of the affairs of the League, which shall be subject to 
 such amendments, from time to time, as a majority of the 
 associators may direct. 
 
 Below appear the names of the first linndred signers as 
 recorded in the original roll-book, with a few of those whose 
 signatures occur soon after these : 
 
 Stephen Colwell, 
 John Ashhurst, 
 J. FoKSYTH Meigs, 
 F. Fraley, 
 
 Fairman Eogers, 
 Charles Gilpin, 
 Charles Gibbons, 
 B. Gerhard, 
 Henry D. Moore, 
 William Henry Eawle, 
 Edwin N. Lewis, 
 James W. Paul, 
 
 W. M. TiLGHMAN, 
 
 Henry C. Carey, 
 A. J. Lewis, 
 A. J. Antelo, 
 Samuel W. Eeeves, 
 James L. Claghorn, 
 William H. Ashhurst, 
 John B. Myer, 
 
 George Trott, 
 Morton McMichael, 
 J. G. Fell, 
 C. H. Clark, 
 Ferdinand J. Dreer, 
 James Milliken, 
 Daniel Dougherty, 
 .John E. Young, 
 George Whitney, 
 
 C. A. BORIE, 
 
 George H. Boker, 
 Alexander Brown, 
 E. Spencer Miller, 
 B. H. Moore, 
 A. D. Jessup, 
 Joseph B. Townsend, 
 Horace Binney, Jr., 
 John Haseltine, 
 Samuel E. Stokes, 
 James Somers Smith, 
 
132 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 John B. Kennet, 
 
 Daniel Smith, Jr., 
 
 S. J. Christian, 
 
 Jacob W. Goff, 
 
 William B. Hart, 
 
 William S. Grant, 
 
 E. Eundle Smith, 
 
 E. Carpenter, 
 
 Alexander J. Derbyshire, 
 
 B. C. Knight, 
 
 George A. Coffey, 
 
 Joseph Allison, 
 
 Oswald Thompson, 
 
 Aubrey H. Smith, 
 
 William D. Lewis, 
 
 James S. Young, 
 
 William Welsh, 
 
 Ward B. Haseltine, 
 
 Thomas Smith, 
 
 John Eioe, 
 
 Thomas Kimber, Jr., 
 
 J. W. Forney, 
 
 George J. Gross, 
 
 Jay Cooke, 
 
 Joseph S. Lovering, Jr., 
 
 George W. Thorn, 
 
 A. C. Barclay, 
 
 Charles J. Peterson, 
 
 D. B. Cummins, 
 
 George M. Stroud, 
 
 William B. Thomas, 
 
 W. C. SWANN, 
 
 G. H. Crosman, U.S.A., 
 James Pollock, 
 
 John Thompson, 
 Joseph B. Myers, 
 A. E. BoRiE, 
 Ellis Yarnall, 
 John W. Claghorn, 
 George M. Connaroe, 
 Edwin Greble, 
 J. E. Caldwell, 
 
 E. W. Clark, 
 A. Hbaton, 
 
 Lewis E. Ashhurst, 
 
 Alfred Still:^, 
 
 George Erety, 
 
 Lawrence S. Pepper, M.D., 
 
 Daniel Haddock, Jr., 
 
 James H. Orne, 
 
 p. f. eothermel, 
 
 F. A. COMLY, 
 
 William S. Stewart, 
 A. J. Drexel, 
 Evans Eogers, 
 George Gilpin, 
 W. Cadwalader, 
 Lemuel Coffin, 
 William T. Cresson, 
 Cadwalader Biddle, 
 Clement Biddle, 
 LiNDLEY Smyth, 
 Wayne MacVeagh, 
 William Sellers, 
 David S. Brown, 
 
 G. W. Childs, 
 S. V. Merrick, 
 L. A. GODEY. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 133 
 
 III. 
 
 DATE AND ORIGIN OF THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB OF NEW YORK. 
 
 The Union League of Philadelphia and the Union League 
 Club of New York having both had at heart the national 
 interest, as distinguished from local aims, it would be un- 
 becoming to treat in a spirit of asperity the erroneous claim 
 to historic priority which has been set up in Dr. Bellows's 
 history of the New York body. We may recognize with 
 satisfaction the identity of the two organizations in large, 
 patriotic purpose ; but the truth of history demands that the 
 initiatory action of Philadelphia men, and the influence of 
 this on New York and other portions of the country, should 
 be clearly set forth and fully understood. 
 
 The " Historical Sketch of the Union League Club of 
 New York," by the Eev. Dr. Henry W. Bellows, begins with 
 this declaration, " The Union League Club of New York is 
 the child of the United States Sanitary Commission." It is 
 followed by an explanation of the spirit of national loyalty 
 which grew up among the workers in that Commission ; and 
 the statement that Professor Wolcott Gibbs, then of New York, 
 but afterwards resident in Boston, " was the first to suggest 
 that the idea on which the Sanitary Commission was founded 
 needed to take on the form of a club which should be de- 
 
134 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 voted to the social organization of the sentiment of loyalty 
 to the Union, and he chose Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted as 
 the first person to be consulted and advised with." A further 
 passage runs as follows : " Professor Gibbs had conceived the 
 plan of a national club before October, 1862, but, to quote his 
 own language, ' it was not until Seymour's election as Gov- 
 ernor of New York that the urgency of such a movement 
 was publicly indicated.' "* Then ensues some correspond- 
 ence between Professor Gibbs and Mr. Olmsted, the earliest 
 date of which is November 5, 1862. In another place the 
 historian says, "It is important to observe that the original 
 idea of the proposed club of loyalists was native to New 
 York, and not borrowed from Philadelphia. The conception 
 of our Club was earlier than that of the Union League Club"|" 
 there, which was, however, sooner organized and named. 
 They were both original and independent movements. The 
 resemblance in their titles and purposes might lead to the 
 mistaken impression that both grew out of one impulse, either 
 simultaneously or in succession, our Club following the Phil- 
 adelphia League. But this is not historically true, even 
 though it may appear that the Union League Club in Phila- 
 delphia finally decided the title and in some degree influenced 
 the form of ours." 
 
 The obvious fact remains that no move was made in New 
 York until after the conversation in the cars in November, 
 
 * Historical Sketch of the Union League Club, etc., page 11. 
 "j" This is a misnomer. It was not entitled nor generally referred to 
 as the Union League Club. Its name was simply the Union League. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 135 
 
 alluded to by Dr. Bellows and also in the fourth chapter of 
 the present history. By reference to the same chapter it will 
 be seen that two committees from the Philadelphia League 
 went to New York to give advice to the projectors of the 
 Union League Club there, and to assist them in building up 
 their association on the basis already adoj)ted in Philadelphia. 
 Furthermore, President Charles King, deputed by those 
 gentlemen while they were still unorganized to attend the 
 inauguration ceremonies in Chestnut Street, said distinctly, 
 " We carry out your precep)ts." 
 
 Dr. Bellows himself indirectly admitted the relative places 
 occupied by the two bodies in order of time when he used 
 the subjoined language : " It was to meet and overcome this 
 alarming state of doubt and apathy, or of a mistaken sym- 
 pathy with rebellion in the North, and especially in our 
 cities, that the Union League Club \_dc\ in Philadelphia was 
 formed as a rallying centre for the unconditional loyalty that 
 already remained in the North, and an instrument for propa- 
 gating this sentiment among the irresolute, doubtful, or de- 
 spairing. It was honorable to the city in which the original 
 declaration of independence was made that the movement 
 for defending our national life by an unj)artisan organization 
 of loyal citizens for the more distinct and emphatic declara- 
 tion of fidelity to the Union should have been first organized 
 there. Their example animated and quickened the original 
 projectors of this Club, though our purpose was older and 
 independent of theirs, and it is due to them and to ourselves 
 to acknowledge their priority in action."* 
 
 * Historical Sketch, page 35. 
 
136 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 The only points adduced to show that the Union League 
 Club of New York was "the child of the Sanitary Com- 
 mission" are, (1) that the j^hrase "unconditional loyalty" 
 originated in that body, (2) that some of the members of 
 the Commission had bethought them of the necessity for 
 forming a social club on a j^atriotic basis, and (3) that these 
 members afterwards took part in the formation of such a 
 club. But, as has been said, no step was actually taken 
 until the example had been set in Philadelphia. Dr. 
 Bellows speaks of this example as corroborating the belief 
 which the New Yorkers had " been brooding over for several 
 months." But the earliest documentary evidence of such 
 brooding bears date of November 5, 1862, only a few days 
 before the actual assembling of the Union Club in Phila- 
 delphia; and all reference to a general conception in cer- 
 tain minds arising before then has no value beyond that 
 of indeterminate recollection and vague surmise. The only 
 inspiration which, so far as the records show, bore fruit 
 in achievement came from the Union Club and the Union 
 League of Philadelphia, whose members personally assisted 
 in the preliminary discussions leading to the New York 
 organization, and whose words were incorporated in the 
 Articles of Association agreed upon by the latter. The 
 Sanitary Commission cannot, with accuracy, be said to have 
 had any relation of paternity either to the League or the 
 Union League Club. An idea substantially one and the 
 same doubtless occurred to loyal citizens in New York 
 at about the same time, but this idea was useless until em- 
 bodied. The Philadelphians were the first to embody it, 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 137 
 
 and their sympathizers in New York, as in Boston, followed 
 their lead. 
 
 The Club in New York completed its organization Feb- 
 ruary 21, 1863, but did not open its house until May 12, 
 1863. The Union League was formed December 27, 1862, 
 and had its house ready February 9, 1863. The first regular 
 meeting occurred January 22, a month before the New 
 Yorkers organized. 
 
 18 
 
138 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 IV. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM SPEECHES DELIVERED AT THE INAUGURATION OF THE 
 FIRST LEAGUE HOUSE, FEBRUARY 23, 1863, BY WILLIAM D. LEWIS 
 AND DANIEL DOUGHERTY. 
 
 William D. Lewis said, " The necessity of the present 
 organization I consider to have been imj)erative. Our Union 
 League may be viewed as a great moral sanitary commission, 
 whereby the virus of treason, which has of late shown itself 
 among us, may be neutralized, and many good men and true 
 saved from the loathsome infection. It was, indeed, high 
 time to take the matter in hand when we heard our gov- 
 ernment denounced by prominent politicians because of 
 its partial adoption of measures deemed necessary for its 
 self-preservation ; when we saw every art employed to bring 
 our own rulers into contempt and to exalt the arch-rebel 
 into an object of admiration ; when there were even found 
 some men base enough to concoct schemes for ranging our 
 own great and true Commonwealth under the rebel banner. 
 
 "It is not that our home traitors are so numerous, but 
 because of their defiant bearing and the boldness with which 
 they proclaim their heresies, that it has become necessary to 
 let them see and feel their insignificance in this loyal com- 
 munity. Let us remember that it was by the activity of 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 139 
 
 such unscrupulous minorities, and the inertness of the jja- 
 triotic masses, that Louisiana, North Carolina, and Virginia 
 were forced to array themselves against the government of 
 the Union. These unworthy sons of their country, lost to all 
 sense of shame, and willing to rise to temporary power on the 
 ruins of the fairest fabric of liberty ever reared by human 
 hands, are at this moment exerting all their faculties in 
 striving to sap its foundations. They preach anew the ex- 
 ploded doctrine of the supremacy of State rights, the very 
 origin of all our troubles. They denounce as tyrannical or 
 unsound every military and financial measure of the Admin- 
 istration, whereby only can we hope to suppress the huge 
 revolt which has drenched our land in blood. They abuse 
 equally the just and humane jDolicy of compensated emanci- 
 pation, and the bolder and more necessary one of dethroning 
 their ebon idol by declaring the slaves of all traitors in rebel- 
 lion free. . . . 
 
 " But do you know, Mr. President, that to siich a jJass has 
 the insolence of this unchecked treason reached that, with all 
 our preponderance of numbers, threats have been used that 
 we should not be allowed to assemble in the discharge of our 
 patriotic mission unmolested ? These threats have even been 
 promulgated by a portion of the public press. I suppose 
 there is no member of this League that does not despise them, 
 and feel his good purpose rather whetted than blunted by 
 such an attempt to intimidate." 
 
 Mr. Dougherty said, "I am no adherent of Mr. Lincoln. 
 I opposed his election to the last. I would scorn to ask a 
 favor of him, and would not accept one if offered. I feel no 
 
140 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 partisan interest in the success of his Administration ; it has 
 done many acts of which I do not approve, — more, however, of 
 omission than commission ; but I deem it a duty, a holy duty, 
 to take part in no organized opposition, but to do all I can to 
 counsel, assist, and sustain the constituted authorities of my 
 country in this war on this hideous and hell-born rebellion. 
 . . . Our defeats and disasters have flowed from our supine- 
 ness. Eeinspired by the glorious memories of this day, let 
 us hurl contempt and scorn on the dastards who would 
 counsel a nation's dishonor by begging an ignominious peace 
 of armed, bloody, and unrelenting treason !" 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. \\\ 
 
 V. 
 
 ORIGINAL BY-LAWS OF THE LEAGfUE. 
 
 On motion of Mr. McMichael, January 14, 1863, the Di- 
 rectors appointed Charles Gibbons a committee to draft By- 
 Laws, giving him power to associate with him Messrs. Kenney 
 and S. B. Thomas. The draft was read to the Board January 
 22, submitted to a general meeting of the League the same 
 day, and by it adopted. These By-Laws are given below : 
 
 BY-LAWS. 
 
 OF OFFICERS AND THEIR DUTIES. 
 
 1. The affairs of the League shall be managed by a Standing Com- 
 mittee, or Board of Direction, consisting of the President, four Vice- 
 Presidents, and nine Directors, who shall be elected at the annual 
 meeting in December in every year, except in cases hereinafter provided, 
 and they shall serve until a new Board be regularly elected. 
 
 2. The President and Vice-Presidents of the League shall be ex-officio 
 Directors, and one of them shall be the presiding ofiScer of the Board. 
 
 3. If the office of President or a Vice-President become vacant, the 
 Board shall call a special meeting of the League to fill the vacancy. 
 If other vacancies occur in the Board, the remaining Directors shall 
 choose members of the League to fill the said vacancies until the next 
 election. 
 
 4. The Board shall appoint from the Directors a Treasurer and a 
 Secretary, who shall perform their duties subject to its control. 
 
142 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 5. The Board of Direction shall have and exercise a general super- 
 intendence of the affairs of the League; shall control and manage its 
 property and effects, and enforce the preservation of order and obe- 
 dience to the rules. It shall make all necessary purchases and contracts, 
 but shall have no power to make the League liable for any debt to an 
 amount beyond that which, at the time of contracting the same, shall 
 be in the Treasurer's hands in cash, and not subject to prior liabilities. 
 
 6. The Board of Direction, of which five shall be a quorum, shall 
 meet at least once in every month for the transaction of business. The 
 Secretary shall keep minutes of the proceedings, and also of all other 
 matters which may concern the League. 
 
 7. The Treasurer shall give security in a sum of not less than ten 
 thousand dollars, to be approved by the Board, for the faithful custody 
 and application of the funds of the League, and the security may be 
 increased at the option of the Board. He shall exhibit his account at 
 the annual meeting, and present a copy thereof to the Auditors. And 
 the Board shall have power to remove him for misconduct in the affairs 
 of his office. 
 
 OP MEETINGS. 
 
 8. The annual meeting of the League shall be held on the second 
 Monday in December, at 8 o'clock p.m. 
 
 9. All elections shall be by ballot, unless otherwise ordered by two- 
 thirds of the members present, and a plurality of votes shall be sufficient 
 to elect. 
 
 10. At every annual meeting the Board shall report its proceedings, 
 and recommend such measures as it may deem advisable. The Treas- 
 urer shall make his report of the finances of the League, as presented 
 to the Auditors, together with a supplemental statement to the date of 
 the meeting. 
 
 11. At every annual meeting three Auditors shall be appointed, to 
 serve for twelve months, or until new Auditors be regularly chosen. 
 The duty of the said Auditors shall be to audit and settle the accounts 
 of the Treasurer and to present their report thereof to the next annual 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. I43 
 
 meeting. They shall have power to fill vacancies in their number, and 
 tv70 of them shall be a quorum. 
 
 12. At the meetings of the League after organization, the order of 
 business, so far as the nature and character of the meeting may admit, 
 shall be as follovys : 
 
 1. Eeading the minutes of the last meeting. 
 
 2. Eeport of the Board of Direction. 
 
 3. Eeport of the Treasurer. 
 
 4. Eeport of the Auditors thereon. 
 
 5. The appointment of Auditors. 
 
 6. Nevv business. 
 
 Provided, That this order of business may be, on motion, changed 
 by a majority of the meeting. 
 
 13. A notice of every meeting of the League shall be posted on the 
 notice-board at least ten days before the time assigned for such meet- 
 ing, except in the cases of special meetings called by the Board upon 
 some emergency. 
 
 14. It shall be the duty of the Board to call a special meeting of the 
 League, upon the written request of twenty-five members; and such a 
 meeting may also be called whenever the Board maj' deem it expedient. 
 
 15. The notice of a special meeting shall specify the time, and also 
 the purpose, for which it may be called; and such meeting shall not 
 consider, or take action on, any matter other than that specified in the 
 said notice. 
 
 16. At any meeting of the League for action on the conduct of a 
 member which may involve his expulsion, or for an alteration of the 
 By-Laws, one-fourth of the whole number of members of the League 
 shall be a quorum. Por the transaction of any other business thirty 
 members shall be a quorum. 
 
 17. No stranger shall be present at any meeting of the League. 
 
 18. Propositions foreign to the objects of the League shall not be 
 discussed at any of its meetings. 
 
 19. A motion involving the expulsion of a member shall be decided 
 by ballot, and the decision of a majority shall be final. 
 
144 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 20. Proxies shall not be permitted. 
 
 OF MEMBERS. 
 
 21. No member shall receive any profit, salary, or emolument from 
 the funds of the League. 
 
 22. JSTo member shall give any money or gratuity to a servant of the 
 League. 
 
 23. No member shall leave the house without settling his bill with 
 the Steward. 
 
 24. All resignations shall be made in writing to the Board of Direc- 
 tion, prior to the first of December, and if made subsequent thereto, 
 shall not discharge the member presenting it from his tax for the cur- 
 rent year ; and all interest in the property of the League, of members 
 resigning or otherwise ceasing to be members, shall be vested in the 
 League. 
 
 ELECTION OP MEMBERS. 
 
 25. A candidate for membership shall be proposed by a member, 
 who, in a book set apart for the purjDose, shall register the candidate's 
 name and residence, and shall add the date of such registry and his 
 own signature. 
 
 26. The President shall appoint an Election Committee, consisting of 
 thirteen members of the League, who shall examine the Candidate's 
 register once in every week, and report to the President or a Vice- 
 President the names of all candidates whom they may think proper to 
 recommend for admission, and the President, or a Vice-President, shall 
 present the same to the Board of Direction. If no sufiicient cause 
 be shown to the Board against the admission of a candidate recom- 
 mended by the Committee, he shall be received as a member on signing 
 the Articles of Association, and paying to the Treasurer his entrance 
 fee and tax for the current year: Provided, That new members ad- 
 mitted within six months of the expiration of the year shall not be 
 required to pay more than one-half the tax for such year. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 145 
 
 or STRANGERS. 
 
 27. A member may introduce a stranger to the League, and shall 
 thereon register in a book to be kept for that purpose the name and 
 residence of such stranger, and the date of such introduction, to all 
 which the said member shall affix his own name; and he shall also, 
 when convenient, present the stranger to one or more of the Board. 
 
 28. Such introduction shall not confer any right of re-entrance; but 
 the Board of Direction may, at discretion, give a written invitation to 
 any stranger, which shall entitle him to visit the League house for one 
 month. 
 
 29. Eesidents of the city of Philadelphia, not being members, shall 
 not be admitted to the League more than once, save to an entertain- 
 ment given in a private room, when the number of such residents shall 
 not exceed one-fourth of the company present : Provided, That the 
 Board may, at at any time in its discretion, suspend the operation of 
 this by-law until action upon the subject by the League. 
 
 30. No guest shall give an entertainment in the League house. 
 
 31. No stranger or visitor shall give any gratuity to a servant of the 
 League. 
 
 32. On any infraction of the above By-Laws, the Board shall notify 
 the offender, through his introducer, that he can no longer enjoy the 
 privileges of the League. 
 
 OF EXPULSION OP MEMBERS. 
 
 33. If the conduct of a member be disorderly or injurious to the 
 interests of the League, or contrary to its By-Laws, or if, hj his acts 
 or conversation, he shall manifest a spirit of disloyalty to the govern- 
 ment of the United States, the Board shall inform him thereof in 
 writing, and, if the nature of the offence require it, shall request him 
 to resign. 
 
 34. Should such information or request be disregarded, the Board 
 
 shall refer the matter to the next stated meeting of the League, or to 
 
 a special meeting to be called for the purpose, of which due notice 
 
 shall be given to the offending member. 
 
 19 
 
146 HTSTORY OF THE 
 
 35. At such meeting the circumstances of the case shall be considered, 
 and the member may be expelled. 
 
 36. The annual tax shall be paid on or before the first Monday in 
 March in every year. If not then paid, the defaulter shall cease to be 
 a member ipso facto : Provided, that upon his written application and 
 the payment of all dues to the date thereof, the Board, in its discretion, 
 and upon such terms as it may think necessary, may remit the penalty 
 of this by-law ; of all which the Secretarj' shall make a minute : And 
 ■provided, further, That this by-law shall not apply to the case of a 
 resident member who may be ill or absent from the city of Philadel- 
 phia. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 37. The house shall be open for the reception of members every day, 
 except Sundays. 
 
 38. ISTo person shall be admitted into the League house who does 
 not give his unwavering support to the government in its efforts to 
 suppress the rebellion ; and if any such person be knowingly intro- 
 duced by a member of the League, such member may be expelled for 
 the offence by the Board of Direction. 
 
 39. Dogs shall not be allowed in the League house or on the premises. 
 
 40. No person shall take from the League house a newspaper, pam- 
 phlet, book, or other article, the property of the League, nor mutilate, 
 deface, nor destroy the same. 
 
 41. Books, pamphlets, or newspapers shall not be removed from the 
 reading- and drawing-rooms. 
 
 42. A by-law of the League may be amended, or a new by-law 
 made, at the annual meeting, the proposer having posted upon the 
 notice-board the words of the proposed alteration for at least thirty 
 days immediately preceding the said meeting, when, if a majority of 
 two-thirds shall vote in favor of the proposed alteration, it shall be 
 ado23ted. 
 
 43. Smoking shall be permitted only in such rooms as may be desig- 
 nated by the Board. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 147 
 
 VI. 
 
 CIRCULAR TO ORGANIZERS OF OTHER LEAGUES. 
 
 On motion of Mr. Gibbons, February 17, 1863, a com- 
 mittee of three was appointed to encourage the organization 
 of Leagues in Pennsylvania and other States. Messrs. Gib- 
 bons, McMichael, and Boker were named. A circular letter, 
 which they prepared, states the aim of the institution so 
 comprehensively, that extracts from it are here reproduced : 
 
 "But it has larger views than can be extracted from a reading of its 
 plan of organization. Its name, the flag that floats over it, its very 
 existence, are a standing rebuke to the traitors, who are forced to rec- 
 ognize in these symbols and in that existence the presence of a for- 
 midable power which they can neither deride nor weaken. . . . The 
 Union League does not impose bonds on the political conscience of its 
 members. It does not seek to influence elections further than to pre- 
 vent oflftces from falling into the hands of disloyal or notoriously inca- 
 pable men. While it leaves every man free to judge for himself, it 
 marks the broadest line between the true man and the traitor, and 
 indicates the side on which its members must be found. The way in 
 which primary elections for the nomination of candidates have been 
 conducted has been one of the greatest abuses of our political system, 
 and the Union League will so far make its influence felt in these as to 
 insist on the nomination for ofiice of honest, respectable, capable, and, 
 above all, loyal men. It seeks only to make our politics purer and 
 
148 . HISTORY OF THE 
 
 more inviting, so that our people may not only accept, but seek, office 
 without descending to practices beneath the dignity of honorable men. 
 With such purposes in view, we have no fears for the future of our 
 League, nor any doubt that it will accomplish many important ends. 
 . . . The expenses of such an establishment are too great to justify the 
 residents of thinly-settled districts in imitating us in all respects. If the 
 residents of small towns are not inclined to this expenditure, they can 
 at least establish a reading- and assembly-room for the benefit of them- 
 selves and of the loyal workingmen of their neighborhood. In these 
 rooms, at stated intervals, moderate entertainments may be given and 
 patriotic speeches may be delivered; and such assemblies may keep 
 watchful ej'es on the disloyal element which seeks to mingle with all 
 wholesome things in every part of our agitated country. If this plan 
 is impracticable, they may meet on particular days — say once a week 
 or once a month — in the usual gathering-place of their party, in the 
 court-house or the school-room, or wherever loyalty has a home, to 
 listen to their local orators, or to transact such business as may be 
 necessary for upholding proper sentiments in their neighborhood. If 
 even this cannot be accomplished, hold a few meetings, or even one 
 meeting of your people, and let them look one another in the eyes and 
 subscribe their names to a roll of men who pledge themselves to sus- 
 tain their government through its trials. At all events, band together, 
 organize, shovv front against the common enemy. . . . If you are satis- 
 fied that the establishment of a Union League among you will be a 
 safeguard against traitors, or a means of advancing the national cause, 
 do not fail, as soon as you are organized, to enter into correspondence 
 with us and all similar associations throughout the country. . . The 
 relations between the various Leagues cannot be too intimate." 
 
 The letter closed by offering to all delegates or individuals 
 of smaller Leagues, who should come to Philadelphia with 
 proper credentials, the hospitality of the League house. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 149 
 
 VII. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE ADDRESS OF SEPTEMBER 16, 1863. 
 
 "The Union League of tlie City of Philadelphia was 
 formed for the puriDOse of aiding the government of the 
 United States in suppressing the existing rebellion. It had, 
 and has, no other object whatever. Composed of men who 
 have heretofore belonged to different political organizations, it 
 is in no sense a partisan body. At the last Presidential elec- 
 tion some of its members supported John C. Breckinridge, 
 some Stephen A. Douglas, some John Bell, and others the 
 present chief magistrate, Abraham Lincoln. It knows no 
 party now save that of the country, and acknowledges no po- 
 litical obligation save that of assisting by all the means in its 
 power the constituted authorities of the land. . . . While 
 we entirely disclaim all desire to promote the election of any 
 man or set of men to office simjoly because they are the candi- 
 dates of a particular party, we cannot, nevertheless, fail to 
 see that the ajaproaching gubernatorial election involves the 
 question whether the government shall be sustained or over- 
 thrown, and whether the country shall be j)reserved or de- 
 stroyed. . . . We are clearly of the opinion that opposition 
 to the war is opjDOsition to the Union. That the leaders of the 
 so-called Democratic party, its principal candidates in this 
 
150 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 State and elsewhere, are in opj)osition to the government in 
 its eifort to protect by force its existence cannot truthfully 
 be denied. . . . Entertaining these views, we believe it to be 
 our imperative duty, by all legitimate and proper means, to 
 aid in the re-election of Andrew G. Curtin as governor of 
 this Commonwealth." 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 151 
 
 VIII. 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE ON ENLISTMENT OF COLORED TROOPS. 
 
 Hon. B. M. Stanton, Secretary of War, Washington : 
 
 On behalf of the citizens of Philadelphia and its vicinity, the under- 
 signed respectfully request you to issue the proper authorization for 
 immediately raising three regiments of volunteers of colored men from 
 this part of Pennsylvania for the war. The undersigned are happy to 
 be able to state that, in their judgment, such action on your part would 
 be gladly welcomed and earnestly sustained by a vast majority of 
 their loyal fellow-citizens, and that the invitation to volunteer for the 
 defence of the Union would be responded to with zeal and alacrity by 
 the colored men of Pennsylvania. 
 
 The undersigned would respectfully suggest that should you con- 
 clude to issue the instructions which they urge, you order Fort Mifflin 
 or some other suitable place to be prepared for the reception of the 
 volunteers as fast as they can enlist ; that none but colored non-com- 
 missioned officers be allowed to canvass for recruits ; and that no indi- 
 vidual, no clique, nor distinct set of politicians be exclusively trusted 
 with this matter. It is the whole people who urge this action, and all 
 classes should be charged with its support. Finally, the undersigned 
 assure you that they are willing to undertake the collection of what- 
 soever funds may be necessary to defray extraordinary expenses for 
 recruiting not allowed by the government, and in every other honor- 
 able and disinterested way give their hearty efforts towards raising 
 these regiments of colored men for the war. 
 
 Leaving the whole question of officering these recruits to you, with 
 
152 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 no suggestions whatever on that head, the undersigned solicit an early 
 answer to this memorial. 
 
 Philadelphia, June 10, 1863. 
 
 The above letter was signed by Thomas Webster, Daniel 
 Smith, Jr., William D. Lewis, William D. Kelley, George 
 H. Boker, Horace Binney, Jr., Charles Gibbons, Morton 
 McMichael, and others, to the number in all of two hundred 
 and seventy-six. The reply received was as follows : 
 
 Washington, June 17, 1863. 
 Thomas Webster, Esq. : 
 
 The petition of the citizens of Philadelphia for authority to raise 
 three regiments of colored volunteers has been received by this De- 
 partment, and the proper orders have been issued for raising the 
 trooj)S. The views of the Department will be explained to you by 
 Major Stearns. 
 
 Edwin M. Stanton, 
 Secretary of War. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 153 
 
 IX. 
 
 PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTIONS: RENOMINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 
 
 (ADOPTED JANUARY 11, 1864.) 
 
 Whereas, The skill, courage, fidelity, and integrity with which, in 
 a period of unparalleled trial, Abraham Lincoln has conducted the ad- 
 ministration of the National government have won for him the highest 
 esteem and most affectionate regard of his, grateful countrymen; 
 
 And whereas^ The Union League of Philadelphia, composed as it is of 
 those who having formerly belonged to various pai-ties, in this juncture 
 recognize no party but their country ; and representing, as it does, all 
 the industrial, mechanical, manufacturing, commercial, financial, and 
 professional interests of the city, is especially qualified to give in this 
 behalf an unbiased and authentic utterance to the public sentiment ; 
 therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That to the prudence, sagacity, comprehension, and perse- 
 verance of Mr. Lincoln, under the guidance of a benign Providence, 
 the nation is more indebted for the grand results of the war which 
 Southern rebels have wickedly waged against liberty and the Union 
 than to any other single instrumentality, and that he is justly entitled 
 to whatever reward it is in the power of the nation to bestow. 
 
 Resolved, That we cordially approve of the policy which Mr. Lincoln 
 
 has adopted and pursued, as well the principles he has announced as 
 
 the acts he has performed, and that we shall continue to give an earnest 
 
 and energetic supjjort to the doctrines and measures by which his 
 
 administration has thus far been directed and illustrated. 
 
 20 
 
154 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Resolved, That as Mr. Lincoln has had to endure the largest share of 
 the labor required to suppress the Eebellion, now rapidly verging to its 
 close, he should also enjoy the largest share of the honors which await 
 those who have contended for the right; and as, in all respects, he has 
 shown pi'e-eminent ability in fulfilling the requirements of his great 
 office, we recognize with pleasure the unmistakable indications of the 
 popular will in all the loyal States, and heartily join with our fellow- 
 citizens, without any distinction of party, here and elsewhere, in 
 presenting him as the People's candidate for the Presidency at the 
 approaching election. 
 
 Resolved, That a committee of seventy-six be appointed, whose duty 
 it shall be to promote the object now proposed, by correspondence with 
 other loyal organizations, by stimulating the expression of public 
 opinion, and by whatever additional modes shall in their judgment 
 seem best adapted to the end ; and that this committee have power to 
 supply vacancies in their own body, and to increase their numbers at 
 their own discretion. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these proceedings, properly engrossed and 
 attested, be forwarded to President Lincoln, and that they also be 
 published in the loyal newspapers. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 155 
 
 X. 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE WITH HON WILLIAM M. MEREDITH. 
 
 At the annual meeting of the League, December 12, 1864, 
 Mr. Charles Gibbons read the following letter from the Hon. 
 William Meredith, President : 
 
 Harrisburg, December 10, 1864. 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 The formation of the Union League was an experiment of which, at 
 the time, many doubted the success. Its object appeared to be so 
 vitally material to the interests and even safety of the Eepublic, that I 
 did not feel at liberty to refuse the position of President, my accept- 
 ance of which the members were partial enough to consider desirable. 
 The recent elections have shown that the principles which the League 
 was formed to vindicate are now firmly established in the hearts of our 
 people. The state of my health, and my necessary frequent absence 
 from home, prevent me from taking an active part in the conduct of 
 the institution, and I therefore, under the circumstances, feel at liberty 
 now to decline a re-election. I beg that you will do me the favor to 
 communicate this determination to the members of the League. 
 I am, with great esteem, very truly yours, 
 
 W. M. Meredith. 
 
 Charles Gibbons, Esq. 
 
 On Mr. Gibbons's motion resolutions were adopted, and 
 
156 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 the Secretary subsequently sent the letter -which is here 
 
 appended : 
 
 Union League House, January 11, 1865. 
 Hon. William M. Meredith. 
 
 Dear Sir, — At the annual meeting of the Union League of Phila- 
 delphia, held on the 12th day of December, 1864, I was instructed to 
 transmit to you the gold medal of the League, together with the accom- 
 panying resolutions, which were unanimously passed by the meeting: 
 
 Besolved, That the members of the Union League of Philadelphia, 
 regretting the retirement of the Hon. William M. Meredith from the 
 Presidency of the League, present to him their grateful thanks for the 
 valuable services which he has rendered to the State and country, 
 during his connection with the State administration, in the promotion 
 of the great objects for which the League was formed. 
 
 Resolved, That in testimony of our high appreciation of the eminent 
 worth of Mr. Meredith, the Directors do and are hei'eby requested to 
 present to him the gold medal of the League, with a copy of these 
 resolutions, and to place his name on the roll of honorary membership. 
 
 I have the honor to remain, your obedient servant, 
 
 George H. Boker. 
 
 The receipt of the medal and resolutions was cordially 
 acknowledged by Mr. Meredith. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 157 
 
 XI. 
 
 RESOLUTIONS TO MR. CLAGHORN. 
 
 Mk. James L. Claghoen, Treasurer of the League from 
 the date of its foundation, having resigned, to take effect 
 October 1, 1865, Messrs. IST. B. Browne and Daniel Smith, 
 Jr., were appointed a committee of the Directors to prepare 
 suitable resolutions expressing " their sense of the value of 
 his services." Their report, embodying the resolutions below, 
 was accepted at a stated meeting of the Board of Directors, 
 October 13, 1865. 
 
 ^'Resolved, That in accepting the resignation of James L. Claghorn, 
 Esq., as Treasurer of the League, the Board of Directors deem it 
 proper to express their high appreciation of the zealous, untiring, and 
 peculiarly valuable services rendered by him in the affairs of the 
 League from its origin, and in the cause of the National Union, which 
 the League was formed to defend and sustain. 
 
 " Resolved, That in tendering to Mr. Claghorn an expression of the 
 sentiments of esteem and personal regard which all loyal men enter- 
 tain for him, the Board desire to add their own cordial good wishes 
 for his continued health and happiness during his anticipated long- 
 absence from the country. 
 
 " Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted to Mr. 
 Claghorn." 
 
168 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 XII. 
 
 CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 At a special meeting of the Union League, October 18, 
 1870, Mr. Charles Gibbons offered the following preamble 
 and resolutions : 
 
 " Whereas, It is declared by the Constitution of Pennsylvania that 
 all power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded 
 on their authority and instituted for their peace, safety, and happiness, 
 and that, for the advancement of these ends, they have at all times an 
 unalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform, or abolish their gov- 
 ernment in such manner as they may think proper ; 
 
 " And whereas, The high powers conferred upon the legislative de- 
 partment of the government were delegated by the people, with the 
 full confidence and expectation that they would be exercised for the 
 common benefit, and that no temptations of private gain or advantage 
 would ever control or influence any branch of the law-making power 
 of the State in the execution of the sacred trust confided to its man- 
 agement ; 
 
 "And whereas. The history of the legislation of Pennsylvania for 
 many years past is stronglj' marked by the corruptive power of cor- 
 porations, seeking special favors by the temptations of bribery ; the 
 franchises of the State are bartered for money, and our legislative halls 
 have often been converted into market-places, where important public 
 oflSces have been sold to the highest bidders by faithless and venal 
 public servants; vested rights have been threatened and assailed for 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 159 
 
 the 8ole purpose of extorting ransom from their lawful proprietors ; 
 and public acts which concern the common welfare are passed or re- 
 jected without intelligent consideration, and thus the safety and happi- 
 ness of the people are frequently impaired and imperilled by dishonest 
 and incompetent representatives ; 
 
 " And whereas, There appears to be no other remedy for these mon- 
 strous and acknowledged evils than such well-considered amendments 
 of the constitution of the State as will deliver the legislative body from 
 the temptations which continually assail it, and improve the character 
 of its members by securing the rights of minorities in all popular 
 elections ; therefore, 
 
 " Resolved, That the members of the Union League of Philadelphia, 
 now assembled in general meeting, do approve and recommend the 
 calling of a convention to bo composed of delegates chosen by the 
 freemen of the State, for the purpose of proposing amendments to the 
 Constitution of Pennsylvania. 
 
 "Resolved, In order that the wishes of the freemen of the Common- 
 wealth may be duly ascertained in respect to the calling of such a con- 
 vention, that application be made to the Legislature at its next session 
 for the passage of a proper act submitting the question to the people 
 for their decision at an election to be held for the special purpose on 
 the first Tuesday in May next, or at some other convenient time. 
 
 " Resolved, That a committee to consist of ten persons, five of whom 
 shall be taken from the body of the League and five from the Board 
 of Managers of the League, be appointed for the purpose of directing 
 public attention to the subject of the foregoing preamble and resolu- 
 tions, with authority to confer with any other committees that may be 
 appointed by other organizations or meetings having the same ends in 
 view, and with power to take such measures in the premises as to 
 them may seem meet and expedient.'' 
 
 The scope of the contemplated reform is concisely and com- 
 prehensively outlined in the speech made by Mr. Gibbons on 
 presenting the resolutions. He said : 
 
160 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 ■^ The preamble and resolutions which arc now submitted to the 
 action of the League were unanimously approved, as stated, by the 
 Board of Directors. I believe they do not magnify the corruption 
 known to exist in the legislative department of our State government. 
 It is the inevitable result of a system which gives to that department 
 the power to confer special and valuable privileges upon one set of 
 men and deny the like to others who seek them for like objects equally 
 meritorious. Wherever such a power resides in a legislature, all expe- 
 rience j)roves that neither those who seek nor those who confer such 
 favors are beyond the reach of temptation. 
 
 " The franchises of the State are secured in these latter days less by 
 considerations of a public nature than by means of private gain to 
 individuals, and hence they have become the almost unfailing sources 
 of that corruption which is shaking the confidence of many people in 
 the stability of popular government. Public opinion exhausts its in- 
 dignation upon those who have surrendered to the temptations of 
 bribery, while the managers of corporations who permit the money 
 of their stockholders to be applied to such purposes escape observation 
 and punishment, and seem to imagine that no share of the responsi- 
 bility rests upon their shoulders. A sounder morality teaches that they 
 who procure the bribe to be offered are the first transgressors, and are 
 more guilty than their victims, who were too human to resist it. ' It 
 must be that offences come, but woe be to that man by whom the 
 offence cometh !' 
 
 "If it be right to grant the franchises of the State for a particular 
 purpose in one county, it is equally right to grant them for like pur- 
 poses when required in any other county. Or if it be right to grant 
 special powers and privileges to one corporation, it is equally right to 
 grant the like powers to all others of the same character. The people 
 are entitled to impartial legislation. Eailroad companies, manufac- 
 turing companies, mining, banking, insurance, and trust companies, and 
 other corporations created for other purposes, have performed and will 
 continue to perform important services to the State, and are so com- 
 pletely interwoven with all our social and material wants that they 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 16] 
 
 should be created and regulated only by general laws. Such a reform 
 would strike the root of the corruption complained of. 
 
 "The extent to which special legislation is carried may be seen by 
 reference to the pamphlet laws of the State. They exhibit the fact, 
 which may probably excite some surprise, that our vast and expensive 
 machinery for making laws finds very little employment in matters 
 which concern the public generally. It costs, perhaps, hundreds of 
 thousands of dollars to set it up every year, and is then employed 
 almost exclusively in special legislation at an additional annual expense 
 of three hundred thousand dollars. The laws of 1868 are printed in a 
 huge octavo volume of fourteen hundred and fourteen pages ; the laws 
 of 1869 in a similar volume of fifteen hundred and four pages; the laws 
 of 1870 in a similar volume of fifteen hundred and fifty-two pages ; 
 making a total of four thousand seven hundred and ninety pages. 
 
 " Twenty-one thousand copies of these laws have been printed at the 
 public expense, and about three hundred pages out of the whole num- 
 ber contain all the general laws which have been passed for the last 
 three years. In 1868 the Legislature passed eighty-one general laws 
 and twelve hundred and seventy-four special or private acts. In 1869 
 it passed seventy-one general laws and twelve hundred and forty-five 
 sj)ecial or private acts. 
 
 "In 1870 it passed, as nearly as I can ascertain, forty-nine general 
 laws and about twelve hundred private or special acts. Hundreds of 
 these special acts relate to corporations ; hundreds apply only to par- 
 ticular counties ; many of them relate to sheep, goats, dogs, pigs, and 
 other families of animated nature in certain townships, and all of them 
 to matters which could be better regulated by general and permanent 
 laws, or which might be safely left by constitutional provision to the 
 control of local authorities. 
 
 "If the power of the Legislature were restricted to the passage of 
 laws of a public nature, there would be, in fact, very little for it to do. 
 Biennial sessions are all that the public welfare would require. We are 
 more likely to suffer from too much than too little legislation. If our 
 general elections were biennial instead of annual, they would come often 
 
 21 
 
162 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 enough for the peace, safety, morality, and happiness of the people, and 
 the change would result in a prodigious saving of time, health, and money. 
 
 " There are other subjects which would necessarily force themselves 
 upon the attention of a convention. The rights of political minorities 
 are entitled to respect, and should be guarded and protected by the 
 fundamental law. How this can be best accomplished is a question 
 which is already engaging the attention of some Of the best minds in 
 the State. Although Mr. Buekalew is not of my political faith, I am 
 free to say that, in my opinion, he is entitled to great honor for his 
 patriotic efforts in this direction. 
 
 " The practice of conferring political patronage upon courts of law, 
 whose judges are elective, is a threatening evil which is worthy of 
 serious thought. Our system of public education is a very imperfect 
 one, and compares unfavorably in its results with that of some other 
 countries far behind us in liberal ideas on subjects connected with 
 political science. These are matters that need not be discussed here, 
 but they are too important to be neglected in any revision that may be 
 made of our State constitution. 
 
 " The proposition embraced by the resolutions involves no question 
 of party politics. It contemplates nothing more than the ascertain- 
 ment of the will of the freemen of the State in relation to the call of 
 a convention for the purpose indicated. It is impossible to close our 
 eyes to the necessity of some popular endeavor to check corruption in 
 public places, which is confined to no party, and has grown so bold 
 that it seems to challenge the virtue of the people to an open contest 
 for supremacy. 
 
 "It is not peculiar to Pennsylvania. It is quite as bad in other 
 States. Not only the Legislature of New York but the local judiciary 
 of its great commercial capital is befouled by it, and the halls of Con- 
 gress are not free from its loathsome touch. But our duty is at home, 
 among our own people. If we do our part faithfully we shall unveil 
 the old shield of the Commonwealth, which has been so long obscured, 
 and make the pledge of virtue, liberty, and independence, which our 
 fathers inscribed upon it, our pledge, to be kept hereafter inviolate.'' 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 THE LEAGUE HOUSE. 
 
 The lease of the Baldwin house, the first building occu- 
 pied by the League, was to exf>ire in August, 1864, and as 
 the negotiations for a further lease or a purchase on favorable 
 terms were unsuccessful, members began to consider, in the 
 autumn of 1863, the question of erecting a building of their 
 own. A meeting for this purpose was called for October 16 
 of that year, and an association of subscribers, with Daniel 
 Smith, Jr., as chairman, was then formed, which assembled 
 on the 28th to receive the reports of the Committees on Or- 
 ganization and on Plans. They continued to consult together 
 until the subject had been brought into a form capable of 
 presentation to the annual meeting of the League in Decem- 
 ber. A lot had been purchased, bounded by Broad, Sansom, 
 and Moravian Streets, and it was proposed by the gentlemen 
 owning it (mostly League members) to put up a building 
 there which should be leased to the association. But at the 
 annual meeting another plan was submitted by the Directors 
 and adopted. This was to leave the title of the lot and build- 
 ing in the hands of Trustees until the League should obtain 
 its charter, and thus be enabled to hold the real estate itself. 
 
164 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 The entire cost of land and house was to be one hundred and 
 twenty thousand dollars, for which the Trustees subsequently, 
 on transferring title, took a mortgage to the full amount, pay- 
 able in twenty years. Certificates of loan, representing five 
 hundred dollars each, were issued to the contributors to the 
 fund. The whole sum needed was readily obtained from 
 members. While the construction was progressing prices 
 rose excessively high, in consequence of the inflation of the 
 currency, but the energy of the members kej)t pace with the 
 advance, and they raised thirty-two thousand dollars more 
 to be expended upon the proj)erty. In addition to this, more 
 than twenty-four thousand dollars were appropriated from 
 the League treasury to make the new edifice completely sat- 
 isfactory. The total cost, therefore, footed uj) somewhat over 
 one hundred and seventy-six thousand dollars, of which the 
 members, individually, contributed one hundred and fifty-two 
 thousand dollars by voluntary subscription. 
 
 In 1881 a number of members offered to build at their 
 own expense, and present to the corporation a large and 
 handsome Annex, which should include a spacious hall suit- 
 able for League meetings, private exhibitions of art, and for 
 balls or other social assemblies. This offer was accepted, and 
 two hundred and forty-eight members subscribed for the 
 proposed structure thirty-two thousand five hundred dollars, 
 which, with a sum derived from the sale of certain buildings 
 torn down to make room for it, sufiiced to finish the Annex 
 in a manner eminently satisfactory. The League house is 
 now one of the most commodious, stately, and beautiful club 
 edifices in the world. By this latest addition the resources 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 165 
 
 of the corporation are greatly extended, not only for the 
 benefit of those who frequent the League house, but for the 
 better management of those receptions to public men which 
 form one of the traditional functions of the League. Mean- 
 while the portraits and marble effigies of heroes, of statesmen, 
 thinkers, and great generals silently guard the corridors or 
 look from the walls which, but for the cause served by the 
 living originals, would never have been reared. By the gift 
 of Mr. Edwin JST. Benson, also, a memorial window, placed 
 in the house proper and dedicated to the first four Presidents 
 of the League, enshrines the memory of those faithful citizens. 
 
166 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 XIV. 
 
 OFFICERS OF THE LEAGUE. 
 
 PRESIDENTS. 
 
 William M. Meredith, December, 1862, to 1864. 
 
 J. GiLLiNGHAM Pell, December, 1864, to 1868. 
 
 Horace Binney, Jr., December, 1868, to February, 1870. 
 
 Morton McMichael, February, 1870, to December, 1874. 
 
 John P. Verree, December, 1874, to 1876. 
 
 Charles E. Smith, December, 1876, to 1878. 
 
 George H. Boker, December, 1878. 
 
 vice-presidents. 
 
 1863. — William H. Ashhtjrst, John B. Myers, Adolph E. Borie, 
 
 Horace Binney, Jr. 
 1864.— The same. 
 1865. — W. H. Ashhurst, A. E. Borie, Horace Binney, Jr., Morton 
 
 McMichael. 
 
 1866. -v 
 
 1867. I— The same. 
 
 1868. J 
 
 1869. — A. B. Borie, Morton McMichael, J. Gillingham Fell, 
 Daniel Smith, Jr. 
 
 1870. — A. E. Borie, Morton McMichael, J. G. Pell, Charles Gib- 
 bons. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 167 
 
 1871. — A. B. BoRiE, J. G. Fell, Charles GtIbbons, William Sellers. 
 
 1872. I 
 
 1873. V— The same. 
 
 1874. -' 
 
 1875. — A. E. BoRiE, J. G. Fell, Edward C. Knight, Charles E. 
 Smith. 
 
 1876. — A. E. BoRiE, J. G. Fell, B. C. Knight, James B. Watson. 
 
 1877. — A. B. BoRiE, J. G. Fell, James V. Watson, John P. Verree. 
 
 1878 J. G. Fell, J. V. Watson, E. E. Cope, B. H. Bartol. 
 
 1879. — A. B. BoRiE, Edwin N. Benson, J. Frailet Smith, William 
 C. Houston. 
 
 1880. — The same. But on the decease of Messrs. Borie and Frailet 
 Smith, Edwin H. Fitler and Samuel C. Perkins were 
 chosen to fill the vacancies thus created. 
 
 1881.— Edwin K Benson, W. C. Houston, E. H. Fitler, S. C. Per- 
 kins. 
 
 1882. — The same. 
 
 DIRECTORS. 
 
 18(53, — Charles Gilpin, Morton McMichael, J. I. Clark Hare, 
 Charles Gibbons, James L. Claghorn, Benjamin Gerhard, 
 Joseph B. Townsend, George H. Boker. 
 
 1864. — Morton McMichael, J. I. Clark Hare, Charles Gibbons, 
 James L. Claghorn, Benjamin Gerhard, J. B. Townsend, 
 George H. Boker. Newly elected : George Whitney, John 
 B. Kennet. 
 
 1865.— J. I. Clark Hare, Charles Gibbons, James L. Claghorn, J. B. 
 Townsend, George H. Boker, George Whitney, John B. 
 Kenney. Newly elected : Lindley Smyth, Daniel Smith, Jr., 
 N. B. Browne, James H. Orne, Henry C. Lea, William 
 Sellers, Ellerslie Wallace, M.D., Cadwalader Biddle. 
 
 1866.— J. I. Clark Hare, Charles Gibbons, J. B. Townsend, George 
 H. Boker, George Whitney, Lindley Smyth, Daniel Smith, 
 
168 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Jr., N. B. Browne, James H. Orne, "William Sellers, Bl- 
 LEESLiE Wallace, M.D. Newly elected : Stephen A. Caldwell, 
 Edward S. Clarke, Edward Browning, A. H. Franciscds. 
 
 1867. — Charles Gibbons, J. B. Townsend, George H. Boker, Lindlet 
 Smyth, Daniel Smith, Jr., James H. Orne, William Sellers, 
 Stephen A. Caldwell, Edward S. Clarke, Edward Brown- 
 ing, A. H. Franciscus. Newly elected: George J. Gross, 
 Andrew Wheeler, John P. Yerree, Evan Eandolph. 
 
 1868. — Charles Gibbons, George H. Boker, Lindley Smyth, Daniel 
 Smith, Jr., James H. Orne, William Sellers, Stephen A. 
 Caldwell, E. S. Clarke, Edward Browning, A. H. Fran- 
 ciscus, George J. Gross, John P. Yerree. Newly elected: 
 James L. Claghorn, Henry C. Lea, Lewis Sadnders. 
 
 1869. — Charles Gibbons, George H. Boker, James H. Orne, Stephen 
 A. Caldwell, E. S. Clarke, John P. Yerree, James L. Clag- 
 horn. Newly elected : E. C. Knight, Henry Lewis, Samuel 
 C. Perkins, Eichard Wright, Henry Winsor, Joseph 
 Trimble, John Eioe, E. R. Cope. 
 
 1870. — George H. Boker, James H. Orne, Stephen A. Caldwell, 
 E. S. Clarke, John P. Yerree, James L. Claghorn, E. C. 
 Knight, Henry Lewis, S. C. Perkins, Eichard Wright, 
 Joseph Trimble, John Eice, E. E. Cope. Newly elected : 
 Alfred D. Jessup, J. Frailey Smith. 
 
 1871. — George H. Boker, Stephen A. Caldwell, B. S. Clarke, John 
 P. Yerree, James L. Claghorn, B. C. Knight, S. C. Perkins, 
 Eichard Wright, Joseph Trimble, A. D. Jessup, J. Frailey 
 Smith. Newly elected : Charles K. Ide, William E. Little- 
 ton, Charles Gilpin. 
 
 1872. — George H. Boker, Stephen A. Caldwell, E. S. Clarke, John 
 P. Yerree, James L. Claghorn, B. C. Knight, S. C. Perkins, 
 Eichard Wright, J. Frailey Smith, Charles K. Ide, W. B. 
 Littleton, Charles Gilpin. Newly elected: Lewis Waln 
 Smith, H. H. Bingham, Edwin N. Benson. 
 
 1873.— The same. 
 
UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA. 169 
 
 1874. — The same, excepting Edwin H. Fitler and William D. Gem- 
 mill, elected in place of J. P. Verree and C. K. Ide. 
 1875. — James L. Claghorn, E. S Clarke, S. C. Perkins, Richard 
 Wright, J. Frailey Smith. Newly elected: James V. Wat- 
 son, Franklin A. Comly, William C. Houston, George 
 Philler, William Camac, John J. Hartmann, Egbert 
 Gray, Thomas Hart, Jr., John Hockley, Jr., Silas W. 
 Pettit. 
 1876. — James L. Claghorn, J. Frailey Smith, William C. Houston, 
 J. J. Hartmann, J. Hockley, Jr., Silas W. Pettit. Newly 
 elected : Edwin N". Benson, Edward S. Buckley, B. H. 
 Bartol, Aubrey H. Smith, E. E. Cope, Frederick Collins, 
 William Brockie, Alexander Biddle, Andrew Wheeler. 
 1877. — James L. Claghorn, J. J. Hartmann, Silas W. Pettit, B. H. 
 Bartol, Aubrey H. Smith, Edward S. Buckley, Frederick 
 Collins, William Brockie, Alexander Biddle. Newly 
 elected : Thomas A. Boyd, James E. Caldwell, Isaac Hinck- 
 ley, Henry Pettit, Joseph Lapsley Wilson 
 1878. — James L. Claghorn, Silas W. Pettit, Aubrey H. Smith, E. S. 
 Buckley, Frederick Collins, Tho:mas A. Boyd, James E. 
 Caldwell, Isaac Hinckley, Henry Pettit, Joseph L. Wil- 
 son. Newly elected : Amos E. Little, Henry Armitt Brown, 
 John Wright, Charles H. Cramp, George H. Boker. 
 1879._James L. Claghorn, Silas W Pettit, Charles H. Cramp. 
 Newly elected. S. C. Perkins, E. H. Fitler, William E. 
 Littleton, Strickland Kneass, John L. Lawson, Samuel 
 B. Huey, Francis P. Steel, H P. Smith, L. F. Barry. 
 J . E. SouL^, Winthrop Smith, William II. Hurley. 
 1880.— James L. Claghorn, Silas W. Pettit, Charles II. Cramp, 
 S. C. Perkins, E. H. Fitler, William E. Littleton, Strick- 
 land Kneass, John L. Lawson, S. B. Huey, H. P. Smith, 
 L. F. Barry, J. E. Soule, Winthrop Smith, William II. 
 Hurley. AfterwardH, to supply the places of Messrs. Per- 
 kins Fitler, Littleton, and IL P. Smith, Messrs. Thomas 
 
170 HISTORY OF THE UNION LEAGUE. 
 
 DoLAN, Wayne MacVeagh, E. C. Knight, and Theodore E. 
 
 WiEDERSHEiM were elected. 
 1881. — James L. Claghorn, Silas W. Pettit, Charles H. Cramp, 
 
 Strickland Kneass, John L. Lawson, S. B. Huey, L. F. 
 
 Barry, J. E. SouLife, Winthrop Smith, William H. Hurley, 
 
 Thomas Dolan, Wayne MacVeagh, E. C. Knight, Theodore 
 
 E. Wiedersheim. Newly elected : Henry Lewis. 
 1882. — The same, excepting Egbert S. Davis and Joel J. Baily, 
 
 elected in place of Wayne MacVeagh and J. E. SouLfi. 
 
 secretaries. 
 
 George H. Boker, 1863 to 1874. 
 Stephen A. Caldwell, 1874 to 1875. 
 William H. Camac, 1875 to 1876. 
 Silas W. Pettit, 1876 to 1879. 
 William E. Littleton, 1879 to 1880. 
 Samuel B. Huey, 1880. 
 
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