- Union League Club of New York
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Union League clubs, which are legally separate but share similar histories and maintain reciprocal links with one another, are also located in Chicago and Philadelphia. Defunct Union League Clubs were located in Brooklyn and New Haven.History
The club dates its founding from Feb. 6, 1863, during the Civil War. Tensions were running high in New York City at the time, as much of the city's governing class, as well as its large Irish immigrant population, bitterly opposed the war and were eager to reach some kind of accommodation with the
Confederate States of America . Thus, pro-Union men chose to form their own club, with the twin goals of cultivating "a profound national devotion" and to "strengthen a love and respect for the Union."The
Union League (also known as Loyal Leagues) was actually a political movement before it became a social organization. Its members raised money both to support theUnited States Sanitary Commission , the forerunner of theAmerican Red Cross , which cared for the Union wounded following battles, and the Union cause generally.It didn't take long for the club's enemies to make their displeasure felt with the new organization. On July 13th, 1863, just five months after the club's foundation and only days after receiving word of the twin Union victories at Gettysburg and at Vicksburg, the
New York Draft Riots exploded right in the club's backyard. The Union League Club was high on the vandals' list of targets, but members kept them at bay by maintaining an armed vigil in the locked and barricaded clubhouse on East 17th Street, just offUnion Square Park .A few months later, the members decided to make an unmistakable gesture that they had not been intimidated. The club decided to recruit, train and equip a Colored infantry regiment for Union service. The
20th U.S. Colored Infantry was formed onRiker's Island in February 1864. The next month, it marched from the Union League Club, downCanal Street and over to theHudson River piers to embark for duty inLouisiana . In spite of numerous threats, the members of the Union League Club marched with the men of the 20th, and saw them off. DuringWorld War I , the club sponsored the 369th Infantry, the famedHarlem Hellfighters , which was commanded byWilliam Hayward , a club member.During Reconstruction, Union Leagues were formed all across the South. They mobilized
freedmen to register to vote. They discussed political issues, promoted civic projects, and mobilized workers opposed to segregationist white employers. Most branches were segregated but there were a few that were racially integrated. The leaders of the all-black units were mostly urban Blacks from the North, who had never been slaves. Foner (p 283) says "virtually every Black voter in the South had enrolled." Black League members were special targets of theKu Klux Klan 's violence and intimidation, so the Leagues organized informal armed defense units.After the end of Reconstruction, the Union League Club of New York devoted itself to civic projects and clean government. It and its members helped to found the
Metropolitan Museum of Art , [John K. Howat, "Founding friends - of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York," [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1026/is_1_157/ai_59014980 "The Magazine Antiques"] January 2000 issue.] and assisted in building theStatue of Liberty [National Park Service [http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/hh/11/hh11c.htm Statue of Liberty website] .] andGrant's Tomb .Previous Clubhouses
The ULC's first clubhouse was at 26 E. 17th. St. (1863). The second clubhouse was the Jerome Mansion, the childhood home of Winston S. Churchill's mother
Jennie Jerome , at Madison Avenue and E. 26th Street (1868). The club then moved to Fifth Avenue and E. 39th. St. (1881), where it remained until the move to the present building. Unlike many club buildings, the current clubhouse is purpose-built, rather than being a converted mansion or building constructed for another purpose.Membership
The club has always promoted clean government and public-spiritedness. Many of its early members, notably cartoonist
Thomas Nast , were instrumental in breaking "Boss" Tweed's political organization. (Interestingly, a future club president,Elihu Root , served as one of Tweed's defense counsels.) Manhattan District Attorney and club memberCharles S. Whitman used the privacy afforded by the club to secretly interview witnesses during his investigation of the case that sent NYPD Lt.Charles Becker to the electric chair in 1915. Whitman was electedNew York Governor as a result.Long a men's club, it decided to admit women in the 1980s. Faith Whittlesey, President Reagan's Ambassador to Switzerland was the first female member (1986). Women now play prominent roles in the club's leadership including the Board of Governors, the Admissions Committee, the Public Affairs Committee, and the House Committee.
Two presidents,
Theodore Roosevelt andChester Alan Arthur , were members of the club prior to entering theWhite House . Former presidents resident in New York, notablyUlysses S. Grant andHerbert Hoover , were active members.Theodore Roosevelt was blackballed when he first applied for membership in 1881, possibly because his mother, Mittle Bulloch, was a well-known Confederate sympathizer. Following the sudden deaths of his wife and mother in 1884, however, he was offered membership and accepted. After running on the
Bull Moose Party ticket in 1912, Roosevelt was "persona non grata " at the club for several years, being welcomed back after the United States enteredWorld War I .George H. W. Bush andBarbara Bush ,Margaret Thatcher ,Brent Scowcroft ,Sandra Day O'Conner ,Henry Kissinger ,Antonin Scalia ,H. Norman Schwarzkopf , andNeil Armstrong are all Honorary Members.The club has a strong artistic tradition (see list of members below). Some artist-members in the 19th century contributed paintings to the club in lieu of dues, and these remain part of the club's collection today.
Notable members
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Chester Alan Arthur , 21stPresident of the United States ;
*Henry Whitney Bellows , Clergyman and social reformer;
*Albert Bierstadt ,Hudson River School artist;
*William Cullen Bryant , Poet and editor of theNew York Post ;
*Samuel Colman ,Hudson River School artist;
*Peter Cooper , Inventor and philanthropist;
*Jasper Francis Cropsey ,Hudson River School artist;
*Chauncey Depew ,U.S. senator , corporate lawyer; club president, 1886-92;
*Cyrus West Field , "Father" of theAtlantic cable ;
*John Ericsson , Swedish-American inventor of theUSS Monitor ;
*Sanford Robinson Gifford ,Hudson River School artist;
*Ulysses S. Grant , Commanding General,United States Army , 18thPresident of the United States ;
*Martin Johnson Heade ,Hudson River School artist;
*Herbert Hoover , Engineer, humanitarian, 31stPresident of the United States ;
*Charles Evans Hughes , Chief Justice,U.S. Supreme Court ; club president, 1917-19;
*Daniel Huntington , Genree artist;
*Eastman Johnson , 19th century American artist;
*John Frederick Kensett ,Hudson River School artist;
*Emanuel Leutze , American history painter;
*Alfred Erskine Marling , Real estate; club president, 1928-30;
*J.P. Morgan , Wall Street financier;
*J.P. Morgan, Jr. , Wall Street financier;
*Thomas Nast , Political cartoonist and artist;
*Frederick Law Olmsted , Landscape architect, designer ofCentral Park ;
*Charles Henry Parkhurst , Clergyman and social reformer who brokeBoss Tweed 's ring;
*Horace Porter , Union Army officer, aide toUlysses S. Grant , club president, 1893-97;
*Frederic Remington , Western artist;
*J.D. Rockefeller , founder ofStandard Oil ;
*Theodore Roosevelt ,Rough Rider ,New York Governor , 26thPresident of the United States ;
*Elihu Root , Republican Party "wise man;" club president, 1898-99; 1915-16;
*Joseph Seligman , Banker, philanthropist;
*George Templeton Strong , Civil War Diarist, Union League Founding Member;
*Charles S. Whitman ,New York Governor and ManhattanDistrict Attorney ;
*Worthington Whittredge ,Hudson River School and Western artist;
*William Woodin ,Treasury Secretary underFranklin D. Roosevelt .ee also
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List of American gentlemen's clubs References
External links
* [http://www.unionleagueclub.org/Default.aspx?bhcp=1 Union League Club of New York]
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