National Union Party
.jpg)
The National Union Party ( English for Party of National Unity ) was in the United States an amalgamation of the Republican Party and part of the Democratic Party , which existed from 1864 to 1868. The aim of the alliance was to unite the supporters of both parties during the presidential election of 1864, who spoke out in favor of a successful continuation of the American Civil War and thus the restoration of national unity. In the course of the election, the Republican Abraham Lincoln was confirmed in the office of President , with the Democrat Andrew Johnson the post of Vice President was filled.
history
In the run-up to the presidential election in 1864 , nomination party conferences were again scheduled for the major parties in the USA in the early summer of 1864. The election and the entire political process were influenced by the civil war, which had been going on since 1861, in which several states of the south split off from the American Union ( Confederate States ). The primary cause of the secession was the question of the abolition of slavery , which was called for by the Republican Party. The Republicans under their President Abraham Lincoln , who was elected in 1860, pursued the goal of the reintegration of the southern states into the Union and the end of slavery in the entire territory of the USA. The Democrats were largely skeptical of this. However, there were also political currents within the Democratic Party that supported the Republicans on the slavery question and opposed the secession of the southern states (War Democrats) . Accordingly, their opinion was that the civil war must inevitably continue until this goal was achieved. However, since the Democratic Party opposed an unrelenting continuation of the war in its election manifesto of 1864, a coalition called the National Union Party was forged between the War Democrats and the Republicans to increase the chances of victory.
In June, the National Union Party convention was held in Baltimore , during which the incumbent President Abraham Lincoln was put up for re-election for a second term. Since Lincoln's previous Vice President Hannibal Hamlin did not belong to the inner circle of power around Lincoln in the past administration, it was decided to nominate a politician from the ranks of the Democrats for the Vice Presidency. The choice fell on the Senator from Tennessee Andrew Johnson , who was the only politician from the southern states who had spoken out in favor of preserving the Union. With Johnson's nomination as running mate , the intention was also to make clear that the breakaway states would be re-admitted to the Union under relatively mild conditions. The presidential election in November 1864 was clearly in Lincoln's favor, he defeated the Democratic candidate George B. McClellan with 55 percent of the vote. Part of the responsibility for this clear victory was in particular the fact that the course of the war in the summer and autumn months of 1864 developed massively in favor of the north and the surrender of the southern states seemed only a matter of time. On March 4, 1865, when the Confederates were on the verge of military collapse, Lincoln was sworn in again in front of the Capitol in Washington, and Andrew Johnson assumed the office of Vice President. A few days later the southern states surrendered and were occupied by Union troops. The aim of the National Union Party was thus achieved. The goal of abolishing slavery was also achieved with the 13th Amendment to the Constitution .
In the meantime, Lincoln himself could hardly exert any further influence on the post-war policy of Reconstruction . On April 14, 1865, a southern sympathizer committed an assassination attempt on him, as a result of which he died the next day. Andrew Johnson, as the previous Vice President, was automatically promoted to the presidency. Besides Lincoln, he was the only other president to be appointed by the National Union Party.
In mid-August 1866, as part of the National Union Convention in Philadelphia, there was another meeting of key political actors with the aim of strengthening the position of the unpopular president. In November 1866, in the middle of Andrew Johnson's term of office, there were again congressional elections in the USA, with a takeover of the so-called " Radical Republicans " in Congress was to be expected. In contrast to moderate politicians of the National Union Party, these demanded tougher sentences against the southern states and their leaders. In the end, however, the aim with which the meeting was called - to unite the country behind the political leadership - was not achieved.
With the victory of the "Radical Republicans" the National Union Party was soon to dissolve, as there were significant differences between Johnson and many members of Congress. While the “Radical Republicans” openly demanded severe punishment for the southern states and far-reaching civil rights for African Americans , the White House under Andrew Johnson opposed these plans. Several presidential vetoes have been overruled by the legislature . The result was bitter political power struggles through to a narrowly failed impeachment procedure , as a result of which the National Union Party collapsed completely. For the 1868 presidential election , the Republicans nominated their own candidate, Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant . Johnson turned back to the Democrats, but could not prevail as their candidate and was replaced on March 4, 1869 by the election winner Grant.
See also
literature
- Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. (Ed.): History of US Political Parties , Volume 2: 1860-1910
Individual evidence
- ↑ PBS.org Political Party Timeline
- ↑ American President Abraham Lincoln, Domestic Affairs ( Memento of the original dated February 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Christof Mauch : The American Presidents. 44 historical portraits from George Washington to Barack Obama . CH Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-40-658742-9 , pp. 182-192
- ^ The Tearful Convention in Harper's Weekly , September 29, 1866
- ^ American President Andrew Johnson, Domestic Affairs
- ↑ Christof Mauch: The American Presidents . CH Beck, Munich 2009, pp. 197-203
