UNION LEAGUE OF AMERICA, THE

This article appears in Volume V27, Page 593 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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UNION LEAGUE OF AMERICA, THE , sometimes called the Loyal League, an organization for political purposes of Northern whites, later of Southern blacks, which originated in

Ohio

OHIO

in 1862 when the Confederate military successes and political disaffection in the Northern states made the outlook for the North seem doubtful. Within one year it had spread over eighteen Northern states and among the Unionists of the South. The order raised troops, paid their expenses, sent supplies to the field and distributed political literature. At the close of the war it worked for radical reconstruction of the Southern states, punishment of the Southern leaders, confiscation of property and negro suffrage. The Southern Unio lists hoped to make it the nucleus of a new political party, but this was frustrated by the admission of the blacks for political purposes, after which the Southern whites generally deserted the League. After the Freedmen's Bureau agents and other Northern whites obtained command of the League in the South it became simply a machine to

control

CONTROL (Fr. contrdle, older form contre rolle, from Med. Lat. contra-rotulus, a counter roll or copy of a document used to check the original; there is no instance in English of the use of " control " in this, its literal, meaning)

the votes of the blacks. The League ceased to be important in the North, though headquarters were in New

York

YORK
YORK (
HOUSE
- HOUSE
- HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
  Gothic
  - GOTHIC
  it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)
OF)
YORK, EDMUND OF
LANGLEY
- LANGLEY, SAMUEL PIERPONT (1834-1906)
, DUKE OF (1341-1402)
YORK, EDWARD
YORK, FREDERICK
AUGUSTUS
- AUGUSTUS (a name 1 derived from Lat. augeo, increase, i.e. venerable, majestic, Gr. Ee0avr6s)
, DUKE OF (1763-1827)
YORK, RICHARD, DUKE

City. Each Southern state had its grand council and each county one or more councils. A constitution and an elaborate ritual were adopted, making it an oath-bound

secret

SECRET (Lat. secretum, hidden, concealed)

order, whose members were sworn to support one another on all occasions, to vote in elections only for negroes or Northern men, and to overthrow the Southern " white oligarchy." No ex-Confederate and few Southern Unionists were permitted to join. At each meeting the members were taught from a catechism prepared by Radical members of Congress that they must beware of their white neighbours as their worst enemies, that the Democratic party, to which the Southern whites belonged, bad opposed emancipation and was still opposed to any rights for the negro. In order to prevent moral

control

CONTROL (Fr. contrdle, older form contre rolle, from Med. Lat. contra-rotulus, a counter roll or copy of a document used to check the original; there is no instance in English of the use of " control " in this, its literal, meaning)

of the negroes by former masters, the League, by an " exodus order," required all negroes who were

stilt

STILT

living with their former masters to find other homes. The negroes were taught the equality of men and the right of the negro to his master's property. The votes of blacks, during reconstruction, were controlled by the few white Radical leaders. No negro could safely break away and vote independently. Negroes who voted with the mass of the Southern whites were persecuted, beaten or (as in a few cases) killed. The League died out about 187o, but not before it had succeeded, with the Freedmen's Bureau and other forces, in permanently arraying the blacks and whites into opposing political parties. (W. L. F.)

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