Unionist politician (American Civil War)

{{About|the political movement in the American Civil War|other uses|Unionist Party (disambiguation){{!}}Unionist Party}}

{{Infobox political party

|colorcode={{party color|Unionist politician (American Civil War)}}

|name=Union Party

| lang1 = Other

| name_lang1 = {{plainlist|

• {{nowrap|Union Democratic Party {{small|(Kentucky)}}}}

}}

|logo=

|leader1_title = Leaders

|leader1_name = Francis Preston Blair Jr.
Montgomery Blair
Thomas E. Bramlette
Hamilton Rowan Gamble

| founded = {{Start date and age|1861}}

| dissolved = {{End date and age|1867}}

| merger = American Party
Constitutional Union Party
Republican Party
Union Democrats

| successor = Unconditional Union Party
Conservative Party

| ideology = Unionism
Gradual emancipation

| country = the United States

}}

Unionists in the border states organized political parties to oppose secession from the United States during the American Civil War. They extended critical support to the wartime administration of Abraham Lincoln while remaining outside Lincoln's Republican Party. While some harbored antislavery sympathies, most Unionists viewed the abolitionist movement with hostility and initially resisted Lincoln's efforts on behalf of emancipation. Unionist governments were opposed by Copperheads who opposed Lincoln's wartime policies and in some cases the war itself, as well as Confederate regular and irregular military forces.{{multiref|{{cite book |last1=Astor |first1=Aaron |title=Rebels on the Border: Civil War, Emancipation, and the Reconstruction of Kentucky and Missouri |date=2012 |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |location=Baton Rouge |pages=174; 82–83; 75; 85–86 |url=https://archive.org/details/rebelsonborderci0000asto/mode/2up}}|{{cite book |last1=Baker |first1=Jean H. |title=The Politics of Continuity: Maryland Political Parties from 1858 to 1870 |date=1973 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |location=Baltimore |pages=62; 65; 78–79; 67 |url=https://archive.org/details/politicsofcontin0000bake/mode/2up}}|{{cite book |last1=Parrish |first1=William E. |title=A History of Missouri, Volume 3: 1860 to 1875 |date=1973 |publisher=University of Missouri Press |location=Columbia, Missouri |pages=6; 31; 87; 33–35 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofmissour0003unse/mode/2up}}}}

Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 United States presidential election on a platform that called for the exclusion of slavery from the U.S. territories; his election and subsequent efforts to suppress rebellion precipitated the secession of eleven slave states that formed the Confederate States of America.{{multiref|{{cite book |title=Proceedings of the Republican National Convention, Held at Chicago, May 16, 17 and 18, 1860 |date=1860 |location=Chicago |page=81 |url=https://archive.org/details/proceedingsofrep01inrepu/page/n5/mode/2up}}|{{cite book |last1=McPherson |first1=James M. |title=Battle Cry of Freedom |date=1988 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |pages=235; 276–77 |url=https://archive.org/details/battlecryoffreed0000unse/mode/2up}}}} Unionist opposition to secession in the slave states included conditional unionists who preferred a compromise consistent with southern interests but held out the possibility of secession as a last resort, as well as others whose commitment to Union was unequivocal. These latter unconditional unionists remained loyal to the national government following the commencement of hostilities in April 1861, while many conditional unionists went over to the Confederacy.Astor, 95–97.

Unionists won critical elections in Kentucky and Maryland preceding the July 4, 1861 emergency session of Congress, sending more than a dozen members to the House of Representatives.{{multiref|{{cite book |title=Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections |date=1985 |publisher=Congressional Quarterly |location=Washington, D. C. |page=765 |edition=2nd |url=https://archive.org/details/congressionalqua0000unse/mode/2up}}|McPherson, 295n28.}} They established provisional governments in Missouri and the western counties of Virginia that constituted the loyal civilian authority in those states throughout the war; a similar strategy was attempted unsuccessfully in East Tennessee.{{multiref|Parrish, 31.|McPherson, 297–99; 301.}} By 1862, issues related to slavery and emancipation increasingly divided Unionists between opposing factions, culminating in a formal split between Conservative and Unconditional (or Radical) Unionists. Unwilling to sanction proposals for immediate emancipation and Black enlistment, some Conservatives supported the Democratic Party in the 1864 United States presidential election; the remainder followed the Radicals into the National Union Party coalition. Lincoln's reelection on the National Union ticket demonstrated the Radicals' superior strength and established a beachhead for the Republican Party in the Upper South.{{multiref|Baker, 78–79; 83–84; 110.|{{cite journal |last1=Hood |first1=James Larry |title=For the Union: Kentucky's Unconditional Unionist Congressmen and the Development of the Republican Party in Kentucky, 1863–1865 |journal=Register of the Kentucky Historical Society |date=July 1978 |volume=76 |issue=3 |pages=198; 209–10 |jstor=23378981 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23378981}}|Parrish, 93–94; 107–10.}}

Unionists came from diverse backgrounds, although certain commonalities were apparent. Most were former Whigs who had declined to join the Republican Party prior to the war; a minority were Unionist Democrats whose Jacksonian nationalism inspired a fierce opposition to disunion.{{multiref|Astor, 174.|Baker, 65.|Parrish, 32; 95.}} They drew strength from Appalachia as well as merchants and businessmen in commercial centers like Baltimore.{{multiref|{{cite book |last1=McKinney |first1=Gordon |title=Southern Mountain Republicans, 1865-1900: Politics and the Appalachian Community |date=1978 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill |page=20 |url=https://archive.org/details/southernmountain0000mcki/mode/2up}}|Baker, 65; 110.}} Montgomery Blair was the highest-ranking Unionist in the national government for most of the war as postmaster general in Lincoln's cabinet; other prominent Unionists included Francis Preston Blair Jr., John J. Crittenden, Henry Winter Davis, and Andrew Johnson.{{multiref|Astor, 50.|Baker, 91–93.|McKinney, 28.}}