Talk:Union Party (United States, 1850)

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Different "Union" parties

There is significant duplication between this page and Unconditional Unionist Party (United States) reflecting confusion surrounding several "Union" parties that existed in the United States prior to and during the American Civil War. At least in the case of this article, confusion seems partly the result of a paucity of sources, with the page as a whole citing only a couple of pages from two published secondary sources, a single contemporary newspaper article, and the Congressional Biographical Directory.

The Union Party was the name used by several state parties organized by southern supporters of the Compromise of 1850, some of whom supported Daniel Webster for president in 1852.

The Unconditional Union Party refers to wartime supporters of the Union government in the border states, notably the Blair family.

A wartime coalition of Republicans and War Democrats in the free states also called itself the Union Party and eventually formed the basis for the National Union Party (United States) that supported Abraham Lincoln in the 1864 United States presidential election.

Despite the obvious similarities in naming and the broadly-defined goal of "union," these three Union parties were unrelated and, in the case of the 1850s Union party, came from opposing political movements. Contrary to what is stated in the lede for this article, the 1850s Union Party did not "become" the UUP. The former was active only in the Lower South states of Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi and never had a presence in the border states that later supported the UUP. Likewise, the 1850s Union Party was in no way a precursor to the northern wartime coalition that became the NUP. Claiming that the 1850s Union Party "became" the 1860s UUP/NUP is like claiming the British Whig Party "became" the American Whig Party in the 1830s; they're two unrelated parties that happen to have similar names.

I'm going to try to disentangle the relevant threads, hopefully with the result of a stronger and better-sourced trio of articles, but thought I would leave a note in case anyone else was confused by the current set-up.

Nathaniel Greene (talk) 19:16, 23 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Following up! I believe I have corrected most pages that once linked to here to link to the appropriate article (Union Party (United States, 1850), Unconditional Union Party, and so on)—with the exception of pages on sessions of the U.S. Congress and congressional elections, which will require further research. Since I expect there will continue to be some confusion surrounding this term, I have transitioned Unionist Party (United States) to serve as a disambiguation page for various "Union(ist)" parties throughout history. Hopefully this will be helpful to readers and editors and prevent historical politicians being mistakenly identified as a member of the wrong "Union" party.

I will continue to monitor this page and work on expanding the articles linked here, so please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions!

Nathaniel Greene (talk) 18:49, 29 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]