< ^TilJQNVSOl^ %a9AINfl- '!»'tvr!?y/>. .wt^'MFI^r.: ;5,^lllBBARYa LIBRAR ^""•"""^^'"^ "^(l/OdllVD- '%0JI1V3J0>' ^OFCAUFOft^ ^OF CALIF! "^^^^AMvaaii-^^ ^^ommw Mmms//i . ^ o ^lOSANCt 8 .\Wf-l)NlVER% o /i]ONVS01^ ,a;^10SANC! %il3AlN[l- .tATHRP4RV/)A iVVfllRRAR ,^,OFCAIIFO% ^.OFCAIIFO/?^ AWEDNIVERSy/i ^^AHvaani^'^ >&Aavaan# ^TiiaoNvsoi^ "^-^mh ,^MEUNIVERy/A , , ^ o o ^,^ILIBRARYQ< "^AaaAiNn 3WV^ '^•i/O J I1V3- JO^ ,AWEl)NiVERy//< ^lOSANCElfjv ^TiiJONV SOl^ ^/SJ13AINfl-3WV ^OFCAlIFOff^j^ ^OAavnaiH'^ ^ .i^lilBRARYOr;^ -^iLiBRARYQ^^ ^««, . 189 COMMITTEtt, " . , 190 Civil Service Reform, .191 Resolutions, Republican Principle!. ... 191 Services of Club not op Record, . -193 Club Houni, ...... 19s ERRATA. On the tenth page of the hody of this history, Mr. Olmsted is improperly said to be " the originator of the Central Park." This is a mistake which the writer shared with many others. Mr. Olmsted, with his partner, Mr. Calvert Vaux, who has an equal claim to this distinction, was only one of the designers and executors of the plan adopted for the Park. The present design was made and executed by the firm of "Olmsted & Vaux," and they merit equal praise for it. The iden of the Park is said to be due to Mr. A. J. Downing, the pioneer of landscape gardening in America, whose lamented death in 1851, in the accident which befcl the Ilcnry Clay, de- prived the country of one of lla most accompliiihcd Itltcna. What credit belongs to the city government of that day, we are unable to «ny, but prob- ably not a little, in adopting and maturing Mr. Downing'* auggeslion. Having gone over the rough ground of the Park, before a spa le h.d been put into it or a rock blasted, vlth Mr. Olmsted himself, and ^^te led to his scheme for redeeming the ground to the uses of a park, the « iter may be pardoned for having permanently associated him with its authorship. He did not leam the real facts, and then from a source of perfect authority, nntU the Sketch was in print. He has deemed it due to all concerned, as well as to himself and the credit of the Sketch for perfect accuracy of in- tention, amid many possible errors or defects of information, to append this correction : Mr. Olmsted never claimed, it seems, to be sole designer, much less originator, of the Central Park. That has however been claimed for him by friends who did not know, or who, like the writer, forgot the claimi of Mr. Vaux and Mr. Downing. The error, we hope by this note, lo do something to finally correct. Another important verbal error, still left in the text, is the misprint on the twelfth page of a/wz-bearers which should read onnj-bearers. The name of Carl Schun, on the one hundred and thirty-sixth page should be spelled without the t. And on the one hundred and forty-sUlh page, neat the bottom, E. R. PeartUe, should read, E. "X. Petultt. PREFATORY. THE Union League Club was organized Febru- ary 6, 1863, and incorporated February 16, 1865. With so recent a date there can be nothing obscure in its origin or history, and little that has passed away from the memory of its older members, and, therefore, no im- perative reasons for writing its history. Yet, the fifteen years of its life have been peculiarly eventful, even in the ever crowded life of America ; and sometimes the hurry and press of affairs obliterate the traces of things interesting and important, almost as effectually as the tread of numerous years. It is already observable, that the Civil War, so recent for the old, is remote for the young, and that those who now have active charge of affairs, were, many of them, too young when it closed to have any vital sense of what it was to live in such times. And, strange as it may be, there are doubtless some hundreds of our own members, who are only im- perfectly, if at all, acquainted with the origin and the heroic years of the Union League Club. For their benefit then, as well as in aid of the labors of future * PKEFA rOK Y. annalists of the Club's history, we propose to make a comprehensive sketch of its life from the earliest germ to its present development. In doing this we have been able to consult the memory of its living founders, to read its minutes and all the printed documents it has Igauid, and specially the complete scries of the annual reports of its Executive and other Committees. In nothing except what concerns the pre-natal life of the Club, have we any hope of adding to the history of the Union League Club what is not already embodied in the excellent and exhaustive papers of its successive Annual Reports. They are, we may here say, exceed- ingly valuable in themselves, very congruous in their spirit, and continuous in the direction originally taken by the Club. Indeed, the library of the Club contains in two volumes of these collected Reports pretty much everything that needs to be remembered, excepting what pertains to the Club before it had any formal organization or minutes, or even a name. That part of its history we shall supply. And with that we must begin, craving the patience of those who may think it less important than we do. The historj of the Union League Club ci^nnot be written from the beginning without first recalling the existence and history of an earlier association, not yet wholly forgotten— the United States Sanitary Commis- sion. This Commission dates from June, 1861, and was in the most active period of its life when the Union League Club was born. The men who conceived, or- ganized and controlled the United States Sanitary Com- PREFATORY. mission, and continued to administer it not only through the war but for ten years after, in various forms of costly service bequeathed as consequences of the war — were also the originators of the Union League Club and we proceed to state how this came about, and to eitabliih the fact by documentary evidence. ORIGIN OF THE CLUB, The Union League Ci.ub of New York is the child of the United States Sanitary Commissior.. That body was i-epreser'ed, when not in session, by an Executive Committee, all residents of New York Ciiy, consisting up to the date of the origin of the Union League of five persons only, — its President, Dr. Bellows; its Treasurer, George T. Strong ; Prof. Wolcott Gibbs, Dr. Cornelius R. Agnew, and Dr. William H. Van Buren. These'men were compelled during the war to pass some part cf each day or night in conference with each other upon the urgent and anxious business that engaged them. Frederick Law Olmsted, the first Secretary of the Sanitary Commission, was the only other person who fully shared their car 3 ind consultations. The affairs of the Sanitary Commission required a close study of the state of public sentiment, and the rela- tions it bore to the Government gave its Executive Committee peculiar opportunities of information. Its own movements were embarrassed by the jealousy of States toward each other, and towards the National s 6 TliE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. Government. Th.* success of its plans depended upon the obliteration of these local prejudices. The Nation as super-eminent above the States, was, from the origin, the animating idta at the rooc of all the plans and aims of the Sanitary Commission. The invited and organized cooperation of the mv'n and women of all the States pot in rebellion, in an impart'al ministry to the soldicis of the Natiun, wl'houl re- gard to the Spates from which ihey came, *'a8 felt by its originators and conductors to be a subtile, yet mighty bond of union and nationality, which, if accomplished, would surpass in service to the country the more obvious benefits derived from a humane ministry to the wants and sufferings of our armies. The Sanitary Commission was not from its incep- tion a merely humanitarian or beneficent association. It necessarily took on that appearance, and its life depended upon its effective work as an almoner of the homes of the land to fathers, brothers and sons In the field. But its projectors were men with strong political purpose, induced to take this means of giving expression to their solicitude for the na- tional life, by discovering that the people of the country had a very much higher sense of the value of the Union, and, above all, of the value of a great common national life, than most of the poli- ticians of the States or the United States Govern- ment seemed to recognize ; that the women of Amer- ica had at least half of its patriotism in their keeping, and that a great scheme of practical ser- THE i KION LEAGUE CLUB. 7 vice, which united men and women, cities and vil- lages, distant States and Territories, in one protract- ed, systematic, laborious and costly work — a work of an it.. personal character — aninia'.eil by love for the national cause, the national soldier, and not merely 'oy personal afTectioti or solicitude for their own particular flesh and blood, would develop, purify and stre.igther. the imperilled sentiment of national- ity, and help to make America sacred in the cyet of the living children of her scattered States. The members of the Sanitary Commission were ab- sorbed in this conviction, and under great opposition and immense difficulties, they adhered to it and con- quered by it. They would yield nothing to the intense feeling of State and local pride or anxiety which sought to create differences in the administration of their resources. Their plan, with all its methods, was intensely national. Perhaps no persons out of the national Government had their full experience of the evils and perils of State jealousies and local feeling. Every trial the national Government met in recruiting a national army out of the State troops, the Sanitary Commission experienced in struggling with the disposition of State or local societies, to give a special and not a national direction .o their stores and means of succor. The education in nationality which the Commis- sion gained in the first year of the war gave it convictions as to the importance of cultivating this sentiment, which overtopped all others. They found 8 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. In their daily business a perpetual lesson on this theme, and in each other almost the only fully- aroused sympathizers with the sentiment. The phrase " Unconditional Loyalty," Mr. Seward said, origin- ated in the Sanitary Commission, and the Govern- ment scattered ten thousand copies of a tract with that title through the Army of the Potomac — a tract which the President of the Commission had prepared. The closeness of the personal tics of the Executive Committee can hardly be understood. They were of one mind and one heart. Originally select- ed from a great number for their fitness and will- ingness to work together in one spirit and for one end— all having the truest respect for, and confi- dence in, each other — a union never disturbed to the close of the war, and of their work, which lasted ten years longer — they were not only in daily converse, but they poured their hearts into each others bosoms, and made the great questions of the time subjects of joint consideration and study, and always in the light of their central idea— loyalty and nationality. This explanation sc-ms necessary to make the connection of the United States Sanitary Commis- sion and its Executive Committee with the Union League Club natural and intelligible. Prof. Wolcott Gibbs was the first to suggest that the idea on which the Sanitary Commission was founded needed to take on the form of a club which should be devoted to the social organization THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 9 of the sentiment of loyalty to the Union, and he chose M-. Frederick Law Olmsted as the first person to be consulted and advised with. Prof. Gibbs had a natural right among his co-workers to be earliest in the field vMth a plan which concerned the exist- ence of the Union. His grandfather, Oliver Wol- cott, had been among the most vigorous and ear- nest of the patriots who formed the Union and guided its earliest steps. His mother was known all her long life as a noble daughter of a revolu- tionary father, worthy of the name she bore, and inheriting and transmitting a profound interest in the honor and dignity of the country — intensely alive to all that concerned the purity of our poli- tics and the stablcness of our institutions. No bet- ter source could have been found for the Union League than the heart and head of a grandson of Oliver \Volcott. It was an additional merit that Prof. Gibbs, a man of science, and already perhaps the most distinguished of American chemists, was not a politician or a man of affairs. His patriotism wa: pure and simple — without a taint of partisan feeling, of lust for office or of taste for power. Absorbed in his engrossing studies, private in his tastes and habits, nothing less than the great perils of his country could have taken him out of his la- boratory and made him for many years an earnest and active member of . the Sanitary Commission, and at length the corner-stone of the Union League Club. 10 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. Those who know the capacity, the thoughtfulness, the statesman-like qualities of Mr. F. L. Olmsted, will not wonder that Dr. Gibbs found him readiest and ripest for the plans he had in view, and best able to suggest the method by which it was to be carried out. ' The United States Sanitary Commission have always been proud to acknowledge the great part which Mr. Olmsted, the first Secretary of the Commission, had in giving practical body and form to the enterprise. It is doubtful if anybody else could have carried the ideas of its founders out into such a commanding and successful achievement as it finally was. The originator of our Central Park, which will always be a splendid monument of his genius and foresight, and the head of his profession at a time when the landscape gardening of our Na- tional Capitol and our young cities offered such im- mense opportunities for skill and taste and anticipa- tion of the public wants— Mr. Olmsted has, perhaps, rendered greater public services with less reward and less appreciation from those who have most profited by them, than any citizen of New York. '^ Let us then see in extracts from two letters to Pmf. Gibbs from Mr. Olmsted, what he had suggested to his friend and what Mr. Olmsted had said in reply. But first of Prof. Gibbs* letters to Mr. Olmsted. They were unfortunately destroyed in a fire which con- sumed Mr. Olmsted's stored furniture and papers, during his absence in California in 1864, It is enough to say that Prof. Gibbs had conceived the THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. If plan of a National Club before October, 1862; but, to quote his own language, " it was not until Seymour's election as Governor of New York that the urgency of such a movement was publicly indi- cated." He at once consulted Mr. Olmsted, asking his sympathy and counsel, to which came the follow- ing deliberate reply, omitting non-essential parts of the letter : LETTER OF MR. OLMSTED TO DR. GIBBS. New York, jViw. 5, 1862. My dear Gibbs : Your request cannot be passed by this direful day, but I can only give it stolen time. The method must be built up from the motive. /Of your motive, I judge from our short conversation, and the name you gave your suggestion — " Loyalist's Club." We regard ourselves as distinguished from some others by our loyalty to something to which they, what- ever they profess, whatever they may believe of them- selves, are not, in our estimation, loyal. We desire to recognize this distinction as a ground of a certain alli- ance, by which we may express our greater pleasure in the society of those who agree with us, and something more. -^ To what are we loyal and they not ? ) We agreed that X and Y must be of the other sort. To what are they not loyal? Both will swear allegiance to the Constitution. Z within a year has declared to me that slavery must and should be abolished and the rebels exterminated. Supposing him sincere, I still could not suppose him to be sympathizing with what loyalty includes with me. ^I feel that liberty 12 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. and Union is not all. Neither A-^ nor B could with sincerity say — I believe, that they would not if they could — have a privileged class in our society, a legal aris- tocracy. Both, I believe, hold in their hearts European views on this subject. Roth regard our society as a fail- ure because of the want of a legally privileged class. Both feel something of contempt for a man — at least they feel themselves the natural superiors of a man — who docs not feel himself to belong to a class which he thinks ought to be privileged. I, on the other hand, feel a cer- tain contempt for, or a sense of superiority to, a man who wants any such legal setting up. They sympathize with what has always been the prevailing sentiment of the aristocratic and cultivated class abroad, and avowedly of only a very vulgarf presuming, and peculiarly snobbish class here. Wc sympathize with what has been a pre- vailing sentiment with the highest quality of men, pecu- liarly in our own country, the men, too, who formed our country, and gave it to our keeping. To their scnlinioiit in this respect, and to this quality given by them to our nationality, we are loyalists, they are renegades. We arc the hereditary r.atural aristocracy, they are parveniis ; we are rich, they are vulgar. Your club, then, would be a club of true American aristocracy, the legitimate descend- ants and alms-bearers of the old dukes of our land ; of ' our law-g'vers, loyalists. Differences of opinion within this should be tolerated ; wc would only require that in this our disposition and sense of personal dignity should not be braved or crossed. We wish also to establish the fact that there is an "aristocratic class" in New York, which in this respect is not European ; which shall not be felt by an English gentletnan to be the mere ape and parrot o/ a European gentry.) To this end the foundation should be very securely and cautiously laid. THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 1 3 ^ Let US begin with a club, clubbing to canvas for a club. The ante-club, Agnew, Van Buren and yourself — say, the tripod of it. * * * Now close the doors, and let in no man who ha. ..< t blue blood to your certain know- ledge ; no man who does not burn with the sacred fire. Get in fifteen to thirty of this 61ite of the 6lite, all of whom must, in the nature of the case, be too much personally interested not to be willing and able to help with serious deliberate exercise of judgment. Select tl.em, one by one, with great caution. Then classify them, — not by set numbers, but according to their peculiar genius, know- ledge and habits of judgment — into committees, to con- sider different questions of organization. One of these upon the Shibboleth, or test-question of loyalty; another upon other conditions desirable to be required for mem- bership; another upon constitution and by-laws, with a sub-committee — or a subsequent — upon plans of opera- tion, rooms, etc. Of the first point, I have indicated the direction my views would take in first opening ground. Of the sec- ond, three classes should be regarded : First, men of sub- stance and established high position socially. I men- tioned Minturn and Brown as first occurring to me last night. Men of good stock, or ol notably high character, of legal reputation, would be desirable ; Strong and Jay also, men of established repute in letters and science. And especially those of old colonial names well brought down. A large proportion of this sort I should con- sider absolutely essential to success in the purpose I see. They must be in the centre. Second, clever men, espe- cially of letters, wits and artists who have made their mark. Third, promising young men— quite young men, who should be sought for and drawn in and nursed and nourished with care, but especially of those rich young men of whom I see so many now, who don't understand 14 THE UfflON LEAGUE CLUB. what their place can be in American society. Gentlemen in the European senr.e — in a society which has no place "for men of leisure," they are greatly tempted to go over to the devil (boss-devil). The older and abler es- tablished men ought to fraternize with them, to welcome and hold every true man of them in fraternity — so soon they may govern us if they will!^ The question is, what shall be offered each of these . classes, and what shall be asked of them ? As to the first , class, everything must be asked ; can anything be offered but the satisfaction of a patriotic and Christian purpose ? Thin, with Komc, If it can be well prcKcntcd, will u'" » great way. Can anything be added? Of the second, It is only necessary to ask little. This is essential. Let me mention names : Kapp, who knows more and talks better upon the vital chords of American history than any man I know ; Capt. A , Col. O , Capt. C , Col. D , all men who must live on their pay, and who must live C3refully and feel every dollar. If these repeat the pass-word they ought to come in easily; for, once in, they will be the best working members. The fee should not be too high then. For the third class, good rooms with something to do is alone essential. « • • I should question if all that is necessary could not be got by arrangement with some hotel or restaurant of the better sort. A Club suite of rooms opening out of, or by a side door into the Maison Dor6e, for instance, at least to its kitchen and some of its service. I have not considered the question whether the Club should be actively engaged in propagating the faith. From within the Club the faith should be actively propa- gated outwardly, I think, and by reason of the Club, but not by the Club as a Club, a sufficient objection being that certain members would be forced to quit, by the ex- pense, if It were to be, (there are other reasons). THE UNION LEAGUE CLUJ. 1$ For this reason, and for others, it should be under- stood that those who join the Club do so from other mo- tives than those which usually influence gentlemen to join Clubs, and that they will aid its purpose otherwise than by their fees and annual dues. Committees of cor- / respondence and publication should be provided with a special fund by contributions of members, not by assess- ment. (All propagative correspondence and publication to be in the name of members, not of the Club.) The Club should be as a Club quiet, and as little -is possible known by people not its members. So far as ktiown. It nhouM be piirclj' In ItH social qiinlity ; absolute . iccrccy as to It.s Inner purpose Is perlinps not to be re- quired ; but I should think it might be best that no mem- ber should propose or suggest to any one else that he should join the Club, until, after having, in private, ob- tained assurance of his " loyalty," he had been proposed in the Club, considered, and his election provisionally as- sured. Such assurance, by the by, could be best obtain- ed negatively, by the question " Don't you hate such and so?" rather than " Don't you love such and so?" It is easier to profess true hate than true love. These matters and much else having been well discuss- ed and determined in your Ante-Club. I should then set all to work to cautiously and adroitly canvass for mem- y bers, not admitting them to the Ante-Club, and not or- ganizing the Club of the Club till a sufficiently large list of men unanimously regarded as desirable had been " made tolerably surf of, as ripe enough in. loyal spirit to join it heart and soul when asked. Then organize the Club proper, the members of the Ante-Club being its first members and first officers ; bring in the marked men in squads rapidly, but so that those of each may fully understtind it and their part in it, and have their say 1 6 THE UlflON LEAGUE CLUB. about those proposed still to be added, before the latter . are addressed on the subject. Yours very cordially, Fred'k Law Olmsted. WoLCOTT GiBBS, Esq. / This letter shows how clearly Mr. Olmsted had com- prehended the purpose in Dr. Gibbs' mind, and how his remarkable organizing genius shaped the idea of the proposed Club. The peculiar emphasis laid by him on the strictly American type of aristocracy — the best of our own sort — as furnishing the proper ma- terial for the new association, has not perhaps had its full recognition in the Club, and was not so plainly seen by others connected with the movement ; but it has always had its influence, if not its distinct ac- knowledgement, and is none the less important for being only vaguely discerned. Is it too much to say that Mr. Olmsted's letter foreshadowed the policy afterwards followed in the organization of the Club, and did for Dr. Gibbs' germinal purpose much the •ame indispensable work that Mr. Olmsted had pre- viously done for the idea of the Sanitary Commiision, which originated in other heads, but was carried out very largely by his organizing faculty — as rare as any It has fallen to our lot to observe in any American of our own times. Dr. Gibbs replied to Mr. Olmsted's letter at once, as the following note shows by its date, only two THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. I7 days later, and we regret our inability, tor reasons already stated, to furnish this paper. But the answer to it indicat^es what its purpose was. SECOND LETTER OF MR. OLMSTED TO DR. GIBBS. New York, ^th Nov., i86j. My dear Gibbs : I take your note with good appetite, and readily assimilate the whole. You both enlarge and com- pact the purpose or motive. All the more, however, I feel it to be of the highest importance for success that the genera! intentions of my plan of the process of weld- ing the Club should be adopted from the start. Almost everything depends upon your original foundations. Be careful to let nothing be done which shall prevent itj being easy to follow a process of that kind. The plan should be thoroughly considered and deliberately ma- tured by not more than seven representative men before any one gets a strong set aoout it, and before any one beyond that seven (?) gets any claim "in courtesy or policy to have any influence in it. It will save much time, dis- cussion and some hard feeling, to get the general scheme, plan, purpose and limit of purpose, well defined and mapped out, before it is to be talked about and men brought into it. It ib so easy for men to carelessly .'orm plans, and start upon ideas which it is more or less diffi- ~ culi to give up. It is much better to present the whole (a map of the whole) where the balance of parts and the consequent boundaries are taken in at a glance, before any part is seen by itself and becomes of more importance than all the rest. Here, as in everything else (Sanitary Commission), the first necessity of economy and efficienc)' 1 8 THE VfflOff LEAGUE CLUB. Is a clear limitation of what is to be undertaken. (Sun- day night will be the last chance for me on this subject for a month or two.) Yours cordially, Fred'k Law Olmsted. 'Prof. WOLCOTT GiBBS. It was between the date of this correspondence and the middle of January, 1863, that a quarterly session of the United States Sanitary Commission was held in Washington. What further consultation Dr. Gibbs may have had meanwhile with members of the Executive Committee on the subject of the proposed club, or with other personal friends, we are not able to state. Only before proceeding to note what occur- red In returning from the session of the Sanitary Commission at Washington to New York, it is im- portant to observe that the original idea of the pro- posed club of loyalists was native to New York, and not borrowed from Philadelphia. The conception of our club was earlier than that of the Union League Club there, which was, however, sooner organized and named. They were both original and independent movements. The resemblance in their titles and pur- poses might lead to the mistaker) impression that both grew out of one impulse, either simultaneously or in succession, our Club following the Philadelphia League. But this is not historically true, even though it may appear that the existence of the THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. I9 Union League Club in Philadelphia finally decided the title, and ii. some degree influenced the form of ours. Perhaps, too, the immediate success of that organization gave whatever impulse was still needed to hasten the development of the original idea in the minds of Prof. Gibbs, Olmsted, and the other members of the Executive Committee of the United States Sanitary Commission. On a certain night in November, 1862, the New York and Philadelphia members cf the Sanitary Commission were letur'-ing in the cars to their iiomes in Ph'adelphia and New York, and the con- versation fell for several hours exclusively upon the proposed ^^oyalist or National Club which had al- ready beer conceived. The Philadelphia members. Judge Hare, Mr. Horace Binney, Jr., and some others, recited to us the fresh history of the Union League Club just started, and its striking effect upon the loyalty of the community. Prof. Gibbs was not present, nor Mr. Olmsted. Dr. Cornelius R. Agnew, George T. Strong, Henry W. Bellows (perhaps Dr. William H. Van Buren) were the rep- resentatives of the proposed Club in New York, and ;i3tened with intense interest to the statements of the Philadelphia gentlemen (all members of the Sanitary Commission Board) touching the success of their Union League Club. To say the least, they had realized in part what we had conceived and brooded over for several months without bringing to birth, and we were animated to allow no more time to pass ao THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. without attempting to execute the plan already, as appears, well considered and definitely shaped, but only on paper, and in our minds and hearts. That night a conference and discussion, which went on after we had left our fellow-Commissioners in Phila- delphia, and lasted pretty much the Afhole sleepless ten hours of our journey, brought the enterprise of a Loyalist Club or a National Club to the point of action. It was then and there resolved to make the idea a fact. As the Executive Committee of the United States Sanitary Commission met every day at one o'clock P.M. for the transaction of its ordinary engrossing business, there was no need of any special meetings on the subject of the pro- posed Club. \Vc had only to adjourn our business meeting and go on with an informal conversation upon the matter of the Club, which had then no friends outside our committee. The following cir- cular shows that between the date of our journey (November, 1862) and January 15, 1863, we had called in at least four personal friends not members of our Executive Committee. The four first names In the first printed circular are the names of members of the Executive Committee of the United States Sani> tary Commission. The connection, direct and vital, as it was between the individual members of the Executive Committee of the United States Sanitary Commission and the originators of the Union League Club reflected no political character upon the Sanitary Commission THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 21 Other than it had always borne — that of intense loyalty and devotion to nationality. It rather gave its own character to the Club and nationalized and lifted it to its own unpartisan level — its indepen- dence of sect, of state, of party. The Club soon had the opportunity of repaying the Sanitary Com- mission for its parentage, f->r the whole membership became ardent and active supporters of the Commis- sion, and the Metropolitan Fair, which poured over a million dollars into the treasury, was organised in its Club house. Here follows the circular, which is the fundamen- tal document in the history of the Union League Club. [confidential.] JlEW York, yanuaty 15, 1863. Sir: The urgency of th t present great national crisis, and the revolutionary schemes which unprincipled men are plotting to accomplish, make it the immediate duty of all loyal citize.>s so to organize themselves as to give the most efficient support to the national cause. It is, therefore, proposed to form in the City of New York a club which may be known 'i the National Club, tne objects of which shall be to cultivate a profound national devotion, as distinguished from that of sectional feeling ; to strengtnen a love and respect for the Union, and discourage whatever tends to give undue prominence to purely local interests ; to discuss and uri^e upon public attention large and noble schemes of national advance- 22 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. ment ; to elevate and uphold the popular faith in repub- lican government ; to dignify politics as a pursuit and a study; to reawaken a practical interest in public affairs in those who have become discouraged; to enforce a sense of the sacred obligation inherent in citizenship; and, finally, to bring to bear upon the national life all that a body of earnest and patriotic men can accomplish by united effort. It is believed that an association of such men under a simple organization of asocial character, frankly exchang- ing views upon great questions and actively engaged in disseminating them, could accomplish a noble work. The only requisite for membership, besides unblemished repu- tation, should be nn uncompromising and unconditional loyalty to the Nation, and a complete subordination thereto of all other political Ideas. Should these objects meet with your cordial approba- tion and sympathy, and should you be disposed to take part in the proposed organization, you will please ad- dress one of the undersigned at your earliest conve- nience. Very respectfully your obedient servants, WoLCOTT GiBBS, 56 East 29th Street, Georob T. Strong, 74 East jist Street, Henry W. Bellows, 59 East joth Street, Cornelius R. Aonew, 361 Fifth Avenue, George C. Anthon, 8j East 35th Street, Georoe Gibbs, a6i Greene Street, George F. Allen, 4 a East 14th Street, William J. Hoppin, 61 Pine Street. Although thii printed circular, a copy of which li before the writer, It dated* January 15, 1863, It li certain that it was not issued until later, and prob- THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 23 ably not signed by the four last gentlemen until near the close of the month. The rough draft was written by Dr. Gibbs and printed, that it might be deliberately considered and criticised or improved by his colleagues before being issued. The following ex- tracts from letters, all before the c'ose of January, excepting one, will show what the nature of the criti- cisms was, and how the circular took on the form it finally bore, as above given. LETTERS OF GEO. T. STRONG TO DR. GIBBS. 68 Wall Street, yan, so, i8fij, My dear Gibbs ; I enclose copies of revise of National Club Circular, and have, pursuant to your request, sent others to Hoppin, G. F. Allen, and Anthon. Also a dozen or so to your brother George. Mr. C approves most heartily, and decidedly in- sists on being a member, but he rather prefers not to be concerned in getting it up — first, because he has not time to do anything about it ; and, secondly, because he thinks it looks a little indelicate for an office-holder to be active and prominent in forming an organization to support government. Mr. B (a distinguished lawyer) objects somewhat to your " objects," though approving the general design. " To oppose State-right dogmas open or insidious," he thinks wrong, because it is certain that States, as such, have corttin righti that ought to be upheld. He pro- pose! to lend me to-morrow a memorandum of the wordi ^e would like to substitute. 14 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. Would it not be an improvement to strike out the wordi "to draw State lines or"? • • • Very truly yours, George T. Strong. Dt. Wou;ott Gibbs. P. S. — I have noted one or two change on one of the copiei enclofcd, and lubmit them to your Judgment. 68 Wall Strikt, yan. 1 1, i86j. My dear Gibbt : I enclose herewith a note received from Wil- liam J. Hoppin this morning, also copy of circular as amended by C. E. B. Mr. Allen cordially approves, but •uggests that we ought to have a few more strong names. Can you supply any? Did Bellows write to Rev. Dr. IHtchcock on the subject? • • • • Very truly yours, George T. Strong. 60 Pine St., New York, yan. »o, 1863. Afy dtar Sir . I cordially approve of the objects staved in the circular you have been so kind as to send me. I feel honored by having my name appended to it, and will do my best to assist in carrying out the plan it pro- poses. Very truly yours, William J. Hoppin. G. T. Strono, Esq. . TtlE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 2$ <8 Wall St., yan. tj,, 1863. My dear Gibbs : I have yours of the 2ist, written before the receipt of my letter enclosing you a copy of the cir- cular as modified by C. E. B. You will find I think that you ap" J in p'inciple. My hesitation about the words "to liiaw State lines "was not as to the soundness of your meaning, but Ai to the accuracy of the expression, which in strictness belongs to geography oi ~- pears to be its cardinal dogma. Now, this doctrine was nearly obsolete at the North, and was only revived as the safest and surest legal method of attacking the Gov- ernment. Do )'ou think, then, that any Democrat will join you? And will you not be merely a Republican as- sociation, and as such, of little service at present? For nothing but a crushing victor^' can save Lincoln and the Republicans from being overrun by the Seymouritcs and State-rights men. • • • Yours ever, . F. S. I'he circular, as originally drawn, was evidently re- vised in accordance with the suggestion of Mr. Strong and C. E. B., until it took on the shape in which it appeai-s above. No changes of principle were neccs- »ar>'. Dr. Gibbs was not a lawyer, and Mr. Strong and C. E. B. were both lawyers. He was not a poli- tician — as tome objectors were. Between the 15th THE UNION LEAGUE ClUB. 2J and th<: 26th the circular had been completed, ind the gentlemen whose signatures it bears, outside of the original four members from the Sanitary Commis- sion, had been gained over, and became united with the movement. Tl e circular for the first meeting is as follows: 59 East »9TH Street, yan. ift, 1863. Sir : You are respectfully invited to attend a meeting called to take into consideration the plan embodied in the accompanying circular, at, the house of Dr. Wolcott Gibbs, 59 East 29th Street, on Friday, the 30th instant, at 8 P.M. Very respectfully, your obedient servants, W. J. HoppiN, C. R. Agnew, WoLCOTT Gibbs, George Gibbs, George T. Strong, Henry W. Bellows, Geo. C. Akthon, George F. Allen. The proceedings and the names of the persons pre- sent at this meeting will be given in a later part of this history. At present we concern ourselves only with settling the question of the origin and originators and first shapers of the Club. The second called meeting was held at the house of Mr. George T. Strong, under the following circular invitation. 74 East aiST Street, yarn. 31, 1863. You are respectfully invited to attend an adjourned meeting to take into further consideration the proposition 38 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. to organize a National Club in the City of New York, and to receive the report of the Committee on Organita tion, at the house of George T. Strong,' No. 74 East 2i»t Street, on Friday, the 6th day of Feb'y, at 8 P.M. Very respectfully, your obedient servants, WoLCOTT GiBBS, Henrv W. Bellows, George F. Allen; William J. Hoppin, George Gibbs, George C. Anthon, C. R. Agnew. It will be observed that Mr. F. L. Olmsted's name docs not occur in these two calls, active and influen- tial as he had been in forming the Club. The truth Is, he was tied to Washington by his incessant and responsible duties as Secretary and chief executive offi- cer of the Sanitary Commission, and this not only pre- vented his taking any part in the preliminary meet- ings, except by his invaluable letters, but from any considerable participation in the doings of the Club after it was established. His name docs not occur among the original corporators. It is found in the roll of members for the first two years and not after- wards. Dr. Gibbs' name is among the corporators, and is likewise in the roll for the first two years only. His removal to Cambridge as Professor in Harvard University, took him away from New York at the time his services would have been very valuable to the Club. Neither of the two men most instrumental in forming the Club ever held any office in it, or was heard in its public councils. Mr. Strong's interest and influence, considerable as it was, was obviously THE UNIOff LEAGUE CLUB. 29 second to theirs. He was an active member of the Committee on Admissions. His services, with this ex- ception, mainly ended with the forming of the Club, yet, on his resignation, he was fitly honored with an election to honorary membership. That Mr. Olmsted's interest in the movement had not slackened in ab- sence is plain from the following letter, which bears a date between the first and second preliminary meet- ings. MR. OLMSTED TO DR. GIBBS. Washington, yan. 31, 1863. . My dear Gibbs : release let mc know of your progress with the National. / Now is the time to drive that sort of thing it seems to me. It looks to me as if the question of popular doggedness of purpose in the war was soon to be determined, and might be turned by a hair. It is only necessary that a certain number of men should commit themselves to go through with it whatever comes, and whoever drops out ; to give no hearing to any suggestion of quitting, come what will, to make final success sure. /We have more of the brute force of persistent obstinacy in our Northern blood than the South has, if we can only get it in play, and it is plainly merely a question who will hold out longest. The danger is that the politicians will get the idea that the people are tired of the war, and begin to play for that disposition. We ought to )m\z the means by organization in anj crisis to create and manifest public sentiment against them. We ought to be able to bring evidence such as (is offered) by the con- tinued contributions to the Sanitary Commission, that JO THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. the people arc still ready to sacrifice of their property in the war, — ready, willing and able./ We ought to be able to have, at any step backward like that of the Democrats in Indiana, a countcr-'itcp, like that of the Democratic officers from Indiana. Such matters should not be trusted to take care of themselves. Be sure the traitors don't trust to mere spontaneous action of their sympathirers. ^he quiet substantial people are sound ; but quiet, sub- stantial people don't ihow themselves. Your League ought to be extended over the whole country before Congress adjourns, and it ought to have something to do besides talk within itself.^ Should a club or league be started in Washington of residents, like BacheP Can I be of use to suggest it? If not, please tell me why not, that is, why are you not ready to spread the move- ment ? Are you discussing it ? • • • ' I feel, you will sec, as if our machinery for spreading sanitary ideas through the country ought to be made use of for strengthening the Union otherwise, somehow, as this could be done at no coit. • • • Why not get together three or four men in Philadel- phia next week, meeting the Philadelphia Leagues, and determine upon a form of pledge or instrument of link- ing together for the counlry? I like your printed state- ment better the oftener I read it ; it is excellent, and I should be glad to have you hold to it every word, and without addition, as it originally stood. The Philadel- phian didn't mean enough. Any rogue could drive a four-horse coach through it. Everybody who has been in Fort Lafayette could swear to it. Loyalty meant lick- spittle to save the Union with some men. "On what terms would you take peace?" That is what we want to know of men we are to associate with. On condition of unquestionable nationality based on Federalism and the annihilation of the dogma of States-rights (as ever THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 3 1 under any circumstances to be thought of as superior to it). That is the battle we have got to fight now or here- after. I want to fight it now, when our hand is in./ Avoid words which connect us with the old fight as much as you can, and use those, and those allusions, which make it a matter of to-day, as much as possible, but do so in order to commit and establish the temper of the people for the struggle in the long future against Westernism and all other forms of breaking up. I like yours a great deal better than the Philadelphia heading, though it must, of course, take a diflferent form, as a constitutional declaration. But pray get it into that form and set it going. Yours afTectionately, Fred. Law Olmsted. Prof. GiBBS. This introduction to the history o the Club, sets forth unmistakably its origin, and the .Jeas and spirit of its founders. It is not necessary to carry it further, and some apology is due to the younger and now ac- tive members of the Club, and to those who have since really done the work of the Union League Club, for dwelling so long upon the early history and so much out of all proportion to the space and time we shall give to its working history. But that might safely enough be postponed. It is all in existence in documentary form, and on the minutes of the Club. What we have told in this introduction is largely from personal recollection, or from private letters, likely to perish. The actors in these events are mostly elderly 32 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. men, or have already passed away. A few years will remove all the immediate witnesses of the birth of a Club no older than 1863, and the men who actually cradled the infant will be beyond all questioning. What is here written, can be now established from the living lips of four out of the five founders of the Union League Club, and must be accepted as true and impartial history. Mr. George T. Strong, the other, speaks to us in the letters here reproduced. They arc ^11 in the possession of Prof. Wolcott Gibbs, but should be in the files of the Club, where, if asked, he would gladly place them. II. ORGANIZATION OF THE CLUB. "The Loyal National League," which had thirty branches in this State, and Union Leagues in Penn- sylvania and other States, were all the fruits of a common feeling of necessity for organizing public sentiment against the threatened loss of nationality. The men who moved in the foundation of " the Loyal National League " in fhis city were very much the same men who formed the Union League Club, and it is not easy to say which movement had pri- ority in time. Each was animated by the same heart. We cannot proceed to the organization of the Club without paying this brief tribute to "the Loyal National League," which did excellent service. THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. , 33 and poured its strength finally into our associa- tion. The object of the Union League Clubs in this country was to concentrate and organize the senti- ment of devotion to the Union and the nation al- ready weakened, and further threatened by the hov tility of parties, and by a sympathy either from fear of consequences or from pro-slavery proclivities, with the Southern rebellion. At this date, January, 1863, the war, already begun, inauspiciously and with many unexpected reverses, was regarded by the commerce ■of the country with a demoralizing alarm. An in- adequate sense of the danger to our national life, and of the necessity of vigorous and decisive meas- ures for putting down the rebellion, gave oUr Gov- ernment an appeararce of irresolution in its military preparation, and of indeterminateness in it:, princi- ples of action. The doctrine of " State Sovereignty," carried to the point of denying the constitutional right of the nation and the Government to protect and preserve the Union at all hazards, was still main- tained by politicians in the North. A suicidal doubt infected one considerable party in the country, as to the possibility of holding the States in open rebellion against their free will, to the national contract of unity and allegiance to the common flag. The bor- der States were apparently watching the course of events to see on wh-ch side of the controversy they should range themselves, ready to jump to the safe jide of the fence, whichever that should prove, but 34 TUB UNION LEAGUE CLUB. ■eemingly hopeful that it would turn out to be the Southern side. Commercial interests were naturally timid in the presence of civil war, and were ready to sacrifice principle to peace. The party in the North most accustomed to rely on Southern votes, gave a dangerous support to the rebellion by dis- countenancing all energy in the Government in its efforts to quench the fires of secession. A consider- able portion of the more ignorant, who hated the negro, and thought his natural place was that of a slave, were ready with their votes at the polls, and their mobs in the streets of our cities, to spread terror through the hearts of the people, who feared that civil war would break out in the North, while rebellion was raging in the South. Foreign powers, obterving our domestic divisions and lack of national confidence and courage in contending with our great difficulty, were favorably considering the policy of ac- knowledging the Southern confederates as belligerents, and waited only for a little more success on their part, and a little more discouragement on ours, to an- nounce a fatal neutrality towards the country and its enemies, or to take aides with our domestic foes against the flag and the Union. The stales in atte.ipted •ece«sion were growing more united and more confi- dent, ai we grew more divided and more hopeless. They were encouraged to put forth their utmost ex- ertion ; their men and their women were in full ac- cord; the old and the young rushed into the ranks, and the prevailing thought and purpose of the whole THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 35 k/ South, was, at every sacrifice of property and life, to secure the end of an absolute and final separation and independence — the setting up of an unchecked slave-power within the old limits of the country — henceforth the inevitable rival and enemy of the free states, and the possessor of the mouths of the Mis- sissippi, the chief vent of the commer-e of the loyal states in the West. It was to meet and overcome this alarming state of doubt and apathy, or of a mistaken sympathy with re- bellion in the North, and especially in our cities, that the Union League Club in Philadelphia was formed as a rallying centre for the unconditional loyalty that already remained in the North, and an instrument fo^ propagating this sentiment among the irresolute, doubt- ' ful or despairing. It was honorable to the city in which the original declaration of independence was r.iade, that the movement for defending our national life by an unparti&an organization of loyal citizens for the more distinct and emphatic declaration of fidelity ' to the Union, should have been first organized there. Their example animated and quickened the original projectors of this Club, though our purpose was older and independent of theirs, and it is due <.o them and to ourselves, to acknowledge their priority in action. Let us now take up the threaJ A our own history as a Club. Several preliminary meetings, formal or in- formal, had been held by the original projectors of this Association in the month of January, 1863. The gentle- men already named as its designers, ha^l called a feir 3^ THE VNION LEAGUE CLUb. well known citizois of unmistakable loyalty to share their councils at the third or perhaps the fourth prelimi. nary meeting, held on the 30th of January, 1863, at the house of Dr. Wolcott Gibbs, (No. 59 East 29th Street.) The following persons were present : Hon. Murray HorrMAH, Rev. Henry W. Bellows, Cornelius R. Aonew, M. D. Prof. Wolcott Gibbs, GiOROE T. Strong, Georoe C. Anthon, Rev. Dr. S. H. Weston, Horatio Allen, John C. Dalton, Jr., M. D. Prof. T. W. Dwioht, William J. Hoppin. These gentlemen had come together under the call of a circular invitation dated New York, January 15th, 1863. which, with the signatures, has already been given. At this meeting, held January 30th, 1863, Hon. Mur- ray Hoffman acted as Chairman, and George T. Strong •a Sc<;retary. On motion of Dr. Wolcott Gibbs, It was resolved, " That a committee of three be appointed by tbe Qvair to prepare a scheme of organizatinr? for the proposed National Club, and to report it to an .idjounte'i meeting." Dr. Wolcott Gibbs, Prof. Dwight and Morrto Allen were appointed to act as this committee. It was further Resolved — That it be referred to the same committee to con- sider and report on the expediency and practicability of establishing an affiliated organization for the same object throughout the country. That when this meeting adjourn it adjourn to meet at the houM of George T. Strong, No. 74 East 31st Street, on Friday the 6th day of February next, at 8 o'clock P. M. THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 37 This adjourned meeting was held at the time and place named. Present : Hon. Murray Hoffman, Dr. Wolcott Gibbs, Rev. Dr. Hitchcock, Horatio Allen, William J, Hoppin, G. C. Anthon, H. Peters Gray, Cornelius R. Agnew, Fred- erick Sheldon, William C. Bryant, George F. Allen, Geo. T. Strong. Judge Murray Hoffmai was in the chdir, and Geo. T. Strong acted as Secretary Dr. Wolcott Gibbi presented the report from the Committee on a scheme of organization. The plan reported was amended and finally (Feb. 2ist, 1863,) adopted as fol- lows: UNION LEAGUE. The undersigned agree to associate under the name of The Union League, and to adopt the following fundamental articles of association, to wit : 1. The condition of membership shall be 'absolute and unqualified loyalty to the government of the United States, and unwavering support of its efforts for the suppression of the rebellion. 2. The primary object of the Association shall be to discountenance and rebuke by moral and social influ- ences all disloyalty to the F-deral Government, and to that end the members will use every proper means in public and private. 3. We pledge ourselves by every means in our power, collectively and individually, to resist to the uttermost every p' :mpt against the territorial Integrity of the Nation. To meet the necessary expenditures, each member 38 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. shall pay to the Treasurer, annually in advance, the sum of ten dollars. There shall be a standing committee consisting of nine members, who shall have a general supervision of the cenccrns of the League. There shall also be for the present a committee on Admissions, consisting of seven members, whose duty it shall be to pass upon the name of each candidate, who may be presented for membership. The officers of the League shall consist of a Secre- tary and Treasurer, to be elected with the Committees on the second Wednesday in January in each year hereafter. Members of similar organizations, elsewhere estab- lished and recognized by this League, shall be entitled, when in New York, to all the privil-ges of member- ship, subject to surh regulations as the Standing Com- mittee may determine. MuRKAV HorrMAK, John J. Cisco, Alsx. Van Renssilakk, WiLLAKD PaRKKR, William C. Bryant, Roi't L. Kennedy, Charles Kino, William Curtis Noybs, Jamis W. Deekman, George T. Strong, W. TEMfLETON JOHHtOlf, J. Butler Wrioht, Charles D. Smith, Georoe C. Anthon, Henry W. Bellows, WOLCOTT GiRES, Jamu McKati, Georoe Griswold, George F. Allen, W. H. L. Barnes, Andrew S. Snellino, Charles Jenkins, Nahum Sullivan, Edward S. Bartlett, Freeman J. Bumstead, Alfred L. Edwardi, Charles A. Jay, W. S. Brown, J. J. J0NE^ John E. Williams, Henry L. Jacques, Francis B. Cuttimo, Francis Lieber, Hamilton Horrm, ' THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 39 Ceorge Gibbs, John A. Stevens, Jr., Theo. W. Dwight, C. R. Oilman, George A. Peters, William H. Draper, Cornelius R. Acnbw, Benjamin Collins, Henry C. Dorr, Charles Collins, Charles E. Butler, William A. Budd, A. G. Agnew, Samuel W. Bridgham, John C. Peters, Henry A. Smvthe, William J. Hoppin, Gurdon Buck, George Cabot Ward, ,^^ Jonathan Sturces, C. E. Strong. "^ohn C. Dalton, Jr., Richard M. aIunt, . J. Cowper Lord, Franklin H. Delano, John A. King, John Ordronaux, Denning Duer, Otis D. Swan, William G. Kino, Albert Mathews, Samuel Wktmore.* Upon the adoption of this scheme, it was Resolved — That a committee on pdmissions be appointed to consi3t of five members, and to serve until the organ- ization of the League shall be accomplished. The Chair appointed Dr. Gibbs, Prof. Dwight, George F. Allen, George C. Anthon and George T. Strong to act as this committee. William J. Hoppin was appointed Treasurer. It was Resolved— That a committee of five have general power to do whatever is required for the speedy organization of the League, and to call a meeting of .he League as soon as sufficient progress is made to render such i meeting expedient. Such a meeting was called at the office of the United States Sanitary Commission, No. 823 Broad- * These neiutnret mut hare been Uiigelj obtaiaed rabieqoenllf to tb* AtX* of the aaoplion of the artidei, bat loofi tftcr. 40 THE UNION LEAGUE Cl.UB. way, on February 21st, 1863. There were present Hon. Murray Hoffman, George T. Strong, George F. Allen, Dr. Willard Parker, William C. Bryant, George L. Ken- nedy, James W. Bcckman, Henr)' W. Bellows, Wolcott Gibbs, George Griswold, Charles A. Jay, Francis Lieber, George Gibbs, T. W. Dwight, George A. Peters, Cor- nelius R. Agnew, Henry C. Dorr, William J. Hoppin, Franklin H. Delano, Otis D. Swan, Albert Mathews, J. M. Stevens, Benjamin Collins, Gurdon Buck, Jonathan Sturges, John C. Dalton, Jr., J. Cowper Lord and others. An examination of this list will show how rapidly the association was commending itself to lead- ing men in the various professions, and in the business pursuits of the city. At this meeting Otis D. Swan was unanimously elected Secretary of the League. The early minutes of this Union League show the following orders passed at this meeting : There shall be a Standing Committee, consisting of nine members, who .shall have a general supervision of the concerns of the League. There shall also be, for the present, a Committee on Admissions, consisting of seven members, whose duty it thall be to pass upon the name of each candidate who may be presented for membership. The officers of the League shall consist of a Secretary and Treasurer, to be elected with the Committees on the second Wednesday in January in each year here- after. Members of similar organiiations, elsewhere rttablithed and recognised by this League, shall be entitled, when in New York, to all the privileges of membership subject THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 41 to such regulations as the Standing Committee may determine. Mr. Charles King being called to the chair, Mr. Murray Hoffman took the floor and offere.l the following resolu- tion : " Resolved, That a communication be made to the Union League of Philadelphia requesting their con- sideratidn of the following suggestions of alliance and assistance : " That application be made to such persons as may be selected in- any part of the United States, urging them to form a League of loyal citizens upon the basis of the principles adopted by the said Union League of Philadelphia and by this League. " To recommend to all associations, which may be then established, the formal adoption of the leading prin- ciples thus declared. " To request that each association will place itself in communication with the Union League of Philadelphia, with the name of the Secretary, and that the latter apprise every other Association of the Union. " Also, of recommending the expediency of appointing a Committee with power to publish brief tracts upon the questions growing out of the Rebellion, which may advance the cause of our alliance and meet the false- hoods in politics and hostility to constitutional truth, now spreading among us ; and further, with power to make such other recommendation upon the whole sub- ject as may seem to them advisable. " That a Committe« of three, of wh6m the Secretary shall be one, be appointed to carry these Resolutions into effect." Dr. Wolcbtt GIbbs ofTcfed as a substitute for the !•' t of the foregoing Resolutions, the follow ing, viz. : "Rtsolvfd, That a Committee consisting of ten mem- 43 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. bera be appointed to proceed to Philadelphia on Monday the 23d inst., to take part in the exercises of the Union League on Monday evening, and to confer with the officers of that League in regard to matters suggested in the foregoing Resolutions." Which substitute being accepted by Judge Hoffman, the Resolutions offered by him as amended were adopted and the following Committee of >en were appointed : Mu«RAY HoffMAM, Cornelius R. Aonkw, Charles King, Georci F. Allf.H, JoHK E. Williams, William J. Hoppin, HtNRY W. Bellows, Robert L Kennedy, GuRUON BocE, Dinning Dut». Dr. Gibbs moved the foUowing Resolution : "That a Committee of three be appointed to draw up and present to the next meeting of the Le.ngue a •ystem of By-Laws for the government of the internal affairs of the League." It was adopted. Dr. Gibbs, Albert Mathews and Otis D. Swan were appointed such Committee. Dr. Woicott Gibbs also moved the following Resolu> tion: "That the Secretary be requested to have one hundred copies of the articles of association printed for the use of the members, and that the members of the League are requested to send in to the Committee on Admissions, the names of persons suitable for membership." It was adopted. Mr. Jonathan Sturges offered the following Resolu- tion : "That a committee of ten appointed pursuant to the Resolution of Judge Hoffman, have power to strike (rom the articles of association the third article, if, before THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 43 conference with the officers of the Union League of Philadelphia, they shall deem such action expedient." This was adopted. Mr. George Griswold moved the following Resolution : ■ "That a committee be appointed by the Chairman to select a building for the use of the League." This was adopted ; and Mr. Griswold and Mr. George T. Strong were appointed such Committee. Upon motion of Dr. Gibbs, the Chairman, the Secre- tary and Treasurer were empowered to call a meeting of the League at their discretion. The following Committees were apppointed by the Chair : Committee on Admissions. George F. Allen, Wolcott Gibbs, George C. Anthon, George T. Strong, Cornelius R. Agnew, J. Cowper Lord, Robert L. Kennedy. Standing Committee. George Griswold, George T. Strong, William C. Bryant, Willard Parker, Theodore W. Dwioht, John C. Dalton, Jr., Hknrt W. Bellows, Cornelius R. Aonbw, Wolcott Gibbs. The meeting then adjourned. A special meeting of the Union Leagur of New York was held this day (March 6, 1863) at the United States Sanitary Commission Rooms, No. 823 Broadway. Present : Willard Parker, Robert L. Krnnidt, Charles King, Georos T. Stkono, Charles D. Smith, Wolcott Gibbs, Gkorob Griswold, Nahum Sullivan, 44 TUB UfflOff LEAGUE CLUB. James McRavi, George Gibbs, Cornelius R. Acnew, John C. Dalton, Jr., Franklin H. Delano, George Cabot Ward, Samuel W. Briocham, John A. Stephens, Jonathan Sturces, The Treasurer, Secrttary. and other*. In the absence of Murray HofTman, Chairman, Pres- ident Charles King was called to the Chair. The minutes of the last meeting were read, and on motion, approved. The following communication was then read by the Secretary : "At * meeting of the Joint Committee of the Union League in New York, held on Monday, the second day of March, the following Resolutions were adopted and Oixlcred to be communicated to the members of the League at the next meeting of that Association : "Resolved, That the Joint Committee of the Union League in New York recommend that the annual dues to be paid by each member of the League, be the sum of twenty-five dollars, and that all future members pay an admission fee of twenty-five dollars." "Resolved, That a Committee of five members be appointed to confer with similar committees of the Union League in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston, for the purpose of consultation upon the subject mat- ter of establishing some common basis of action, with power to fix the time and place of meeting." On motion, the following resolution was then adopted : " Resolx'ed, That the annual dues of each member of the League, payable in advance, be the sum of twenty- five dollars, instead of the sum of ten dollars as here- tofore provided, and that all future members pay an admission fee of twenty-five dollars." THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 45 On motion, the Secretary was directed to issue a cir. cuiar to the members of the League and such persons as have been elected members, communicating a copy of the above resolution. John A. Stephens, Jr., in person tendered his resigna- tion as a member of the League, and on motion, his resignation was accepted. On motion, Robert B. Minturn and George Cabot Ward were appointed additiona' members of the Com- mittee on selection of a suitable ouilding for the League, and the said Committee was authorized to solicit and collect donations for the objects of the League. The following list of persons elected members of the League by the Committee on Admissions was read by the Secretary: All on printed list and also W. H. L. Barnes, W. S. Brown, Nahum Sullivan, Edward S. Bartlitt, William A. Budd, William G. Kino. ADDITIONAL. Nominated by J. A. Stephens, Jr.: Cyrus W. Field, S. B. Chittindin, Richard Heckscher, Benj. D. Silliman. By Henry A. Smythe: Henry F. Vail. By Charles Jenkins: E. Ellxrt Anderson. By Franklin H. Delano: John C. Cooper, Edward Delano, James L. Kennedy, Thomas W. Oodbm, Christian E. Detmold, Newbold Edoar, HiNKY J. Brown, Albert Bibrstadt, . GlLHRT L. BbBKMAN. 46 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. By Rev. Dr. H. W. BELLOWS: Ho«ATIO AlLFM, J. N. BALtSTIEU, W. F. Caky. Edwin J. Dunning, Parki Godwin, GioRcc Irklaid, J. F. PlERSON, W. SCHARrCNDr.RO, Dorman B. Eaton, Calvert Vaux, F. W. G. BiiLowi. By Samuel Wetmore: John T. Johnston, StSPHKN C. WiLLIAMt, HiNRir A. CoiT, AtrRCD PjLL, By Wli.i.iAM J. HOPPIN : HtNRr L. PiCRMN, William E. Doix5«, G. Aliinola, Edward Delano, Robert S. Hone, William Allen Butler, John D. Lawson By Charles King: Edmund Blunt, Pbtsr Cooper. By John E. Williams: Charles L. Brace, By H. C. Dorr: Elliot C. Cowdin, Richard Goodman, JoSIAH IIOWE, Pierre M. Irvino, W. M. Pritchard, Henrv T. Tuckermax, Fred. Townsend, E. B Youmans, James B. Johnston, Christopher R Robert, William E. boDOE, Jr., John C. Green. Rer. Francis Vinton, (IiNRT D Sedowice, Edward Oothout, Charles H. Russell, Abram M. Cozzeni, Henrt E. Pierreport, George W. Blunt, Wm. C. Russeu Henrt R. Winthrop, Alpred Jones, Samuel D. Coubwi, Thomas Hitchcoce, Buchanan Winthrop, Jonii C Carter, THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 47 John G. Adams, Chaklks D. By John C. Dalton, Jr.; Henry B. Sands, Wm. H. Carmalt, Austin Flint, By Dr. Wolcott GiBBS: Lucius Tuckerman, Frederic Kapp, E. Leutze, Samuel B. Rugoles, By Francis Lieber: William Oakey, By Dr. C. R. Agnew : Alfred C. Post, Benjamin Lee, William T. Blodgett, By George T. Strong: Edward Penkold, John O. Stone, Ridley Watts, Rev. Roswell D. Hitchcock, h. w. hubbell, Fred. DePeyster, Howard Potter, Charles H. Marshall, James F. Rugoles, Robert H. McCurdt, Alfred W. Craven, Frederic Sheldon, Bbnj. W. Bonnkv, Charles P. George F. Betts, CONGDON. William Dei mold, Luther R. Marsh, Austin Flint, Jr. John E. Gavit, William O. Stone, Aaron Frank, John A. Weeks. Philip Reynolds. C. CoNANT Foster, Char'.es T. White, Thomas H. Faile, Jr. Robert B. Min -.m, J. H. Hinton, Rev. Sullivan H. Westoh, , Walter L. Cutting, James F. DePeyster, Seth B. Hunt, Luther Bradish, Henry Peters Gray, P. Remsen Strong, Samuel T. Sridmork, Jamf.s G. Kino, Adrian Ibelin, George N. Titcb, KiRKLAND. 48 THR UNION LEAGUE CLUB. By George C. Anthon : OssiAN D. AsMLiY, A. D. F. Ramdolph, W. O'Bkibn, E. H. Akthur, Chakles G. Clark, Thomas E. Brown, Edward J. Warrik. By R. L. Kennedy: Robert L. Stuart. By R. M. Hunt: Joseph Howland, John Pribstlbt, Charles W. Elliot. In the absence of any by-law dcfininpj the power of the Committee on Admissions, in rcsp>ect to election of individuals proposed for membership of the League, ■nd for the sole purpose of preventing present con- troversy in respect thereto, it was moved that the per- sons, enumerated in this list of individuals, elected to membership of the League by the Committee on Ad- missions, be elected accordingly ; which was adopted. It was then moved that the recommendation of the Joint Committee of the League, as stated above, be adopted ; which was accordingly carried. Upon motion, the Committee was ordered to consist of fixt and to be appointed by the Chair. The Treasurer offered the following Resolution : " Rtiolvtd, That the Treasurer be directed to collect from the members of the League annu&l dues and initiation fees as follows : "Twenty-five Dollars annual dues from all persons already members, who shall not be required to pay initiation fees. " Twenty-five Dollars annual dues, and Twenty-five Dollars initiation fees from all persons, who may become members after the meeting of this evening. THE UNIQN LEAGUE CLUB. 49 "Resolved, That the Secretary furnish to the Treasurer the names of such gentlemen as have, and may hereafter become membi^rs of the League." Which on motion, was adopted. The meeting then adjourned subject to call of the Secretary. Pursuant to notice, a meeting of the Union League of New York was this day (March 13th, 1863,) held at the Chapel of the New York University. Present: Charles King, Thomas Hitchcock, Rob't B. Minturn, Woi.cott Gibbs, Edmund Blunt, George Griswold, Robert L. Kennedy, George T. Strong, Richard Goodman, John Priestley, Prof. Dalton, Cornelius R. Acnew, F. H. Delano, James W. Beekman, Alfred L. Edwards, Benj. Collins, The Secretary, Treasurer, and others. On motion, Mr. Charles King was called to the chair. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. The Chairman of the Committee to procure a suitable building for the League, reported that the Committee had not yet procured one. . The Committee on By-Laws reported draft of By- Laws for the government of the League, which was then read. On motion, and after the insertion of several verbal amendments, the draft submitted by the Committee was adopted as the By-Laws of the League. (They may be found in the first printed Report of the Club.*) On motion it was resolved that the By-Laws be adopted, to take effect at the expiration of ten days after the * See Appendix. 50 THE VSION LEAGUE CLUB. League shall take possession of the League house. Which was carried. • ••••» A motion was made, that a committee of seven mem- bers be appointed, whose duty it should be to report at the next meeting of the League the names of suitable , persons for the officers enumerated in the By-Laws. This was carried, and on motion, the following gentle- men were appointed such Committee: CcoRCC Griswold, Robert B. Minturh, Franklim H. Delano, Robt L Kennkdy, John C Dalton, Jr., CtoROB T. Strong, WoLCOTT GiBBS. At a meeting of the Union League Club this day (March 20th, 1863.) held at the Chapel of the New York University, pursuant to notice to the members, of whom there was a large attendance, Mr. Charles King wi» called to the chair — • ••••• The Committee of seven, appointed at the last meet- ing to report the names of suitable persons for the ofnccri enumerated in the By-Laws, reported through the Chairman, Mr. Griswold, the following nominationtr For rRF.SIPF.NT. Robert B. Minturm. For Vice-Prf.sidknts. Hon. MuRRAT HorrMAN, Al»x T. Stewart, Charles Kino, Jonathan Sturok% William H. Aspinwali^ Mo5Ea Taylor, John A. Dix, Henrt W. Bkli.owi, Francis B. Cuttino, Willaro Parker, GtORGi BANCRorT, Jamm W. Beekmak. For SrCRETARY. Otie D. Swan. THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 51 For Treasurer. William J. Hoppin. For Executive Committee. Georje Gp!swold, George Cabot Ward, Franklin H. Delano, Thomas H. Faile, Henry T. Tuckerman, Rob't ].. Kennedy, William E. Dodge, Jr., John A. Weeks, James Boorman Johnston. For Committee on Admissions. George F. Allen, N. Pendleton Hosack, Cornelius R. Agnew, Wolcott Gibbs, George T. Strong, Frederic DePevster, Jonathan Sturges. These gentlemen were unanimoust> elected. June loth, 1863. — At a regular monthly meeting of the Union League Club,* held this evening at the- Club House, Mr. John C. Green, one of the Vice-Presi- dents, in the chair — • •••»» Mr. George F. Allen, Chairman of the Committee on Admissions, read the report of the Committee rec- ommending for election as members the following gentlemen : Samuel McLean, Henry A. Hurlbut, Elijah T. Brown, Sherman J. Bacon, William B. Ross. Dr. Oliver Johnson, proposed by Geo. C. Collins. Edw. Prime, " " Thomas T. Sturges. E. Reed McIi.vaine, " " H. K. Bull. Rob't Stuyve3ant, " " J. H. Foster. Upon motion, the report was accepted and the per- sons therein recommended for election were elected *Sm pp. js and 53 for chaofe of the name of the Clab. 52 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. viva voce, the By-Laws having been first suspended by unanimous consent. • ••••• The Chairman of the Committee on Admissions then introduced the following Resolution : "Resolved, That the Committee on Admissions have power to elect candidates for membership, and that so much of section eight of the By-Laws, as is inconsistent with the exercise of such power by said Committee, be suspended for the period of ninety days from the date of this meeting." This, on motion, was unanimously adopted. Mr. John Jay moved the following Resolution: " Resolved, That the Executive Committee be requested to consider the feasibility of the establishment of a National Club and Club House at Washington, and after advising upon the subject with such gentlemen as they may select at Washington, and with the Lo>al Clubs at Boston and Philadelphia, report thereon at the next monthly meeting." Adopted. Upon motion, the weekly Club night was changed from Wednesday to Thursday evenings. A considerable difference of opinion had existed as to the name by which the new association should be known. "National Club" was preferred by many at the outset, ai more expressive of it* objects. It was feared that "Union League Club" was a name likely to confound it with certain other organiutions of a less comprehensive character. The club, though origi- nally political, was not intended to be partisan, or to lend itself to any party, except when that party was •trktiy national in its policy, and dangerously opposed THE UfftON LEAGUE CLUB. S3 by a party, sectional and non-national in its aims. The first important paper of the club — " On Emigration " — exhibits the national end and aim of the association. But the name " Union League Club " prevailed, chiefly because it had found favor and acquired meaning and color in Philadelphia, among men who had the same objects with ourselves. The Union League Club had found accommodation for itself in the large and commanding building formerly occupied by Mr. Parrish, on the corner of 17th Street and Broadway, fronting Union Square.* It was n fortunate s'te for the opening labors of the Club — in full view of one of the chief places of public gatherings, military reviews and popular demonstra- tions ; easy of access, and an advertisement in itself of the existence and activity of the association. in. THE WORK OF THE CLUB DURING THE WAR. On November I2th, 1863, the Club had appointed a committee of seven members to adopt and prosecute such measures as they should deem most eflectual, for aiding the government in raising and equipping the the quota of volunteers, to be raised in the State of New York, pursuant to the proclamation of the Presi- dent of the United States. The committee consist- ed of Messrs. Alexander Van Rensselaer, Le Grand * See Appendix. 54 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. ' B. Cannon, Sherman J. Bacon, James A. Roosevelt, Charles P. Kirkland, Elliot C. Cowdin and George Bliss, to whom were afterwards added Jackbon S. Scliultz and Edward Cromwell. The committee finding other and sufficient agencies at work in the State to recruit white regiments, and next to none to enlist persons of color, resolved to devote themselvecs to the work of enlisting colored men. Having obtained the neces- •ary authority from the Secretary of War, as the Gov- ernor of the Sta'e would not give his authority or sanction,* they collected $18,000 from the voluntary sub- scriptions of members of the Club, and set about the costly work of procuring colored recruits. By their energy, zeal and tact, within one month from the date of their appointment, the committee had enlisted one full colored regiment of one thousand and twenty men, stationed at that time at Rikcr's Island, and had besides six hundred recruits in camp towards the formation of a second regiment. Of the character of the men and their spirit of obedience, it is enough to say, that not one single man deserted during the times these colored regiment! were forming, a fact in marked contrast with the experience of the white rcgimenti. Considering that the whole number of negroes capable of bearing arms in the State was estimated to be only six thousand, and that one thoue police of New York — we can hardly exag- gerate *he importance of the honor showered by the worth and patriotism of the city upon the negro regi- ments raised by the Union League Club. The wise and costly sacrifices made by menr.bers of the Club in raising these regiments, instructed the public sentiment of the country, and was a most importa indication of the new and powerful current which finally swelled into general emancipation. The hatred and co..tempt of the colored man, felt by the lower class of our white emigrants, was always a perilous agent in creating the votes that upheld the rebr'!ion, or discouraging the gov- ernment in quelling it. 1..e New York anti-negro riots had spread abroad and at home a fear that elements of explosion existed in the metropolis of the country which $6 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. would not bear bold handling. It was industriously said that wc had enough to do to protect our live* and property from discontented and desperate men at home, to prevent us from putting forth a competent vigor in suppression of distant rebellion. But when the wealth and commercial enterprise and social dignity of the City of New York, so largely represented in the Union League Club, devoted its first voluntary contri- bution to raising and equipping three negro regiment* in swift succession; when the ladies of New York asked the use of the Club House for the presentation of an elegant stand of colors, which was publicly delivered to the regiment with great pomp and enthusiasm, and when • thousand citizens accompanied the regiment in procession to Its place of embarkation for the seat of war, amid a universal demonstration of popular enthu- siasm, rarely exhibited in any pageant of the war times. it was justly felt that the metropolis of the Nation had deteftnined to stamp out the inhuman sentiment of hos- tility to the colored man, and to encourage the rising sen- timent of enlisting the negroes as regular troops in the war for Union and Liberty, which slavery had brought upon the Nation. The joth Regiment, on the morning of its embarkation for New Orleans, (March 5th, 1864). landed at the foot of 26th Street, Last River, and marched to the Club House, where it received its colors. Hon. Charles King President of Columbia College, in the name of loyal women, who were present in brilliant numbers, pre- sented the colon in a speech of deep pathos, and then THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. $7 handed the officers and men an address, which had been prepared by Mr. Henry T. Tuckerman, engrossed on parchment, and signed by one hundred and thirty-five of the ladies of New York, best known in society and philanthropy — " Mothers, wives, and sisters of the members of the New York Union League Club."* The 26th Regiment of U. S. Colored Troops were to have received a similar ovation, but the day proved so stormy (March 26th) that the plan was dropped. Their colors were, however, presented on board the transport which took them to Annapolis, the x^^rX day by Hon. John Jay, who presented also an address, the same, and from the same ladies, that had been presented to the 20th Regiment. When nearly three companies of the 31st Regiment U. S. Colored Troops had been recruited, they were suddenly ordered away to join the Ninth Corps in the Army of the Potomac. They were soon -ronsolidated with about three hundred men raised in Connecticut, and lost heavily at the battle of the Crater. The regi- ment was finally filled up to the full quota of men by the Union League Club, and had a distinguished record in the far South. Of each of these regiments, a mili- tary record of an honorable kind might be furnished, had we space to enter it in this condensed history, without violating due proportion. Almost from the very beginning, the Union League Club had become a centre of all movements having a patriotic impulse in the City of New York. Thus * Sm Appendlz. S8 THE VStON LEAGUE CLUB. m November, 1863, the President of the Sanitary Commission was allowed the use of the Club House to convene an assembly of about a hundred of the most patriotic women in New York to consider the best method for starting the plan of a Metropoli- tan Fair. Under the au<5piccs of these ladies, it was inaugurated in the following March, and realized the enormous sum of over a million of dollars for the use of the United States Sanitary Commission, in its National scheme for the prevention and care of sick- ness, and the nursing of the wounded in the army and navy. The generosity of the people in furnishing the materials of this fair, in which all trades and occupa- tions exhibited a noble rivalry, was largely inspired by the patriotic zeal of women whose husbands, brothers, sons, were members of this Club; and the success of the fair was not only a most encouraging evidence of the growing devotion of this community to the soldiers engaged in fighting the battle for the Union, but it set an example of cooperative and efTcctive zeal in the support of the Sanitary Commission, that was followed by all large communities through the country, after the pattern of the Metropolitan Fair, and filled the treasury of the peoples' great charity of healing, to a height that never fell below the necessities of that costly enterprise. The necessity to the American people of the Na- tional Union had been systematically urged on the' public by the " Loyal Publication Society," composed mostly of those who afterward became members of this Club, before its organization. Rut in carrying THE UffiON LEAGUE CLUB. 59 out the ninth article of the By-Laws, which provided for a Committee on Publications, Messrs. James A. Roosevelt, George Cabot Ward, James M. Cross, George W. Blunt and Henry E. Clark, were ap- pointed a special committee to collect funds for the diffusion of loyal sentiments through *he Loyal Publi- cation Society of New York. They accordingly raised more than $3,000, which was devoted to this excel- lent object. The Protective War Claim Association, organized by members of this Club, though not under its control, had the generous patronage and active sympathy of the Union League. The freedom of the Club was offered in November, 1863, to the Union members of both houses of Con- gress, and to all officers of the army and navy, and they were invited to make the Club the custodian of any mementoes of the rebellion, such as colors taken in the war, which they might think would find a wider exhibition and exert a more enlivening influence there, than elsewhere. T^e patriotic influence of the Association was not confined to its formal activity in the days when every loyal man among its members felt himself a sentinel, in watch of an enemy likely to spring up in unex- pected quarters, and requiring to be dealt with sum- marily. Thus, during the riots in 1863, which took the place of the insurrection planned by the enemy, with its sympathizers in New York City, to come ofT on the 4th of July in case of General Meade's defeat — Co THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. a defeat which took the form of a glorious victory for the Union — many of the members were actively em- ployed day and night in encouraging and sustaining the military, civil and municipal officers in crushing the rioters, and all hope of a successful Northern in- surrection against liberty, nationality, and law. We can never cease to recall with pride the part that Mr. Thomas C. Acton and Mr. Ktn.:-dy (our members) the leaders of the police of this city, took, in that most critical season for our national cause. The name of Col. Harvey Brown, who stood by the police so sturdily, is not to be omitted in this connection. At this time our members numbered five hundred and thirty. Judicious eflTorts were made to render the Club House attractive by establishing a restaurant ; by im- proving the festive character of the weekly Thursday meetings; by adding new periodicals, domestic and for- eign, to the reading room ; by a plan for establishing a club library — since carried out ; by embellishing the Club House with portraits of leading generals and •tatesmcn, and a few pictures presented by members. A registry of army and navy officers visiting New York was kept in a separate volume in the reception room. Distinguished advocates of the American cause in Eu- rope, such as Cobden and Bright, Goldwin Smith, Caimc, Foster, Gasparin and Laboulaye, were advised of the existence and labors of the Club, and of the welcome they, or any of their friends, would meet on coming to New York. So useful was the Club, and so great its opportuni. ^^.•, THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 6 1 ties, that it was accounted a patriotic duty to increase its membership, not, however, without extreme care to admit only men of unconditional loyalty and personal worth. The report of the Executive Committee, July. 1864, ends with the following stirring words, in further- ance of a recommendation to increase the number of the members to one thousand by the active personal labors of the existing constituency. — In conclusion, the Executive Committee beg leave to express their conviction that such an effort, unani- mously made, will be certainly successful. It will be materially assisted by the recent improvement of the internal economy of the Club House in supplying a restaurant, the want of which thu? far told sensibly against it. The intelligent citizens of New York have begun to appreciate greatly the practical assistance, so quietly, but effectually rendered by this Association to the Gov- ernment in the enlistment of troops, as well as in the moral influence which they have already exerted in elevating the tone of public sentiment, and correctin-j that semi-loyalty, to call it by no harsher name, which until recently pervaded social circles that claimed to be respectable, and which, through their influence, has prolonged the war and complicated our position, by deceiving not only the rebel leaders at Richmond, but their sympathizing friends and press in Europe. The whole country now understands that upon the devo- tion of the people to the honor and integrity of the republic, regardlesc alike of local interests and party ties, depends the early triumph of the American cause, and that the purification of the social circles of thU the National metropolis, will tend more than anything 03 THE UmOS LEAGUE CLUB. el»e to brighten everywhere the National atmosphere. Let it be distinctly understood that any sympathy with the rebellion, which is striving to destroy our country-, affixes here a stigma, under which, men shall shrink from public gaze, and dread the inevitable frown of our higher circles; and disloyalty will nowhere flaunt itself, as hitherto, with a boldness that was at once an insult and an outrage, not alone to the hundreds of thousands of families whom the rebellion has caused to mourn, but to every man whose love of country is broad enough to embrace in its integrity the American republic. All of which is respectfully submitted. — ClORCC GtlSWOLD, Ckmrmtn >/ Ikt EsK»ltf C twtm i B n . The following were the officers for 1864: President. JoMATHAM SrvaoES. Vice-Presidents. MuaxAT HorfMAN, Willaip Farkik, CNAiLifl KiHO, ALixAMni* T. Stiwait, John C Gkkn. Jamcs W. Biikmam, HtHir W. BtLLOvi, Gioaot BANcaorT, Fbanci* B. Cuttiko, David Hoadlit. Secretakv. Otis D. Swaw. Treasurer. William J. Horrin. Executive Committee. Gioaoi GaiswoLD, Rokit I.txos KixuKDr, Gioaot Camt Wabd, William E. Dodoi, Jr., Frarklir H. Dilamo, Jonn a Wbbki, THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 63 James Boorman Johnston, John Jay, Henry L. Pierson, Henry E. Clark, Frank E. Howe, David Van Nostrand, Oeorob W. Blunt, Theodore Roosevelt, Richard M. Hunt, The Stcr,:, iry and Treasuret, ex'Officio, Committee on Admissions. George T. Strong, Thomas H. Fails, N. Pendleton Hosack, Sheppard Gandv, Cornelius R. Agnew, Dudley B. Fuller, Christian E. Devmold, The Secretary and Treasurer, ex-officio. House Committee. Gboroe Griswold, Franklin H. Delano, John A. Weeks. Invitation Committee. Frank E. Howe, ' Georoe W. Blunt, David Van Nostrand. Library Committee. Samuel Osgood, Albert Mathews, ViNCENZO BOTTA. The prosperity of the Club at the first annual meeting, January 13th, 1864, (the Club not being then quite a year old) may be inferred from the following facts found in William J. Hoppin, the Treasurer's report. The aggregate receipts from all sources were $27,474 54; the disbursements $25,028 43. The dues, originally $10, had been raised to $25 per year, and later to $50; and the diffeience though not exacted from the older members was voluntarily paid up by nritny, from a sense 64 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. of fairness to later comers. The Treasurer reported a donation of |i,ooo from George Griswoid, Chairman of the Executive Committee, to wliosc gcncronity the Club was indebted for the flag-stafT and flags that surmounted their building. The Club was out of debt ; the rent paid, to the first of May ; a balance in the Treasury of $3,446 II. The Treasurer concludes his report with the following significant question which neatly involves the ethics of the Club : "Inasmuch as when a candidate is proposed, we ask no questions about his parentage or wealth, or position in fashionable society; but simply these two. Is he honest? Is he Loyal? can we doubt that with proper exertions, we shall have at our next annual meeting at least twice as many names as we have on our rolls at present ? " In Mr. Vincent Colycr's report to the Committee on Volunteering, among the examples of the moral in- fluence of this Club is reckoned deservedly that of hav- ing broken up the long existing practice of denying to colored people the unrestricted use of our city railroad cars, upon the usual terms. A flagrant case of the forcible ejectment of a Mr*. Andervon, widow of a Sergeant in the 36th Regiment of U. S. Colored Volunteer!, having been repjrted to Mr. Colyer, it reached the knowledge of the Club. The President laid it before William Curtis Noyes, Fsq., who con- sented to take charge of the case before the courts, free of cost. Tkt Exfning Pctt, Trtbunt, and Timtt, de- nounced the ejection and the rule under which it was mcde by the conductor, as an outrage. The police tried THE UyiOy LEAGUE CLUB. 6$ the case of the patrolman whom the conductor had Bummoned to his help in expelhng Mrs. Anderson. Mr. Thoma* C. Acton, prcsidinf;, ruled that the officerR of the Police had no right to aid conductors in this fanner and for this purpose. The Eighth Avenue Railroad Company, f^.nding public opinion and the police against it, withdrew the rule restricting the colored people to special cars. It was soon followed by the other city railroads, and one more step of progress was recorded in the Emancipation of the negro from social prejudices; one more victory for common human rights. On the t4th of April, 1864, at a regular monthly meeting, Mr. George Cabot Ward offered the following Preamble and Resolution : W/urcas, There is reason to believe that the in- creasing emigration from Europe to the United States, naturally induced by the law of supply and demand, may be facilitated and rendered more beneficial to all parties by the diffusion of correct information, and by the establishment of agencies through which the various classes of employers in America may obtain the par- ticular operatives they require, with a proper guarantee of their ability and moral character ; therefore Resolved, That a committee of seven be appointed to consider carefully this subject in its various phases and to report their views thereon t' *.his Club at its next general meeting. The Chair appointed George Cabot Ward, John Jay, William H. Osborn, Horatio Allen, William E. Dodge, John G. Holbrook and Sherman J. Bacon, members of this Committee. On Thursday, May I3th, 1864, Mr. Jay read an elaborate report on this subject, which the Club 66 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. thought important enough to order published, and 3, $00 copies were struck off and put in circulation. It is the first document in the two volumes of papers bound up togctiicr under the general title, " Union League, New York." and is in the Library of the Club. This movement may remind us of the largeness of the •cope which was taken by the early members of tl is Association. The second annual meeting of the Club was held on January iith, 1865. The Executive Committee 10- portcd an increase of the membership from five hun- dred and thirty to upwards of eight hundred. The members of the Club had taken, individually and' collectively, a very active part in the momentous national election of November, 1864. Composed as it was of members from both political parties, with whom great national questions at a critical juncture had superseded all party preferences— the election o( the representatives of the unity of the Nation and the destruction of the slave power was not felt to be a party question, but one of national life and death. The Club unanimously resolved, October 27th, ifVv^. that • committee from the association be appointed to use the influence of the Club during the Presidential cam- paign for the success of the Union cause ; and, with similar unanimity, it was resolved "That all the mem. bers of the Club be appointed such contmittee." The elder members of the Club will recall the midnight meeting, informal of course, on November 8th, when a numerous body of our members awaited the tele- THE UNIOS' LEAGUE CLUB. 67 graphic returns of the national election in our Club House, and did not retire until four o'clock in the morning, which brought full assurance that the Union candidates liad triumphed, and, in their triumph, given death to the rebellion, and life to the nation. For an unpartisan Club to become an active political body was not diPBcult, so long as national questions, were all engrossing — questions not of taxation, finance,, internal improvements or tariffs, but questions of the honoi- of the flag, the integrity, of the National terri- tory, and the rights of the Government to protect and save the fundamental institutions of the country. All who opposed this policy were for the time aliens and foreigners, and were to be put down not as democrats, federalists, free-traders or protectionists, but as un- American, disloyal and dangerous. It is not too much to say that the old Democratic party still held some lineal children of Andrew Jackson, willing to swear by the Eternal, that secession or disunion should be crush- ed out, be it called black Republicanism or sound Democracy, and that the Union League owed some of its fibres to the sinews of such Democrats, and ha» continued to do so to this day. On February nth, 1864, the Club received Major-Gen. Hancock, who had come to New York to recruit the Second Corps, and at his request it appointed the fol- lowing committee to assist in the work : George Bliss, Jr., Theo. Roosevelt, George Cabot Ward, Parker Handy, Stephen Hyatt, Alfred M. Hoyt, James T. Swift, Jackson S. Schultr, J. S. Williams, WilUam H. 68 THE UNtOff LKACVE CLUB. Fogg. W. A. Murdock, George A. Fellows, Dudley B. Fuller, James M. Halstcad, George C. Satterlee, Tim- othy G. Churchill, Moscf H. Grinnell. On October Ijth, 1864. this committee reported that it had raised in money, by donations, (40,000, and received from five hundred and seventy-five gentlemen, for the pur- pose of obtaining substitutes, $230,000. The commit- tee had recruited as volunteers or substitutes 3,159 men, which, added to the number of the colored reg- iments, made the total of troops put in the field by the Club that year (1864) about 6,cx» men. On March loth, 1864, Rev Jo- P. Thompson, D D., gave an elaborate and statesmanlike discourse before the Club, entitled " Revolution against a Free Government not • Right, but • Crime," which was heartily received by those who heard it, and afterward! published by the association. His recent death enables i:* to add that hit earnest patriotism, unqualified loyalty and ^ifts of speech, as well u his tried and known character, gave him an influence in the early years of the Club, which deserves a permanent and distinguished record, even in the briefest history of its work. On March 31st • special meeting of the Club was held to consider a bill pendmg before the United Slates Senate, providing for the voluntary enlistment of persons resident in the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina. Georgia. Florida. Alabama, Mississippi, Lou- isiana. Texas or Arkansas — into the regiments of other State*. After a full discussion, a committee consisting of John Jay, Levi A. Dowley, George Cabot Ward, THE UNIOK (.EACVE CLUB. 69 David Van Nostrand and George W. Blunt, was ap> pointed to proceed to Wasliington and urge its passage; a duty they promptly fulfilled. The bill was enacted, and in consequence numerous enlistments of colored men in the Rebel States were made on account of the quotas of the Loyal States. On November loth, 1864, a large committee* was appointed, of which the following constituted the Execu- tive Committe, to provide the soldiers in the field with a Thanksgiving dinner. Gkorcb W. Blunt, . Chairman, Stephen Hyatt, Jackson S. Schultz, Parker Handy, Charles H. Marshall, Timothy G. Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt, Levi a. Dowley, George Bliss, Jr. The late Mr. George W. Blunt, the memory of whose nnarked individuality, courage and patriotism, is yet living In the Club, was among the most earnest pro- moters, if not the first proposer, of this scheme. It was justly deemed ihat away from their homes in the service of the country, the evidence that they were remembered on the day specially consecrated to home gatherings and domestic abundance, and made partakers in its festivity, would strengthen their patriotism. Moreover, it afforded these who profited by their sacrifices, an opportunity of expressing their grati- tude and watchfulness over them. The undertaking, it was felt, must owe its expressiveness and value to the thorough comprehensiveness of the plan. The fowl that Franklin suggested should be substituted for the Eagle,- * See Appendix. TO THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. u the National bird, and certainly the most welcome and customary of all edibic5 on the National Thankv giving; Day, was made typical in this plan. By the cooperation of one of the largest dealers in poultry (Mr. E. Robbins, who freely surrendered all his commissions and profits) the vastness of the demand for turkeys was met with amazing promptness. On December 8th the Committee reported that it had collected in money $56,36; 83 ; had sent to the Army of the Shenandoah 49,814 turkeys; to the Atlantic Squadron 30,300; to the Armies of the Potomac and James 225,000 pounds of turkey, besides a vast amount of poultry, doughnuts and other cakes, apples, preserved fruits, cheese, etc. — contributed from the interior of the country. Lar)ge parcels and crates of these dainties were sent also to Newbem. Willcts Point, St. Luke's }{ospital. Fort Richmond, Fort Lafayette, Fort Hamilton, Fort Schuy- ler, Hospital Battery, Central Park Hospital, Rcdloe's Island, Governor's Island, Navy Yard, Ship Vermont, Steamer Dictator, Sandy Hook Battery, etc. Gen. Grant had furnished Capt. Theodore B. Bronson, charged with carrying the feast to the Army of the Potomac, with a letter that facilitated its rapid distribution ; and Col. George F. Noyes went to the Army of the Shenan- doah. Probably a Thanksgiving tabic, stretched over so many States, and extending into »o many comers, was never before spread by one set of hosts, at so great a cost, in so short a time, under so many difficulties, and •with such magnificent success ; perhaps never was sur- rounded by so many touched and grateful hearts, or THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 7 1 accompanied with such prayers and blessings from anx- ious and loving lips at distant homes. 'There was a touch of sentiment in this enterprise, costly and laborious as it was, that merits the special place we give its history in this record of the Club's life arid deeds. It is due to the memory of our lamented fellow-m-mber, Theodore Roosevelt, to say that his zeal and labor in behalf of this enterprise, so congenial to the beautiful union oi domestic and public virtues in his character, contributed greatly to its success. The Union League Club during the war carefully improved every opportunity of honoring merit and services by welcoming with formal exercises, or informal hospitality, all officers of the Army and Navy, who had won the public notice, and came within the reach of its attentions. Generals Franklin, Hooper, Butler and Gen. Cutl r of Wisconsin, were thus received; also Admiral Dupont and Commodore Rogers ; Lieutenant Cushing, after the heroic act that destroyed the Albemarle; Captain Winslow, after the memorable fight of the Kearsarge with the Alabama. Vice-Admiral Farragut unexpectedly added his welcome presence to that of the brilliant assembly of ladies and gentlemen that had been called together by the energetic Committee of Recep- tion to make Capt. Winslow's welcome as emphatic and grateful as possible. Nor were civilians of eminence forgotten. Gov. An- drew, Senator Sherman, Gov. Fcnton, Gov. Curtin, Gov. Fletcher of Missouri, and the Hon. Messrs. Blow and Drake of the .^me great State, were each received 7' THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. with marked attention and gratitude for services ren- dered to the cause of Union and Liberty. A iword wai presented by membcn of the Club to Vice-AdmiraJ Farragut in memory of daring exploits at New Orleana and Mobile. A brilliant breakfast, which brought together an ex- traordinary number of public men and patriotic spirits, was given by the Club to Prof. Goldwin Smith, Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, in honor of hif intelligent sympathy with the Unionists and advo> easy of the American cause before the English people, among whom, and especially in literary and cultivated circles, a sentiment of hostility to the Union, and of ill-founded encouragement to the rebellion had pre- vailed. As the war was just over, this occasion was made a sort of jubilee, and in connection with the success of our diplomacy in warding off the then im- minent danger of intervention on the part of England, Prof. Smith received an ovation which added emphaais to the protest, the country had continually made against the misapprrhennion, that had infected English statev men and publicists, as to the rights of the Union — a misapprehension, they so much honored Goldwin Smith for having escaped himself, and done so much to dis- pel in others. Some clergymen of New York and Brooklyn, who had been at least as active as any lay- men in the cause of the war, were among the spok«*- men of this brilliant breakfast, and some sallies of wit provoked by an impertinent reference to their uncleri- cal leal, are still recalled by the fortunate participatora In that lively and joyous occasion. THE UNIOti LEAGUE CLUB. 73 Special efforts were made this year in continuance of the movement for adorning the Club House with portraits of national men, and with representatives of oamp scenes and Incidents of the war, Mr. George P. Putnam, Richard M. Hunt, and William T. Blodi,ett were a special committee appointed io take charge of this department of art. The committee early suggested the desirableness of giving a special character to the art collection of this Club, namely, a patriotic an(l historical motive, in which the purpose should be to preserve and perpetuate, by the aid of art, the mem- ory of the great struggle that had saved and recreated the Union and the Nation. !♦: is not wholly out of place here to say, that this sound advice has some- times fallen in'o oblivion, to the injury of the charac- teristic interests of the Club. It should unquestionably, both in its library and art collection, persistently culti- vate the specialty of Loyalty and Union, by carefully collecting what best illustrates them ; leaving to other associations what is more general, and, though interest- ing in itself, not directly helpful to the cause to which the past history of this club has pledged its members. Resolutions of honor and respect were paiised in the Club this year In memory of William Curtis Noyes, distinguished in his profession, in patriotism, and as a member of this association ; to Josiah Quincy of Boston, the last survivor of the American statesmen associated with the men of the Revolution, and the ardent foe of those who were stirring \ rebellion to undo its victories. 74 THR UNION W.ACVS CLUB. The neglect of the city to provide for the reception of Major-Gcneral James S. Wadsworth's remains, borne homeward from the place of his honorable death at the front in the battle of the Wilderness, arrested the attention of the Club. It immediately assumed the duty, appointed pall bearers, and formed the escort to the funeral procession, assuming all the expense. Gen. Wadsworth's death was specially commemorated in the Club by resolutions of sorrow. To, guard against any future negligencies of a similar character, Mr. Charles H. Marshall proposed that a joint committee should be created consisting of five members, the Mayor of the , city, a representative of the Chamber of Commerce, and a representative of the Produce Exchange, with two members of the Union League Club, whose duty it should be to raise and expend the necessary funds (or securing appropriate and honorable obsequies for the remains of general officers killed in the national service, and passing to or through this city to burial. The Club approved the suggestion, and named Jona- than Sfurgcs and George W. Blunt as their representa- tive members. Mr. Cannon offered a resolution " that a committee be appointed to prepare and circulate a )>ctition to Congress, praying for the passage of a law grantmg bounty lands from abandoned plantations and confis- cated territory to all soldiers and sailors honorably discharged from the service of the army and navy of the United States." Dr. Lieber ofTercd, July 14th, 1864, a series of resolutions, from a committee on the THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 7$ Civil Service hill, expressive of sympathy with Senator Charles Sumner's bill to make the tenure of office de- pendent on good behavior. The second annual report of the Executive Committee dated January, iSf'i, concludes with a statement of the future prospects and duties of the Union Lea THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. and Missouri to abolish slavery of their own accord, as a system incompatible with public welfare, has a sig- nificance not to be overlooked ; and the rapid decline and approaching fall of the slave power by the opera- tion of war, and the proposed amendment to the Con- ■titution, will presently originate novel and interesting questions touching th^" return of rebel States and the relations of the freedom which, if wisely solved, must give new life and vigor to our country, soon, we trust, to be restored to peace and freedom, with a mightier strength and a nobler destiny than the most sanguine of its founders dared to hope for. At the present moment, when the military issue teems no longer doubtful, the question confronts us whether our Government shall treat for peace with the pretended government at Richmond, which has trampled alike on the national Constitution, and on the rights and liberties of the Southern States ; or whether, refusing to recognize its usurped authority, we shall free the South from that military despotism, wiping it out by the stern hand of war. and then confer directly with the people of the rebel States as alone authorited to represent themselves. The disclosure, since the rebellion commenced, of a more deeply-seated unfriendliness than we were pre- pared to find, on the part of the governments and ruling classes of Europe towards the American repub- lic, as the grand exponent of popular government and free institution, has been attended by the disclosure, still more startling, of an influential faction in our midst, so wanting in the sentiment of American na- tionality as to have invited, through a foreign minis- ter, foreign intervention; and it may be that these facts, combined with the establishment, by a French army, of an empire on the soil of Mexico, will origirv- THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 77 ate new suggestions in regard to the tone and charac- ter of our foreign policy. But a question of instant a. «* profound importance, which now stares us in the face, is that of our national finances, and the best mode of reducing and equalizing the burdens which this war must still impose upon the nation, already oppressed by local debts of immense amount, incurred, perhaps indiscreetly, in the payment of needlessly extravagant bounties. The financial ques- tion so nearly concerns the interests of every class, and the omfort and welfare of the whole people, th^t, despite the immensity of our resources, we can afford, in regard to it, neither to blunder nor to drift. The task of solving this question, and indeed of the questions g.nerally of the war, belongs to the party of the Administration, and is shared by all who have assisted to continue it in power. Whatever responsi- bility for the war and its burdens impartial history shall attach to the Administration and the party un- der whose governance the Rebellion began and con- tinued until the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, upon the present Government and its supporters now devolves the responsibility of guiding the country safely out of the storm. Apart from these national questions, but still pos- sessing national importance, there are general proposi- tions relating more especially to our State politics, upon which honest men of all parties are agreed. They all feel that their pride of co-ntry would be greater, if to the military and naval power, which pro- tects us from the violence of armed enemies, was add- ed a moral power, which should protect us from being daily fleeced, under the forms of law, by political fac- tions that combine for the purposes of plunder, destroy- ing the purity of the franchise and the morality of 78 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. Icf^iilation, and replacing, in the Lei;islature and in municipal councils, our ancestral ideas of public honesty ■nd public honor by the immoral practices of " the lobby" an inal members, when a little later the Club was torn from its first home, and replanted in strange, though nriore splendid quarters. We quote the words of the Executive Committee in their excellent argument in favor of holding on to the original CInb House : Apart from and superior to these contiderationt, are the memories and traditions of this house. Here we commenced, and, during all the dark days we have passed through, have lived and labored. There is no comer of 96 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. this house, which has not a record o( faithful work done, and cheerful hospitality afforded, l^cre we have labored for the good cause, and here the other workers, members of the nation, have been our guests. What kindly remem- brances for us, and them, and how ling the list of those who, when we leave these wails, must go out with us. Old age, chance, and accident will have turned away the feet of many, whom we most delight to honor. The financial report for the year iSoc shows that the members had fallen off from eight hundred and thirty three to seven hundred and ninety-seven. The cash re- ceipts of the refreshment room were nearly |t,cxx) less than the year previous, which the Suf>erintcndcnt attrib- uted to a diminution in the general attendance, on ac- count of the decrease of excitement in political mat- ters. The Library Committee reported that during this year, 1866, the Library had grown more than in all the pre- vioui existence of the Club. The Library contained at this date, besides 35,243 pamphlets, numerous periodicals and papers, 577 standard volumes, including the litera- ture of the war, the great encyclopedias, dictionaries and many works of reference. Prof. Goldwin Smith had generously presented 100 volumes to be distributed to members of the Club. The Library Committee, Messrs, Shepard, Guiteau, Man, Osgood, Varnum, Mathews, and Butterworth, exhibit in their report a very thorough •ense of the importance both of a distinctive character in the Library, and of thr value of its treasures in promot- ing the attractions and intpiring the future activities of the aaaociatioiL THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 97 The year ending with the fifth annual meeting (Jan- uary loth, 1868), shows a further decline in the num- ber of our membership, which was reck .-ned in the report of the Executive Committee at six hundred and fifty- seven, just a hundred less than the year before. The clos- ing up of the greater or more obvious issues of the Rebel- lion, diminished the interest of the less serious and fore- looking of our members, but left still a solid body who knew that what remained to be done in rectifying and animating public opinion would furnish for an indefinite period a reason for our existence. It was felt that the Union League Club had become a school for the education of our more thoughtful and patriotic young men in Ameri- can principles, and was the means of supplementing by voluntary associative action, what free institutions can not adequately accomplish by official and governmental action. The less the temptations to office in a country like ours for the energetic, the educated and the refined, the more important that the class disinclined to political life should at least understand political questions and influence public opinion by an intelligent interest in all legislation. None can doubt that the formal discussions, but still more the private discourse and conversation in knots, among the members of the Union League Club, had during the war been a continued fosterer of patriot- ism and union sentiment ; that a large part of our state and municipal legislation had been influenced, moderated or directed by the sense and power of men In our membership, who .ould not have felt their public responsibility more, or met it more self-sacrificingty, if 9* THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. they had b«en Senator* at Washington, or heads of departments at Albany, or common councilmen in New York. The Club had become a power behind the State and was commonly recognized as containing citizens who held their private interests, their time, their ease, their party ties, their lives, second to their love of country and their devotion to good government. Not *ince the days of the Revolution had there been so large a class of citizens who lived and breathed and had their being in the country's danger*, hopes and interests. It would not be too much to say that a hundred members of the Union League gave their mo^t valuable time every day, for five years and more, to the consideration of public afTairs, for which they had only the vame rc»pon$ibility that belongs to every citizen. It would be easy and plea%ant to make out this shining list ; and a good part of it* names would come with a unanimous, spontaneous acclamation from the lips of our membership. The difficulty would be to know where to end : and that it great enough«to admonish us not to begin it. Besides, the labors of the Ictding workers in this League were too great for praise. They would feel themselves mocked by any effort to pay them off with resolutions and eulogies. None but themselves could know the solicitudes, the precautions, the painful efforts to which they gave their nights and days ; and only the salvation of their country, the approbation of their own con- •ciences and the favor of Him who rules in the Annies of Heaven, could fitly reward them. We will not aoii the purity of their motives, or belittle the greatness THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 99 of their services, by holding up the names of the more distinguished workers, during the first five years of the Club's existence, to the public recognition. It would be assuming that we could make them better known, than they already arc, by their works. It would shock the modesty and the patriotism, that neither sought nor desired any recognition except this opportunity of large service. A glorious constellation of men, a score or more start out from the first hundred, who would all be deemed worthy of special mention, whom we need not and will not name, seeing that they are fully known, if unnamed ; men who will some day be reckoned not only as illustrious in the annals of this Club, but whose devotion, disinterestedness and patriotism will be used to animate other generations, in trials possibly as great as a!iy we have borne and escaped. The labors of the Club for the year 1867 were more in the zeal of its members, a-ting in their private capacity in shaping out public affairs in the State and muni> cipality, than in its formal action, and of this no record can be given. In June, a committee of conference was held, com- posed of members of the Loyal League of Philadel- phia, and a committee of this Club, at which delegates from the tvio bodies were appointed to proceed to Rich- mond, where, in conference with Gov. Pierpont and the loyal organizations of Virginia, much service was done to the loyal cause in harmonizing conflicting interests. The circumstances of Gen. Sheridan's removal from New Orleans had provoked an intense feeling of dis- lOO THE UNION LZACVE CLUB. mpprobation, and opportunity was taken to manifest it on occasion of hit vitit to New York, 'where the Club gave him an cnthuiiastic reception on the 30th of Sep- tember. The Annual Report for 1867 notes that the subject of national repudiation had engaged the attention of the Club, and regrets that so disgracr'"' ». fj~gestion should ever have demanded notice. It was not then anticipated how large a place various disguised forms of repudiation were to hold in the national councils nd State legislations for the decade which vas to folio t, nor how much of the best influence of this Club was to be expended in sustaining the principle that Amcr- ka "can admit no distinction between public and pwi- yate faith, and » t the question of her finances will follow her old rule of honesty as the only one worthy ol the intelligence, and dignity of a free people." The Club put itself repeatedly on record this year on the question of equal suffrage, and on that of the re. construction and re(stablishment of the states lately in rebellion, as desiring no confiscation and no harsh terms, but as demanding justice and security. TT>e action of the Club on questions of state and municipal reform, in connection with the Constitutional Convention, was constant, energetic and influential. Hon. J. C. Hamilton, Dr. Francis Lleber, and Dorman B. Eaton, Esq., are mentioned at deserving special thanks for the studies they made and the labors they contrib- uted in this direction. Prof. Lieber, at the request of the Club, wrote a valuable |>aper, styled " Reflections THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. lOI on the changes which may seem necessary in the pres- ent constitution of the state of New Yor'-." which was published in May, 1867. Notice was publicly taVcn this year in the Annual Re- port of the loss of Gov. John A. King and President Charles King, Philip Reynolds, Gen. W. K. Strong, Mr. Elbridge Gerry, members of the Club ; of Hon. Charles G. Loring and Major Stearns, members of a sister asso- ciation ; of Gov. Andrew, dear to the whole country; of Col. George F. Noyes, who had been an active and laborious member of the Executive Committee, and who was very suddenly cairied off. A bust of the late lamented Robert B. Minturn, first President of the C ib, by Mr. Launt Thompson, pre- sented to the Club oy twenty-five members ; a group in bronze of President Lincoln and a freed slave, presented by Mr. G. Falconer of Paris ; a portrait of Gen. Strong, presented by the artist, Mr. J. D. Barrow, were this year gratefully placed among the possessions of the League and the ornaments of the Club House. The new Treasurer, Mr. George Cabot Ward, reported the total receipts to be $50,454.72 ; the whole expendi- ture, $48,138.15, with $i4,oco in the reserved fund. December 27th, 1867, the Executive Committee rec- ommended to the Club the lease of the Jerome Build- ing, on the terms proposed in the lease read to the com- mittee by Mr. John A. Weeks. On the 36th day of March, 1868, the Club held its last meeting In the old Club House, and the evening was devoted to a review of the historic memories of the spot. An address was 102 THE UNION LEAGUE Cl.UB. given by the President, Mr. Jay, which was ordered to be printed.* It may be considered of doubtful expediency to refer to the meeting held May 23d, 1867, at the demand of twenty-five members, to consider the question of what the Club should do in view of the fact that one of its members, Horace Greeley, liad offered himself as one of the bondsmen of JcfTcrson Davis. But to avoid notic- ing so very conspicuous an event, which drew a wide notice from the public press at the time, and was pointed by one of the most characteristic and stinging articles at the expense of the Club that ever came from Horace Greeley's pen on any provocation, would be a species of cowardice not worthy of the hiitoriani of the Club, and be likely to cast doubti upon their candor and good faith in other parts of this record. There is grave doubt whether Mr. Greeley did not commit a teriou* mistake, or fall into an error of judg- ment, in offering himself publicly as bondsman of the public representative of the rebellion and its official head. It is also doubtful, on the other hand, whether the remonstrants in the Union League Club did not err in judgment in making a matter of bad taste and prcv- yoking disregard of the feeling! of the Club in a man of Horace Greeley's great public tervicei and nobility of general character, with a larger following than jti own, and an older record of patriotism and services, a matter of official notice and arraignment. With a daily and weekly preat at hit command, and a magnificent * 9*« tppmxlli. THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. IO3 record for patriotism, loyalty and philanthropy, he was more than a match in opportunity, and in his wide- spread constituency, for anything the League could do or say against him. To remonstrate with him waa to make the matter worse ; to shut him out, was to lock ourselves in still more effectually. The Club showed excellent sense in tabling the resolutions which men of undoubted worth and fiery patriotism brought in, but it could not prevent the injurious notices of the public press, which jeered at the impotency of the Club in dealing with a republican of such preeminence, and with an editor of such masterly skill, and a man of such licensed eccentricity. It may be well to add that this was not the only mistake the Club had made, and that mistakes were so Inevitable in the heated and exaggerated state of public feeling, that it is strange the Club did not perish from the flames its more passionate portion fanned. Mr. Greeley was not the only man whose public and patriotic services had been proved in deeds not words, whom some of the enthusiasts of the Union League Club were ready to fasten suspicions upon, when his views of some passing policy or his opinions Qn some doubtful question were wider but fess popular than their own. But in excuse we may well plead that passion was safer than a cold prudence in a time when the nation was bleediitg; and that the rashriess and hasty judg- ment which marked rome of our resolutions was bom of a fire without which we should have perished. We I04 TtlE USrOS LEAGUE CLUB. muit pardon the excesses of the spirit of patriotism, like those o[ liberty. A time of war, or a time of grief from the losses of war, is no time when toleration for the most honest difTerences of opinion, if they are deemed in any way sympathetic with even the virtue* of the foe, it to be expected. There was little toleration of any kind during the war. North or South, except it was religious toleration ; that abounded, since theological distinctions sunk into obscurity in the flaming glare of national issues. But toleration of a civil »ort was extinct during the rebel- lion, and long after; and men of philosophic habits of mind and speech, capable of candor and unimpassioncd views upon passionate questions, were the less endura- ble as co-workera in clubs or in any form of social In- tercourse. Let us remember that the pardon for intol- erance, due in times of war, is not seasonable nor de- fensible in times of peace, and that no Club can exist and flourish in such times which does not maintain and exhibit the most careful respect for the individual opin- ions of all honest men. V. FURTHEk WORK IN STATE. MUNICIPAL AND NA- TIONAL REFORM, FROM THE REMOVAL TO THE JEROMF. BUILDING IN lS68. Meanwhile the Club, with the privilege of purchasing the property before the first of March, 1871, for the sum of 1300,000, had leased for ten yean the eligible and commodious building still occupied by us, known as the THE VNIOtf LEAGUE CLUB. I05 Jerome Mansion, on the corner of 26th Street and Mad- ison Square. It was admirably adapted at that time in situation, roominess and variety of accommodation to^ the general wa its of the Club; central, accessible, sightly, but required a large outlay to fit it completely to the special needs of the association. The furnishing, alter- ing and repairing the new Club House, with the cost of moving, amounted to $62,375.05, a large sum which was met by the issue of bonds $50,000 ; of which $39,000 were taken by individual members of the Club, and $10,000 by the Trustees of the Sinking Fund, in anticipation of re- ceipts. The Treasurer reported, in January, 1869, that the proceeds of the Sinking Fund had enabled the Trustees to cancel $30,000 of the bonds, with a balance of $1,725 to their credit, leaving only $19,000 of the bonds outstanding. The membership for the year ending December 31st, 1868, had increased from six hundred and fifty-seven to ten hundred and thirty-one resident, and two hundred and thirty-two non-resident members. This large in- crease, by the amount of admission fees and annual dues which it secured, put the Club in a situation to meet its enlarged expenses with comparative ease. The whole amount for admission fees and annual dues received this year was $84,875. The total of receipts from all sources, $186,495.04. The total expenditures was $188,217.56. The financial pressure on the Club, notwithstanding its great outlay, was only a debt of 48>S35-9S- On Wednesday, April tst, 1868, the Club House on Madison Square was opened, with a brilliant festival ; I06 THB UNION LEAGUE CLUB. twelve hundred ladies and gentlemen, with distinguished guests from Europe and America being present. An ex- cellent restaurant had been established ; the large hall or theatre which formed a part of the building silenced a cry- ing want. The applications for membership under the new attractions of the Club were already such as to stniin the capacity of the building. It was deemed prudent to double the amount of the admission fee. The Club was able to congratulate itself on the hearty friendship and cordial cooperation which existed between itself and kindred associations in other cities; on the mure numerous guests it had been privileged to entertain, in- cluding Grant, Colfax and Griswoid, hundreds of Union men from all parts of the country; Prof. Goldwin Smith and the Chinese Embassy. An increasing disposition wai shown by non-rcsidenti of distinction and imlu- ence to have a place on the rolls. The losses of the year had been Bcnj. W. Bonney, Menry H. Elliott. Dudley B. Fuller. Henry A. Coit. A. H. Burr, William O. Bird. George A. Bock, Edward Macomber and J. P. Benkard. Among the movements of the Club for the year was a •pirited remonstrance to the Legislature against certain appropriations in "An act for charitable and public pur- pose*," originating in the Assembly, at the instigation of the Common Council of this city. The Club deprecated the introduction of the religious question into our •chools and politic*. Protestants were not alone in these objections to sectarian gifts, or theological discrim- inations. Prominent members of the Roman Catholic THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 10/ communion among our own honored members and else- where united in the protest. The Young Men's Chris- tian Association of New York, under the presidency of one of our own members, to its great credit, declined a place in the list, which had assigned to it an unsolicited gift of $5,000. The impeachment of the President, which this year had preiiminence among political measi res, had of course a great interest for the Club, but it pronounced no for- mal opinion upon it while the question was before the high court of impeachment. Great satisfaction was felt at the nomination of Grant, whose election was expect- ed to remove those obstacles to cooperation among the several branches of the Government, which many thought President Johnson had mischievously prevent- ed. Grant's nomination at Chicago on the 21st May, by the Republican party, in the face of a hostile execu- tive of its own election, was regarded as a triumph of Union principles. The Club ratified the platform and nominations with promptitude, and hung out the names of Grant and Colfax over the Club House. It entered into the cam- paign with a spirit such as it had exhibited in the war time, and appointed a committee to receive and disburse such moneys as might be entrusted to them for promot- ing by proper means the triumph of Republican princi- ples. The committee, in a circular addressed to the mem- bers, announced that " No aid will be given by the Club committee toward the election of a single candidate of whose integrity and fitness they are not convinced." I08 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. The Club committee evinced great energy in collect- ing and using the funds generously bestowed by the members of the Union League, and aided, without remon- strance or discussion in the Club, in the more thorough organization of thi; Republican party, seeking to bring out a fair and fuli vote, to dcttct and punish attempts . at fraudulent naturalization and voting, and by publica- tions and addresses, to arouse loyal citizens to a sense of the magnitude and significance of the approaching election. It was felt then that no departure from the national and unpartisan purposes of the Club was made by this support of the National party. It was wholly in the line of the Club's antecedents, spirit and aims, and though open to partisan objections, the Club thought it right to ignore or defy them. The election of Grant the following November was felt by the Club to be a great national triumph, second only to Lincoln's reelection. No doubt somewhat too sanguine hopes were entertained of the ease with which he would cooperate with Congress, and Congress with him, and of the speedy victory over the difficulties of reconstruction. They were not duly estimated at that time, nor were the chief embarrassments of the case yet fully developed. Many vainly supposed that the abolition of slavery as a legalized institution would restore the late slave states to a condition similar to our own, in which the essen- tial equality of all citizens thus recognized by law would be established in fact. But the worst effects of slavery was in the slow corruption it had wrought in the moral THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. IO9 standards, social habits, domestic life and political feel- ings of the white population. It had created an ethics and almost a religion of its own in antagonism with the habitual conscience of the Northern people. It was not understood that it must take several genera- tions to work out the poison of its bite, after the ser- pent that injected it, had been killed. Unwise and im- possible expectations had not unnaturally been enter- tained by most anti-slavery men, that is by most Republican and National men and women, of the effects of emancipation, in the early adjustment of the relations of freedmen to their old masters, and the aptitude of the late slaves to the wise use of their free- dom. It is now seen how unphilosophical and un- statesmanlike these hopes were, and that most of the difficulties since encountered in reconstruction might have been foreseen by a sufficient exercise of political and social sagacity. That happened in regard to the relations of the freedom and the whites, which happened in regard to our finances. We thought we had entered on a great prosperity, when we were plunging into the terrible disasters that followed the creation of a sub- stitute for money. We inflated a vast bubble in which the iris hues of a thin and evanescent expansion were mistaken for the fixed colors of commercial health, and we danced madly about it, until it burst and left us shrunken in fortune, taxed beyond endurance, demoral- ized in business habits, and at the mercy of land- speculators and railroad corporations, who had obtained during our national intoxication, dark and dangerous no THE UNION LEAGUE C/.U/t. power over our State Legislatures and our Congress. We have repented in dust and ashe^, the delusion of the inflation wc mistook for growth. So wc hoped and prophesied that the ilave-statcs, the incubui of their lad heritage thrown off, would rise at once to the national level of love for justice, order and humanity, and allow the ^freedmen to exercise their votes and enjoy their civil privileges, without restraints equal to chains and plantation whips. It was hoping too much, hoping against hope, and more, against the laws of human nature, the testimony of past experience, and the prin- ciples of that Divine Government which passes over the errors and sins of the fathers to the children, to the third and fourth generation, to be paid in full and atoned in a protracted suffering. VVe can see now. that we have demanded and expected too rnuch from the Central Government, and have made administrations responsible for evils they could not manage or remove. We were perhaps unjust to Johnson who may have un- derstood, as a southern statesman, what we could not. We were perhaps extravagant in demanding of Grant what no President could have accomplished. Is it too much to say that we may to-day still be expecting from a Republican administration, what only time and expe- rience and the trying out of wrong methods in the South, until new and true ones are adopted from suffering and •elf-interest, can slowly accomplish ? At a special meeting, held November Jth, 1868, it was Rft^lxtd That we, the members of the Union League Club, in view of the manifest and glaring frauds perpe- THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. HI trated at the late election, feel it our imperative duty to initiate such measures as will expose, if we cannot pun- ish, the perpetrators. That wc arc not willing that cither official or social position shall screen those who have in any way connived at fraud upon the elective franchise or the rights of citizens at the late election, with a full dc> termination to do our duty in this respect as citizens without fear, favor or partiality. Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed to take these subjects into consideration, fully investigate in respect thereto, with authority to initiate and prosecute any measure in connection therewith which shall be deemed proper or exptJient, and with authority to solicit subscriptions in aid of the purpose above indi- cated, etc. The result of the investigation of the Committee of the Senate and House was the passage of the election law, which its enemies have in vain tried to have re- pealed. The joy and pride of the election in November, 1868, was very much sobered and chastened by the fact that the official returns of our own State arrayed New York by an apparent majority on the side of anarchy and re- pudiation. The Club, on the very evening succeeding the election, resolved that in their deliberate judgment a large majority of the legal voters of the State voted for Grant, Colfax and Griswold, and that the vote of the majority had been overruled by wholesale fraud. A committee appointed to investigate these alleged frauds, opened an office, employed counsel, issued an ad- tlX THE US' ION LEAGUE CLUB. dress to the people and soon accunvulated a body of evi- dence that placed in a manner convincing to the Club, the fact of the existence of a gigantic conspiracy to carry the State by fraud in registration, naturalization and gangs of repeaters. The refusal of the clerks of the courts, whose seal was borne by the certificates of na- turalization, to allow an inspection of their records, and the suspension of the power of the United States Div trict Court in the matter, by the divided opinions of the parties, in the famous case of Rosenberg, decided the committee to submit the matter to Congress. The President of the Club and Col. Cannon went to Wash- ington and presented an elaborate memorial to Congress on the subject, which, by each House, was ordered to be printed. The Senate referred it to the Committee on the Judiciary, the House to a committee of seven, who came to New York the next week to investigate the matter. The results of their inquirici must be sought elsewhere. The general statement must suffice that the action of the Club is deemed to have brought from the next Congress the laws to protect the purify of elections, which have never yet been repealed. The history is given thus far only in attestation of the xeal with which the Club followed up the cause of purity in the ballot box. A special committee of the Club, of which Mr. George B. Butler was chairman, prepared a careful memorial to Congress, which obtained numerous signature*, through the care of another special comtjiittec, of which Col. R. C. Hawkins was chairman. The Executive Commit- THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 113 tee concluded theii report for the year 1868 with the following resolutions, which exhibit the policy of the Club at that season of its history. Resolved, That this Club, representing largely the commercial, manufacturing, financial, and industrial in- terests of the national metropolis, hail with great satis- faction the sentiment, attributed to tlie Presidentelect, that all subsidies to private corporations for works of local importance, should be suspended until the revenues of the nation have reduced their debt and elevated the credit of the country to a point commensurate with its acknowledged position as a first-class power. Resolved, That we regard as detrimental to the na- tional character and the public interest, the existing system of appointments to offices by the National Gov- ernment simply upon individual recommendation, and with no proper guarantee of the peculiar fitness of the candidate for the special duties of the office he is to fill. That we warmly approve of the introduction of compet- itive examination into the civil service, as relieving candi- dates from the degrading necessity of personal patronage, as opening wide the doors to all classes of American citi- zens furnishing to the Government guarantees of the character, learning and ability of the employees, and pre- venting the displacement of valuable experts for partisan purposes. Resolved, That the thanks of this Club are due to the House of Representatives for their prompt compliance with the request of this body made on behalf of thou- sands of citizens throughout the state, for the appoint- ment 01 a Select Committee of Investigation Into the frauds committed in the State of New York at the recent election, and that this resolution be communicated by the President of the Club to Mr. Speaker Colfax, with 114 THE UNIOS LEAGUE CLUB. the respectful expression of our hope that the House will confer upon the Committee any additional power that may be found necessary for the thorough perform- ance of this most important work. AMENDMENTS TO BV-LAW3. ETC. The following amendments to the by-laws were passed June 9th, 1868: 19. In place of the last paragraph, read " whenever any resolution or action shall be proposed or pend- ing in the Club, which calls for the expression of it> opinion touching any public matter, if the same be ob- jected to by any member, and such objection be sec- onded, it shall at once be the duty of the presiding officer to state the objection, and to call upon those who sustain the same to rise, and if twenty-five members shall rise in support of such objection, then such resolution and sub- ject of the proposed action shall be referred to a standing or special committee of the Club, and upon the coming in of any such report, the same, and the resolutions on the subject referred to, shall be deemed before the Club for decision and action thereon, without further right of such objection. No member shall be permitted to speak more than once on the same subject, nor more than ten minutes at one time, without unanimous consent of the Club." The report of the year closing December 31st, 1869, •howi an increase of members of nearly one hundred, or fourteen hundred and eighteen (ten hundred and eighty- three residents, three hundred and thirty-five non-resi- dents), as compared with the number the previous year, thirteen hundred and twenty-six of both classes. The Club wu out of debt and had a surplus of $5,441.17. THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 11$ The report of the year 1869, discusses the future policy of the Club in a spirit which indicates that its more re- sponsible members feared that its social advantages and methods might be gaining too much at the expense of its national aims and patriotic direction. How to hold it to its political ends without allowing it to become a party engine or ally was the anxious problem. In care- fully considering this matter, the Executive Committee announced that " some central principle should be re- cognized beyond that of mere amusement or simple party supremacy," and they found this principle to consist " in mutual education, in other words in the development and perfecting by discussion, public action and familiar intercourse, of all the elements which go to make up the policy of a free state, in everything which demands co- operation for good ends outside the sphere of family life." The conditions favorable to the greatest efficiency of this principle, are " permanence, independence, economy and facility of intercourse ; and resulting from all these, freedom from ordinary risks to its members, particularly the young men from whom our principal hope in the future must come." A thoughtful suggestion was ofTered " whether important results might not be obtained by facilitating organizations inside the Club for the consid- eration of special subjects, with a view of bringing them before the Club in a completed form for its final action." It does not appear that any particular attention was given by the members to this suggestion. The Club naturally fell into small ciixles in which those interested Il6 TIIR US'ION LEAGUE CLVB. in special questions consulted with each other, and often brought matters fitted for general action to the attention of the association for its endorsement or correction, or to obtain the influence of its name. It is possible that crude opinions or measures influenced by class or business Interests, or by party prejudices, sometimes got an ill- considered endorsement from the Club by the urgency of comparatively small knots of active friends. But on the whole the Club has reason for self congratulation in noticing in the study of its past record, how few instances of this kind occur, and with what sobriety, caution and dignity, the Club as a body guarded itself against pav ■ionate or hasty commitments to doubtful assertions or policies. Experience has shown that Clubs, even as serious in their purposes as this, seldom successfully undertake in times of peace, the work of schools and colleges, or of legislative and congressional committees. The men who have leisure, are not usually the men who have influence, or industry ; or seriousness of purpose. The active busi- ness men or professional men, are too much worn with daily cares to undertake willingly the works of suf>crero- gation which such a scheme involves or implies. The Union League Club had an exceptional and rare experi- ence in this respect, which it is very desirable to extend and perpetuate, but which only the greatest effort can b« able to maintain. Meanwhile we must not be urgent or insensible to the social advantagci of the aaaoclation, nor to the merits of club life as such. To gather up and fuse together, in aocial and easy way* THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. Wf what has been laboriously learned in the school of life, or attained by political and business and professional experi- ence in men's individual careers, to communicate and ex- change pleasantly and by direct personal intercourse, " in quips and sentences and paper pellets of the brain," the wisdom of life and the fruits of its hard lessons is truly educational ; is an effective, besides being an attractive and lastingly pleasant form of association. Life is al- ready too busy and care-laden, to make what we call our pleasures only another form of hard work. The social intercourse of patriotic and thoughtful men, will neces- sarily partake of their thoughtfulness and patriotism. It is not so much what Clubs do or undertake, as who com- pose them, that decides their usefulness as well as their satisfactoriness. Army Clubs do not promote their high- est objects by going into barracks or camp, by practicing drill, or discussing tactics or artillery practice ; but by in- terchanging common memories, and bringing what lies equally beneath the soldiers epaulets and the civilians coat, the man's qualities, the gentleman's courtesy, the citizen's love of country — into the iCllowship of some common bond of life. It is the character, worth and manners of the members of a Club like this, that consti- tutes its importance. From the beginning, it was made up of the men of decided national spirit, who had the courage of their opinions when neutral or timid hearts were wavering ; it carefully excluded men of doubtful character whether in business or domestic life; it paid no respect to the accidental heirs of wealth or birth. It demanded proofs of self-respect in its candidates. Thli Il8 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. wta it* character from the beginning. So far ai thli orlg> inal carefulness prevails, the Club is certain to maintain its influence. Its existence is enough to make it power- ful. The highest influence any Club can have, is to cre- ate and hold together a body of citizens each of whom bears about the honor of his country with him, and illus- trates a true Americanism, in his reverence for worth and brains and public service, above birth, wealth and ofRce. Such a body presents to young men an ambition of membership which exhalts and inspires. Thingi hud not been going forward favorably in public affairs at this date of the Club's life. The frauds which the Congressional Committee, appointed under investiga- tion of the Union League Club, had proven and pro- claimed, had not aroused public sentiment sufficiently to prevent their repetition. Rings and conspiracies were detected in many of our larger municipalities, and land corporations. The influence of adroit, but unscrupulous politicians, was more than enough to baffle what stilt largely remained of the popular virtue. Our public school system was assailed, and the whole machinery of our elections seemed beyond the control of the honest majority of the people. The usual corrective of party watching party, each profiting by the other's mistakes, and taking its turn in the possession of power, had failed. Many doubted whether the politicians of one side were any more trustworthy than those of the other, and it was freshly felt that safety and relief could only pro- ceed from the union of the honest and patriotic men of both parties in measures and by methods, that i^or«d THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. Up the old political machinery. All the more the Union League Club felt at this time the need of exerting; its utmost moral and personal influence in favor of honest oflficials and honest government, especially, as from the turn of affairs in this state and city, it drew no sympathy from those in place and power. Municipal Reform, the Civil Service Bill, and the Public School question, were watched this year vigilant- ly by special committees, who made valuable reports to the Club. A special meeting was held December 30th, 1869, commemorative of Edwin M. Stanton, whose recent death, leaving his family in an honorable state of pov- erty, had aroused a deep sense of his invaluable services is Secretary of War, and an anxious desire to pay his memory the respect of making his family objects of the voluntary care of his grateful fellow-citizens. A committee was appointed to cooperate with other committees throughout the country in raising this pro- posed fund. The resignation early this year of its President, Hon. John Jay, on the occasion of his appointment as Minister to Austria, called forth earnest expressions of respect and affection from the Club. He had served the Club for so many years with fidelity, zeal and dignity, that his resignation was felt to be a serious misfortune, relieved only by a sense of satisfaction in the honor their Presi- dent had won for hi'~.self and the Union League, by the country's call to high diplomatic honors. The Club lost this year, by death, many valuable and lao THE US'lOff LEAGUE CLUB. distinguished members. Gen. John A. Kawlins, Hon. H. S. Walbridgc, John J. Phelps, P. De Forest Grant, Joseph B. Brush, A. Hutchinson, William P. Jones, Daniel G. Mason, and Frederick A. Coe. At the end of this year the balance in the Treasurer's hands was only $5,441.17, its liabilities deducted, showing that the Club had by its removal and its late extraordinary expenses used up a considerable portion of the reserved fund. The Annual Report for the year ending December 31st, 1870, shows that the total number on the roll was fourteen hundred and ten. The ratio of non-resident members had somewhat increased over that of previous years, being three hundred and eighty, a fact which had its advantages, as it extended the knowledge and influence of the Club into various parts of the country, leaving always a sufficient full-paying force of resident members to support and conduct the Club at its centre. This year was the most successful, financially, of any the Club had known, and from it dates the accumu- lation which later enabled the Club to proceed towards carrying out its cherished plan of building a Club House of its own. The surplu? earnings for the year 1870 were $28,679.74, which carried the reserved fund at a bound up to $33,014.35. The reserve fund was formally converted at this time into a building fund which had always been in view, and a Board of Trus- tees were appointed to hold and invest it with an understanding that all surplus funds accumulating in the Treasury should be annually turned over to the trustee* of the Building Fund for investment. The THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 121 object was not only to accumulate the means of sup- plying the Club with a permanent home, but to en- courage and enforce economy in the executive com- mittee by obliging them to meet the annual expenses out of the revenue of each current year, without any chance of relying on the reserved fund, a temptation not easy to resist. The experience of the last three years had shown that an average of about ten per cent, of the number of resident members habitually used the privilege of the restaurant, and nearly exhausted the accommoda- tion of the house, which was controlled by the capacity of the kitchen which could not be enlarged. This was deemed a suflficient reason for not increasing the number of resident members, limited by the rule of the Club to one thousand. The growing value of the Club's property, its reputation, popularity and influence, diminished the number of resignatio..j, and lengthened the list of candidates for admission ; and it was thought inadvisable to extend the number of members, which it was plain might at any time be done, as it would be inconvenient and unfavorable to the rights of ex- isting members at thst time. A committee to consider the expediency of the Club's using the privilege it had of purchasing the property it held on lease, at a cer- tain price, a privilege which would expire April, 1871, reported their inability to agree upon the question, and asked to be excused from any recommendation against or for, it. This year, or before the Annual Report, January ' ' ' THE UNION LEAGUE CL UB. I2th, 1871. the Club lost many valued and lamcntsd members: William V. Brady, F. \V. Coggili, W. W. Cornell. Moreau Delano. George Folsom, John H. Macy. Frank B. Russell, John H. Simkins, Joseph A. Trowbridge, James Kelly, and two of its most distin- puished honorary members, Admiral Farragut, and Major Gen. George H. Thomas, both honored with the tears of the Nation. The Club was this year much exercised with the debates in Congress, in regard to claims of repara- tion for the injuries done our commerce by the re- missness of Great Britain, in allowing the cruisers of the Rebels to arm in their ports, and go forth to ravage our commercial marine. It aimed to stiffen the resolution of Congress to demand full reparation, not merely as a question of pecuniary importance. but as one of national self-respect and vital to the in- terests of International Law. Its wisdom has been since fully proved by the success of that policy, which it doubtless had some influence in establishing. The Club continued this year its efforts to procure pro- tection from new legislation in Congress.' for the elec- tive franchise, and records some success in its endeavors. A special meeting was held April 7th, 1870, to take proper action on the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. It pushed likewise its investigations and its purifying influence into our municipal frauds. Every Annual Report reiterates the fundamental principles of loyalty •nd nationality as the pillars of our strength, and each THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB, 123 new report avows an undiminished sense of the im- portance of maintaining the Club and adhering to the spirit and following the direction of its earlier years. It is a little difficult to say whether the elaborate arguments repeated in so many forms, and by very skilful pens, in the Annual Reports, as to the value of the original spirit of a positive and heroic patriotism, indicates a steady growth or marks a slow decline in the real usefulness and nationality of the Union League Club. It may do either; but the review of the records which the present writer has made, certainly indicates less active work, more social pleasure, less passionate devotion, less personal concern, for the interests of the country as time wore on, a natural course of things, which only a very strenuous and direct exertion on the part of the older members of the Club could pre- vent. There was somethir.g more hopeless and desperate in the political, social and 'commercial demoralization that followed the war than in the war itself. That pre- sented an open enemy, whom powder and shot could reach and overcome; but we had in place-of this a secret rot, an enemy with the invisible powers of a pestilence, a degraded public sentiment, in v.hich the old and pesti- lent doctrine of the spoils to the victors had changed from an acknowledged heresy into a dogma, not so much adopted, as incarnate in the life of parties. Nothing less than a moral typhoid, the consequence of a general malaria in the public air, can account for the sinking tone of public sentiment during the decade following the 124 THE UNWN LEAGUE CLUB. close of the war; — partly a reaction on the exalted pa- trioti hibitions of art at the monthly meetings, which increased -the attractions of the Club House for men of culture, and added some valued names to the membership. The ■Club showed a disposition to fortify itself in the aesthetic <]irection against any losses it might be called to bear from decline in political zeal — a policy which, though natural, was not without danger, the better course being to amend and strengthen the political ardor of the Club '3^ THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. by direct methods, and not by drawing life from sources- not ori(;inal and vital to its history. Mr. Carl Schurtz was inform.iily received at the Club, October 2ist, 1876, and made an excellent address on the issues of the Presidential campaign. President White- read an instructive and highly pertinent paper, " On the paper money inflation in France, how it began, what it brought, and how it ended," on April 13th, 1876. The year was marked with the usual agitation and ex- citement attendant on a Presidential election, and the wishes and influence of the Club were thrown into the Republican scale, the Club, by a resolution, March, 1876, declaring that "The Union League Club claim to repre- sent, and believe they truly express, the sentiments of the Republican voters of the city of New York." And by another resolution, May, 1876, that "The Club, though recognizing paramount allegiance to public duty and honor, is yet loyal to the principles of the Repub- lican party, as being most in the spirit of allegiance and •trongest in the intelligence and virtue of the f>eople." The committee on Political Reform submitted a report, dated January 8lh, 1877, which set forth with unusual clearness and boldness the political sentiments of the Club; instancing the questions on which the Gub had taken distinct sides. " For example," — to quote thia valuable document to be found in print, among the an- nual reports of January nth, 1877 "—it declared itlelf:" (i.) For more stringent laws for securing greater publicity to official action and to the facts and influences- bjr which public officera have been governed. THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 137 (2.) For longer terms of office on the part of members of the State Legislature ; to the end that they may bring into the halls of Legislation that wider knowledge and experience so much needed in the discharge of their duties. (3.) For laws which shall require public officers to employ labor, and purchase supplies for public use, at rates, having the same regard to value and market prices, which would govern an honest and discreet citizen in securing labor and supplies in his private business. (4.) For a systematic reform in the civil services, whic. will not allow official places to be the mere perquisites of partisans or the spoils of political victory, but which will give such places to persons of worth and capacity, who are faithful to the Constitution and the Nation. (5.) For a Presidential candidate who has no connec- tion, direct or indirect, with the errors and abuses which have brought reproach upon the country and the domi- nant party, etc. This report further illustrated the Club's paramount allegiance to duty rather than to party, by quoting its action in approving the course of Governor Tilden's Canal Reform Policy, opposed, as it was, to his general politics. The report incorporates a portion of a former report of its committee on' a resolution in which the Club had somewhat unwittingly committed itself to the idea that it might properly participate in a partisan manner in the details of a state canvass. The committee carefully de- fine and discriminate the differences between earnest fidelity to a national policy, when it happens to be a party policy, and is directly opposed by another party, and IjS THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. partisanship proper, which is the support and advocacy of measures, without regard to their national bearing, but simply because they have become or have been adopted as party measures. It maintains the right and duty of the Club to support its own principles wiierever it finds them, and to aid any party that best represents them, but never for the sake of the party, always for the sake of the principles. " It will, therefore, in the opinion of your committee be more useful in the long range, and more in harmony with the conditions upon which a Club like this can prosper, to adhere to the advocacy of sound princi- ples and'not take part in conducting the canvass, how- ever un«tisfactory for the moment that policy may be to the spirit of partisanship." The concluding paragraphs of this report are of such permanent value, that we adopt them as a part of the history of the Club. In conclusion, your Committee wish to draw your seri- ous attention to the facts that the thoughtful activity and reforming enterprise of the Club hardly keep pace with its financial prosperity and its social attractions. In its early history, its active patriotism, its frequent and fearless debates, and its numerous and able contribu- tions to the political literature of the times, secured for the Union League Club a proud national reputation, which up to this time, has continued to bring members to its ranks and money to its treasury. We cannot always prosper upon an inherited fame. By reason of our own doings, we must secure honor, or suffer humilitation, in the future. The one prominent feature which distinguishes thii from most other clubs, and which has unquestionably THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 139 made it more prosperous than any other, is the fact that it is a Club for debr-.tes and for thoughtful action in the sphere of principle and reform, not less than a Club for social enjoyment and recreation. It is that peculiar feature which makes it possible for the Club to have a high national reputation, and for its membership to confer honor as well as secure pleasure. If such be the facts, its best friend should not be satisfied, though its wines improve, its dinners become better, its billiard tables and bowling alleys be more frequented, and even Its accumulated funds increase: if at the same time its faith and courage shall decay, its debates shall be dwarfed and its contributions to the political thought and reform- ing power of the country shall become less. Once, at least, since our last published report, the action of the Club, on a political subject, has risen to the high spirit of its early days, and its moral influence was very great and salutary; but, more than once, no quorum could be se- cured for the discussion of important questions within the sphere of its avowed objects; and it declined to con- tribute from its funds, or by its action, to the passage of amendments of vital importance to the Constitution of New York. And upon other paramount subjects, its action has, to say the least, not been very vigorous. In the present grave crisis of our national affairs, the voice of this Club has not been heard. It was not silent in presence of serious issues in its earlier days. No one, who properly appreciates the conditions upon which a club can prosper, will underrate the importance of those elements which measure its social attractions. Bread alone, or bread with resolutions, is by no means an adeqate club diet. A club is, of course, at liberty to claim for itself no higher object than mere amusement or selfish comfo^is. 140 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. New York has had many such clubs ; and the decay or death of not a few of them will be worthy our study, if ever we propose confining ourselves to that sphere. But we have made proclamation of a higher standard. By it, we are likely to be judtjcd. Our fourth Article of Asso- ciation declares that: " It shall be the duty of the Club to resist and expose corruption, and promote reform in our national, state and municipal aflairs; and to elevate the idea of American citizenship." If that duty, thus conspicuously proclaimed, is not performed, its neglect will be our dishonor. We all know that it is speech and action — wise, disinterested and fearless speech and action — which reform abuses, and elevate the standard of citi- zenship. Your Committee have no love, and claim no right, of exhortation ; but the fact that our By-Laws declare that " the Committee on Political Reform shall have general charge of all matters coming under the fourth Article of Association," just quoted, seems to call for these obser- vations at this time. All of which is respectfully submitted. D. B. EATON, Chair No more serious, no plainer, no more memorable words than these have ever been used in reference to the in- ternal life, the proper objects and true spirit of the Club. It will be well for the Union League Club, if it takes them to heart, and carries out their suggestions, and accepts their warnings in its future career. The Reports and Minutes for the year 1877-8, show a somewhat meagre life during that twelve months. There was a decrease of at least fifty in the list of resident mem- bers; the number for this year being only nine hun- THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. ■ U' dred and one against nine hundred and fifty-two for the previous year; the non-residents remained the same, three hundred and sixty-five. The amount of fees was $6,315 less than for 1876-77, but economy in manage- ment of house expenses partly balanced this decline, so that the surplus fell short for the last year only by $3,351.72. It amounted to $18,412.56, carrying the building fund up to $235,000 in currency. The committee effected an extension of the lease of the Jerome property for two years, from May ist, 1878, when the original lease expired, and urged the project of a permanent Club House, the site to be procured, and the building '.o be erected before May ist, 1880. The Club lost this year, 1877, the following meir.bers : John H. White, E. H. Carle, Harris Pardee, William J. Beebe, 'oseph Gaillard, Francis Copcutt, Philip M. Oak- ley, D. J. Ely, Josepn Ripley, Lewis Francis, Augustus L. Richards, Moses H. Grinnell, and William H. Marvin, resident members; and J. Butler Wright, non-resident member. A loan of valuable pictures, secured by the influence and zeal of the Art Committee, through its efficient Secretary, Mr. Cyrus Butler, added much to the attrac- tions of the Club House during the summer of this year. Mention should have been earlier made of the services of the Club in contributing to the origin of, if it did not create, that valuable institution, the Metro- politan Museum of Art. As early as October, 1869, Mr. Putnam, Chairman of the Art Committee, made a special report on the subject of a National Rtpository 142 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. of Art, and at a subsequent meeting of the Club stirring speeches were made in support of the move- ment, which later took the form of a Metropolitan Museum of Art, so that by, January, 1870, an efficient association had been formed to perfect the work origi- nated ,in the Club. The library, considerably increased, was, by the judicious action of the House Committee of this year, moved from the third to the second story of the Club House. In January, the usual ladies re- ception was given with its wonted brilliancy. The President of the United States and Mrs. Hayes were received later in the year, (Dec. 21st, 1877), with great enthusiasm, and by a notable gathering of invited guests. Both the Executive Committee and the Committee on Political Reform note the few acts of the Club meriting special mention in the year 1877-8. The internal affairs of the Club had engrossed the members, which is to say that political affairs after the Presidential election had subsided into comparative calmness, that commerce and trade were inactive, that the currency question was absorbing, that the Republican party was discouraged with its leaders, not having well understood what could, and what could not, be done by Congress or the Administration under existing circumstances. The Committee on Political Reform, reported that " the action of the Club," upon subjects falling within their sphere "had been more limited than in past years." The period had been one of unusual disagreement in the Republican party, and serious differences of opinion upon important questions of public policy and ofHcial THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 143 duty within the Club. Forbearance had seemed essential to unity and good fellowship, silence was safer than speech, and the committee refrained from reporting even upon matters to which it had given much attention. But to show that at least a great majority of the Club were still faithful to old principles, the committee had reported a scries of resolutions which were adopted by the Club, in which it was declared : — (i.) That this Club has always been identified with the principles of the Republican party. (2.) That the temper of the public mind should ad- monish us that the supremacy of that party, in the future, will depend less upon the want of merit in its adversaries, or upon its own professions, or upon its noble achieve- ments in its early years, than it will upon the real char- acter of the party and its doings through the Administra- tion it has elected. (3.) That it will be unsafe for the party to allow it to be said truthfully, that the falling away of its majorities is due to infidelity to pledges, or to putting unworthy men into office, or to surrendering to partisan dictation ; and that we feel certain that we have lost nothing by fidelity to the higher standards of public duty, and thct we have still unshaken faith in the essential principles and character of the Republican party. (4.) That its strength and stability can be secured, not by adroit management, nor by a selfish and secret policy, but by boldly and openly maintaining sound prin- ciples, and the rights, the interests, and honor of the whole people, ngainst every scheme of partisanship, and every attempt to secure office, profit, or power at the expense of truth, common justice, or common right. (5.) We further declared that such a policy, and the 144 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. great principles by which the Republican party is now bound to stand, were set forth in President Hayes's letter of acceptance and inaugural address; and that in those utterances we recognized a statesmanlike comprehension of the conditions upon which the pacification of States, the prosperity of business, reform in the civil service, and the honor of the nation can be secured. And we de- clared that, so long as his administration should be faith- ful to those principles, it would receive the support of this Club. The Committee have had less hesitation in presenting so extended a paraphrase of those resolutions, because their language does not seem to have lost its sig- nificance, nor does the time appear to be past for adher- ing to their spirit. Thus a wise discretion has succeeded in avoiding prac- tical quarrels and political dissatisfaction beyond fhe bounds of safety, within the membership of the Club, while maintaining a decent fidelity to the original princi- ples for which the Union League Club stood. But whether the sacrifices to prudence and good fellowship, have not somewhat overbalanced the devotion to loyalty and nationality, is a point upon which there is room (or doubt. Whether a club originally built on an idea of nationality and loyalty, and the defense and pushing of whatever tends to their safety and growth, can be exter- nally prosperous at all times, and can fitly measure its inner health and usefulness by its outward case and •growth, is a matter of question with many, and of settled conviction that it cannot, with a few. It should arouse some self suspicion, when a club Is more prosperous than its own principles, as it it a THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. US doubtful success, when a merchant or financier grows rich in times of general disaster, and draws his fortune from the wreck of great corporations and great public interests. To flourish by the triumph of our principles, is a glory in- deed ; but to flourish by any concealment or compromise of them, is a showy defeat. It is plain that the danger of every political club is its success as a social union and a financial corporation, at the expense of its fidelity to its fundamental idea, when it proposed to stake fortune and life upon the defense and support of certain principles and policies. There is notliing improper or deserving of blame in the club life of gentlemen, who distinctly have social satisfaction, personal comfort and sumptuary privi- leges not to be had without association, for their avowed object. Neither is there anything meritorious, lofty or worthy of praise in such a club life. But a club that boasts an heroic, patriotic and self-sacrificing origin, and maintains in its articles of association such noble and serl< ous objects as the Union League Club continues to uvow in every annual report, and in its very charter and articles, is bound to be much more than a union for innocent pleasure or ordinary social intercourse. Nay, it is pledged to hold its principles above its worldly inter- ests, its annual dues, its financial ease, its elegant Club House, or its extended membership. " Multum non multa." Quality nor quantity, efficiency not popularity, fhould be its maxims. It might better lose much popu- larity than sacrifice one iota of its original policy, or live in poor lodgings, proud in its purity and patriotism, than occupy a palace built out of soft compliances with politl- 146 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. cnl frailty and partisan fear* and hopes. It could gain nothing by adding those who brought no courage, no aspiration, no devotion to the great American idea in their hearts, but only their entrance fee and their annual dues, and the expectation of some additional importance and some fresh opportunities for themselves. Happily we have preserved enough of the old and first spirit to make a positive and marked decline from our cardinal ideas difficult, and he would be a harsh critic who denied the persistent existence of a peculiar quality of native patriotic devotion in the Club ; but we are perhaps enter- ing upon new trials, for which we may not come out so safely, if we do not brace ourselves up by a careful read- ing and comparison of our beginning, our middle and our later history. The history of the Club, for the last year 1878-9, has been marked by nothing specially worthy of notice. The membership shows a decrease of forty in the roll of resi- dents, and an increase of four among non-residents. The numbers on the roll, stood at eight hundred and sixty- one resident, and three hundred and seventy-nine non- resident members. The surplus for the year was $iOr476.44, less by $3,365 than that of the previous year. The building fund was carried up to $244,000 in a par value of the Club's U. S. securities, with a cash balance of $81.89. During the year the Club lost by death the following members: E. R. Pearslee, John H. Harbeck, Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Tracy, A. W. Grcenleaf, W. W. Mali, M. Knoedler, George W. Blunt, William Orton, Theron THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 147 Skcel, Wm. CuUen Bryant, W. M. Vermllyr, Isaac C. Kendall, resident n^embers ; and Geo. W. Swain, Edward A. King, James H. Sackett, C. F. Davey, non-resident members. The attention of the Club was strongly drawn by the Executive Committee in its annual report to the necessity of deciding the question of a site for a permanent Club House, and erecting upon it a suitable building to be owned by the Club. The financial prosperity of the association seemed to warrant what the general feeling of the Club demanded. In the course of the year a very experienced committee consisting of Jackson S. Schultz, Salem H. Wales, John H. Hall, Daniel F. Appleton and Richard Butler, made an exhaustive search and a careful comparison among all the sites within convenient limits that offered themselves to the purchase of the Club, and after several able reports and some full discussions in our public meetings, the site at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 39th Street was adopted by general consent as the one that had all the advantages demanded — cen- trality, commandingness, accessibleness, permanent val- ue, amplitude of space, a good neighborhood, and mod- erateness of priccr. The lease of the lots was accordingly made, and the situation of the new Club House fixed. The Committee on the proposed Club House, its design, architecture, construction, decoration and furnishing, composed of the above committee in conjunction with the Execu- tive Committee of this year, (1879) constituting a " Gen- eral Building Committee" of twenty-three members 148 THE US ION LEAGUE CLUB. gave immediate and devoted attention to the subject. A competition was invited among nine of the chief architectural firms of tnc country, mainly ol New York City, but one of Boston, to furnish plans for the proposed Club House. Besides the firms invited, two others vol- unteered. These designs were presented in April and were considered as universally creditable to the architects who offered them. Indeed it was well said, that any one of them would have satisfied the views of the Club, If it had been its only resort. But the number, variety, and peculiar excellence in difTcicnt respects of the num. erous plans, rendered the committee fastidious and ex- acting, slow to decide, and sure that patience would enable them to secure a better design than they had originally conceived of. It is due to the rejected plans, to say that some of them might have triumphed over the one that wai finally adopted, if mere external cfTcct had been allowed more Influence. But the committee were wisely convinced, that if taste, solidity, fitness and dignity were suitably expressed in the exterior, any sacrifices of interior comfort and utility beyond that to architectural display would be unwise. They determined to be first fully satisfied with the convenience and comfort of the plans of an interior, and to adopt only a plan in which the varied and often conflicting wants of a Club House, suited to the use of a thousand resident members, and five hundred non-resident members were properly consid- ered and successfully met, before they allowed the ques- tion of the exterior to have place. The firm, of Peabody & Steams of Boston, had anticipated this requirement of THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. I49 the committee, and in their plans had evidently given the first and most studious and skilful attention tc an in- terior plan. They had acquainted themselves fully with the wants of so numerous and varied a membership, and left out little that could possibly enter into the desires of a thousand gentlemen of different ages and tastes, who looked to a Club House, as an attractive place of rest, amusement, reading, conference, or public debate, or as a private hotel and restaurant, where lodging could be had for bachelors, or meals for members whose private houses were distant or closed. Around this interior they had designed the elevations for the exterior, which, with some changes, received the unanimous preference of the Sub-Committee on Design ; also the approval of the General Building Committee, and, finally, the general acceptance of the Club. The structure is of Baltimore brick, with massive brown-stone trimmings and appropriate mouldings. Solid foundations and thick, high walls, surmounted by a lofty, red-slated roof, and ornamentation of elaborate carvings, make up the general character of the exterior. The style is, on the whole, classical. The interior plan is special and unique, admirably adapted to Club utility. A group of four large stone columns, reaching through the second and third stories, marks the entrance, which is placed on Thirty-ninth street. On either side of the members' entrance are arranged the reception-room and the superintendent's office, also two large passenger elevators. There is also a service elevator placed within a service stairway for the kitchen ISO THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. and laundry. The rest of the floor is taken up by the reading-room, billiard-room, caf^, coat-room and lavatory. Opposite the main entrance rises the grand stairway, its landing being enlarged by a bay-window, to be filled with stained glass. On the second floor the large library occupies the Fifth Avenue front, the ceiling of which is formed by groined vaults suited to a rich decoration. The picture- gallery, the large audience-hall, with several conversation rooms, are on the same floor with the library, and thus grouped they form a fine and lofty suite of rooms. Ad- joining the large hall are several dressing-rooms, served by separate stairs; and a separate entrance, with staircase from the street, is also provided to allow the public to visit the picture-gallery and hall without disturbing the Club. The picture-gallery is placed in the cross section of the building, and lighted from above. This large opening affords abundant opportunity for light and ven- tilation to the interior portion of the building. The third floor and the rear portions of the fourth and fifth floori ire arranged in chambers for the use of the members. The grand dining-room occupic* (he fourth story on the Fifth Avenue front, and extends up with open timber-work into the roof, the height to the ceiling being about thirty feet, and suited to rich decoration. Adjoining the large dining hall, with service-rooms at- tached, are imaller ones of varying size, arranged tn tuilt for private dinners. Above these dining-rooma, and of easy access, are the kitchen, itore-roonu, pantry, laundry, etc THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. \%\ The boiler-room, storage and coal vaults arc placed under the sidewalk on Thirty-ninth street. The contract for construction was given, upon compe- tition, to Messrs. Norcross Bros., of Worcester, Mass., and the stone comes from the Long Meadow quarry of that State. Careful attention seems to have been given by the Committee to details, contributing to the comfort of members and economy in administration. The estimated cost of the building was about $250,000 which, doubtless, falls within the means and scope of the Club's financial economy. In June of this year (1879) a revision of the By-Laws was made. The principle changes were — the increase of the membership of the Committee on Admissions to thirteen; the railing of the admission fee' to $250.; and the constituting of the " General Building Committee " a special committee. The Committee on Art well sustained its exhibitions of American paintings during the year. The Library was further improved by additions of books, papers and magazines, and increased facilities for using the m. A new catalogue was issued, fully present- ing all the books and literature of the Club, rendering them more accessible. The constant interest shown in the Library indicates that it has become an established feature of Club life. The Library now contains over three thousand volumes of books ; thirty-five magazines and reviews (foreign tnd domestic); thirty daily newt- papers; over forty weekly and illustrated papers and art journals — (American, English, French and German), IJ2 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. and about eighty morning and evening city papers, (multiplicate). Doubtless there are few special libraries larger in any part of the country, or more valuable in books of reference, civil-war history, and public docu- mcnts and reports. The address of Mr. Hamilton Fish, on February 13th, (1879), o" taking his scat as President of the Club, con- tains many suggestions worthy of his great experience In public affairs, and of his honored character and rcco.d. The Club has had a long and distinguished list of Presidents; never one that was not highly capable, dignified and devoted to the permanent interests of the association. Beginning with Robert Mintum, a man whether more bdovcd or more respected it is impossible to say, it elected Jonathan Sturgcs, the incorruptible merchant, patron of art and beneficence. He was fol- lowed by Charles H. Marshall, the vigorous commercial leader, earnest patriot and free-handed citiren ; John Jay, whose honored ancestry is not lowered in his per- son, and whose devotion the Club acknowledged by keeping him three years at its head, came next. After him Jackson S. Schultt, the representative of an ag- gressive public spirit, fertile in all the resources of pa- triotism, and flinging a great heart into all the labors of his mind and hand; then William J. Hoppin. one of our founders, the charm of whose genial and digni- fied manners and the high tone of whose patriotism we have all admired at home and many of us abroad ; Joseph H. Choate succeeded him, the King of Clubs, whose Presidency confers success upon every meeting THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB^ I 53 where eloquence, wit and humor or patriotism and charity are in place or demand ; George Cabot Ward fol- lowed next, whose long qnd successful labors as Treas- urer were enhanced by his profound patriotism and utter trustworth""' sr, in all the relations of life, and who adds to his claif- ■. \% a banker, those of a deep thinker and ac- complisheii student. The list ends with Hamilton Fish, who comes from eight years of unsought service as Secretary of State, and from countless cares and tri- umphs in the great offices he filled at such cost to him- self and with such honor and service to the country, to preside over the Union League Club at a turning point in its history. The whole of Mr. Fish's inaugural ad- dress, omitting only what concerns the finances of the year, seems to belong to this history, and we therefore give it place, as fitted to a permanent consideration in the future policy of the members of the Union League Club. The underlying principle of a club, jis such associa- tions are generally accepted, unquestionably is its social character and features. Whatever tends to interrupt or detract from the social character and enjoyments of a club, leads towards dissolution. The social clement should, therefore, be fostered and promoted by all proper means, and to all reasonable ends — your library, reading room, and works of art are valuable aesthetic agents in this direction. But the Union League Club has another element in its orginization^ongenital and distinctive. Its birth and its history impose upon it duties to the country — it was bom amid the throes of the nation struggling to maintain its existence — it was conceived and begotten of a spirit of loyalty and of patriotism which induced I $4 .THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. men. theretofore . holding the most opposite opinions and positions on the political questions which had di- vided the country, to lay aside all differences and give their united efforts to uphold a government, justly de- scribed by the gentleman who was called to the second position under the rebellious organization, as coming " nearer the objects of all good government than any other on the face of the earth." Faithfully and cflFici- ently did this Club sustain the government through the dark hours of its severe trial, in a course of politi- cal action, profoundly patriotic and eminently bene- ficial. The past imposes on us a continued obligation ; but the field of action and of patriotic duty fortunately is somewhat different — "the lines have fallen to us in (more) p.easant places." The early duties and action of the Association were in the times of revolutionary efforts to overthrow the government and necessarily partake of the excitement, and perhaps, somewhat of the asperities of the existing state of war. Later, the Club gave to the government support and encourage- ment in its efforts to bring the country back to a sound condition of commercial, financial, and social relations. Our predecessors did not think that their duty ended with the suppression or cessation of violent resistance to the government, but appreciated th-it the quieter and perhaps more difficult duty of watchful guardian- ship remained. In military tactics, when assault or attack in force has failed, resort is often had to mines, strategy, and secret operations. Troy for years successfully resisted the assaults of her enemies, but fell when she had ad- mitted within her citad:l the military leaders who had failed in their efforts of force for her overthrow. The story of ancient Troy, whether It be fiction or hittory, THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 155 suggests that the duty of watchfulness and of vigilance does not end with the cessation of open efforts of vio- lence. Patriotic men, loyally loving their country, in whatever section of the country they may be (and there are loyal and patriotic men in every section" and in every corner of the land) — patriotic and loyal men, I say, still have the duty to see that the Constitution is enforced ; the laws observed ; the rights of the citizen, the humblest as well as the highest, respected ; and the equality before the law of every citizen maintained. Asking for nothing that the Constitution and the laws enacted in pursuance thereof do not sanction, but de- manding all that is granted or guaranteed, it is the duty of good citizenship to insist that the Constitution, and every part and provision thereof, be unreservedly recog- nized, enforced, and obeyed in letter and in spirit, carry- ing with it in every State and every part of the Union, to every citizen, native as well as naturalized, high and low, rich and poor, without regard to race, color, or pre- vious condition, full protection and the free enjoyment of every right, whether of person, of property, or of suf- frage, which the Constitution and the laws may grant. The Charter and Articles of Association of this Club commit it to certain high political duties, and those duties lie In the direction of one of the highest and noblest of studies. "Politics" in the comprehension of the pot-house, import strife for place, for jobs, for all the unclean drippings of partisan patronage; h\i\ " politics," in the proper apprehension of an association like this Club, means the science of government. Avoiding local, personal, and purely temporary questions, it seeks the regulation and government of the State to its best in- terests, the development of its means and its resources, the preservation of its peace and safety, the protection of ita .citizens in their rights, and the advancement of IS6 THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. their moral, and the improvement of their physical con- dition. In this field no strife for place or for spoils is known ; the contest is devoid of personal object and is for the development of truth, as tending to the best ' Intcresti of the State and the greatest happiness of the people. In this field, gentlemen of the Union League Club, you may exercise possibly even a more widely extended influence of good in the future than you have done in the past, without detracting in the slightest from the so- cial qualities and attractions of your Club. It falls to my lot, the first in the line of your presiding officers, to be able to congratulate you, as I do most cor- dially, that the country is relieved of the curse of the fluctuating and irredeemable currency, which the ex- igencies of the war brought upon us. The "promise to pay " of the government, which during your existence as a Club has never until quite recently been worth what it professed, and which at a time was worth in Itoneit money — the money of commerce and of the nations — only about 35 per cent, of its professed value, has, thanks to the wise policy established and persistently maintained by the last administration, and thanks, too, to the vigorous enforcement of that policy by those now intrusted with the administration of government, is now convertible at pleasure into the coin recognized by the world as money. The long prostrate industries of the country are re- viving — business promises again to become remunerative — the field of manufacturing enterprise assumes a more hopeful aspect — commerce is more active and the foreign trade of the country is rapidly paying ofl the vast accu- mulation of debt in which the flush times of wild specu- lation and a currency of uncertain and fluctuating value had involved us. THE UNIOff LEAGUE CLUB. 157 In view of all this, I sincerely congratulate you, as your influence and voice have, in the past, been express- ed in aid of the policy and of the measures which have conduced to this encouraging aspect of, the country's condition. But, gentlemen, here again your duties arc not yet at an end. A large fii.ld of usefulness is yet open and de- mands your patriotic efforts. Our commerce is not what it should be — our manufactures are not as active as they might be — the agriculture of the country might and should be better remunerated. We do not build, are not allowed to purchase the ships we need. Our taxation is burdensome — very unnecessarily burden- some, because very unwisely laid. Legislation, both State and National, is directed too much to partisan and political objects, to the neglect of the material interests of the country. Our currency is not beyond assault, while the government exercises war powers of issuing "legal tenders" in time of peace, or continues the exer- cise (of very questionable constitutionality) of the func- tions of a bank by issuing the promises to pay which it has once redeemed. I fear that I am detaining you too long; but bear with me a moment longer. I have pointed to several directions in which lie the opportunity and the need of improvement ih the mate- rial interests of the country, and wherein, I think, the influence of this Club may be wisely and usefully exer- cised. Permit me to allude to one other, essential to the permanent enjoyment of whatever success may be at- tained in either direction. I mean the lessening of par- tisan bitterness and the removal of all local or sectional differences. Good men will differ in their conclusions from the same premises, and in their views as to the best means to attain the same ends. The great bulk, 158 THB VtflOff LEAGUE CLUB. the mass of all political parties and of all sectional or territorial divisions, arc sincere and honest; the circum- stances and the things that surround us bind and form our characters, and give direction to our thoughts. We are all too often temporarily misled ; the unsuspecting, confidinp, honest many, are often the victims of the plot- ter and the demagogue. Animosities are thus kept alive, and estrangement is continued, while the masses, North, South, East, and West, have but one object, one wish, one interest. Gentlemen of the Union League Club, let it then be our aim to do what in us may lie to aid in removing ■II animosities, in restoring harmony among all sections of the country, in elevating the tone of the political strifes of the people, in encouraging reform, honesty, and economy in the administration of public affairs, in bring- ing into discussion and under the consideration of the public, the higher questions of political science which look to the regulation and best government of the State, the development of its resources, the protection of the citizen, and the peace, safety, and best interests of the Nation. Thus ends the past history of this Club. It has oc- cupied more space, even to give a sketch of its career than was anticipated, and has really astonished one tol- erably familiar with its life from the beginning, to see how much it hat been, and has done. Short as the life of the Union League Club ii, reck- oned only by years, it is already old in services, and ven- erable for the traditions of its heroic origin. It had ■ ^Iden age of ardent self-sacrificing patriotism, when it lived and toiled with the nation and sufTcrcd with the national anguish, that threatened to end in the death of THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. 159 the Union. That period of its birth and its glory when one heart and one mind animated its members, with a common solicitude, and a common willingness to spend and be spent in the nation's cause, ought not to be for- gotten, and can never cease, without ruin to all that has been exceptional and characteristic in the Club, to be the dominant thought in its policy. Patriotism was the fountain-head of our being; national union, national purity, national spirit, made the channel and filled the stream in which we moved. To presen-e and then to purge and purify the national life so far as that de- pended upon the spirit and temper of the chief city of the country — was our .mbition and ruling motive. Other clubs may have this for an indirect end, we had it as our reason for existence. While literary, aesthetic and social, or professional and commercial aims, have been the blameless motives of the numerous and re- spected associations in club life that surrounds us, we are signalized and distinguished by an origin and by a history that is serious and directly connected with national duty and usefulness. Whatever relaxations, pleasures and entertainments grow out of, or decorate and adorn our club life, are incidental and not essential — the soldier's garlands thrown over his armor. Doubtless, we have and enjoy as many of these privileges as those who make them their set purpose. But we must not, and cannot without making our Articles of Association meaningless, forget that we exist to challenge the ene- mies of Union and National honor, the foes of American principles, of which, freedom with order, equality with- l6o THE Uff/Oy LEAGUE CLUB. out communism, and free suffrage without mob rule, are the chief; and that our name, our post and our boast, would all alike be foolishness, if we could allow ourselves to degenerate into a body of self-satisfied, pleasure -seek- ing, powerless persons, in whom citizenship had ceased to be a pride and responsibility — municipal government becomf) a vulgar machine to be given over to knaves ind managers of popular passions, and the American Nation and its government an audacious experiment, premature in its birth, already rickctty and deformed in its development, and predestined to failure, all the more fatal for the furious energy and inventiveness of its people, and the growing wealth and luxury of its children. Despite the respect which our growing wealth and power have extorted from other nations, there can be no doubt that our comparative impotency in the pres- ence of our municipal evils has weakened our political prestige abroad; that our rings and railroad corpora- tions, our foreign voters, naturalized at the instance of demagogues before their ignorance, superstition and hatred of law and order have undergone any whole- some change; tb's corruption in our State Legislatures and the deterioration in our Congress, and our office- holders — not to say the decay of the old race of statesmen — and the impossibility of raising men of the highest class to be presidents, have all combined to make the American example quite as much a warning as an encouragement to European lovers of good government, with liberty and equal rights. Wor»t of THE UNION LRAGUR CLUB. l6l all, the xsthetic and cultivated class of Americans at home — the so-called gentlemen and ladies — have grown aceptical of the national life and prospects. The war rebuked this temper, and for a time cast out the demon of a lukewarm Americanism, which had en- trenched itself in the traveled and artistic, the busi- ness and refined class of our people. But the war developed so much coarse money-making energy, and left so much wealth in vulgar hands, that American life has been distinctly lowered and materialized, while political power has passed or is passing into the cus- tody of the purse and the plotters who best under- stand the conditions of partisan success, and nothing more. Has the Union League Club nothing but social amusement or pleasant intercourse among its members left to occupy it, with such a state of things working its mischiefs all around us ? The more real the evils which discourage and stifle the patriotism of the fas- tidious and the foreboding, the more necessary the zeal and activity, union and cc6peration in a Club like this, of those who know the temporary and pass- ing character of the trials and discouragements of Liberty in a country where to free suffrage is added religious equality, a free press and the common schools, and where governmental and municipal evils are always controllable when the best portion of the community choose to attend to their duty as voters, as citizens, as natural leaders of public opinion. The ignorant and vulgar, the lawless and violent classes in America, are not so much to blame for their injuries 1 6a THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB. to the American character and the hopes of free in- stitutions, as the educated, respectable and moral class, who are not willing to pay the price of liberty by giving it the eternal vigilance it requires. They ex- pect the blessing of good government without being willing to expend the care il demands. Self-govern- ment, with the self asleep and inactive, is a dream. When the American people really begins to govern Itself, it will be well governed. At present, it too often leaves those who choose to govern, to have their own reckless way, and wonders why our free institu- tions do not better run themselves. If the Union League Club has any high function, it is certainly to battle with the faithlessness in Amer- ican principles, which so easily affects our cultivated or easy class. And to that end it must grapple with the indolence and fastidiousness which withdraws our better men and women from interest in politics and from co- operation with governmental affairs. If none but self- •eckers or aspirants to office are to be interested in elections, what can keep us from falling into the hands of a race not our own, seeing that those who care little or nothing for American principles are now, and have long been, most intensely interested in the political machine, and are in possession of most of the muni- cipal offices. It is not their activity but our sloth that causes most of the evils of American politics; and the Union League Club should be an animated protest against this anti-national, anti-American, listlestneu, and waste of political power, and failure in duty. APPENDIX r ORGANIZATION OF THB UNION LEAGUE CLUB. OF NEW YORK, FEBRUARY i6th, 1863. ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION. I. The condition of membership shall be absolute and unqualified loyality to the Government of the United States, unwavering support of its efforts for the suppression of Re- bellion. 3. The primary object of the Association shall be to dis- countenance and rebuke, by moral and social influences, all disloyalty to the Federal Government, and to that end the members will use every proper means in public and private. 3. We pledge ourselves, by every means in our power, col- lectively and individually to resist to the utmost every attempt against the territorial integrity of the nation. ADDITIONAL ARTICLK OF ASSOCIATION, ADOPTED JANUARY IITH, 1866. 4. It shall be the duty of the Club to resist and expose corruption, and promote reform in our National, State, and Municipal affairs ; and to elevate the idea of American citizenship. CHARTER. AN ACT TO INCORPORATE " THE UNION LEAOUE CLUH." or THE CITY or NEW YORK. rAssco rciiUAiY i6th, 1865. AS AMIJ4DED BY CHAP. l6o, I^WS OP 1867, PASSKO MAKCH 16, I867. Al AMCNDKD lY CHAP. 42], LAWS OP 1874, PASSID MAY II, I874. Tht Profit of the Slate of Nav York, rtpreunted in Senate and Assembly, do enact as folloirs: Section i. Cornelius R. Agnew, Horatio Allen, James W. Bcekman, Henry W. Bellows, Francis B. Cutting, John A . Dix, Wolcott Gibbs, John C. Green, George Griswold, David Hoadley, Murray Hoffman, Willijm J. Hoppin, (Charles King, Charles M. Marshall, Williard Tarker, George T. Strong, Jonathan Sturges, Otis D. Swan, Moses Taylor, «nd such other persons as now are members of an associ- ation in the city of New York called the " Union League Club," and such persons as hereafter shall become members of the corporation hereby created, are constituted a body corporate by the name of "The Union League Club," to be located in the city of New York, to promote, encourage and sustain, by all proper means, absolute and unqualified loyalty to the government of the United States ; to dis- countenance and rebuke, by moral and social influences, all disloyalty to said Government, and every attempt against the integrity of the nation ; and in furtherance of these objects, to establish and maintain a Library and a Gallery of Art and Military Trophies, especially devoted to the perpetuation and illustration of the patriotic services and Mcrifices by which the existing struggle against rebellion hat been characterised. APPENDIX. 167 Sec. 2. Said corporation shall have power to make and adopt a constitution, by-laws, rules and regulations, for the admission, suspension and expulsion of its members, and their government, the collection of fees and dues, the number and election of its officers and to define their duties, and for the safe keeping of its property, and, from time to time, to alter, modify or change such constitution, by-laws, rules and regulations. Until an election shall be held pursuant to such constitution, by-laws, rules and regu- lations, the officers, for the time being, of the association mentioned in the first section of this act, shall be the •officers of the corporation hereby created. Sec. 3. Said corporation may purchase and hold, or lease *ny real or personal estate necessary and proper for the purpose of its incorporation, provided they shall not hold any real estate the value of which shall exceed fifteen hundred thousand dollars ; and' the said corporation may issue bonds, and may execute mortgages upon their real «state to an amount not exceeding the value of «uch real estate, and the improvements thereon. Sec. 4. Said corporation shall possess the general powers and be subject to the restrictions and liabilites prescribed in the third title of the eighteenth chapter of the first part of the Revised Statutes. Sec. 5. This act sinti tdke effect immediately. ORIGINAL BY-LAWS OF THE CLUB. (ADOrrED MAICH I3TH, I863.) or orricERS and their duties. I. The Officers of the Union League Club shall be a President, twelve Vice-Presidents, a Secretary, a Treasurer, •n Executive Committee, a Committee on Admissions, and a Committee on Publications, each of whom shall be elected (except for the year 1863), at the annual meetings of the Club, by the members thereof, and sliall serve untif their successors shall have been elected respectively. 7. The President, or in his absence, the Vice-President senior in order of Election, shall pre.'^ide at all meetings of the Club. 3. The Secretary shall keep a record of the proceedings of the standing Committee, and Committee on Admissions, of which Committers he shall be txofficio a member, and of all meetings of the Club, and of all matters concerning it of which a record shall be deemed advisable by him or by said Com- mittees. The records of the Secretary shall at all reasonable times be opened to the inspection of any member of the Club. It shall be his duty to notify members of their election, to keep • roll of the members of the Club (which shall be signed by each member as soon ai elected), to issue notices for all meetings of the Club and to conduct the correspondence. 4. The Treasurer shall collect and, under the direction of the Executive Coromiilee, disburse the funds ; he shall keep the accounts of the Club in books belonging to it ; he shall re- port at every annual meeting, and oftener if required, on the state of the funds. The Treasurer shall be tx-effitic a member of the Executive Committee and Committee on Adroissiona APPENDIX. 169 5. The Secretary and Treasurer shall have power respec- tively, with the approval of the Executive Committee, to employ at the expense of the Club, such clerical aid as may be neces- sary in the discharge of their duties. 6. The general affairs of the Club shall be managed by an Executive Committee consisting of nine members. The Ex- ecutive Committee shall exercise a general superintendence over the internal affairs of the Club ; shall control and manage its property and enforce the preservation of order in obedience to its rules. It shall make all necessary purchases and con- tracts, but shall have no power to make the Club, or the mem- bers thereof, liable for any debt or debts to an amount beyond one-half that which, at the time of contracting the same, shall be in the Treasurer's hands in cash, and not subject to prior liabilities. It shall also have power to solicit subscriptions of money from loyal persons for the purpose of carrying into eh'eci the objects of the Club. It may also call special meet- ings of the Club whenever it may deem necessary. At every annual meeting it shall report its proceedings, and may at any time recommend such measures as it may deem advisable. 7. The Executive Committee, of which five shall be a quorum, shall meet at least once in every month fir the tran- saction of business, and vacancies by death, or otherwise, may be filled by the Committee for the residue of the term. 8. There shall be a Committee on Admissions to consist of seven members. Vacancies by death, or otherwise, may be fill- ed by the Committee for the residue of the term. The names and residence of all persons proposed for admission, with the name of the member proposing them, shall be first posted in a conspicuous place in the rooms of the Club at least fifteen days. They thall then be referred to the Committee on Ad- missions, the proceeding of which Committee thereon shall be secret and confidential. It shall be the duty of the Committee to make careful examination, and to receive and consider all communications in reference to each individual proposed ; and they shall pass upon each name separately. The Committee shall fix their own time and place of meeting. At erery 170 APPENDIX. monthly meeting the Committee shall report the names of such persons proposed as they recommend for admission, and the Club shall thereupon proceed to vote upon the names so rec- ommended. Negative votes to the number of one-third of those cast shall exclude the person, or persons voted for. 9. There shall be a Committee on Publications, the duty of which shall be to circulate through the public press and other- wise such documents as shall tend to awaken, extend and j>er- petuale the vital faith of the fathers of the Republic ; namely, that National Union is necessary to the American people for the preservation of liberty, maintenance of law, security against civil discord, protection from foreign aggression, continuance of social and commercial prosperity, and transmission of national glory ; and to impress on the intelligent and educated clasies the duty of taking an active part in the conduct bf public afTairs. Such Committee shall consist of seven members, and have power to fill its own vacancies, and to add to its members during the term for which it is elected. There shall be • special publication fund distinct from the general fund, of the Club, which shall be disbursed by the Treasurer, only n the order or certificate of the Chairman of the Commitfe on Publications. 10. Any officer may be removed for cause at any meeting of the Club upon due notice, and any vacancy in any office may be filled for the residue of the term by the Club, at any meeting thereof except as otherwise provided. or MECTINGS. 11. 'X\\t Annual Meeting of the Club shall be held on the second Wednesday in Janu.iry at 8 o'clock, p.m. for the election of officers, and the transaction of such other businiss as may come before it. Thirty members and a majority of the Ex- ecutive Committee shall b« a quorum at all meetings of the Club. IS. At every Annual Meeting three auditors shall be ap- fwinted to Mnre for twelve months, or until new auditor* APPENDIX. \^\ be regularly chosen. The duty of said auditors shall be to audit and settle the accounts of the Treasurer, and to present their report thereof to the next annual meeting. The Commit- tee shall have power to fill vacancies in their number, and two of them shall be a quorum. 13. There shall be a monthly meeting for the election of members, and the transaction of business, on the second Wednesday of every month, at 8 o'clock, p.m. 14. At the meetings of the Club the order of business so far as the character, and nature of the meeting may admit shall be as follows : I. Reading the minutes of the last meeting, a. Reports. 3. Election of new members. 4. New business. But this order of business may be on motion changed by a majority of the meeting. 15. No stranger shall be present at any meeting of the Club. 16. All elections shall be by ballot, unless otherwise or- dered by two-thirds of the number present, and a plurality of votes, except in the cases provided for by the eighth By-Law, shall be sufficient to elect. 17. Proxies shall not be permitted. or MEMBERS. 18. No member shall receive any -salary, emolument, or profit from the funds of the Club. 19. No member shall give any money or gratuity to a ser- vant of the Club. JO. All resignations shall be made in writing to the Execu- tive Committee ; but if made after the second Wednesday of January, such resignation shall not discharge the member pre- senting it from his dues for the current year ; and all interest in the property of the Club of members resigning, or otherwise ceasing to be members, shall be vested in the Club. 17* APPENDIX. a I. A candidate fo. tnetnbership shall be proposed by a member, who shall register in a book set apart for the purpose the candidate's name, and residence, and add the date of such registry and his own signature. aa. If the conduct of a member be disorderly, or injurious to the interest of the Club, or contrary to its By-Laws ; or if by his arts or conversation he shall manifest a spirit of dis- loyalty to the Government of the United States, the Executive Committee shall inform him thereof in writing, and if the nature of the offence require it, request him to resign. aj. Should such information or request be disregarded, the Executive Committee shall refer the matter to the next stated meeting of the Club, or to a special meeting there if ; of which reference due notice shall be given to the offending member. a4. At such meeting, the nature of the offence shall be con- sidered, and the member complained of may be censured, or expelled by a vote of a majority of the members present. A motion involving censure or expulsion shall be decided by ballot. as. The admission fee of a member shall be Twenty-five dol- lars. The annual dues of members shall be Twenty-five dollars, payable in advance, on or before the first Monday in March in every year, except by members elected prior to the first day of January, 1864, who shall pay upon admission. If not then paid, the defaulter shall cease to be a member, ipso facto : pro- vided, that upon his written application, and the payment of all dues to the date thereof, the Executive Committee, in its dis- cretion and upon such terms as it may deem proper, may re- mit the penalty of this By-Law ; of all which the Secretary shall make a minute. And provided further that the penalty of this By-Law shall not apply to the case of a resident member, who may be ill, or absent fiom the City of New York. or STRANGERS. a6. A member may personally introduce non-residents to the rooms of the Club for a fortnight, their names, and those of APPENDIX. 173 the parties introducing them, and the date of such introduc- tion, to be first entered in a book to be kept for the purpose. a?. The Executive Committee may give a written invitation to any stranger, which shall entitle him to visit the Club House for one month, or such longer period, as the Committee may deem proper. 28. Residents of the City of New York, not being members, shall not be admitted to the rooms of the Club more than once. 29. No person, except a non-resident foreigner, shall be ad- milted into the Club House, who does not give his unwavering support to the Government ; and if any person disloyal to the Government of the United States, be knowingly introduced to the rooms of the Club by any member of the Club, such mem- ber may be expelled for the offence. MISCELLANEOUS. 30. No person shall take from the Club House a newspaper, pamphlet, book, or other article, the property of the Club, nor mutilate, deface, nor destroy the same. 31. Books, pamphlets or newspapers, shall not be removed from the reading and drawing-rooms. 3». A By-Law of the Club may be amended or a new By- Law made, at any regular meeting of the Club, the proposer having posted upon the notice-board the words of the proposed alteration, or addition, for at least thirty days, immediately pre- ceding the said meeting, when, if two-thirds of those present shall vote in favor of the proposed alteration or amendment, the same shall be adopted. 33. The Executive Committee shall have power to make anch other regulations as may be necessary for the protection of the property of the Club, and the preservation of good order. PRESIDENTS. ROBERT B. MINTURN, .... '863 JONATHAN STURGES "864 CHARLES H. MARSHALL, . . • ■ 1865 JOHN JAY, . . . . • 1866— 1869 JACKSON S. SCHULTZ '870 WILLIAM J. HOPPIN, . 1871— 1871 JOSEPH H. CHOATE, . • 1873—1876 JOHN JAY ««77 GEORGE CABOT WARD '878 HAMILTON FISH '879 HONORARY MEMBERS. ABRAHAM LINCOLN,^ Lalt President ef the United States. ULYSSES S. GRANT, Ex-President of the United States. General W. T. SHERMAN, U. S. Army. Lieutenant-General p. H. SHERIDAN, U. S. Army. Major-General ROBERT ANDERSON.* " GEORGE G. MEADE.* " " A. E. BURNSIDE. WINFIELD S. HANCOCK, U. S. Army. " " O. O. HOWARD, " HORATIO E. WRIGHT. " '• GOUVERNEUR K. WARREN, U. S. A. ;• " WILLIAM T. SMITH. " " GEORGE H. THOMAS,* U. S. Army. Admiral DAVID G. FARRAGUT,* U. S. Navy. Vice-Admiral DAVID D. PORTER, Rear-Admiral THEODCRUS BAILEY,* U. 8. Nury. MELANCTHON SMITH,* " Commodore JOHN RODGERS. GEORGE T. STRONG,* Esq., New York. 'Dtceutd. EXTRACTS rmOM THE ADDRESS OF HON. JOHN JAY, PRESIDENT Of THt CLOB, AT THE OLD CLUB HOUSE, ON THE OCCA- SION or THE LAST MEETING BEFORE RE- MOVAL — MARCH 26th, 1868. NEW YORK AT THE BECINNINO OF THE WAR. The position of New York, during the contest (Rebellion), was materially influenced by the members of this Club. When Mr. Jefferson Davis and his co-conspirators commenced the war, it was not simply with the assurance of Mr. Ex- President Pierce, that the lighting should be " within our own borders, and in our own streets," but with the assurance, also, that New York, so intimately connected with the South, would side with the Rebellion, and stand as a breakwater between the rebels and the indignant patriotism of the North. In January, 1861, soon after the secession of South Carolina, Mr. Fernando Wood, then Mayor of our city, suggested to the Common Council that a dissolution of the Union seemed inevitable, and it wa.s proper that New York should be prepared to declare herself a free city, independent alike of the National and State Govern- ments ; and an association was secretly organized with a view to carry out the project at a convenient season. The sitting of the Peace Congress delayed the outbreak of the Rebellion ; and when Sumter was attacked and the old flag humbled, we answered the rebel g\ins of Moultrie by the mem- orable gathering of hundreds of thousands in this square, whose voices, clear, ringing, and defiant, sounded the key-note of the patriotism of the country. It announced to the world the resolution of the North, that the Republic, at whatever APPENDIX. 177 cost, should continue one and indivisible. It exploded the schemes of the Northern sympathizers with secession. Even Mr. Wood, forgetful of his first suggestion, hastened to defend the policy of President Lincoln. During the year 1861, our city put into the field 60,000 volunteers, and loaned to the Government over a hundred millions of money. The Sumter meeting in this Square (Union) was suggested by Colonel Cannon to a few gentlemen hastily assembled at the office of the late Simeon Draper, and the arrangements were completed at the house of our associate, Mr. McCurdy ; and the arrival of Major Anderson and his little force, with the tattered flag of Sumter, added to the solemnity and intensity of the scene. Those were stirring times, and events followed in quick succession which soon converted our city into a camp, a.id filled our parks with barracks. Sumter surrendered on the 14th of April ; on the i8th we greeted the Massachusetts Sixth as it passed through New York ; on the morning of the 19th, our own Seventh followed, representing the bravest and best blood of the metropolis ; and on the 20th was the grand meet- ing. Among the speakers were two who were soon to fall in the great cause they so eloquently advocated — Colonel Baker and Professor Mitchell ; and presently the country was again startled at learning of the massacre at Baltimore, and that com- munication with Washington was cut off. CAUSES THAT LED TO THF FORMATION OF THE CLtJB. In the next year the dilatory, pro- slavery policy of the govern- ment, and the extreme caution that ruled the Army of the Poto- mac, created profound dissatisfaction ; and with the cry of " a more vigorous prosecution of the war," aided by the perfidy of professed Republicans, Mr. Horatio Seymour, who had de- nounced the war as unconstitutional, was elected governor, and our brave Wadsworth returned to the front, and fell in the Wilderness. The policy now developed of encouraging the Rebellion, and thwarting the Government, emboldened by the Papal recognition of the Southern Confederacy, showed that 178 APPENDIX. we had as dangerous an enemy to contend with at home, ai that which our armies were confronting in the field. In the West there was the formidable conspiracy of the Knights of the Golden Circle ; in New York, a society, professedly " for the diffusion of political knowledge," issued tracts defending slavery, assailing the Government, apologizing for the rebels, and demanding peace. There were alien writers and a factious press, denying our nationality, and repeating the fallacies of the Lotuion Timet ; and all these anti-national movements were encouraging not only the rebels, but our European foes, who were bent on intervention ; while Lord Lyons reported to his government the views of Democratic leaders in New York, and Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys referred, in his circular inviting European mediation and intervention, to the encouragement afforded for the scheme by the progress of the peace party in the Northern States. So confident of success was this seces- sion party in New York, backed as they were by the Pope, Louis Napoleon, and the English Tories, and by a constituency of naturalized citizens, stronger in number than in intelligence, with but small appreciation of American principles, and yet less regard to American honor, that its members began to vaunt their treason in our social circles and business marts, with an insolent boldness that it stirs the blood even to remember. Apart from their plottings at home, we found that they were assuming to represent the opinions of the higher circles of New York, and were misleading European Cabinets and the Euro- pean press into the belief that the wealth and culture of the American metropolis were all arrayed on the side of the Re- bellion. It was to grapple with this treason, and make it powerless and contemptible, that the Union League Club was formed in the beginning of 1863, and from the start, its power was felt more and more, until New York became, as at the beginning of the war, the national centre of patriotic sentiment. In April, 1863, we organized, in this Square (Union), an- other grand meeting, on the second anniversary of the surrender of Samter, when a hundred genllemen, our welcome gueata, APPENDIX. 179 represented on the occasion that noble body, the Union League of Philadelphia. CLUB HOUSE INAUGURATION, APRIL i6TH, I868. The inauguration of the New Club House, on the evening of the 1 6th of April, was attended by about twelve hundred ladies and gentlemen, including officers of the army and navy and distinguished guests from various parts of America and Europe. Some eighty letters of regret were received by the Committee from gentlemen unable to attend, and the following brief ex- tracts, indicating the general character of the tributes paid by our most eminent statesmen from all quarters to the services of the Club, may perhaps fitly find place in this record of its past memories. FROM HON. SENATOR EDWIN D. MOROAN. " Most cordially do I applaud your movement. As a central rally-point for men of high, unselfish aims and patriotic pur- poses, the Union League Club is destined hereafter, as here- tofore, to be of incalculable service, especially in junctures like the present, in pacifying the country, and in reconciling by de- grees those differences which have grown out of the great C'vil war — a war which you, gentlemen, have done so much to bring to an auspicious close. As a resident of New York, I feel a natural pride in recalling the part performed by the Club. Its history I well know, from its first organization, in 1863, till now ; it has been my privilege as a citizen not only, but I may also say duty, in an official way, to keep informed as to its action in raising troops, in aiding hospitals, furnishing camp and other supplies, and in all ways, moral and material, nobly sustaining the Government in its dire struggle. I cannot con- ceive how the work which the Club has done, and done so well, and which all must see was to a degree vital to the success of the national arms, could have been accomplished otherwise than through your organization. Your Club sprang from the necessi- l8o APPENDIX. tiei of the period, anc*. was held together during the war b/ « common danger, and by common hopes and interests ; its con- tinuance is demanded, as I have snid, by the relation that the individual bears to the commonwealth \ and it3 mcnbcrchip in the future will be even more c'o.-cly connected than hitherto by the recollection of common sacrifices, by common tradition of the recent past. Representatives of all classes of business and professional pursuits, and of the higher walks of literature and the arts in the city of New Yorlc, arc to .-.:ui.,Llc from day to day in your new quarters, not alone for social intercourse, but at cititeni of the republic, for the interchanjjc of views and opinions on matters of general concern, with the common good in view, and that good the best interests of the who)e country, but not at partisans. Without a centre like yours, to aid in giving direction to it, the scniipicnt of the public mind, even in a period of insurrection, is slow ; oftentimes too slow in decid- ing upon plans of action. The attack upon Sumter provoked the loyal millions of the North, but it was the meeting iii Union Square — that now historic popular outbarst (called together in much the same manner as was your Club) — which gave direc- tion, as I had good reason at the time to know, to that current of patriotism which continued to flow on unceasingly until the rebellion was swept away. • * • I welcome your proceed- ings on Thursday evening, not only as an index of your pros- perity, but as an earnest that the Union League Club is to be- come one of the permanent institutions of our city. • • • I need not hope that under its wise managers, the Club will continue to hold its well-earned place in the hearta of good people everywhere." FROM OCT. raNTON. "I had thought it possible to join you, and my disappoint- ment is fully equal to the pleasure I had anticipated from an occasion so expressire of the prosperity, growth, and influence of the organiiation. The history of the League bears witness to the fidelity and loyal spirit of the nation throughout our APPENDIX. l8l levere trial of war, and may well inspire confidence that its future career will be no less useful and honorable, While the exigency that called it into being no longer exists, still there are duties of another character, hardly less grave, that invite its support, and I can readily believe that its noble purpose, the stirring events which gave it renown, and the associations con- netted with its name and record, have imparted a vitality and power to be exhausted by no single event or day, but that are for all events, and for all time." FROM MR. SPEAKER COLFAX. " I send you, however, my hearty congratulations on the prosperity of your patriotic organization, and its illustrious record during the years of its existence. Its invaluable aid in sending soldiers to the field, and its no less important work in concentrating and proclaiming the public sentiment of the loyal men of New York, the material aid its members freely proffered to the treasury when the Government loans flagged so sadly in the interior ; its prompt and cordial adherence to the policy of our martyr President when he broke every yoke and bade the oppressed go free ; its manly defiance of popular prejudice, when your Union League Club publicly gave its hearty God- speed to the colored regiment it had raised ; and its inflexible determination that loyalty should rule in all the region that loyal sacrifices had saved — are all written down in a history which posterity shall read to your honor ; and your children shall remember with pride, that, in the darkest hours of peril to the country, not one of all your organization ever allowed himself to despair of the Republic ; but, on the contrary, was willing to throw his all into the scale to presenre our national existence." FROM RON. R. R. DANA, PRKSIDENT OF THB ONION CLUB OF BOSTON. " I beg you to aMure the Union League that the Union Gab of Boston knows and appreciate* the great senrices (greater 1 8a APPENDIX. than perhaps history will ever record) which were done for our cause by the Union Leaguei of New York and Philadelphia, in the three scenes of its life and death struggle — the field of battle, the press, and the polls." FROM HON. HORACE OINNEY, OF PHILADELPHIA. "I feel myself to be infinitely honored by your invitation to attend the inauguration of the Union League Club of New York on the evening of the i6th instant. The established character of that Club for loyalty to the Union, and for the steadfast defense of the National authority, as well as of the obligation of the Constitution, makes such an invitation a compliment to all who receive it, as being thought to be in sympathy with these elevated virtues, and 1 am, on this ground, proud to re- turn my tharki for it, while it is entirely beyond my power to accept it with personal attendance." PROM BBNATOR BHBRMAN. " My best wishes and cooperation will always be for the con- tinued triumph of the national and patriotic principles that have heretofore guided your League, and I have been in a situation to know how useful it has been in its influence not only in New York but throughout the country." rmoM otORCE h. boker, <^ecretary or the union leagite Of PHILADELrHIA. " Permit me to congratulate you, in the name of our League, on your occupation of the magnificent building which will henceforth be identified by your name — a name already made illustrious by your many patriotic deeds — and to hope that your prosperity will incite you to enlarge your field of useful- ness, and to extend the influence of your noble principles over the remotest limits of your great State." APPEffDIX. 183 CORRESPONDENCE WITH GOV. SEYMOUR COMCERNINO THE ORGANIZATION OP COLORED TROOPS. New York, Nov. 22. 1863. " His Excellency Hon. Horatio Seymour, Governor, etc. " Dear Sir : " At the regular meeting of the Union League Club, held at its Club House, Union Square, in this city, on November 12th, 1863, the following resolution was unanimously adopted : " Resolved, That a committee, consisting of seven members be appointed by the Chair, with full power, and on behalf of the Union League Club, to adopt and prosecute such measures as they shall deem most effectual for aiding the Government in raising and equipping the quota of volunteers to be raised in the State of New York, pursuant to the proclamation of the President of the United States." " The above resolution indicates the object of this commu- nication. " On behalf of the Union League Club, we desire to ask your authority to raise a regiment or companies of colored men in this State. If you shall be pleased to signify your willing- ness to grant such authority, we will at once seek the approval of the War Department. We may be permitted to add that we believe that with the influence of our Club, composed as it is of five hundred of the wealthiest and most influential gentle- men of the city, who have no purpose to serve but the support of the Government, and aided as we should be by the efforts of many citizens outside of our organization, the raising of a con- siderable body of colored troops in this State will be easily ac- complished, and a considerable contribution thus made toward filling our quota. 1 84 APPENDIX. " Of course we should, before any actual movement towards recruiting was made, ask of you authorization to the proper officers in the usual form. " Soliciting the favor of an early reply, we are, very respect- fuUy, " Your obedient servants, ALEXANDE?. VAN RENSSELAER, GEORGE BL1S3. Ja., LE GRAND B. CANNON." The following reply was received in a few days : "Stat« or N«w YotK, ExEorrivj DiPAaTMiNT, ) Albany, Nrvtmitr, 17, 1863, J " GeiUlemcH : " I have received your communication in rela- tion to the organization of negro regiments into companies. The matter rests entirely with the War Department at Wash- ington. I understand that permission has been given to per- sons in Brooklyn to raise such regiments, and I suppose, there- fore, you can get a like authorization. " I send you a copy of a letter written by mc to Mr. Rodgers of New York, which covers the whole ground. " Yours, etc., -HORATIO SEYMOUR. " To Mom Atax. Van RiNssxLAia, L. C B. Cannon, Gio. Buti, Ja." The letter to Mr. Rodgers, referred to by Got. Seymour, was as follows : " Stats or Niw Vo«k. Exicurivm DafASTiUMrr, ) Alsant, NevttKber 14, 1 86 J. ( "To James Rodoers, Esq., No. 411 Broadway, N. Y. "In answer to your inquiries about the enlistment of blacks and the or^-anization of regiments and companies, I have to say : APPENDIX. 185 ' " First. — That under the State laws the bounty is paid to all, without distinction, who are mustered into the service of the United States, and for whom credits are given to New York, under the President's call for troops. " Second. — As to new organizations, I have no power to au- thorize any, either for blacks or whites, which will be entitled to the benefit of the bounty given by the General Government. The object at Washington is to fill up the ranks of the regiments in the field. If any new organizations, for either white or black troops, are made, they must be authorized by the War Depart- ment, to entitle those who join them to the benefit of the money paid to volunteers. " Yours, etc., " HORATIO SEYMOUR." It will be perceived that Gov. Seymour utterly misappre- hended the point of the letter of your committee. • • • The Secretary of War was unwilling to authorize the raising of a new regiment in any State, unless the consent of the Gov- ernor of that State was obtained. Application was therefore made to the Secretary of War through a committee consisting of Messrs. George Bliss Jr., and Le Grand B. Cannon. Authority was received from the War Department, dated Dec. 5th, 1863. On the following day the Secretary of the Committee addressed Gov. Seymour thus : •' New Yo»k, 80 Waij. St., Dtt. 4, 1863. " Hon. Horatio Seymour, Governor, etc. " Dear sir : "On the receipt of jour favor of the ayth, ad- dressed to Mr. Van Rensselaer and others, a Committee of the Union League Club, that Committee, in accordance with yoiir suggestion, made application to the War Department for au- thority to raise a negro regiment in this State. They, yester- da/, received luch an authorizatioa, and have directed me to 1 86 APPEffDJX. transmit to you a copy of it, and also of the application, and to express the hope thnt so far as is in your power, you will give the movement your aid and countenance. " They direct me also to suggest that tome ttepii should b« taken to put a stop to the recruiting in this State of men for other States, and to the inducing men to leave this State and enlist elsewhere. The Committee believe that this has been done and is being done to a considerable extent, and particu- larly with colored men. " Your obedient irrvant, " GEORGE BLISS, J«.. " Snrrtary." No reply was received to this letter, nor was any notice taken of it "As an instance of the feeling against colored troops in the city at this time, it was found impossible to have a band to escort the regiment down Broadway ; both Ciraffiila and Dods- worth refused, and it was only upon application to the Secre- tary of War that the Government band was furnished. " Recruits in large numbers quickly came. Squads of them came from distant parts of the State. • • • Among the volunteers enlisting were men from the British West India Islands, Hayti, Canada, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and the West ; but the majority were from the respectable, industrious and hard-working classes of otir own State and city. One pastor of a church, the Rev. Mr. I^ Vere, since appointed chaplain of the Twentieth, came with the greater part of the male members of his congregation. Some were men who had been driven out of their homes by the mob in July. One young man, WilliaVn Derickson, whose mother was murdered by the mob, and who had his clothes saturated with camphene and straw piled over him in the street in order that he might be burned to death, but who was in time rescued by the police, volunteered, and is now with the Twenty-sixth at Beaufort." — (Extract fr.>m report of Committee on Voluoteering, presented Oct. 13th, 1864.) APPENDIX. 187 ADDRESS TO THE 20TH REGIMENT, VS. S. COLORED TROOPS ON THE OCCASION OF THK PRESENTATION OF A STAND OF COLORS DY THE LADIES, MARCH jTH, 1864. 7» the Officers and Members of the toth United States Colored Troops : Soldiers, Wt . the mothers, wives and sisters, of the members of the New York Union League Club, by whose liberality and intelligent patriotism, and under whose direct auspices you have been orftnniicd info a body of National troops for the de- fense of the Union, earnestly sympathizing in the great cause of American free nntionality, and desirous of testifying by some memorial, our profound sense of the sacred object t^nd the holy cause in behalf of which you have enlisted, have prepared for you this banner, at once the emblem of freedom and of faith, and the symbol of woman's best wishes and prayers for our common country, and especially for your devotion thereto. When you look at this flag and rush to battle, or stand at guard beneath its sublime motto, "God and Liberty!" re- member that it is also an emblem of love and honor from the daughters of this great metropolis to her brave champions in the field, and that they will anxiously watch your career, glory- ing in your heroism, ministering to you when wounded and ill, and honoring your martyrdom with benedictions and with tears. Mas. J. J. ASTOR, Mas. E. COLLINS, '• .0. W. BLUNT. '• BRADISH. " J. W. BEEKMAN, " BRUCE, " S. WETMORE, " TUCKERMAN, " S. B. CHITTENDEN, " SHAW, •' N. D. SMITH, " WILLIAMS. " T. M. CHEESMAN, " P. RICHARDS, " H. A. COIT. ' " R. WINTHROP, " A. P. MAN, " WEEKS. " J. J. PHELPS, " C. C. DODGE, " G. B. D« FOREST. " JOHN JAY. " Lt G. B. CANNON. " E. M. YOUNG. " W. A. BUTLER, " J. S. SCHULTi, 1 88 APPENDIX. Mtt. U. A. MURDOCK, " A. DUNLAP, " F. E. HOWE. " W. H. LEE. " W. E. DODGE. ;»., " DAVID IIOADLY. •• C. LUDINGTON, " 0. LEMIST. '• E. C. COWDIN. " J. A. ROOSEVELT, " J. SAMPSON. " R. B. MINTURN. J«., " ALFRED PELL, Jt., " W. HUTCHINS. • •• GEO. OPDVKE. '• 0. C. WARD, " C. G. JUDSON. •' S. W. ROOSEVELT. •• E. D. SMITH, •• P. S. Van RENSSELAER, •' WALTER, " H. BALDWIN, '• H. G. THOMSON. •• F. C. PENDEXTER, " H. C. CHAPMAN, '• G. BANCROFT, " M. K, JESUP, " J. C. D, DAVIH. •' W, H. SCIMEFFBLIN, " r. B. GODWIN. •• C. BLISS. J«.. " S. J. BACON, '• R. B. MINTURN, " CHARLES KING, •' S. W. BRIDGHAM, '• S. GANDV, " K. L. STUART, '• E. W. STOUGHTON. " J. W. BIGELOW. " M. O. ROBERTS, '• H. K. BOGART, •• E. C, HALL, " J. Lb ROY, MRS. J. E. BRENLV, " i\. CHAUNCEY, " K. M. HUNT, " JONES, Miu ;. SCHIEFFELIN. " FISH. •• JAY. " EMILY BOERUM, " NOKSWORTHY, Mtt. W. E. DODGE. " R. STEHDINS. " S. B. SCHIEFFELIN. Miss KING, Mil. J. B. JOHNSON, •• JAQUES. , " A. BROOKS, " W. FELT, " J. W. GODDARD, '• F. G. SHAW. " R. G. SHAW. ■' G. B. CURTISS. •■ R. C. LOWELL, •• C. G. KIRKLAND, '• B. Di FOREST. " BOERUM. " HAMILTON FISH, " ALFRED PELL, " KENNnnV, '• J, J01INflT0>f, •' T. L. DEEKMAN, ■• J. F. GRAY. •• J. TUCKERMAN. •' F. A. WHITTAKBR " J. H. MACY. " F. H. MACY. •• J. McKAYE. " W. L. FELT. •• T. HASKELL, " ISAAC AMES. •' L. F. WARNER. " A.G.PHELPS, •' N. CHANDLER, ■' H. POTTER, APPElfDIX. 189 MlB. J. BROWN. " M. CLARK30N, . " J. O. STONE. •• J. G. KING. J«.. " H. Van RENSSELAER, •• J. A. KING, Jr.. " J. C. CASSEGEE. " J. L. KENNEDY. " F. PRIME. •• BARNWALL. •• WHEELWRIGHT, Mrs. W. MiM ANNA JAY, " YOUNG. " SCHULTZ, " RUSSELL. " J. M. KING. " COCHRANE. Mrs. VINCENT COLYER, •' C. C. HUNT. •' C. WILLIAMS. " E. H. CHAUNCEY. •' E. W. CRUGER, C. BRYANT. THANKSGIVING DINNER. Cumraittee on the Thanksgiving Dinner for the Soldiers and Sailors. Appointed Nov. 3d, 1864. At a meeting of the Union League Club, held Nov. 3d, 1864, George Bliss, Jr., called the attention of the members to the fact that Mr. George W, Blunt had suggested through the news- papers the propriety of a movement to provide a Thanksgiving Dinner for the Soldiers and Sailors, and moved the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted ; " Resolved, That • committee be appointed to co-operate in the movement for providing a Thanksgiving Dinner for Sol- diers and Sailors at the front." The following General Committee was appointed t Charles H, MAkiHALL, George W. Blunt, Stephen Hyatt, Jackson S. Shultz, Parker Handy, Livi A. DowLSY, Theodore Roosbvilt, GtoROB Buss, Jr., Jonathan Sturobs, Lb Grand B. Cannon, WiLUAM E. DODOB, Horace Grbxlrt, William H. Lbb, William C. Bbtamt, Rush C. Hawkins, Henry J. Raymond, A. R. Wetmore, W. G. Lambkrt. Stephen Burkhaltbr, T. R. Butler, L. Delmonico, Charles A. Stetson, Francis Skiddy, Simeon Draper, Timothy Churchill, Thomas H. Fails, Gborob C. Wako, Thomas Dals, 19° APPENDIX. W. R. VBRMiLn, John D. Jonei, Fkancis M. Fmnch, Edward Walkh, Robert Bliu, John E. Wiluami, EztA NvE, James Kelly, B. B. Sreeman, Chaeles Dennison. Chaelu H. Maeihall, Cbalrmin. Tbiodou Roosetclt, Trau., G:u}ece Bliss, Jr., See. ExKCUTivB Committee. Stbthen Hvatt, Jackson S. Schulti, Paekee Handy, Charles H. Marshall, TiMOTHT G. ChUECHILL, ThEODOEE RoOSEVELT, Lbti a. Dowlet, Geoege Bliss, Jr., COMMITTEI ON BaNKS. Thomas H. Faiu, Chaelu H. Maeshali, John E. Wiluams. Committee on Insurance Companies. llMontT G. CRVEcmLL, JoHH D. Jone*. Committee on Brokers. W. R. Veemilvi. Committee on Cooking. Jamm Kbllt, Chaeles A. Stbteow, L. Delmonico. Committee on Packing. STmrasN Hyatt. Committee on Drt Goods. William H. Ub, Roeeet Buis. Committee on Booksellerb and Publishers. BowARO Waiur, Geoeoe p. Putnam. APPENDIX. 191 CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. RESOLUTION PASSED BY THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE or THE CLUB, MAY, 1864. Resolved. — That the Executive Committee recommend to the general meeting of the Club, that committees be appointed for the purpose of obtaining information concerning gaining the support of the public for, and aiding in the passage of a bill just introduced into the Senate of the United Stales, known as the " Civil Service Bill," the object of which is to provide for the appointment of all civil officers connected with the treasury, post office, and other governmental service, after a careful examination as to fitness ; office to be held during good behavior with prospect of promotion ; and a retir- ing pension in case of advanced age or disability ; and that such committee be instructed to correspond with the Union League Clubs of Boston and Philadelphia for the purpose of obtaining their codperation. ENUNCIATION OF REPUBLICAN PRINCIPLES. :876. In May, 1876, the Club unamiously adopted a series of resolutions embodying the following principles : I. That all citizens shall be equal before the law, and shall be protected by the laws. II. That specie payment, and gold as the standard of values, shall be speedily restored. III. That the civil service shall be reformed, and on these points, at least both the resolutions and the nominees of the approaching Republican National Convention shall be such as to leave no ground either of doubt or distrust. Resolutions were also passed : I. In regard to corruption in, and the administration of public affairs. '9* AfPBKDTX. II. Against the exclusive management and control of local affairs by an organized machinery of office-holders. III. A demand that independent and diaintercstcd Re- publicans in the city and state shall be fairly represented in the election of delegates about to be chosen to the Slate •nd National Conventions. IV. The sending of delegates pledged or committed be- forehand to the support of any candidate, is a gross violation of the first principles of Republican institutions, and an out- rage upon the rights and the wishes of the great majority of the party. • • • We insist that the representation of the State of N'ew York in . the convention shall be committed to a delegation wholly unpacked and unpledged, who shall be untrammtlcd and free to choose from among all the can- didates that may be brought before the coi vention, and un- less this can be conceded, we refuse to be bound by its action. V. That desiring, as we most earnestly do, the success of the Republican parly in the next presidental election, and believing that the best interests of the country require the election by that party of a Presidcr' from its ranks, we desire promptly and explicitly to avow our conviction that ^uch success is not po^ible unless ihe candidate of the Republican party be a man who is not only identified with Its great principles and possessed by a proud appreciation of its past services, and who will be recognired by the com- mon judgement of the country as fitted by ability and ex- perience in public affairs for the responsibilities of his high office, but also a man who has no connection, direct or indi- rect, with the errors and abuses which have brought reproach upon the fair name of Ihe country and party, who it above aiy suspicion of sympathy ox association with those who have been guilty of these abuser, and whose name and career •hall be in themselves a guarantee of a complete renovation of the public service, o. a thorough purging of official abuses, and of an administration of the government upon principles of honesty, eronoray, intelligence and fidelity to public Iniit APPENDIX. 193 In our judgment, and, we believe, in that of all unbiased and reflecting men, the exigencies of the party, as well as the country, at this time demand a President who shall be deservedly recognised as a Reformer as well as a Republican SERVICES OF THE CLUB NOT OF RECORD. Besides the current work and doings of the Union League Club, as narrated in the foregoing sketch, there was much that received no special record. The following are examples . Aid extended by the Club to Mr. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury in Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet, in placing Government loans. The directors of banks and trust companies of the city were largely represented in the Club, a»id frequently meeting at the Club Rooms discussed the financial policy of the Government, and its means of raising money to carry on the war. These conferences, and their patriotism, led to the joint action of the banks and the Secretary in negotiating the Government bonds, a service often acknowledged by Mr. Chase himself. 2d. Assistance in transferring the capital of State banks un- der the National Bank system. By this means an early monetary stringency was averted. 3d. The establishment of the Quartermaster's Certificate system. This plan enabled the Government to easily supply and keep the army in the field uniformly provided with stores and equip- ments, and helped bring about the participation of the small manufacturers and producers throughout the country in the businesj of supplying the demands and necessities of the Gov- ernment. This was accomplished by the issue of certificates in triplicate from the Quartermaster's Department of the army, which were discounted at banks or held as collateral security to a vast amount for future redemption by the Government Mr. George Opdyke, in conjunction with other members of the Club, was largely instrumental in practiculariting this method of transferring credits. 194 APPENDIX. ML 14^ Negro, prcdjudice acain«t . . . . • 6a, 194 New Vork at beglniiing of war . , . . . 17* Noyei, William Curtii, resolution! of r«tpeel to . . .73 . . . 65 g], 166 176 . 119 lot, 104, 141 107 lag 74 60, 69, 96, laS, 14a, isi 84-87 • 59.90 . 89 36 a? 45 45 71. 74. «75 . 58 141 • 179 85, 9a, 100, 104, 1 19 Officers, first election of Officers for 1864 Olmsted, Fred. Law, letter* of Orsaiilzation of Club, first meeting " Committee on Parrlsh Building, lease of Prefatory Presidential Election, 1B64 1876 . Prealdents, lUt of PollcTof Club, 1865 1868 1869 " 1870 1875 " 1878 1879 . . Portraits and Busts, presentation 01 PoliliaU Reform, Committee on 50 6a . II, 17, 39 36 . 39 • 53 t . 66 136 174 84 "3 115 ia3 13a '44 «53. «59. >6» 60, 73. «o« 9». '»7 119. «36. »38. »4*. 300 INDEX. Qukrtennuter's Certificate mtem Quinqr, Josiah, resolution of respect to Reception lo Oflicerk . Recons'ruclion policy of Congreti, lymptthy with Recniiting, Second Corpt Repudiation .... Reception, Ladiei " " origin of Republican Trinciplej, Enunciation of . RInp and I'olilical Corruption Riot, New York Roll of Honor, Ladlet Rttolutloni in rrgifrd to Unlvrnal Suffrae* on ri»««agei of Civil Kighli DiTi , " on tnii|;riitlon " on Cliy Government " Univerul Suffrage. " Sympathy with recontlnictioa policy Cfiril kighti Kill Reaolulioni on Election p'raudt " in regard lo Club Policy " Civil Service " Republican Principle!, enunciation of Sanitary Cnmmiition, the United State* Stanton, Hon. Edwin M., death of Slavery. re»uln of abolition of Seymour, Gov., corretpondence with Sherman, John, letter of . . . Sheridan, Gen., reception of 5>trvice of the Club not of record Smith, Goldwin, breakfast to Strong, Geo. T., lettera of Soldier's Rett. School, Public, question SuCTrage, Equal .... " Universal .... Schura, Hon. Carl, reception of Thanksgiving dinner, Committees on Treasurer, first appointed Trustees of Building Fund Thompvjn, Rev. J. P., addreu of. " Thirteenth Amendment " Committee oa "Unconditional Loyalty" .... Union League Club, Philadelphia . Volanteering, Committee o« . ... Wadsworlh, Gen., honors to remains of WInalow, Capt., reception of White, Pre*, address of . Woci of lh« Club dbring the war " ta Sute. Mioldpd, and Ntlkmal Reform «93 73 v^ :"> university or uaiiTornia SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 305 De Neve Drive • Parking Lot 17 • Box 951388 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. ^^Hmon4^y ^ofCAtiFa "^^AavaaiT^^ ,^W^UNIV£RJ•/A 3 1158 01205 669 UCSOUTHERNJEGIONALLIBRARYFAa^^^^^^^ AA 000 947 260 6 J0^ o