The National Union Convention (also known as the Loyalist Convention, the Southern Loyalist Convention, or the National Loyalists' Loyal Union Convention) held on August 14, 15, and 16, 1866 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The convention was called in advance of the mid-year elections of 1866 in an attempt to bridge the increasingly acrimonious gap between the Radical Republicans and the Reconstruction policies of U.S. President Andrew Johnson. The goal of creating a new political party was not realized.

About 7,000 prominent politicians and activists attended. At the opening of the convention, men from Massachuetts and South Carolina paraded arm in arm to symbolize national reconciliation and social equity.

In the end, the convention was not successful in unifying the country behind Johnson, and Johnson then launched a speaking tour (known as the Swing Round the Circle) hoping to regain public and political support. On this speaking tour, Johnson at times attacked his Republican opponents with crude and abusive language and on several occasions appeared to have had too much to drink. Ultimately, the tour was a disaster for Johnson, emboldening the Congress to override him and to impeach him in 1868.

Notable attendees include

• John Minor Botts, U.S. Representative from Virginia
• Ralph Pomeroy Buckland, U.S. Representative from Ohio
• Edgar Cowan, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania
• Darius Crouch, U.S. Army General
• William Earl Dodge, U.S. Representative from New York
• James Rood Doolittle, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin
• Frederick Douglass, abolitionist
• William McKee Dunn, U.S. Representative from Indiana
• James Edward English, U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from Connecticut
• Horace Greeley, publisher and U.S. Representative from New York
• William S. Groesbeck, state legislator from Ohio
• Andrew Jackson Hamilton, U.S. Representative from Texas
• James K. Holland, state legislator from Texas
• Reverdy Johnson, U.S. Senator from Maryland
• James Harlan, U.S. Senator from Iowa
• Jacob Merritt Howard, U.S. Senator from Michigan
• Henry Jarvis Raymond, U.S. Representative from New York
• William Lawrence, U.S. Representative from Ohio
• John Wesley Longyear, U.S. Representative from Michigan
• Samuel S. Marshall, U.S. Representative from Illinois
• Horace Maynard, U.S. Representative from Tennessee
• Richard Oglesby, Governor of Illinois
• James Lawrence Orr, Governor of South Carolina
• George Hunt Pendleton, U.S. Senator from Ohio
• Cyrus L. Pershing, jurist and later Governor of Pennsylvania
• Robert Cumming Schenck, U.S. Representative from Ohio
• Byron Gray Stout, U.S. Representative from Michigan
• Theodore Tilton
• Benjamin Franklin Wade, U.S. Representative from Ohio
• William Barrett Washburn, U.S. Representative from Massachusetts
• Peter Godwin Van Winkle, U.S. Senator from West Virginia
• Fernando Wood, copperhead Mayor of New York City
• Clement Vallandigham, copperhead from Ohio

External links

• address to President, by Hon. Reverdy Johnson, Aug. 18, 1866, communicating proceedings National Union Convention (http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llcg&fileName=084/llcg084.db&Page=22) entered into the record of Johnson's impeachment trial.