The Unconditional Union Party was a unionist

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. It was a regional counterpart to the National Union Party that supported the wartime administration of Abraham Lincoln. The party was active in the border states and Union-occupied areas of the Confederacy. After the war, it formed the nucleus of the Republican Party in the

Upper South The Upland South and Upper South are two overlapping cultural and geographic subregions in the inland part of the Southern United States. They differ from the Deep South and Atlantic coastal plain by terrain, history, economics, demographics, ...

. Following the commencement of hostilities in April 1861, Unionists won critical elections in

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

and

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

ahead of the July 4 emergency session of Congress and established provisional governments in

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

and the western counties of Virginia.

Emancipation Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure Economic, social and cultural rights, economic and social rights, civil and political rights, po ...

and the enlistment of Black soldiers split the Unionist movement, with Radicals embracing calls for the immediate abolition of slavery in response to wartime exigencies. Factional strife culminated in a formal schism between the Conservative Unionists and the Radicals, who called themselves the Unconditional Union Party to signify their uncompromising support for the war effort. Nationally, Unconditional Unionists aligned themselves with the

Radical Republicans The Radical Republicans were a political faction within the Republican Party originating from the party's founding in 1854—some six years before the Civil War—until the Compromise of 1877, which effectively ended Reconstruction. They ca ...

in calling for the immediate abolition of slavery in the United States, the enlistment of Black soldiers to fight in the Union Army, and the aggressive prosecution of the war. They frequently clashed with the Lincoln administration and Conservative Unionists in their own states over issues related to emancipation, military appointments and strategy, and the looming issue of

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...

. Some Radicals favored running a candidate against Lincoln in the

1864 United States presidential election United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 8, 1864, near the end of the American Civil War. Incumbent President Abraham Lincoln of the National Union Party (United States), National Uni ...

, but most eventually supported Lincoln's re-election on the National Union ticket. After the war, the party continued to operate as a regional counterpart to the Republican Party. Circumstances emerging from Reconstruction, particularly the introduction of Black suffrage, led state parties to adopt the Republican label in the late 1860s, although in Missouri the Republican organization continued to call itself the Radical Union Party as late as 1870.

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