The American Secular Union ( ASU , also sometimes called the "American Secular Union and Freethought Federation") espoused secularism and freethought at the end of the 19th century in the United States .
7-621: As the National Liberal League suffered crippling factionalism and radicalization over the period 1878 to 1885, liberals reorganized in a non-political "American Secular Union" in 1884. Colonel Robert Green Ingersoll (1833–1899) served as the first president of the Union. Ida Craddock was elected Secretary of the Philadelphia chapter of the Union in 1889. The American Secular Union and Freethought Federation dedicated themselves to
14-661: The American Secular Union around 1885. Circa November 1901, a faction of the American Secular Union split off, and resumed use of the older "National Liberal League" name. The name was again in use circa 1945 by an organization which is claimed to have been unrelated. During Eisenhower's presidency, the National Liberal League questioned the appointment of William Brennan to the Supreme Court. In
21-456: The separation of church and state , and for its platform used the nine demands of liberalism, namely: The American Secular Union published over a dozen pamphlets on topics regarding separation of church and state between 1886 and 1928. Following Ingersoll's death in 1899 various leadership changes occurred. The organization withered around 1919. National Liberal League (United States) The National Liberal League (1876 – c.1885) of
28-621: The Civil War that sought to combat Sunday laws, bible-reading in public schools, and other government policies perceived to violate religious liberty. These issues would concern the National Liberal League that formed in the 1870s. Officers included Francis E. Abbott , T.B. Wakeman , Elizur Wright , Robert G. Ingersoll , and others. Annual conventions took place in Syracuse (1878) Cincinnati (1879), St. Louis (1882), Milwaukee (1883), and Cleveland (1885). In 1884 The Radical Review observed that
35-451: The League "gave promises of great usefulness in the early years of its existence. In the fall of 1878 its activity was crippled by the appearance of some of those internal strifes and dissentions which seem to be the inevitable accompaniment of the development of all reformatory organisations. To screen personal animosities, always contemptible, side issues were introduced, and the essential aim of
42-419: The League lost sight of. ... The National Liberal League split on the discussion of the constitutionality of the so-called Comstock law of 1873 ." Ingersoll resigned from his vice-presidency after the 1879 convention, in opposition to an adopted motion to provide a general defense, rather than his preference to exclude distributors of prurient material and only defend "real Freethought". The league evolved into
49-480: The United States advocated separation of church and state and the freedom of religion. The league evolved into the American Secular Union in 1884. The First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis grew directly out of the chapter there. The National Liberal League was one of the first national organizations dedicated to separating church and state. It was presaged by a series of local organizations that emerged before
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