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The Union League Club brought together elite men of the city committed to Union victory and the Republican Party. Union Leagues throughout the North and West recruited hundreds of regiments, including many of the new United States Colored Troops. The Union League Club at 26 East 17th Street was the point of origin for the parade on March 4, 1863 that celebrated the departure of New York-based USCT regiments for the war. The pageantry only provoked the racist and anti-Republican Party crowds and leaders that would perpetrate the draft riots four months later.