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During the 1870s and 1880s, several Labor Parties were formed in different places (often large cities) across the country, that were not part of a single political organization. These parties often were backed by unions and had labor-friendly platforms. The parties would sometimes, but not always, have socialist platforms. The Milwaukee Trades’ Assembly, which became the Union Labor Party, was a particularly strong, electing some state representatives and a US congressman, Henry Smith, who also had run for office as a Greenbacker, a Socialist, and a Democrat. A second Labor Party congressman, Samuel I. Hopkins, was a civil war veteran who fought for the confederacy, and was part of an unrelated Labor Party organization to the Milwaukee branch. Most of these Labor Party organizations dissolved during the 1880s, with many members either joining the Socialist or Populist Parties, which were formed later. Rep. Lewis P. Featherstone, for example, became a populist after his tenure in congress. A later Union Labor Party in Minnesota, founded in Duluth in the early 1900’s, elected a representative to congress before merging into the Farmer-Labor Party, and eventually the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota.