The Universal Peace Union was a pacifist organization founded by former members of the American Peace Society in Providence, Rhode Island with the adoption of its constitution on 16 May 1866; it was chartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 9 April 1888. It ceased operations in 1913, shortly after the death of Alfred H. Love, who served as the organization's president from its founding. Other founders and officers included minister and reformer Adin Ballou, American Red Cross founder Clara Barton, politician and author Belva Ann Lockwood, reformer Lucretia Mott, Nobel Peace Prize winner Frédéric Passy, editor Mary L. F. Ormsby, and politician and educator John Wesley Hoyt. Ella B. Ensor Wilson served as president of the Wilsonton (Kansas) branch of the UPU.