Hello Barbara and readers, This question came up a couple years ago by a stamp collector who had seen an envelope with the Anti-Cobden Club return address It was sent from 1891 Philadelphia. From <http://www.cobdenclub.co.uk/about.html> : "Richard Cobden was a previous generation (d.1865) English politician who favored workers and free-trade. Cobden Clubs were begun in England [and America?] to promote his ideas. When the Civil War threatened to break out in the United States, Cobden was deeply distressed. After the conflict became inevitable his sympathies were wholly with the North, because the South was fighting for slavery. His great anxiety, however, was that the British nation should not be committed to any unworthy course during the progress of that struggle. And when relations with America were becoming critical and menacing in consequence of the depredations committed on American commerce by vessels issuing from British ports, he brought the question before the House of Commons in a series of speeches of rare clearness and...." Thus, the Cobden movement begot an anti-Cobden movement and clubs. A guess is that the Anti's were businessmen who favored high tariffs on incoming goods, hoping to reduce foreign competition, and/or those who disliked spending taxes on public arts and enrichment projects aimed at the working class. Or . . . ? Tom Clarke 1-29-06