Loyalist

The Loyalists were a political faction within the Galactic Republic Senate. The Loyalist senators promoted loyalty to the Republic and its leader, Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, during the Separatist Crisis and the ensuing Clone Wars. Palpatine formed a select group of senators to make up the Loyalist Committee. They were loyal to the expansion of Palpatine's emergency war powers. The faction was strangely held together by an alliance between several idealists, the Militarist faction, and threatened Rim Worlds. Most members believed that the Republic was the only thing that ensured peace and justice in the galaxy, and that the Clone Wars were necessary to avoid a devastating collapse of the economy that was rooted in secession.

During the Clone Wars, the term "Loyalist" came to simply refer to those who supported the Republic instead of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Senior Captain Mitth'raw'nuruodo "Thrawn" referred to the star systems in support of the Republic as the "Loyalist systems." The Loyalist political faction remained in existence, but some of its members came to disagree with Palpatine's use of Emergency Powers and formed the Delegation of 2,000. Senator Mon Mothma defended the delegation as an outgrowth of Loyalist ideology, insisting that the group existed to preserve democracy within the Republic.

Text and facts from the “Loyalist” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.