Grand Old Partisan

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I acclaim Republican opposition to the Ku Klux Klan. In southern states after the Civil War, the KKK and other Democrat terrorist organizations murdered thousands of African-Americans and also white Republicans. Violence was especially horrific in South Carolina. Ulysses Grant warned that the state was "under the domination of systematic and organized depravity" and a "carnival of crime not paralleled in the history of any civilized community." An effective countermeasure was the GOP’s 1871 Civil Rights Act. October 17th , the President used this authorization to declare martial law in nine counties and suspend habeas corpus there. Federal authorities arrested thousands of Democrat thugs, including six hundred Klansmen. This ended what amounted to an insurgency. Tragically, however, Slavery Party mayhem continued throughout the form...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I honor Isaac Murphy, born October 16th 1799. After several years practicing law in Pennsylvania, he relocated to Tennessee. There, his father-in-law disowned him for opposing slavery. Th e couple settled in Arkansas. With civil war looming, Murphy was elected delegate to a state convention and cast the only vote against secession. A patriotic woman tossed him a floral bouquet. He soon fled to northwest Arkansas, a Unionist stronghold. U.S. troops captured Little Rock in September 1863. President Lincoln authorized anti-Confederate Arkansans to form a new government, and Murphy was elected Governor. He upheld the Union and, after fighting ceased, avoided recriminations against former rebels. His motto: "Industry, Education and Christian morality are the pillars of freedom." Remaining in office until July 1868, Governor Murphy lef...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute Theodore Van Buren Coupland, born in Alabama, October 16th 1836. He relocated to Texas as a youth. Outbreak of civil war, the patriot escaped to Union-held territory and was commissioned major with the 1st (U.S.) Texas Cavalry. Coupland married the niece of a Republican governor. He served as customs collector at New Orleans for several GOP administrations. Later, back in Texas, he was county sheriff and federal court deputy clerk. The town of Coupland is named for him. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is my civil rights history of the GOP. To quote the book: "The more we Republicans know about the history of our party, the more Democrats will worry about the future of theirs. For more information, see www.grandoldpartisan.com .  Here is a YouTube Video about this article. Here is an Instagram Video about...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I highlight Republican respect for our nation’s heritage. October 15th 1924, President Calvin Coolidge declared the Statue of Liberty to be a national monument. His proclamation cited the Antiquities Act, passed by the GOP-controlled 59th Congress.  "I, Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States of America, under authority of the said Act of Congress do hereby declare and proclaim the hereinafter designated areas with the historic structures and objects thereto appertaining, and any other object or objects specifically designated, within the following military reservations to be national monuments: FORT WOOD, NEW YORK  The site of the Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World , the foundations of which are built in the form of an eleven-pointed star and clearly define the area comprising about two and one-half acres." ...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I highlight the Grace Bedell story. To her, Abraham Lincoln owed his iconic bearded look. October 15th 1860, the eleven-year-old wrote the Republican presidential nominee: "I have yet got four brothers and part of them will vote for you any way and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President." Lincoln replied: "As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a silly affectation if I were to begin it now?" He did indeed begin growing a beard. While the President-elect, he had an opportunity to meet Miss Bedell in her hometown of Westfield, New York. Six years later, she married a ...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I praise Henry Selden, born October 14th 1805. Age twenty, he settled in upstate New York to study law. The state appellate court named him its case reporter. Having invested in the company, he was named president of what became Western Union. Selden left the Democratic Party, because of his opposition to slavery, and co-founded the state GOP. In 1856, he was elected Lieutenant Governor. Months after leaving office, he helped Frederick Douglass evade slave catchers. This ardent Republican was delegate to the party's 1860 national convention. Two years later, a Republican Governor named him to the court of appeals. In 1873, Selden defended Susan B. Anthony, pro bono, in her trial for having voted. He was eulogized as "the peer of the noblest of those who surrounded him." Back to Basics for the Republican Party is my civil rights history of the GOP. T...