Grand Old Partisan

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I honor Jacob Trieber, born in Poland, October 6th 1853. Age thirteen, he immigrated with his family, settling first in St. Louis then eastern Arkansas. He passed the bar after intensive studies with a former supreme court justice. Throughout adulthood, he worshipped at a Reform Judaism temple. Trieber’s political career started on a town council. He attended three Republican National Conventions. He was vice chairman of the state GOP, which nominated him for attorney general and chief justice and Congress. Party leaders knew him to be "one of the very ablest and most conservative Republicans of the state and has at all times labored for the true principles of Republicanism." April 1897, William McKinley named him U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. This fearless prosecutor took on high-profile cases in opposition to Democrat tyranny. Jul...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I honor Levi Baxter, born October 5th 1788. Opportunities in the lumber industry drew him from western New York to southern Michigan. There he constructed several sawmills. Neighbors knew him to be "a man of large discernment and excellent judgement; of much social, political, and industrial influence." In 1848, as a member of the anti-slavery Free Soil Party, Baxter was elected state senator. Six years later, he chaired the first Republican Party state convention –  Under the Oaks at Jackson on July 6th. "Fellow citizens of Michigan," his opening statement began, "let us bow our heads and pray for success in the great enterprise which has brought us here." Two sons became prominent in state politics and another, Union Army general and ambassador to Honduras. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is my civil rights his...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I acclaim our Party's respect for human rights. October 5th 1988, President Ronald Reagan dedicated the cornerstone of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. "We gather here today, as we have been so eloquently told here, for a solemn, profound, saddening, and yet triumphant occasion. It's an occasion that commemorates all we've lost — the irreplaceable humanity whose monstrous end will ever testify to the hellish depths of human evil. But it's an occasion that commemorates something else as well, it commemorates the seriousness of our intention — as human beings, as Americans, and, in the case of many here today, as Jews — to keep the memory of the six million, fresh and enduring." "We who did not go their way owe them this. We must make sure their deaths have posthumous meaning. We must make sure that from now until the end of days al...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I spotlight a memorial to our nation’s 19th President. In his hometown of Delaware, Ohio there stands a bronze statue of Rutherford Hayes . It was unveiled at a ceremony on October 4th – his birthday – 2019. The chief fundraiser said of him: "In addition to serving in our government, he volunteered for service in the Civil War despite having three children at home. He also supported the 15th Amendment granting freed African American men the right to vote and was an advocate for prison reform." And the sculptor commented: "You don’t rise from common stock, become a leading general and later president of the United States without a degree of audacity and swagger, and I wanted to project that strength. I put sadness in his eyes because of all that he had experienced during the Civil War. But I also wanted to project him as a visionary, gazing into the future as ...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute Rutherford Hayes , born near Columbus, October 4th 1822. The scholarly youth excelled at Harvard Law School. His legal practice in Cincinnati defended many slaves fleeing from Kentucky. He entered politics as city councilman. Outbreak of civil war, the Republican governor commissioned him major with the 23rd Ohio Infantry. Also in the regiment were future president William McKinley and future supreme court justice Stanley Matthews. Hayes survived a gunshot wound and rose to brigadier general. In 1864, the state GOP nominated him for Congress. Refusing to leave the battlefield for campaigning, he defeated a pro-Confederate Democrat. During his second term, Hayes was elected governor. Four years out of office, he again won the governorship. For the 1876 presidential election, Republicans found in Rutherford Hayes an ideal candidate –...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute Erasmus Peck, born September 16th 1808. After studying medicine at Yale, he practiced in Ohio and won a state house term. During the Civil War, Peck served as Examining Surgeon for the army. This patriotic Republican won a congressional vacancy in 1870, then was re-elected. Receiving his vote were the [anti-] Ku Klux Klan Act and Yellowstone National Park. 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 this article. Here is a TikTok Video about this article. Michael Zak is author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party , a history of G...