Grand Old Partisan

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I commemorate Emancipation Party advances toward freeing slaves. August 6th 1861, President Lincoln signed An Act to Confiscate Property Used for Insurrectionary Purposes . The federal government was authorized to seize property of anyone who participated in the rebellion. Page 70 of  Back to Basics for the Republican Party explains that as this so-called property included slaves, profound were the implications. Republican Senator Lyman Trumbull introduced the bill, and Republican Representative John Bingham wrote its final language. Democrats were united in opposition. It became known as the "First Confiscation Act" a year later, when Congress passed an improved confiscation act. 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...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute Thomas Tipton, born on an Ohio farm, August 5th 1817. He studied law after college. Whig President Zachary Taylor named him to a position at the federal land office. His next career move was becoming a Methodist preacher. Tipton relocated to Nebraska and won election to the territorial legislature. During the Civil War, he served as chaplain with the 1st Nebraska Infantry. This regiment battled through Missouri and Tennessee and Arkansas. Tipton was delegate at the 1867 state constitutional convention. Nebraska admitted to the Union that year, the legislature elected him a U.S. Senator. His policy priorities were agricultural colleges, railroads and voting rights for African-Americans. Sadly, he left the GOP to support the 1872 Democrat presidential nominee. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is my civil rights history of the GOP. To quo...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute Thomas Haughey. The teenager immigrated from Scotland, eventually settling in Alabama. He attended New Orleans Medical College. Prior to the Civil War, Haughey opposed slavery. In his words: "Having taken a prominent part against secession, and having thus made myself exceedingly obnoxious to the leaders of that movement, I was compelled to abandon my home and family and take refuge within the Union lines." He enlisted as surgeon with the 3rd (U.S.) Tennessee Infantry. Peace restored, Dr. Haughey was delegate at the state’s 1867 constitutional convention. Upon readmission, he won election to the U.S. House of Representatives, as a Republican. The 15th Amendment received his vote. While delivering a speech, Haughey was shot by a political opponent. He lingered five days before dying, on August 5th 1869. Democrats cheered the murder, calling him "a vagab...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I highlight the Emancipation Party defeating the Slavery Party. August 4th 1965, Minority Leader Everett Dirksen led his Republican Senate colleagues in overcoming Democrat opposition to the Voting Rights Act. All but one Republican Senators voted for it, while only 74% of Democrats did so. Dirksen had co-sponsored a motion referring the bill to the Judiciary Committee with instructions to report back no later than April 9th. Enforcing the GOP's Fifteenth Amendment, the 1965 Voting Rights abolished illicit measures used by Democrats to prevent Blacks from voting. 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 Yo...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I honor Macon Allen, born in Indiana, August 4th 1816. The ambitious schoolteacher relocated to Maine and studied law under tutelage of an abolitionist who later co-founded the state GOP. Passing the bar in July 1844 made him the nation’s first African-American lawyer. He later became a justice of the peace in Boston. Allen moved to South Carolina after the Civil War, and with two others opened the first Black-owned law firm. Republicans nominated him for secretary of state. February 1873, the GOP-controlled legislature elected him to a judicial vacancy. After two years with the Grant administration Treasury Department, he was elected probate judge. Allen settled in Washington, DC to practice law for a real estate company. He "left a legacy as a pioneer in African American legal history that transcended time, space, and the tenor of the nation and...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute Alfred Torbert, born in Delaware, July 1st 1833. He graduated from West Point in 1855. Early deployments were to Nebraska and Wyoming. Being from a slave state, Torbert was offered a position by Confederates at outbreak of civil war. Remaining loyal, he accepted command of the 1st New Jersey Infantry. His troops fought at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Winchester. President Grant made him Ambassador to El Salvador, then Consul General in Havana, then Consul General in Paris. Torbert joined with other businessmen planning to build a railroad in Mexico. Enroute, he drowned when his ship sank during a storm near the Florida coast, August 29th 1880. There is a statue of the venturesome general in his hometown. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is my civil rights history of the GOP. To quote the book: "The more...