Grand Old Partisan

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I celebrate Juneteenth. This holiday marks the end of slavery in the United States. Though the Civil War was over, Democrats in control of Texas neglected to inform their slaves that they had been declared free two years earlier by President Abraham Lincoln. June 19th 1865, General Gordon Granger landed at Galveston and proclaimed an end to slavery in the Lone Star State: "The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor." African-Americans rejoiced, while Democrats raged. General Granger then traveled around Texas to inform African-Americans, still being held in bondage by t...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I spotlight an important technological advance. June 18th 1861, Thaddeus Lowe ascended with a tethered balloon five hundred feet above the National Mall. He intended to demonstrate, amid the Civil War, practicality of observing enemy troop movements from the air. His audience was the Commander-in-Chief. A telegraph wire connected the basket with the White House. The scientist sent a message to President Lincoln: "This point of observation commands an area nearly fifty miles in diameter. The city, with its girdle of encampments, presents a superb scene. I take great pleasure in sending you this first dispatch ever telegraphed from an aerial station, and in acknowledging my indebtedness to your encouragement for the opportunity of demonstrating the availability of the science of aeronautics in the military service of this country." Linc...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I highlight the U.S. Sanitary Commission. During the Civil War, it fostered clean and healthy conditions within Union army camps. The concept began at a meeting of Republican women in New York. Passed by the GOP-controlled 37th Congress, legislation establishing this civilian agency was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on June 18th 1861. Its board was headed by clergyman Henry Whitney Bellows. Staffers enacted "the principles and practice connected with the inspection of recruits and enlisted men, the sanitary condition of volunteers, the means of preserving and restoring the health and of securing the general comfort and efficiency of the troops, the proper provision of cooks, nurses, and hospitals, and other subjects of a like nature." The commission received donations – including some from England and France and Argentina – ...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute Jeremiah Rusk, born in Ohio, June 17th 1830. Moving to southwestern Wisconsin, he worked a fiarm and managed a tavern. Age twenty-five, he was elected county sheriff. In 1861, he won, as a Republican, election to the state house. During the Civil War, Rusk recruited volunteers for the state’s 25th Infantry and enlisted as major. His regiment fought at Vicksburg and Atlanta. Peace restored, he was elected state bank comptroller. In 1870, he won the first of three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. "With him patriotism was a passion. He loved the flag with an idolatrous love. To him wherever it floated it was eloquent. It was the speaking emblem of liberty and good government. He trusted no man who did not love it." It was Rusk who nominated James Garfield to break a deadlock at the 1880 Republican National Convent...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I applaud James Weldon Johnson, born in Jacksonville, June 17th 1871. Graduating from Atlanta University, he taught school and rose to be principal. In 1900, Johnson wrote the poem Lift Every Voice and Sing to honor Republican activist Booker T. Washington when that civil rights leader visited his school. His brother set the words to music, resulting in what became known as the Negro National Anthem . Johnson's political activism began with denouncing Democrats for lynching African-Americans. The stalwart Republican campaigned for Theodore Roosevelt in 1904. Roosevelt appointed him consul to Venezuela and then Nicaragua. Johnson relocated to New York City and contributed his poetry and novels to the Harlem Renaissance movement. Ten years, he was executive secretary of the NAACP. Later in life, he taught at New York University and then Fisk University. Back to Basics for ...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute Hosea Townsend, born June 16th 1840. During the Civil War, he served as lieutenant with the 2nd Ohio Cavalry. His regiment battled through Kansas and Missouri and Arkansas. Peace restored, he studied law and served in the Tennessee legislature. Townsend relocated to Colorado for opportunities in the mining industry. In 1888, he won first of two congressional terms. Receiving his vote were the Antitrust Act, the Land-Grant Colleges Act and the Forest Reserve Act. He was delegate at the 1892 Republican National Convention. President William McKinley appointed Townsend a federal judge for Oklahoma Territory. President Theodore Roosevelt re-appointed him. His tenure ended with statehood in 1907. 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 Dem...