Grand Old Partisan

Grand Old Partisan  spotlights origin of the Connecticut Republican Party. February 4th 1856, pro-freedom newspaper editors met in Hartford at the law office of Joseph Hawley, a prominent Free Soil Party activist. They made plans for establishing a state GOP at a convention the following month. Hawley went on to be Union Army General, Congressman, Governor and Senator. Gideon Welles, another participant, became Navy Secretary in the Lincoln administration. John Niles, also there, had been a U.S. Senator and Postmaster General. He was named Connecticut’s first Republican National Committeeman. Though he died two months after the meeting, his prestige helped make this new party a success. 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...

Grand Old Partisan commemorates an amusing event in Thai-American relations. February 3rd 1862, President Abraham Lincoln somehow found time to write a letter to King Mongkut. After learning that there were no elephants in the United States, Monghut had offered to send several pairs, to be "turned loose in forests and increase till there be large herds. Elephants being animals of great size and strength can bear burdens and travel through uncleared woods and matted jungles where no carriage and cart roads have yet been made." Quite eloquently, Lincoln accepted a gift sword and photograph of the king but declined the pachyderms: "I have also received in good condition the royal gifts which accompanied those letters, -- namely, a sword of costly materials and exquisite workmanship; a photographic likeness of Your Majesty and of Your Majesty's beloved daughter; and also two elephants' tusks of length and magnitude such as indicate th...

Grand Old Partisan honors Francis Thomas, born in Maryland, February 3rd 1799. The young attorney won several state house terms, rising to be speaker. Following this were ten years in the U.S. House of Representatives, as a Democrat. Next, he was elected Governor. Being opposed to slavery, Thomas joined the Republican Party and, in 1860, won first of four more congressional terms. Outbreak of civil war, he recruited a brigade of volunteers for the Union cause. His greatest accomplishment was championing a new state constitution that abolished slavery. During the Ulysses Grant administration, Thomas was a collector of internal revenue and Ambassador to Peru. 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 ...

Grand Old Partisan praises a Territorial Governor of Alaska. Scott Bone, appointed by President Warren Harding, was in office during the diphtheria outbreak at Nome, an isolated northern town. Antitoxin was urgently required, but the nearest supplies were nearly seven hundred wintry miles away. No airplane could make such a journey back then, so Governor Bone organized relays of dog sleds along the Iditarod Trail. Twenty mail carrier mushers and their dogs set out despite minus fifty degrees wind chill. February 2nd 1925, they completed the journey, in five days seven hours. Many children were saved. President Calvin Coolidge sent a letter of thanks to each musher. To commemorate this heroism, the annual  Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race  began in 1973. It is now Alaska's largest sporting event. 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...

Grand Old Partisan salutes Knute Nelson, born in Norway, February 2nd 1843. He immigrated with his mother as a child. Outbreak of civil war, he enlisted in the 4th Wisconsin Infantry, which battled through Louisiana and Mississippi. Peace restored, this young Republican studied law and won two state house terms. After moving to Minnesota, Nelson was county attorney and state senator. He cast an electoral vote for the Garfield/Arthur presidential ticket and served on the state university board of regents. In 1882, Nelson won first of three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. A decade later, he was elected Governor. Weeks into his second term, the legislature made him a U.S. Senator. Among his priorities were creating the Department of Commerce and Labor as well as the Interstate Commerce Commission. He died in 1923, during his fifth term. There is a statue of Knute Nelson at the Minnesota state capitol building. Back to Basics for...

Grand Old Partisan honors Ernest Wilkins, born February 1st 1894. He studied mathematics at University of Illinois and law at University of Chicago. Republicans nominated him for judge. President Dwight Eisenhower named him co-chairman of a committee against racial discrimination in government contracting.  March 1954, Wilkins was appointed Assistant Secretary of Labor. Responsibilities of his high-profile position included representing the United States at international labor conferences and occasionally attending Cabinet meetings. He was the first African-American to hold a sub-Cabinet position in any administration. Though such an appointment would hardly be noteworthy today, in the 1950s this was a huge development and a giant step forward. During the twenty years of the FDR and Truman administrations, Democrat Presidents had refused to name any African-Americans to their administrations. During his campai...