Grand Old Partisan

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I commemorate the Judiciary Act of 1925. This law was passed by the GOP-controlled 68th Congress and signed by President Calvin Coolidge on February 13th. Previously, all sorts of cases, whether significant or not, were automatically appealable to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice William Howard Taft, a former Republican President, had been concerned about a five-year backlog. In his view: "Cases should not go to the Supreme Court of the United States simply because of the amount of money involved, because of the character or prominence of the parties, or because of the counsel... When it comes to a further review by the Supreme Court of the United States, the higher principle of importance to the public at large is involved." He named three Justices – James McReynolds, William Day, Willis Van Devanter – to draft a legislative remedy....

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute David Patterson Dyer, born February 12th 1838. Outbreak of civil war, this young attorney enlisted with the 49th Missouri Volunteers. Battlefield success merited promotion to Colonel. Dyer won two terms in the state house and was delegate for the 1868 Republican National Convention. There followed a term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Banning the Ku Klux Klan received his vote. President Ulysses Grant named him federal prosecutor. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him federal judge. His nephew, Leonidas Dyer, became a Republican Congressman and anti-lynching activist. 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 celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I honor Myra Blackwell, born in Vermont, February 12th 1831. She relocated to Illinois with her family at age twelve and received a good education. During the Civil War, she fundraised for the Union cause. Peace restored, her husband, a Republican judge, won two terms in the state house. Blackwell studied law while apprenticing at her husband's office. She also published the  Chicago Legal News . In 1869, she passed the bar exam. A federal judge and a state's attorney asked the state supreme court to issue her a law license, but were refused. In an unsuccessful appeal of that decision, a Republican U.S. Senator argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that her 14th Amendment rights had been abridged. Despite this setback, Blackwell remained active. She was a leader of the suffrage movement, and a Republican Governor named her to represent Illinois ...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I highlight Republican opposition to slavery. February 11th 1857, Montgomery Blair presented an argument at the Supreme Court in defense of a slave. Dred Scott, he claimed, should be considered emancipated after residing in free territory. Blair had co-founded the GOP. He went on to be Postmaster General in the Abraham Lincoln administration. Lamentably, all seven Democrat Justices ruled, not only was Dred Scott still a slave, but that African-Americans could not be citizens. 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 a  TikTok Video  about this artic...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I laud Jonathan Wright, born near Scranton, February 11th 1840. Law studies followed graduation from a local college. He attended a National Convention of Colored Men, chaired by Frederick Douglass. April 1865, the American Missionary Society hired him to teach emancipated slaves in Beaufort, South Carolina. A year later, the Freedmen's Bureau hired him as a legal advisor. July 1868, Wright was elected delegate to a state constitutional convention. He wrote its judiciary section and championed the provision for free public schools. That autumn, the young Republican won a state senate seat. February 1870, legislators elected Wright to the supreme court. Democrats forced him out of office in 1877. While teaching law in Charleston, he died at age forty-five. Back to Basics for the Republican Party  is my civil rights history of the GOP. To quote the b...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute Harrison Gray Otis, born in Ohio, February 10th 1837. He started out as a printer’s apprentice. While working for a Louisville newspaper, this young Republican was delegate to the party’s 1860 national convention. Outbreak of civil war, Otis enlisted with the 23rd Ohio Volunteers. He survived two wounds and rose to the rank of Colonel. His regiment fought at Antietam. Peace restored, Otis worked at various positions in Columbus and Washington DC. He relocated to California and bought  The Santa Barbara Press . President Hayes appointed him tax collector in Alaska. Otis began publishing what is now  The Los Angeles Times . Under his supervision, the newspaper promoted political conservatism and economic development. Socialist terrorists murdered twenty-one of its employees. President McKinley commissioned him br...