Grand Old Partisan

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute William Stone, born in upstate New York, October 14th 1827. His career began as mule team driver and apprentice furniture maker. He practiced law in Ohio for three years before relocating to frontier Iowa in 1854.  His newspaper became a strident voice of opposition to the Democrats’ pro-slavery policies and was first to call for establishing a state GOP. The young Republican then served as delegate to the party's founding convention and cast an electoral vote for John Fremont. That year, Stone won election for district judge. Learning that rebels had fired on Fort Sumter, Stone adjourned court and announced he would recruit a company of soldiers. Commissioned major with the 3rd Iowa Volunteers by the Republican governor, was wounded in his first battle and taken prisoner. After being exchanged, he was appointed colonel of the 22nd Iowa Volunteers. ...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I honor Oran Faville, born October 13th 1817. After graduating from Wesleyan University, he taught at various colleges. He later settled in Iowa and was elected county judge. September 1857, voters approved a new constitution which created the lieutenant governorship. A month later, Faville won that office on the GOP ticket. Iowa Republicans had vowed to oppose Democrat schemes to expand slavery. Faville later edited a newspaper and headed the state teachers association. In 1864, the legislature named him superintendent of public instruction. He was eulogized as " a man of high ability and a leading Republican." 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...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I honor Benjamin Franklin Leiter, born October 13th 1813. He taught school, then studied law. He was mayor of Canton, Ohio ten years and speaker of the state house one year. March 1854, at a convention that led to formation of the Ohio Republican Party, Leiter declared: "We have submitted to slavery long enough, and must not stand it any longer. The North must unite, and slavery extension will stop." Three months later, he chaired a statewide convention uniting friends of freedom. Five months after that, Leiter won election to the U.S. House of Representatives. During his second term, he denounced Democrats for promoting slavery and warned about the foolishness of trusting them: "Do you not know that, if they had the power, they would annihilate the last man of you? Do you not know that all their pretended regard for you is only affected, and that t...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I spotlight a noteworthy moment in our nation's capital. October 12th 1901, Theodore Roosevelt gave the presidential residence its current name. He ordered "White House, Washington." placed on his stationary. Before then, the building had been known as the "President’s House" and the "Executive Mansion". Informally, it had sometimes been called the "White House" because of the lime whitewash first applied in 1798. 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....

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I applaud Republican commitment to national unity. October 12th 1915, Theodore Roosevelt addressed the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization. He stressed the importance of ensuring that immigrants consider themselves to be Americans, first and only: "There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. A hyphenated American is not an American at all. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities. Those hyphenated Americans who terrorize American politicians by threats of the foreign vote are engaged in treason to the American Republic. We should meet this situation by on the one hand seeing that these immigrants get all ...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I honor Henry Waldron, born in upstate New York, October 11th 1819. After studying civil engineering, he relocated to Michigan. The enterprising young man settled at Hillsdale and promoted construction of a railroad connecting the town to Detroit. He also proved to be a successful banker. Waldron entered politics as Whig state representative. The party fading, in 1854 he joined the Republican Party and won first of three congressional terms. During the Civil War, he recruited more than one thousand volunteers for the 18th Michigan Infantry Regiment. In 1871, Waldron returned to Congress for another three terms. Receiving his vote were the [anti-] Ku Klux Klan Act, Yellowstone National Park and the 1875 Civil Rights 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 ...