Grand Old Partisan

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I honor Arthur Capper, born in Kansas, July 14th 1865. Having learned printing, he started as newspaper reporter and worked his way up to publish the Topeka Daily Capital . His business holdings expanded to a radio station and several magazines. Capper chaired the board of regents for Kansas Agricultural College, now Kansas State University. In 1912, he ran for governor but lost to the Democrat incumbent by a mere twenty-nine votes. He was elected two years later, then re-elected. This conservative Republican chaired the National Governors Association. In 1918, Capper won first of five U.S. Senate terms. Promoting agriculture was his top priority. He voted for relief measures but resolutely opposed New Deal socialism. Capper merited renown as benefactor of children and the disabled, and for promoting the 4-H movement. He is buried n...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I highlight origin of the Ohio Republican Party. July 13th 1855, anti-slavery activists gathered at the Methodist Episcopal Church in the state capital. They were outraged by the Democrats' scheme to expand slavery into the western territories. Their purpose was to unite all friends of freedom.  "There is one question made by Southern slave-holders at this momentous crisis, as common to all as the free air of heaven. It is whether this Republic and its free institutions shall be ruled by, and its great mission of freedom be sunk into an oligarchy of slave-holders and the extension of slavery and the slave power." Chairing the convention was John Sherman, who went on to be U.S. Senator and Secretary of State. Chairing the platform committee was Rufus Spalding. He became an influential Congressman during the Civil War and Recons...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I commemorate founding of the Vermont Republican Party. Outraged by pro-slavery Democrats, friends of freedom in the Green Mountain State called for a convention to replace the Whig Party with a broad coalition of anti-slavery activists. Invited were "all persons who are in favor of resisting by all constitutional means the usurpations of the propagandists of Slavery." July 13th 1854, six hundred people assembled at a church in Montpelier. Presiding was Lawrence Brainerd, soon to be elected U.S. Senator. He went on to be instrumental in formation of a nationwide Republican organization. The platform resolved: "to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and to our posterity, and also a wise, just and economical administration of the government; and as the principles for which we are contending lie at the foundation of Republicanism, as proclaime...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I spotlight a Confederate attempt to capture the nation’s capital. July 12th 1864, ten thousand rebel soldiers attacked Fort Stevens in Washington DC. Bravely, the President went to observe the battle. Honored and astonished, Union soldiers cheered Hurrah for Lincoln! When a soldier nearby was wounded, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton obliged the Commander-in-Chief to depart. Confederates withdrew after several hours.  The site is preserved by the National Park Service, near what is now Georgia Avenue and Rittenhouse Street, NW. Every year there is a commemoration of this 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 the history of our party, the more Democrats will worry about the future of theirs. For more information, see www.grandoldpartis...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I honor John Addams, born in Pennsylvania, July 11th 1822. He and his bride moved to northwest Illinois and bought a water mill. Operations expanded to grinding grin and sawing wood. He later established a bank and was director of two railroads and an insurance company. This savvy businessman co-founded the Illinois Republican Party. In 1854, Addams won first of eight two-year terms in the state senate. He arranged the Lincoln-Douglas debate held at Freeport, explained in Back to Basics for the Republican Party to be the most important. Addams was delegate to the 1868 Republican National Convention. He had been a close friend to Abraham Lincoln, referring to him as "the greatest man in the world." One of his nine children became an acclaimed social reformer and Nobel Peace Prize winner. Jane Addams credited her father's care for the "moral concerns of life...