Grand Old Partisan

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I honor Mildred Fay Jefferson, born in Texas, April 6th 1927. After earning an undergraduate degree in three years, she studied biology at Tufts University. She became the first African-American women to graduate from Harvard Medical School. This was followed by a surgery residence at Boston City Hospital.  Dr. Jefferson co-founded Massachusetts Citizens for Life. She later chaired the National Right to Life Committee. This self-described  Lincoln Republican  volunteered for Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign. He wrote to her: "You have made it irrefutably clear that an abortion is the taking of a human life, I am grateful to you." As she observed: "I am at once a physician, a citizen and a woman, and I am not willing to stand aside and allow this concept of expendable human lives to turn this great land of ours into just ano...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute John Tilson, born in Tennessee, April 5th 1866. Having studied law at Yale University, he set up a practice at New Haven. The young Republican served as lieutenant during the war with Spain. Tilson was speaker of the Connecticut state house. In 1908, he won first of two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Narrowly losing for re-election, he went on to win another nine terms. Tilson was Majority Leader during the final three and resolutely backed the Coolidge administration. Fixing the number of House seats at four hundred thirty-five was his idea. Retirement years were devoted to teaching law and writing a book on parliamentary procedure. 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. ...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute Robert Smalls, born into slavery, April 5th 1839. While in Charleston during the Civil War, he commandeered a Confederate gunboat, escaping with his family and some friends. He joined the U.S. Navy and rose to command a warship. Smalls later secured authorization to recruit a regiment of African-American volunteers, which became the 1st U.S. South Carolina Colored Infantry. Union restored, Smalls helped establish the South Carolina GOP and served seven years in the state legislature. He was delegate at five Republican National Conventions. In 1874, he won first of five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. "I ask that every colored man in the North who has a vote to cast would cast that vote for the regular Republican Party and thus bury the Democratic Party so deep that there will not be seen even a bubble coming from the spot wher...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute Dorothea Dix, born April 4th 1802. She began teaching school in Worcester, Massachusetts at fourteen and in Boston at nineteen. Later endeavors included writing religious and children's books. The social reformer convinced New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, North Carolina and other states to establish mental hospitals. "If I am cold, they are cold; if I am weary, they are distressed; if I am alone, they are abandoned." During the Civil War, the Lincoln administration appointed her Superintendent of Army Nurses. Dix oversaw more than three thousand female volunteers. She made sure that wounded rebels received medical treatment at Union hospitals. 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 futu...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute James Tanner, born in upstate New York, April 4th 1844. Outbreak of civil war, the patriotic teen enlisted in the state’s 19th Volunteer Infantry. His regiment fought in many battles. He lost both legs at Second Bull Run. Back home, Tanner worked for the GOP legislature and learned stenography. He later worked for the War Department. That tragic evening at Ford’s Theater, he was called to record conversations by Abraham Lincoln’s deathbed. Ulysses Grant appointed him clerk for the New York Customs House. He proved to be an effective tax collector for a Republican mayor of Brooklyn. Chester Arthur named him the city’s Port Collector. Effective campaign speeches for Benjamin Harrison gained him the position of U.S. Pension Commissioner for the new president. Theodore Roosevelt made him Register of Wills in Washington. Tanner obtained a congressional charter for the Red...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute Edward Rowny, born in Baltimore, April 3rd 1917. His father had immigrated from Poland, and his mother’s parents were Polish. After studying engineering at Johns Hopkins, he became a West Point cadet.  Rowny commanded an infantry battalion against the Nazis. During the Korean War, he helped plan the Inchon Landing and oversaw rescue of a hundred thousand civilians from communists. His initiative led to helicopters being utilized heavily during the Vietnam War. President Nixon appointed him representative for the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. He later resigned due to President Carter’s appeasement of the Soviet Union. President Reagan made him chief nuclear arms negotiator. The citation of his Presidential Citizen Medal: "Rowny was one of the chief architects of peace through strength. In 2014, the Prime Minister of South Ko...