Grand Old Partisan

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute Ben Nighthorse Campbell, born April 13th 1933. His father was Cheyenne and his mother Portuguese. He served as a military policeman in Korea during the war there, then earned a degree at San Jose State University. He won a gold medal in judo at the 1963 Pan-American Games and competed at the 1964 Olympics. In 1982, the rancher and jeweler won election to the Colorado state house, achieving a reputation for being an effective legislator. After two terms, he won first of three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1992, Campbell was elected a U.S. Senator. Two years into his term, fiscal conservatism led him out of the Democratic Party and into the GOP. As a Republican, he won re-election by a large margin. Back to Basics for the Republican Party  is my civil rights history of the GOP. To quote the book: "The more we Re...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I honor Charles Foster, born in Ohio, April 12th 1828. Starting out managing a dry goods store, the savvy businessman invested in banking and mining and railroads. He served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Receiving his vote were Yellowstone National Park and the 1875 Civil Rights Act. In 1879, Foster was elected Governor. He served as delegate for the 1880 Republican National Convention. President Benjamin Harrison appointed him Treasury Secretary. His policy priorities were fiscal conservatism and economic growth. 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 celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I appreciate Republican commitment to safeguarding civil rights. Twice while president-elect and again a month after taking office, Warren Harding met with James Weldon Johnson, an NAACP activist and lyricist of Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing . They discussed the urgency of ending Democrat devilry against African-Americans. April 12th 1921, President Harding delivered his first address to Congress. Notably, he said: "Congress ought to wipe the stain of barbaric lynching from the banners of a free and orderly, representative democracy... I am convinced that in mutual tolerance, understanding, charity, recognition of the interdependence of the races, and the maintenance of the rights of citizenship lies the road to righteous adjustment." Back to Basics for the Republican Party  is my civil rights history of the GOP. To quote the book: "The more we Repu...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I honor Mary Ovington, born in Brooklyn, April 11th 1865. Her parents were abolitionists. Appalled by the 1908 Springfield, Illinois race riot, Ovington and other activists (nearly all Republicans) decided to create an organization for safeguarding African-Americans' civil rights. On 100th anniversary of birth of the first Republican president, they established the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 1890, a speech by Republican civil rights hero Frederick Douglass inspired Ovington to become an activist for racial equality. A speech, in 1903, by another Republican hero, Booker T. Washington, sharpened her focus. She joined the GOP in 1905. Ovington also worked for women's suffage, a ban on child labor, and other social causes. A member of the NAACP's executive board thirty-eight years, she strove to maintain that organization as rac...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute Charles Drake, born in Cincinnati, April 11th 1811. Age sixteen, he enlisted as a navy midshipman and served four years. After studying law, the ambitious young man moved to St. Louis. In 1859, he won a term in the Missouri house of representatives.  During the Civil War, patriotism and opposition to slavery led him to switch from the Democratic Party to the GOP. He called for immediate and uncompensated emancipation. In 1865, this Radical Republican served as vice president of the state constitutional convention. He advocated voting rights for African-Americans and public schools for all. Such was his influence that the document adopted became known as the  Drake Constitution . In 1867, the legislature elected him a U.S. Senator. Receiving his vote were the Reconstruction Acts, the Fifteenth Amendment and the [anti-] Ku Klux Klan Act. Drake resigned after t...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute John Robinson, born April 10th 1817. Dismissed from West Point, he still managed to secure an army commission. He fought in Mexico, then was deployed to Florida and Utah. Commander of Fort McHenry at outbreak of civil war, the patriotic officer defied secessionist Maryland Democrats.  Robinson recruited troops throughout the Midwest. An appreciative Republican Governor of Michigan gave him command of a regiment. It was remembered of his valor at Gettysburg that “his personal supervision and noble example secured for us the honor of victory.” He later was awarded the Medal of Honor, for valor at a battle that cost him his left leg.  Peace restored, Robinson assisted emancipated slaves. Retiring from the army, he became involved with veterans groups. In 1872, he was elected Lieutenant Governor of New York, on the Republican ticket.  Back to Ba...