Grand Old Partisan

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I revere Republican efforts to counter Democrat vote fraud. When, after the Civil War, the Slavery Party won control of Congress, its top priority was to disenfranchise African-Americans in southern states. April 1879, Democrats passed a bill eliminating use of soldiers at polling places to safeguard voting rights. It also repealed a Republican law outlawing the Ku Klux Klan. This measure took the form of an amendment to the army appropriations bill. In effect, to get their way, Democrats were threatening to defund the army. On the 29th, Rutherford Hayes vetoed the legislation. He called on Democrats to "restore to the country that feeling of confidence and security and the repose which are so essential to the prosperity of all of our fellow-citizens." Four more times, Democrats passed their amendment and the Republica...

Grand Old Partisan  celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute George Symes, born April 28th 1840. During the Civil War, after recovering from a spinal injury at First Bull Run, he commanded the 44th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry.  The young colonel then practiced law in Kentucky. President Ulysses Grant appointed him to the Montana territorial Supreme Court. Symes relocated to Colorado and became a real estate developer. His firm constructed Denver's first steel-frame building. In 1884, he won first of two congressional terms. Legislative efforts focused on water conservation. In death, this stalwart Republican was "a blessed memory to his family and friends and the people of Colorado." 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 abou...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I admire Theodore Roosevelt. Spring of 1903, the energetic Republican President toured twenty-five midwestern and western states.  Highlights included visits to Chicago and Yellowstone National Park. He made speaking appearances at dozens of cities and towns. Some were formal events, while others were brief whistle-stops at train stations. April 28th was a typical day. Visiting the Des Moines Opera House, the President said "no state in the Union surpasses Iowa in the average of happiness of her citizens." At the state Capitol, he saluted Civil War veterans, both for their valor in battle and their accomplishments in peacetime. Dedicating a YMCA building at Oskaloosa, Roosevelt praised "the combination of qualities which we call character, at the root of which must lie decency, honesty, the spirit that make...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I highlight the origin of Cornell University. It was founded as "an institution where any person can find instruction in any study." This principle was innovative at the time.  April 27th 1865, the charter was passed by a GOP-controlled New York legislature and signed into law by a Republican governor. Its legal framework, the Land-Grant College Act, had been enacted by the GOP-controlled 37th Congress. For a campus, Republican state legislator Ezra Cornell donated his farm at Ithaca. The first president, Andrew Dickson White, went on to be ambassador for three Republican administrations. 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 i...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I denounce Democrat devilry. April 27th 1874, Louisiana Democrats created a terrorist organization called the White League, also called the White Man's League. Their first leader, Christopher Nash, was a county sheriff and Confederate veteran.  Red Shirts, Knights of the White Camellia, Klansmen – they shared its white supremacist ideology. In contrast to the Ku Klux Klan, the White League operated openly. They held rallies and publicly vowed to "teach the blacks to beware of further insolence...in an earnest effort to re-establish a white man's government in the city and the State." White League thugs targeted white Republicans as well as African-Americans. Murder victims included six GOP officials and a teenage African-American teacher. September 1874, a White League mob defeated the New Orleans police in a bloody battle. President Grant deploy...