Grand Old Partisan

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I highlight the Grace Bedell story. To her, Abraham Lincoln owed his iconic bearded look. October 15th 1860, the eleven-year-old wrote the Republican presidential nominee: "I have yet got four brothers and part of them will vote for you any way and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President." Lincoln replied: "As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a silly affectation if I were to begin it now?" He did indeed begin growing a beard. While the President-elect, he had an opportunity to meet Miss Bedell in her hometown of Westfield, New York. Six years later, she married a ...

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I praise Henry Selden, born October 14th 1805. Age twenty, he settled in upstate New York to study law. The state appellate court named him its case reporter. Having invested in the company, he was named president of what became Western Union. Selden left the Democratic Party, because of his opposition to slavery, and co-founded the state GOP. In 1856, he was elected Lieutenant Governor. Months after leaving office, he helped Frederick Douglass evade slave catchers. This ardent Republican was delegate to the party's 1860 national convention. Two years later, a Republican Governor named him to the court of appeals. In 1873, Selden defended Susan B. Anthony, pro bono, in her trial for having voted. He was eulogized as "the peer of the noblest of those who surrounded him." Back to Basics for the Republican Party is my civil rights history of the GOP. T...

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....