Daniel Clark, anti-slavery Republican Senator

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than SEVENTEEN decades of Republican heroes and heroics.

Today, I honor Daniel Clark, born in New Hampshire, October 24th 1809. He studied law after graduating from Dartmouth and by age thirty had a successful practice. In 1842, he won first of several state house terms

Clark was delegate to the first Republican National Convention, in 1856, and helped write the platform. The legislature elected him to a U.S. Senate vacancy the following year and to a full term just before outbreak of the Civil War. It was he who wrote the resolution that expelled ten Democrat Senators for going with the Confederate rebels.

In 1864, Clark delivered a classic address supporting the GOP's 13th Amendment:

"This revolt was to preserve slavery, and we shall fail of our whole duty if we do not remove the inciting cause. To restore this Union with slavery in it when we have subdued the rebel armies would be again to build your house on its smoking ruins, when you had not put out the fire which burned it down."

His wisdom continued:

"'Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.' Maddened by its profits, its growth, and its strength, to preserve and perpetuate slavery, to found an empire on its hateful basis, eleven of the slave States have revolted from and armed themselves against this Government. In theory and law no State can secede from this Union. They are bound in indissoluble constitutional ties."

April 1864, Clark was elected Senate president pro tempore. Receiving his vote were the DC Emancipation Act, the Homestead Act, the Pacific Railway Act, and the 13th and 14th Amendments. He resigned to accept a federal judgeship, remaining on the bench twenty-five years.

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 a TikTok Video about this article.

Here is a Rumble Video about this article.

Here is an Instagram Video about this article.

Here is my Substack about this article.

Michael Zak is author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party, a history of GOP civil rights achievement.


Each day, his YouTube videos and TikTok videos and Rumble videos and Grand Old Partisan blog celebrate more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. And, see Speech Raves for audience feedback from his presentations in thirty-one states.

Clarence Thomas cited Back to Basics for the Republican Party in a Supreme Court decision.

"This is the most amazing book about politics that I have ever read. The Overview should be required reading for anyone with even a minor interest in government. The remainder is an enthralling history lesson that I will never forget. For years, we have all been misled about the true nature of the GOP. This is the real deal! Read it and be proud!"

"Your book is a national treasure. I'm always recommending it."

"Michael Zak wrote the definitive history of the GOP."

"Back to Basics for the Republican Party is the most significant contribution to the Republican Party in the last twenty years apart from Ronald Reagan."

"Back to Basics for the Republican Party is more important to our party now than ever before."

and

"one of the best books I ever read"

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Democrats enacted their black codes to oppress African-Americans

John Wesley Cromwell – DC Republican Educator and Scholar

Ronald Reagan celebrating Alf Landon's 100th Birthday