Grand Old Partisan

Grand Old Partisan honors Theodore Pomeroy, born in western New York, December 31st 1824. He studied at William Seward’s law firm after graduating from Hamilton College. The young Whig was elected town clerk and county prosecutor. Anti-slavery convictions led him to join the Republican Party. He then served in the state house. At the 1858 state convention, his eloquent call for "pure Republicanism" defeated a proposed alliance with the Know-Nothing Party. He was delegate for the GOP's 1860 national convention. That year, Pomeroy won first of four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. He fully backed the Union war effort and as banking committee chairman helped ensure financial stability. Pomeroy rejoiced when the House passed the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery. Hevalso voted for the GOP’s 14th and 15th Amendments. When the Speaker of the House, Schuyler Colfax, resigned on the last day of the 40th Congress, to become Vice President, his colleagues el...

Grand Old Partisan honors Richard Field, born December 31st 1803. After two terms in the New Jersey state house, he was named attorney general by the Whig governor. He later returned to his alma mater, Princeton University, as a law professor. During the Civil War, Field provided important legal arguments supporting the Union cause. In 1862, the Republican governor appointed him to fill a brief vacancy in the U.S. Senate. President Abraham Lincoln then made him a federal judge. In 1866, Field delivered a eulogy that expressed our Grand Old Party's appreciation for the Great Emancipator. Lincoln was, he said, "by far the greatest President that this country has had since Washington... a chosen instrument in the hands of Providence for extinguishing that system of slavery which has so long been the reproach of our land." "Abraham Lincoln was a great man. Not great in the sense in which that term is commonly used, but in a far higher and nobler sense. His g...

Grand Old Partisan salutes Josiah Walls, born in Virginia, December 30th 1842. Confederates forced him into servitude until freed by Union troops. This patriotic American-American then enlisted in the Union Army and deployed to Florida.  Union restored, Walls remained in the state. After teaching at a Freedmen's Bureau school, he bought a farm. As a Republican, he was elected to the 1868 constitutional convention, then the state house, and then the state senate. Surviving an assassination attempt, in 1870 Walls defeated an ex-Confederate for the U.S. House of Representatives. After two re-elections, he was elected again to the state senate. "We demand that our lives, our liberties, and our property shall be protected by the strong arm of our government, that it gives us the same citizenship that it gives to those who it seems would sink our every hope for peace, prosperity, and happiness into the great sea of oblivion." Years later, Walls was mayor of Gainesv...

"good citizen, consistent Christian, friend of the poor" Grand Old Partisan honors Alexander Stuart Wallace, born in South Carolina, December 30th 1810. While opposing secessionism, he managed to win several terms in the state house. Not recognizing Confederate legitimacy, the patriot stayed at his plantation throughout the Civil War. Union restored, he again was a state representative, this time as a Republican. In 1868, Wallace won first of four congressional terms. He voted for Republican legislative measures including the [anti-] Ku Klux Klan Act and the 1875 Civil Rights Act. Democrats were furious with him for backing federal intervention against Klansmen. 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 Vide...

Grand Old Partisan honors Bill Gradison, born December 28th 1928. Graduating from Yale, he earned an MBA and a computer science PhD from Harvard. During the Eisenhower administration, this savvy financier worked for the Undersecretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare.  In 1960, Gradison first won election to the Cincinnati city council. The position rotating among members back then, in 1971 he was Mayor.  Gradison later served nine congressional terms. Highlights were the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, and the Tax Reform Acts of 1984 and 1986. 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...

Grand Old Partisan  spotlights an infamous speech in Congress. December 29th 1859, a racist Virginia Democrat Congressman, Roger Pryor bellowed: "We are all familiar with the principles of the Black Republican party. That it proposes the eventual extinction of slavery. "We deny that negro slavery is repugnant to the principles of civil liberty, contending, rather, that it constitutes the most solid and stable basis of free government, and is instrumental in the highest development of civilization. "We deny that slavery opposes any impediment to the progress of the Republic, for as much as in conjunction with slavery, and mainly by the aid of slavery, the Republic has already realized the most brilliant promise of national glory." In 1894, a Democrat Governor of New York appointed the loathsome Roger Pryor to the state Supreme Court. 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 honors Thomy Lafon, born in New Orleans, December 28th 1810. This son of a white Frenchman and a free black woman was considered a  personne de couleur libres . Starting with nothing, he invested in real estate and dry goods with great success. By eve of secession, it made him one of the city's wealthiest men. Lafon secretly donated to the American Anti-Slavery Society. During the Civil War, he prominently supported the Unionist state government established by the Lincoln administration. To secure voting rights for African-Americans, he co-founded the Friends of Universal Suffrage and bankrolled the South's first black-owned newspaper. Peace restored, Lafon joined the Radical Republican Club. Throughout Reconstruction and the rest of his life, he stayed active with the Louisiana GOP. He financially backed the  Plessy v. Ferguson  plaintiff. He also established an orphanage and a home for the elderly poor as well as suppo...

Grand Old Partisan appreciates the Endangered Species Act. Richard Nixon signed it on December 28th 1973. Said the President:  "At a time when Americans are more concerned than ever with conserving our natural resources, this legislation provides the Federal Government with needed authority to protect an irreplaceable part of our national heritage — threatened wildlife. This important measure grants the Government both the authority to make early identification of endangered species and the means to act quickly and thoroughly to save them from extinction. Nothing is more priceless and more worthy of preservation than the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed. It is a many-faceted treasure, of value to scholars, scientists, and nature lovers alike, and it forms a vital part of the heritage we all share as Americans." Earlier that year, Nixon had asked Congress for legislation to protect threatened...