Jeremiah Rusk, the first Secretary of Agriculture

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I salute Jeremiah Rusk, born in Ohio, June 17th 1830. Moving to southwestern Wisconsin, he worked a farm and managed a tavern. Age twenty-five, he was elected county sheriff. In 1861, he won, as a Republican, election to the state house.

During the Civil War, Rusk recruited volunteers for the state’s 25th Infantry and enlisted as major. His regiment fought at Vicksburg and Atlanta. Peace restored, he was elected state bank comptroller. In 1870, he won the first of three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.

"With him patriotism was a passion. He loved the flag with an idolatrous love. To him wherever it floated it was eloquent. It was the speaking emblem of liberty and good government. He trusted no man who did not love it."

It was Rusk who nominated James Garfield to break a deadlock at the 1880 Republican National Convention. The new President offered him an ambassadorship or chief of the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, but he preferred to stay closer to home. In 1881, he won the first of three two-year terms as Governor of Wisconsin. In a celebrated annual message, he declared:

"With those agrarian and socialistic theories of fanciful society that deny the right of private property, or of each individual to full protection in the enjoyment and control of all his lawful earnings, whether obtained by his own labor or by contract, we can have no sympathy. They are as un-American as monarchy and as treasonable as secession. They contemplate the destruction of both justice and liberty, and would accomplish the destruction of both if their application to existing society were seriously attempted. We are not prepared, as American citizens, to even consider a change in our form of government. Republican institutions and individual liberty go hand in hand, and must be and will be loyally maintained."

President Benjamin Harrison appointed Rusk the first Secretary of Agriculture. His last annual report concluded: "If in the future my humble share of credit in the history of the department should be that I had been instrumental in laying a broad and lasting foundation for a magnificent superstructure of which every American farmer, and, I may say, every American citizen, will feel proud, I shall be more than compensated for my labors during the past few 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 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

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Democrats enacted their black codes to oppress African-Americans

Image
Grand Old Partisan denounce Democrat devilry. November 22nd 1865, the Democrat-controlled legislature of Mississippi passed the nation's first  black codes . These were laws that Democrats of the post-Civil War South enacted to impose near-slavery on African-Americans. According to these Democrat laws, African-Americans could not:  • vote  • serve on juries  • testify against white people  • own guns  • travel without permission  • assemble for political purposes  • own farmland  • be outdoors at night  • change jobs without permission Democrats decreed that all African-Americans had to:  •sign annual labor contracts with white masters  • be deferential to all white people  • be apprenticed (in practice, enslaved) to white masters until adulthood  • work only in agriculture and a few other occupations Fortunately, after winning a two-thirds majority in Congress, Republicans swept a...
Read more

Ronald Reagan celebrating Alf Landon's 100th Birthday

Image
Grand Old Partisan  spotlights a meeting of two Republican heroes. September 6th 1987, Ronald Reagan visited the home of Alf Landon for his 100th birthday. The former Kansas Governor was the GOP's 1936 presidential nominee. "Today we celebrate – I know it will actually be in just a few days – but we're celebrating Alf Landon's first century, half the life of our nation since the framing of the Constitution." "In a hundred years, Alf Landon has chased many dreams and caught most of them. Along the way, he's found time to stand for the American values of liberty, democracy, and opportunity. And no one is more the living soul of Kansas, which to me means quiet strength and the simple decency of all America, than Alf Landon." "When it was out of fashion, you warned of the dangers of too much government and too much government spending. So this is my birthday message: It is that all Americans are thankful for what ...
Read more

John Wesley Cromwell – DC Republican Educator and Scholar

Image
Grand Old Partisan honors John Wesley Cromwell, born into slavery, September 5th 1846. Years after the Civil War focused on working for the American Missionary Association in Virginia. He was delegate at two Republican state conventions as well as a constitutional convention. Following this came law studies at Howard University. Recognizing his talent, the Ulysses Grant administration named Cromwell to various positions and the Chester Arthur selected him to represent Washington DC at the New Orleans World’s Fair. He became the first Black attorney to practice before the Interstate Commerce Commission. It was in scholarship that Cromwell won renown. Publications such as People’s Advocate , Washington Record and Journal of Negro History benefited from his scholarship. He also served as principal at four high schools in the capital. Here is a YouTube Video about this article. Here is a TikTok Video about this article. Here is a  Rumbl...
Read more