David Walbridge, first to chair a Republican state convention

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I honor David Walbridge, born in Vermont, July 30th 1802. After twenty-two years in New York, the entrepreneur relocated to Michigan and achieved success with farming, ranching, flour milling and road building. Whig President Zachary Taylor named him postmaster of Kalamazoo. Adamantly opposed to the Democrats' pro-slavery policies, he won three terms in the state legislature.

July 6th 1854, thousands of anti-slavery activists gathered at Jackson to establish the Michigan Republican Party. Once preliminaries were out of the way, delegates elected Walbridge to chair the meeting. This was the GOP's first-ever state convention.

That autumn, Walbridge won first of two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. He voiced Republican resolve to resist Democrat demands for more slavery:

"The day of compromises on this subject is past; and I firmly believe that, on the part of the people of the North, it is so; that this great question of whether the labor of this great nation shall be performed by freemen or slaves, must now be settled, and settled for all time."


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.

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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"

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