Benjamin Franklin Wade, visionary Ohio Republican Senator

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I honor Benjamin Franklin Wade, born October 27th 1800. He started out as a laborer on the Eire Canal before moving to Ohio at age twenty-one. The young Whig studied medicine before switching to law. He was county prosecutor, state senator and district judge. In 1851, the legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate.

Wade co-founded the Ohio GOP. Re-elected twice as a Republican, he opposed the Fugitive Slave Act, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and other Democrat depravities. In addition to supporting African-Americans, he backed trade unions and women's suffrage. During the Civil War, irascible Ben expressed impatience with President Lincoln's measured approach.


Wade proved instrumental in passage of the early GOP agenda, including the Homestead Act, the Land-Grant College Act, the Freedmen's Bureau and the 1866 Civil Rights Act. As the Senate President pro tempore, Wade would have become president had impeachment resulted in Andrew Johnson being removed from office. Later years, he was a director of the Union Pacific Railroad and cast an electoral vote for Rutherford Hayes.

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. 

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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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