Democrats enact their "black codes" to oppress African-Americans

GRAND OLD PARTISAN (Michael Zak) - On this day in 1865, the Democrat-controlled legislature of Mississippi passed the nation's first "black codes." These were laws that the 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

After winning a two-thirds majority in Congress, Republicans swept away the black codes by passing, over the veto of Democrat President Andrew Johnson, the Civil Rights Act and other Reconstruction legislation. These laws guaranteed full civil rights to African-Americans, many of whom then entered politics. As Democrats regained control of the South in the 1870s, they again oppressed African-Americans with a new set of regulations known as "Jim Crow" laws.

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the country. He is the author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party, cited by Clarence Thomas in a Supreme Court decision. Each day, the Grand Old Partisan blog celebrates 154 years of Republican heroes and heroics. See www.RepublicanBasics.com for more information. Read More......

A Republican President issued the Emancipation Proclamation

"On this day in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln (R-IL) issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Effective at yearend, all slaves in Confederate-controlled territory would be "forever free." ∴ Ill-informed critics of the first Republican President Lincoln fault the Emancipation Proclamation for only freeing slaves in areas not yet under the control of the U.S. government, but -- because of the Democratic Party's resolute defense of slavery -- the federal government had the necessary authority only over so-called "property" of the rebels. ∴ Within two years, the Republican-controlled 38th Congress followed up this great advance by enacting the 13th Amendment, banning slavery throughout the nation."

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the country. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is his acclaimed history of the GOP, He is also the author of the 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar. His Grand Old Partisan website celebrates more than fifteen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Visit www.grandoldpartisan.com for more information. Read More......

The transcontinental railroad was a Republican achievement

GRAND OLD PARTISAN, 7/1/2009 by Michael Zak - The 1860 Republican National Convention, in its platform, called for building a railroad to the Pacific. ∴ On this day in 1862, the Republican-controlled 37th Congress passed the Pacific Railway Act, establishing the transcontinental continental railroad. The bill, written by U.S. Rep. Samuel Curtis (R-IA), was signed into law later that day by President Abraham Lincoln (R-IL). ∴ The man honored with driving the golden spike to complete the railroad was a Republican and former Governor of California, Leland Stanford. In 1856, Stanford had co-founded the California Republican Party. He would later serve in the U.S. Senate and found Stanford University.

About Michael Zak
Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the country, showing office-holders, candidates and activists how they would benefit tremendously from appreciating the heritage of our Grand Old Party. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is his acclaimed history of the GOP from the Republican point of view. Each day, his Grand Old Partisan blog celebrates more than fifteen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. See www.republicanbasics.com for more information. Read More......

Michael Zak: James Meredith, Republican

Grand Old Partisan salutes James Meredith, Republican civil rights pioneer, born this day in 1933. In 1962, judge Elbert Tuttle, an Eisenhower appointee, ordered the Democrat-controlled state government to permit Meredith, an African-American, to enroll at the University of Mississippi. He is pictured here being esorted to the university by John Doar, another Eisenhower appointee, and a federal marshal. Riots by Democrat racists left two dead and 79 soldiers and U.S marshals wounded. ∴ Meredith joined the Republican Party and for several years was a staffer for Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC). He recognized the danger posed to African-Americans by condescending, socialist white Democrats.

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the country, showing office-holders, candidates and activists how they would benefit tremendously from appreciating the heritage of our Grand Old Party. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is his acclaimed history of the GOP from the Republican point of view. Each day, his Grand Old Partisan blog celebrates more than fifteen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. See www.republicanbasics.com for more information. Read More......

History: Abraham Lincoln, the Rail Splitter

GRAND OLD PARTISAN, 5/8/2009 by Michael Zak - On this day in 1860, Abraham Lincoln acquired the nickname the Rail Splitter.

The Illinois Republican Party convention began with a grand gesture. At the invitation of the chairman, Governor Richard Oglesby, two childhood friends of Lincoln carried in two wooden rails he was said to have split thirty years earlier. Delegates then lifted Lincoln on their shoulders and carried him to the stage. The Republican dubbed him the Rail Splitter.

Meeting just a week before the Republican National Convention, the state convention helped propel Lincoln to the presidential nomination. Delegates voted to give him their unanimous support:

"Abraham Lincoln is the first choice of the Republicans of Illinois for the Presidency and their delegates are instructed to use every honorable means to secure his nomination, and to cast the vote of the state as a unit for him."

This image of Abraham Lincoln the Rail Splitter was a signal that, unlike the Democrats, Republicans revered the free market system and people who worked for a living. It also contrasted Lincoln's working-class sensibilities with the elitism of his Democrat opponent, Stephen Douglas, owner of a slave plantation in Mississippi.

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the country, showing office-holders, candidates and activists how they would benefit tremendously from appreciating the heritage of our Grand Old Party. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is his acclaimed history of the GOP from the Republican point of view. Each day, his Grand Old Partisan blog celebrates decades of Republican heroes and heroics. See www.RepublicanBasics.com for more information. Read More......

Celebrating the 155th anniversary of the Republican Party

[POSTED HERE A DAY LATE] GRAND OLD PARTISAN BLOG, 3/20/2009 - Our party's heritage IS the moral high ground, and forgetting it costs us the political initiative. We would benefit tremendously from appreciating the heritage of the Republican Party. Today [March 20], Republicans celebrate - or should celebrate - the 155th anniversary of our Grand Old Party.

Several sites share the credit as its birthplace, but our party was named in Ripon, Wisconsin. On March 20, 1854, fifty-eight civil rights activists called for all opponents of slavery to unite in a new organization, to be called "the Republican Party." This name had a past as well as a future, since Thomas Jefferson and many other Founders had called themselves "Republicans."

On July 6, the first state convention was held, in Jackson, Michigan. Thanks to the zeal and dedication of early Republican leaders, the GOP soon became a major national party. Now, more than ever, the Republican Party should get back to basics.

Here is the permalink to this article on the Grand Old Partisan blog, each day celebrating 155 years of Republican heroes and heroics.

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the country. See www.RepublicanBasics.com for more information. Read More......

History: Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address

GRAND OLD PARTISAN, 3/4/2009 - On this day in 1865, Abraham Lincoln (R-IL) delivered his second inaugural address. The President concluded with this classic appeal for magnanimity:

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

Hearing that Frederick Douglass (R-MD) was being denied entry to the inaugural ball, Lincoln ordered that he be allowed in. The Great Emancipator greeted him with "Here comes my friend Douglass" and shook his hand. He then asked Douglass his opinion of the speech. "Mr. President," he replied, "that was a sacred effort."

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the country [***Speaking at Dorchester 2009***]. He is the author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party, cited by Clarence Thomas in a Supreme Court decision. Each day, the Grand Old Partisan blog celebrates 155 years of Republican heroes and heroics. See www.RepublicanBasics.com for more information. Read More......