John Hale, Republican hero

Grand Old Partisan salutes John Hale (R-NH), born this day in 1806.  A recovering Democrat, the outspoken abolitionist was the 1852 presidential candidate of the Free Soil Party, an anti-slavery organization that later merged into the early Republican Party.  In 1856, Hale won election to the U.S. Senate, where he helped organize the GOP congressional caucus.  Toward the end of the Civil War, President Lincoln appointed him ambassador to Spain.  Irony of ironies, his daughter was engaged to John Wilkes Booth when Lincoln was assassinated.

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 our Party's heritage of civil rights achievement.  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 -- http://grandoldpartisan.typepad.com -- celebrates 154 years of Republican heroes and heroics.  See www.republicanbasics.com for more information.