Grand Old Partisan honors Luke Poland, born in Vermont, November 1st 1815. At twenty-seven, he served as delegate to a constitutional convention. After two years as county prosecutor, he won a seat on the state supreme court. In 1848, the Free Soil Party nominated him for Lieutenant Governor. In 1860, he became Chief Justice.
In 1865, to fill a vacancy, the Republican Governor appointed Poland to the U.S. Senate. While a Senator, he ran for and won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, taking office in 1867 as his Senate term expired. He would be re-elected three times. Receiving his vote were the 14th and 15th Amendments, the [anti-] Ku Klux Klan Act, and Yellowstone National Park.
Poland declared the 14th Amendment to be "the very spirit and inspiration of our system of government, the absolute foundation upon which it was established. It is essentially declared in the Declaration of Independence and in all provisions of the Constitution." He co-wrote a joint select committee report on the former rebel states which shocked the nation with its reporting of outrages committed by the Ku Klux Klan and other Democrat terrorist organizations.
Poland was Republican National Committeeman for several years and chaired the state delegation to the 1876 Republican National Convention. After serving in the legislature, in 1882 he won another term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was also a trustee of the University of Vermont and of the State Agricultural College.
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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, Michael Zak's grandoldpartisan YouTube channel and Grand Old Partisan blog celebrate more than sixteen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. And, see Speech Raves for audience feedback from his presentations in thirty-one states.
He also wrote the 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar.
Clarence Thomas cited Back to Basics for the Republican Party in a Supreme Court decision.
See www.youtube.com/q?v=IzxKCiXc5Qc for a brief video of a Texas Republican praising Back to Basics for the Republican Party.
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