VW Republicans honor 1st GOP president

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The “Party of Lincoln” celebrated the nation’s 16th president during the Van Wert County Republican Central Committee’s Lincoln Day Dinner held at Elks Lodge 1197 in Van Wert.

Ohio Supreme Court Justice Sharon L. Kennedy was guest speaker for the event and first complimented the oldest and youngest Republicans in the room before talking about the importance of Lincoln to the Republican Party. 

“After praising glory to God and saying in the end that ’the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish the earth’,” Justice Kennedy noted. “He was talking to us; he was our president, our first Republican president and in that time he was setting the time for today’s future.”

The justice talked about the foundation of “The American Dream” in The Declaration of Independence when it talks about having the right to the “pursuit of happiness” and the effect on the nation of those words.

“No one more exemplifies the American Dream than Abraham Lincoln,” she said, noting his rise from humble beginnings to become one of the most important U.S. presidents.

Justice Kennedy talked about Lincoln’s birth in a log cabin in Kentucky in 1809, his move to Indiana at age 8, the death of his mother when he was 9, his enlistment as a soldier and service as a captain at age 23 in the Black Hawk War, and his time as a general store merchant and later an attorney in Springfield, Illinois, as well as his time as an Illinois state representative.

Justice Kennedy noted that, although he lost his bid for the U.S. Senate to Stephen A. Douglas in 1858, the national exposure he gained from the Lincoln-Douglas debate was what led him to the presidency two years later.

“But in that failure was a moment of glory, because in that moment is where he actually became known to all Americans in the United States,” the Supreme Court justice said. “It was his skill at debate that everyone spoke of, and talked about, that led him to the presidential seat. 

“It was in those moments of extending himself, of using his wit, his humor, his learned study of the law to gain that notoriety,” she added.

Justice Kennedy also talked about Lincoln’s great faith, his continued reliance on God to give him strength during the crisis moments in his life and career.

She then turned to Ohio, talking about how a commentator described how Ohio was becoming a red (Republican) state, in his opinion, noting that, although the urban centers were becoming more and more “blue” (Democrat), the suburbs and rural areas have become increasingly Republican. 

Noting that she feels Ohio is “kind of purple,” Justice Kennedy also noted that, in the midst of a landslide victory for nearly all Republican state candidates in the 2018 off-year election, two Republican candidates lost. Those candidates were Ohio Supreme Court justices, she said, and though not much mentioned, she said those losses were crucial to the state’s legislative efforts.

Justice Kennedy talked about Ohio’s elected judicial system, which first came about in 1851 when Ohioans took that power away from the Ohio General Assembly, and talked to those attending the dinner in Van Wert about the importance of knowing what judges reflect the Republican ideal of “judicial restraint” and to elect those judges to protect the legislative gains made by Ohio Republicans over the past decade.

In addition to Justice Kennedy, a number of Republican politicians spoke briefly during the dinner, including U.S. Representative Bob Latta, State Representative Craig Riedel, and State Senator Rob McColley, while several military veterans were honored earlier in the event.