Wisconsin’s First RNC Chairman

On the seventh ballot of their meeting yesterday, the members of the Republican National Committee elected Wisconsin state party chairman Reince Priebus as their new chairman.  Contrary to some reports, Priebus is not the first national party chairman from Wisconsin.  That designation belongs to Henry Clay Payne, who chaired the RNC for a brief time in 1904.

Payne started his political career in 1872 at the most grassroots level – the Young Men’s Republican Club of Milwaukee County – as a volunteer for President Grant’s reelection campaign.  As a reward for his party service, he was appointed postmaster of Milwaukee in 1876 – this before civil service laws protected such positions from political patronage.  At one point, he told the citizens of Milwaukee, “As long as I am postmaster, I shall employ only Republicans if I can find those that are competent.”   When Democrat Grover Cleveland won the presidency in 1884, he promptly fired Payne as postmaster, labeling him an “offensive partisan.” 

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The Mayflower Compact

About a year before the first Thanksgiving, in early November 1620, the Pilgrims landed in Cape Cod.  In Mayflower Nathaniel Philbrick recounts how before landing in Provincetown Harbor, the Pilgrims drafted and signed the Mayflower Compact.  The Mayflower Compact states in full:

 Having undertaken, for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith and honor of our King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do these present solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony, until which we promise all due submission and obedience.

 The Pilgrims fashioned this secular covenant to have an agreement for governance when they disembarked from the Mayflower. 

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Best of the Blogs: Inequality Edition

Hey, law students and profs, it’s time for you to fear the ‘fro.  Pistons center Ben Wallace reportedly plans to attend law school after he retires from the NBA.  At Above the Law, Elie Mystal comments on Wallace’s prospects as a law student, comparing his advantages and disadvantages relative to his classmates.  For instance:

GRADES: Would you give Ben Wallace a C? I wouldn’t give Ben Wallace a C. What possible good could come from giving Ben Wallace a C? EDGE: Ben Wallace

Amen to that!  By the way, given the strength of our sports law program, I hope Wallace will be giving Marquette a serious look.  And, as a defensive specialist, he shouldn’t mind too much that our local NBA franchise can’t seem to find the hoop.

Mystal’s post imagines Wallace heading to a lucrative big-firm job, which does point to the more serious issue addressed by my next post: the ease with which wealth can be used to generate more wealth, producing an inequality spiral in society.  

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