Early US statesman's free love rejected (8)
I believe the answer is:
franklin
'early us statesman's' is the definition.
'franklin' can be an answer for 'statesman's' (I've seen this before). I'm not certain of the 'early us' bit.
'free love rejected' is the wordplay.
'free' becomes 'frank' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'love' becomes 'nil' (love and nil mean zero in cricket and football).
'rejected' says the letters should be written backwards.
'nil' in reverse letter order is 'lin'.
'frank'+'lin'='FRANKLIN'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for franklin that I've seen before include "One with a tale to tell" , "Tale-bearer" , "[PILGRIM in the CANTERBURY TALES]" , "old landowner" , "Benjamin or Roosevelt" .)