CORRESPONDENCE OF RICHARD YATES
Archive of 6 documents, including 5 letters (2 written by Yates and 3 to him), various sizes and places, dating from March 6, 1854 to circa 1869-1870. Also included is an Illinois Central Rail Road pass for a Major F. S. Rutherford, from Decatur to Cairo, Illinois, dated February 27, 1862, marked "Cancelled", signed by Yates. All the letters are accompanied by a typed transcript.
The earliest letter in the archive was written by Yates to his wife from Washington, D.C., dated March 6, 1854, when he was serving as a serving in the U.S. House of Representatives. Yates, a Whig and then later a Republican, writes about the debates in Congress concerning the controversial Kansas-Nebraska legislation sponsored by Stephen A. Douglas, senator from Illinois. "Everything is excitement here about the Nebraska question. The Senate was is session on Friday night until 5 o'clock in the morning. I sat up till 4 o'clock but got so worried that I had to give it up and go to my room. The Bill has passed the Senate by an overwhelming majority. It will soon be in the House when I anticipate such times as this House has never seen. Douglas is highly elated at the passage of the Bill through the Senate and especially at the action of the Illinois Legislature."
On November 29, 1864, weeks after the presidential election of 1864, in which Abraham Lincoln was reelected president, Yates received a letter from Solon Burroughs, an Illinois attorney, regarding Governor Yates' fight with the Democratic-controlled Illinois legislature, which he dissolved because he feared it had been taken over by pro-secessionist Democrats, and Yates' campaign for a U.S. Senate seat. "Union men hereabouts feel good over the election and the Copperheads look as though their chances for a part in the 4 th Resurrection were becoming dubious. Poor cusses.... They are desperate at you for adjourning that cursed Copperhead Legislature and would throw their vote onto the Devil, if they thought that by so doing they could defeat you. I think they hate you more than they do President Lincoln." Yates was elected to one of Illinois' two senate seats and began his term in March 1865. On June 6, Yates received a letter from William Pickering, Territorial Governor of Washington, concerning his concerns about giving ex-Confederates soldiers the right to vote. "If the general amnesty to the rank & file of the Rebel Army, including Colonels and all the lower grade of Regimental and Company officers are allowed to live and enjoy their property, without its being confiscated? And if they are allowed to vote, at all elections, after they have taken the Oath, to hereafter sustain the U.S. Gov't. Then sir, the Rebels of the South, will elect every Rep to Congress, from every Rep. District and they will elect a large majority of disunionists, or Rebels to every Legislature in all the slave states and every such Legislature will elect every Senator to Congress of the regularly high toned Secession determinations-or in other words, every Senator & every Representative from All the Slave States will be of the rankest Rebel type & principles and every Democrat in the Senate & House of Reps from the Northern States will join the Slave State Rebels in Congress & that combination will constitute a majority in both Houses of Congress...and at the next following election thereafter, they will certainly then be enabled to elect some tool of the Rebel or Democratic party for the next ensuing President." The last letter in the archive is from Edgar Cowan, U.S. Senator form Pennsylvania, and undated (circa 1869-1870), in which Cowan makes sarcastic remarks about President Ulysses S. Grant, so called "Carpetbaggers," and the 15th Amendment, which was being debated in Congress. "'Well'. How are you with the 'grand Ulysses'? You ought to have his favor-having started him in his career of Fortune & fame, but then you know gratitude is a burden and weak men throw it off as soon as they can....Do you still expect to improve the...intelligent mass of our voters by adding to it a new batch of stupid blackguards?....None for me, I am an old fogy-very suspicious and afraid of spoiling any state of affairs that had proven reasonably tolerable-and while I was glad to see slavery go to the wall, I am alarmed to see slaves go to the elections....I have some hopes the 15 th Amdt will break all your radical necks....Tell me what kind of fellows the Carpet-baggers are?...I have a curiosity to learn your opinion of them. How often to they change their linen? Or do they wear linen?" An interesting archive that highlights the key issues of the Civil War era..
More Information: Richard Yates (1818-1873) was born in a log cabin in Warsaw, Kentucky. After he moved with his family to Illinois in 1831, Yates graduated from Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1835. He studied law at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, and was admitted to the bar in 1837, commencing practice in Jacksonville. He married Catherine Geers, and together they had five children. Yates served as Governor of Illinois during the Civil War and has been considered one of the most effective war governors. Nicknamed the "Soldiers' Friend", he helped organize the Illinois contingent of Union soldiers, including commissioning Ulysses S. Grant as a colonel for an Illinois regiment. Yates was a close friend of Abraham Lincoln and a strong supporter the Emancipation Proclamation. He also represented Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives (1851–1855) and in the U.S. Senate (1865–1871). As a Senator, he voted and spoke in favor of removing of President from office.