(ILLINOIS.) Interesting group of correspondence of Congressman and Governor Richard Yates. 6 items, condition generally strong. With typed transcripts of each. Vp, 1854 and 1862-65
Richard Yates (1815-1873) served Illinois as a United States Representative from 1851 to 1855, as governor from 1861 to 1865, and as United States Senator from 1865 to 1871. This collection includes: Letter from Representative Yates to wife Kate, Washington, 6 March 1854: "Everything is excitement about the Nebraska question. The Senate was in session on Friday night until 5 o'clock in the morning. . . . Douglas is highly elated at the passage of the bill." Letter to from brother Lieutenant William Yates of the 6th Illinois Cavalry to their father [Henry Yates, died 1865], Cape Girardeau, MO, 3 February 1862: "We must battle with raving elements as well as with secesh, the former being the most formidable advasary. . . . I am very much dissatisfied with our company officers and . . . shall get a transfer." Pass signed by Governor Yates allowing Major F.S. Rutherford to travel from Decatur to Cairo on the Central Railroad, marked "Cancelled," 27 February 1862. Letter from Solon Burroughs to Governor Yates, Monmouth, IL, 29 November 1864: "Union men hereabouts feel good over the election and the Copperheads look as though their chances for a part in the 4th Resurrection were becoming dubious. . . . Robert Holloway, Lieut. General under Vallandingham residing here, has been on a pilgrimage to see Sen. Richardson . . . They are desperate at you for adjourning that cursed Copperhead legislature and would throw their fate onto the devil if . . . they could defeat you. I think they hate you more than they do President Lincoln." Letter from William Pickering to Senator Yates, Albion, IL, 6 June 1865: "If the general amnesty to the rank & file of the rebel army . . . are allowed to vote at all elections . . . then, sir, the rebels of the South will . . . elect a large majority of disunionists or rebels to every legislature in all the slave states . . . and with a rebel president & a rebel majority in both houses of Congress they will then have the Army, Navy & Treasury of the U.S. Gov't . . . & slavery will then be re-established." Letter from Edgar Cowan to Senator Yates, Greensburgh, PA, Easter Sunday, circa 1869: "How are you with 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."
