X-Z: Yates

See below for annotated biographies of Radical Republicans. Source: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography.

YATES, Richard (January 18, 1815-November 27, 1873), Civil War governor of Illinois.  Elected to Congress in 1850 and again in 1852 he had during one of his terms the distinction of being the only Whig member from Illinois. In this period he opposed the Kansas-Nebraska bill. Having taken an antislavery stand he joined the Republican party and was a member of the national conventions which nominated Lincoln in 1860 and Grant in 1868. As contrasted with that of radical abolitionists, however, his attitude was conservative, resembling Lincoln's.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 10, Pt. 2, pp. 599-601:

YATES, RICHARD (January 18, 1815-November27, 1873), Civil War governor of Illinois, was born in Warsaw, Kentucky, the son of Henry and Millicent (Yates) Yates, whose common grandfather, Michael Yates, hailed from Caroline County, Virginia. In 1831 the family moved to Sangamon County, Illinois, and Richard was sent to Illinois College at Jacksonville, where in 1835 he received the first graduating diploma issued by that institution (C. H. Rammelkamp, Illinois College: A Centennial History, 1928, p. 69). Already known as a boy orator, he spoke at graduation on "The Influence of Free Institutions in Moulding National Character" (Ibid., pp. 69-70). After studying law at Transylvania University he was admitted to the bar (1837) and began practice at Jacksonville, which remained his home during his whole public career. For three terms (1842-46, 1848-50) he was a member of the state legislature. Elected to Congress in 1850 and again in 1852 he had during one of his terms the distinction of being the only Whig member from Illinois. In this period he favored the homestead act, opposed the Kansas-Nebraska bill, supported the movement to establish colleges with federal land grants, and spoke vigorously for extending an official welcome to the Hungarian patriot Kossuth. Having taken an antislavery stand he joined the Republican party and was a member of the national conventions which nominated Lincoln in 1860 and Grant in 1868. As contrasted with that of radical abolitionists, however, his attitude was conservative, resembling Lincoln's. In party conferences looking to the governorship in 1860 N. B. Judd and Leonard Swett were more prominently mentioned than Yates; but his popularity in doubtful counties turned the balance and he became the party choice. He was elected over James C. Allen, Democrat, by a vote of 172,000 to 159,000; and served as governor from January 1861 to January 1865.

During the war he was widely known as a vigorous state executive, upholding Lincoln's hand and showing great ardor in the raising of troops and in other complex matters of war administration. At times his zeal outran the efforts of the government at Washington so that he was advised to reduce the number of regiments and discharge excessive recruits (Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Illinois, 1863, pp. 18-19). He gave U. S. Grant his first Civil War commission and assignments, putting him in charge of camps for organizing volunteers, giving him staff duty at Springfield, and tendering him the colonelcy of the 21st Regiment of Illinois Volunteers (June 1861). War duties pressed heavily upon him as he attended to military appointments, approved a variety of new ar.my units, called special legislative sessions, recommended emergency laws, visited "the boys" in camp and hospital, reviewed Illinois troops in battle areas, attended to voluminous complaints by soldiers' parents, promoted the raising of bounties, conferred with other governors and with Lincoln, and made hot speeches playing upon war emotions and searing the Democrats. When the Democratic majority in the legislature of 1863 opposed the existing conduct of the war and embarrassed the governor by passing (in the lower house) a resolution urging an armistice and recommending a national convention to restore peace (while at the same time opposing secession and disunion), Yates seized upon a disagreement in the matter of adjournment as the opportunity for exercising his constitutional prerogative of proroguing the Assembly. Overlooking the fact that the Democrats supplied their share of enlistments and otherwise supported the Union, the Republicans stigmatized their opponents as traitors; and the war years became a period of wretched party bitterness in the state. Through all this the governor was personally popular, and his prestige was increased by the success of the war in which Illinois reported over 250,000 enlistments.

After the war Yates served one term (1865-71) in the United States Senate. Party regularity marked his course: he favored vindictive measures against the South, voted for President Johnson's conviction in the impeachment proceeding, and supported the prevailing radical Republican program, which he justified with convincing patriotic unction and oratorical flourish. He died suddenly at St. Louis while returning from Arkansas, whither he had gone as federal commissioner to inspect a land-subsidy railroad. He was buried with full honors at Jacksonville.

Yates was married on July 11, 1839, to a "dark eyed little beauty," Catharine Geers, a native of Lexington, Kentucky. She outlived him by thirty-five years, dying in 1908. They had two daughters and three sons, one of whom, Richard, was governor of the state, 1901-04, and congressman during several terms. Oratorical skill and a strikingly handsome appearance were among the rich personal endowments that contributed to Yates's career. His use of liquor sometimes led to over indulgence, and there is record of his lack of sobriety when inaugurated as governor (Memoirs of Henry Villard, 1904, I, 148). When criticized on this score in 1868 he admitted the fault, apologized "without reserve or defense," and explained that his use of stimulants after exhaustive labor had not interfered with the performance of public duty ("Address to the People of Illinois," Chicago Tribune, April 25, 1868, p. 2). It has been said that "no governor of any State [was] more watchful of the State's interests ... or more loved by [his] people ...  including the troops in the field" (Shelby M. Cullom, Fifty Years of Public Service, 1911, p. 45). "His success in political life," writes another, "was largely due to his personality; he was endowed with a manly carriage, fine presence, cordial manner and happy speech" (Jayne, post, p. 144). He is honored above other Illinois governors in a beautiful bronze statue at Springfield.

[There is no biography of Yates, and this sketch has been based upon scattered sources, including newspapers, minor essays and obituaries, manuscript collections, state archives, and information generously supplied by Catharine Yates Pickering, daughter of Richard Yates the younger. The date of birth, usually given (even by Yates himself) as 1818, has been verified as 1815 by reference to the family Bible. The voluminous Yates papers, though preserved by his son Richard, have not been open to historical use. In the archives at Springfield the governor's letter books and incoming correspondence for the Yates administration are missing. Yates's messages and speeches are conveniently available at the Illinois State Historical Library See also: Richard Yates, War Governor of Illinois (1924), address by Richard Yates the younger at the dedication of the statue of Yates in Springfield, October 16, 1923; C. M. Earaes, Historic Morgan and Classic Jacksonville (1885); L. U. Reavis, The Life and Public Services of Richard Yates (1881); The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, volumes I and II (r 927-33), being Illinois Historical Colls., volumes XX, XXII; A. C. Cole, The Era of the Civil War (1919); Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); speech by Richard Yates the younger, February 12, 19.21, containing letters from Lincoln to Yates, in Congress Record, 66 Congress, 3 Session, pp. 3074-79; Report of the Adj. General of Illinois 1861-65; I. 0. Foster, "The Relation of ... Illinois to the Federal Government during the Civil War" CMS.), doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois, 1925; Richard Yates the younger, Descendants of Michael Yates (1906); William Jayne "Richard Yates' Services ... as War Governor," Trans. Illinois State Historical Society, 1902; E. L. Kimball, "Richard Yates:  His Record as Civil War Governor of Illinois," Journal Illinois State Historical Society, April 1930; Chicago Tribune, November 28, 29, 1873; Jacksonville Daily Journal, November 29, 1873.

J. G. R.

The Fortieth Congress of the United States: Historical and Biographical. Vol. 1., By William H. Barnes, 1869, p. 103:

RICHARD YATES.

SOME who were not soldiers in the field, became conspicuous for their talents and patriotism amid the emergencies ley of the recent civil war. Prominent among these was Richard Yates of Illinois. He was born in Warsaw, Gallatin County, Kentucky, in 1818. In 1831 he removed with his father to Illinois, and settled in Springfield. He studied for one year in Miami University, Ohio, and subsequently entered Illinois College, where he graduated in 1838, the first graduate in any Western college. He subsequently studied law with Colonel John J. Hardin, who fell at the head of his regiment in the battle of Buena Vista. Having been admitted to the bar, Mr. Yates settled in the beautiful city of Jacksonville, Illinois, which has since been his home. In 1842 he was elected to the State Legislature, and served until 1850.

In 1850 he was nominated by a Whig Convention as a candidate for Congress, and was elected. In March, 1851, he took his seat in the House of Representatives, the youngest member of that body. A change was soon after made in his district, which, it was supposed, would secure a majority to the opposite party, yet he was re-elected over Mr. John Calhoun, a popular Democratic leader.

The district represented by Mr. Yates included the early home of Senator Douglas, where he had taught school, and commenced the practice of law. When Mr. Douglas became the author and champion of “Squatter Sovereignty” as applied to the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, his old friends warmly espoused the doctrine, partly through local pride and personal attachment to its author. The consequence was that, in 1854, Mr. Yates, who had opposed the “Nebraska Bill,” was defeated as a candidate for re-election to Congress.

He subsequently devoted himself for several years to the practice of his profession and to the duties of president of a railroad. This interval of private life is looked back upon by himself and his friends as the happiest and most prosperous period of his career. Living in the midst of a community the most moral and intellectual of any in the West, surrounded by a young and interesting family to whose happiness he was devoted, and by who in he was ardently beloved, he passed a few years, which were the happiest of his life.

His family and near personal friends were reluctant to have Mr. Yates enter again upon political life, but his patriotic impulses and his ambition to mingle in more stirring scenes, induced him to accept the nomination for Governor of Illinois in 1860. He had long been a devoted personal and political friend of Mr. Lincoln, and most gladly threw the power of his eloquence and the weight of his influence to promote his elevation to the presidential chair. As both the leading candidates for the presidency were citizens of Illinois, the contest in that State was especially interesting and exciting. The result, however, could not be doubtful, and Richard Yates was inaugurated as Governor of Illinois at Springfield a few weeks before Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office in Washington.'

The inaugural address of Governor Yates was a most eloquent protest against the gigantic treason of South Carolina and other seceding States. Freshly crowned with the suffrages of a great State, his voice was heard throughout the Union as a truthful utterance of the people of the Northwest. “On the question of the Union of these States," said he, “ all our people will be a unit. The foot of the traitor has never yet blasted the green sward of Illinois. All the running waters of the Northwest are waters of freedom and Union, and come what will, as they glide to the great Gulf, they will ever, by the ordinance of '87 and by the higher ordinance of Almighty God, bear only free men and free trade upon their bosoms, or their channels will be filled with the comingled blood of traitors, cowards, and slaves !”

The rebellion soon assumed proportions more immense, and the eloquent utterances of Governor Yates were put to a practical test. On the 15th of April, 1861, the Secretary of War issued an order requiring the Governor of Illinois to contribute six regiments to make up the force of 75,000 men called out by the President's first proclamation.

On the day the Governor received the call of the War Department, he issued a proclamation for a special session of the Legislature to provide the sinews of war.

Within ten days after the proclamation of Governor Yates was published, more than ten thousand men had offered their services. The work of enlistment still went on, and disappointment was every where expressed that the services of more men could not be accepted.

Cairo being a point of great strategic importance, situated at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi, and commanding both rivers, it was deemed important that it should at once be possessed and fortified by a Federal force. On the 19th of April Governor Yates ordered General Swift, of the State Militia, to take possession of Cairo. Forty-eight hours after the reception of this order, that officer left Chicago with four six-pounders and 495 men. On the morning of the 23d this force took possession of Cairo, which proved a most valuable military position during the war. It was fortunate for the country that this movement was made so promptly. A brie delay might have enabled the enemy to carry out their cherished purpose of waging the war upon Northern soil.

The Ohio and Mississippi Rivers were then thronged with steamboats engaged in the “Southern trade," and laden to the water's edge with Cincinnati dry goods, Northern produce, and Galena lead. The occupation of Cairo enabled Governor Yates to do a service to the Union by stopping this “aid and comfort” to the rebellion. The Governor having received information that the steamers C. E. Hillman and John D. Perry were about to leave St. Louis with military stores, he inaugurated the blockade of the Mississippi by telegraphing to Colonel Prentiss, commanding at Cairo, “Stop said boats, and seize all arms and munitions." The command was promptly and successfully obeyed, and all the strength which the commerce of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers would have given to the rebel cause was at once cut off.

The War Department required but six regiments of soldiers from Illinois, and two hundred companies were ready and eager to be accepted. Governor Yates urged and finally secured the acceptance of four additional regiments. The disasters of the summer of 1861 aroused the General Government to a sense of the real danger of the country, and the necessity of a large army for putting down the rebellion.

Illinois had nobly responded to the enlarged demands. By the close of 1861 Governor Yates had sent to the field more than forty-three thousand men, and had in camps of instruction seventeen thousand more.

President Lincoln having on the 6th of July, 1862, called for three hundred thousand additional volunteers, Governor Yates replied : “ Illinois, already alive with beat of drum and the tramp of new recruits, will respond to your call.”

To the honor of Illinois it is to be recorded, that in the busiest season of the year, only eleven days were required to enlist more than fifty thousand men for the service of the country.

When the time arrived for the election of members for the General Assembly for 1863-4, there were at least one hundred thousand voters of Illinois absent from the State, in the service of the country. The consequence was the election of a Legislature with a majority opposed to the war for putting down the rebellion. It was in vain that the Governor recommended measures calculated to sustain and reinforce the soldiers of Illinois already in the field; in vain that he pleaded the necessity of providing and appropriating means for sustaining the financial and military credit of the State. The Legislature was not possessed of the patriotic impulses which moved the Governor and those who had responded to his call. Their time was wasted in unprofitable attention to other interests than those of the country in the great emergency which was upon her.

In June, 1863, a disagreement having occurred between the two houses as to the time of final adjournment, the Governor, in the exercise of a power placed in his hands by the constitution, prorogued the General Assembly to the 31st of December, 1864, the day when its existence would terminate by law.

The people approved this brave and patriotic movement of their Governor, and in the following year elected a Legislature in sympathy with the country, and in harmony with the soldiers who were fighting her battles.

This Legislature elected Richard Yates to the Senate of the United States—a suitable reward to one whose ability and patriotism had contributed so largely to the honor of Illinois. During his administration a peaceful agricultural State, with scarcely a professional soldier within her limits, had grown to be one of the mightiest military commonwealths in history. Her army of two hundred and fifty thousand men, raised during the administration of Governor Yates, from the farms and shops of Illinois, was unsurpassed in effectiveness and valor. It was partly owing to the pride which the Governor took in the advancement of the soldiers of his State that so many of them had risen to high and distinguished rank as officers of the army. With honest pride the Governor said in his final message: “In response to calls for troops the State stands pre-eminently in the lead among her loyal sisters, and every click of the telegraph heralds the perseverance of Illinois generals and the indomitable courage and bravery of Illinois sons in every engagement of the war. The history of the war is brilliant with recitations of the skill and powers of our general, field, staff, and line officers. The list of promotions from the field and staff officers of our regiments to lieutenant and major-generals for gallant conduct and the pre-requisites for efficient and successful command, compare brilliantly with the names supplied by all other States; and the patient, vigilant, and tenacious record made by our veteran regiments in the camp, on the inarch, and in the field, is made a subject of praise by the whole country, and will be the theme for poets and historians of all lands for all time.”

Mr. Yates took his seat in the Senate of the United States on the 4th of March, 1865, in time to aid in the complete restoration of the Union he had elsewhere assisted to save.

He immediately took rank among the foremost of those who have been denominated “Radicals.” He announced himself as standing upon the broad principle “ that all citizens, without distinction of race, color, or condition, should be protected in the enjoyment and exercise of all their civil and political rights." His faith in the final triumph of this principle was unwavering. On the 14th of February, 1866, Mr. Yates pronounced a speech of three hours' duration on a proposed Constitutional Amendment changing the basis of representation. “It is too late,” he eloquently said on that occasion, “it is too late to change the tide of human progress.”

Mr. Yates is one of the most popular orators of the country. Impelled by a warm humanitarianism and glowing imagination, he passes rapidly by dry technicalities and abstract theories to those grand and glowing deductions which the patriot delights to contemplate. He possesses a melodious voice, a graceful manner, with a ready and even rapid utterance. In person he is of medium hight, with a face which in his early years possessed a beauty quite uncommon among men of mark.

Sources:
Dictionary of American Biography, Volumes I-X, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volumes I-VI, Edited by James Grant Wilson & John Fiske, New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1888-1889.