Grand Old Partisan honors Richard Yates, born in Kentucky, January 18th 1815. Age sixteen, he moved to Illinois. The young attorney won several state house terms, and in 1850, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He was re-elected but narrowly lost for a third term to a pro-slavery Democrat.
Yates co-founded the Illinois GOP. Delegate to the 1860 Republican National Convention, he labored effectively to secure the nomination for his friend Abraham Lincoln. The day of the presidential election, Yates won the governorship. Outbreak of civil war, this patriot swiftly mobilized his state to defend the Union. It was he who appointed an unemployed Ulysses Grant to command a regiment.
In 1862, Yates attended a conference of loyal governors. He resisted attempts by Democrats to undermine the Union cause in his state. June 1863, he suspended the legislature, as was his right at the time, when the Democrat majority threatened to withdraw Illinois troops from the army.
Two years later, after the GOP won control, the legislature elected Yates to the U.S. Senate. He voted for the 1866 Civil Rights Act, the Reconstruction Acts, and the 14th Amendment. President Grant named him a railroad commissioner.
Slavery Party activists resented him proclaiming 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."
There stands at the Illinois state capitol a statue of Richard Yates. His son, Richard Yates Jr, also served as a Republican Governor of Illinois.
Here is a Video Version of this article on YouTube: https://youtu.be/_2qHMwBTEFg
Michael Zak is author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party, a history of GOP civil rights achievement.
Each day, Michael Zak's grandoldpartisan YouTube channel and Grand Old Partisan blog celebrate more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. And, see Speech Raves for audience feedback from his presentations in thirty-one states so far.
He also wrote the 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar.
Clarence Thomas cited Back to Basics for the Republican Party in a Supreme Court decision.
See www.youtube.com/q?v=IzxKCiXc5Qc for a brief video of a Texas Republican praising Back to Basics for the Republican Party.
"This is the most amazing book about politics that I have ever read. The Overview should be required reading for anyone with even a minor interest in government. The remainder is an enthralling history lesson that I will never forget. For years, we have all been misled about the true nature of the GOP. This is the real deal! Read it and be proud!"
"Michael Zak wrote the definitive history of the GOP."
"Back to Basics for the Republican Party is the most significant contribution to the Republican Party in the last twenty years apart from Ronald Reagan."
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and
"one of the best books I ever read"
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