Richard Yates, heroic Illinois Republican Governor and Senator


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 first of two congressional terms. He narrowly lost for a third term to a pro-slavery Democrat.

Yates co-founded the Illinois GOP. Delegate at the 1860 Republican National Convention, he labored effectively to secure the nomination for his friend Abraham Lincoln. 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 Union Army.

Two years later, after the GOP won control, the legislature elected Yates a U.S. Senator. He voted for the 1866 Civil Rights Act, the [anti-] Ku Klux Klan Act, and the 14th and 15th Amendments. President Grant named him a railroad commissioner.

Slavery Party activists resented Yates for 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.

Back to Basics for the Republican Party is my civil rights history of the GOP. To quote the book: "The more we Republicans know about the history of our party, the more Democrats will worry about the future of theirs. For more information, see www.grandoldpartisan.com. 

Here is a YouTube Video about this article.

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Here is my Substack about this article.

Michael Zak is author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party, a history of GOP civil rights achievement.


Each day, his YouTube videos and TikTok videos and Rumble videos 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.

Clarence Thomas cited Back to Basics for the Republican Party in a Supreme Court decision.

"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!"

"Your book is a national treasure. I'm always recommending it."

"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."

"Back to Basics for the Republican Party is more important to our party now than ever before."

and

"one of the best books I ever read"

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