Richard Yates (governor)
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- For the 20th century U.S. novelist of the same name, see Richard Yates (novelist).
Richard Yates was the name of two Illinois politicians, father and son.
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Richard Yates (1818-1873)
Richard Yates (January 18, 1818 - November 27, 1873) was governor of Illinois during the American Civil War. He also represented Illinois in the United States House of Representatives, 1851-1855 and as a U.S. Senator, 1865-1871.
Yates was born in Warsaw, Kentucky and moved with his family to Illinois in 1831. He graduated from Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1835. He then studied law at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. He was admitted to the bar in 1837 and commenced practice in Jacksonville.
Yates served as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1842-1845 and 1848-1849. In 1850, he was elected as a Whig to the United States House of Representatives where he was the youngest member of the Thirty-second Congress. He was reelected to Congress in 1852. During Yates' second term in Congress, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise reopened the anti-slavery question. He opposed the repeal, and became identified with the new Republican Party. His district was pro-slavery and consequently he narrowly lost his bid for a third term.
In 1860 he was elected governor as a Republican. Governor Yates continued to be an outspoken opponent of slavery, and at the opening of the Civil War was very active in raising volunteers. He convened the legislature in extra session on 12 April, 1861, the day after the attack on Fort Sumter, and took military possession of Cairo, garrisoning it with regular troops. In Governor Yates's office General Ulysses S. Grant received his first distinct recognition as a soldier in the Civil War, being appointed by Yates mustering officer for the state, and afterward colonel of the 21st Illinois regiment.
After his service as governor ended, Yates was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1865, to March 3, 1871; he was not a candidate for reelection. While in the Senate, Yates was Chairman of the Committee on Revolutionary Claims (Thirty-ninth and Forty-first Congresses) and Chairman of the Committee on Territories (Fortieth Congress).
After leaving the Senate, Yates was appointed by President Grant as a United States commissioner to inspect a land subsidy railroad. He died suddenly in St. Louis, Missouri on November 27, 1873. He is buried in Diamond Grove Cemetery, Jacksonville.
| Preceded by: John Wood | Governor of Illinois 1861–1865 | Succeeded by: Richard James Oglesby | |||
| Preceded by: William Alexander Richardson | Class 2 U.S. Senator from Illinois 1865–1871 | Succeeded by: John A. Logan Richard Yates (1860-1936)Richard Yates (December 12, 1860 - April 11, 1936) was governor of Illinois from 1901 to 1905. From 1919 to 1933, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois. Although he failed to receive his party's nomination in 1928 to the Seventy-first Congress, he was later appointed nominee and elected in place of Henry R. Rathbone who died prior to the election. In 1932, he was unsuccessful in his bid for reelection to the Seventy-third Congress. Yates was born in Jacksonville, Illinois and attended public schools and, from 1870-1874, the Illinois Woman’s College. He was the city editor of the Daily Courier in 1878 and 1879, and of the Daily Journal 1881-1883. Yates graduated from Illinois College in Jacksonville in 1880 and from the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1884. He practiced law in Jacksonville and was city attorney of Jacksonville 1885-1890 and county judge of Morgan County 1894-1897. From 1897 to 1900 Yates was United States collector of internal revenue for the eighth internal revenue district. Yates served as a private in Company I, Fifth Infantry, Illinois National Guard from 1885-1890. After leaving Congress, Yates resided in Harbor Springs, Michigan, and Springfield, Illinois, while writing his memoirs. He died in Springfield and was buried in Diamond Grove Cemetery, Jacksonville.
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