SPEECH OF HON. RICHARD YATES, DELIVERED AT THE REPUBLICAN RATIFICATION MEETING, OF THE CITIZENS OF SANGAMON COUNTY, IN THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SPRINGFIELD, JUNE 7TH, 1860 by Yates, Richard - 1860

"The American revolution was begun and fought through for an idea—to establish that man is a man—to vindicate the right of every man to equal rights and to equal citizenship…. Every boy imbibes the genius of our free institutions. The poor friendless rail splitter rises to the proudest pinnacle of human power. [Cheers] The poor tailor boy becomes and is now our President, [cheers] the ferry boy the Chief Justice of our Supreme Court, (cheers) and the humble tanner boys become the great commander, who marshals a million of veteran warriors in the great cause of union and liberty, and holds up the flaming symbol of emancipation to a whole race of mankind. (Applause.)" (p1/c2 – p2/c1)

"And yet, for Jeff Davis, who has been a wholesale murderer, who has struck at the life of the whole nation, and rolled the red wave of bloody civil war over the land, they say we must be magnanimous. [Sensation.] We shoot the poor deserter and the poor soldier who is found sleeping at his post on… Read More

Jacksonville [Ill.] : Ironmonger & Mendenhall, 1865. First Edition. Paperback. Very Good. [The Best of America: An Early Argument for Civil Rights and Universal Suffrage] An attractive, clean pamphlet. Clean, unmarked pages. 8 p. ; 22 cm. Monagham 832. <br> Yates was the Governor of Illinois during the Civil War. A friend of Lincoln, he was one of the most energetic governors in the Union. He also notably commissioned U.S. Grant. In this wartime July 4th address, Yates commemorates the deeds and ideas of the American Revolution and puts them in a Civil War context. He explains to his audience the principles America is fighting for. His words are rousing and represent the best of the American heritage. Echoes of Lincoln's Emancipation proclamation and a precursor to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s I have a dream speech can be heard. <br> Yates says: "They are gone, but the great truths enunciated therein survive, and will survive, a perpetual declaration to all the world,… Read More