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“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 guard, but the nation must be magnanimous and not execute Jeff Davis!” (p6/c1)

[CIVIL WAR & RECONSTRUCTION]. RICHARD YATES. Printed Pamphlet. Speech of Hon. Richard Yates, Delivered at Elgin, Ill. on the Fourth Day of July, A.D. 1865. Jacksonville, IL: Ironmonger and Mendenhall, 1865. 8 pp., 6⅛ x 9½ in.

Inventory #24904       Price: $350

Excerpts:

“We celebrate the 4th day of July, 1776, because then commenced the great experiment whether man is capable of self-government. Our fathers boldly announced to the world in the great and immortal charter of freedom, the Declaration of Independence, the bible of the rights of man, which has just been read to you....” (p1/c1)

“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, not by virtue of his birth or fortune, or of his nativity or color, but by virtue of his intrinsic, God-created manhood.” (p1/c2)

“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.)” (p2/c1)

“The system of slavery existing in our Southern States fostered interests, tastes, opinions, manners and prejudices at war with the genius of our institutions, and necessarily divided our people.” (p2/c2)

“I feel highly honored to-day that I have the opportunity of meeting so many of our returned officers and soldiers here, for somehow I cannot divest myself of the feeling that I have been in the war myself, and am a returned soldier, although I have only on one or two occasions smelt the gunpowder of the enemy. [Laughter.] Yet under my administration the State of Illinois has sent nearly two hundred thousand brave volunteers to the field....” (p3/c1)

“Your brave comrades have died, and you have risked your lives that the nation and the Union might live, and you have proclaimed at the point of the bayonet the divine right of all men to be free.” (p4/c2)

“But thanks to you, the accursed blot of human slavery, which has divided and distracted us at home and sullied our name abroad, is wiped out, and every man in America is free.” (p5/c1)

“peace prevails in the land, yet peace brings with it the most complicated questions.... We are not safe until the great questions in dispute, for which we have fought, have been definitely and forever settled, and upon such a basis as to prevent the recurrence of another war to mar our peace and endanger the safety of the Union.” (p5/c2-p6/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 guard, but the nation must be magnanimous and not execute Jeff Davis!” (p6/c1)

“As a Senator of the United States, certainly I could consider no State Government Republican in form which was at variance with the fundamental principles of our republican institutions[;] which denied the equality of all men before the law; which set aside the principle that governments justly exist by the consent of the governed, and that taxation and representation must go together.... And I am here to-day to say that I could approve of no State government whose constitution or bill of rights does not deny, in express words, this right of a State to secede from the Union, and which does not provide that slavery shall be finally and forever abolished and prohibited, so that not even a root, seed, or grease spot shall remain of this sum of all villainies, the accursed system which has been the fountain of all our troubles, and of the fratricidal and bloody war which has desolated the land.” (p7/c1)

“I thank God that I have never cast a vote or uttered a sentiment against human freedom; and no loud alarums of popular applause, no shining height of human power shall ever seduce me to give up the God-given sentiments of my heart in favor of freedom and humanity.” (p7/c2)

Historical Background

Fourth of July celebrations in the nineteenth century often began with artillery at dawn, a parade, and a speech at a courthouse or church for an hour or two. After the speech, men often went to a tavern to drink thirteen toasts for the number of the original states, while the women and children went home. Bonfires and fire-crackers carried the festivities into the evening. Typically, a speech blended a sermon with a political address promoting patriotism. Readings of and orations on the Declaration of Independence or Washington’s Farewell Address were also common.

Early during the Civil War, celebrations often included sham battles to portray the real ones occurring on the battlefields. By the middle of the war, fundraisers for widows and orphans of soldiers who had died in military service replaced the sham battles. After the war, celebrations turned away from the community toward smaller gatherings of families and friends, though many smaller communities continued the pre-war tradition.

The city of Elgin, Illinois, was established as a village in 1835 on the Fox River, thirty-five miles northwest of Chicago. Chartered as a city in 1854, Elgin in 1865 had a population of 4,000-5,000 people. Four days after Yates delivered this address, the city’s first major fire swept the entire north side of Chicago Street in the business district.

Thousands of people from Elgin and the surrounding area celebrated the Fourth of July in 1865 with an artillery salute at dawn, a “huge procession” at 10:30 a.m. of “returned soldiers, civilians, societies and other citizens” who marched from the Waverly House to Colby’s Grove. The singing of “America” opened the exercises, followed by a prayer by a local minister, and a choir concert. Col. Edward S. Joslyn, an Elgin attorney who served in the 36^th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, read the Declaration of Independence. State Adjutant General Allen C. Fuller delivered an address welcoming the returned soldiers, then the choir sang “Battle Cry of Freedom.” Gen. J. F. Farnsworth responded to Fuller on behalf of the soldiers, followed by another choir performance. Former Governor and current Senator Yates followed with his oration, and the singing of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” concluded the formal program. A dinner for the soldiers who were present and a general picnic followed. The city concluded the day’s festivities with a ball at the Waverly House.^[1]

The Daily Illinois State Journal proclaimed Yates’ speech at Elgin “not only the best effort of his life, but one of the most forcible and eloquent among the many able and patriotic addresses which our recent National Anniversary, occurring at a juncture in our history of so much interest, has called forth.”^[2]

Richard Yates (1815-1873) was born in Kentucky and graduated from Illinois College in Jacksonville in 1835. He studied law in Jacksonville and at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. Yates began practicing law in Jacksonville in 1837 and served as a Whig in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1842 to 1846 and from 1848 to 1850. He represented Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1851 to 1855. He joined the Republican Party and supported John C. Fremont for president in 1856 and Abraham Lincoln for U.S. senator in 1858. In 1860, he was elected governor as a Republican and strongly supported the Lincoln administration’s conduct of the war. When the Democratic state legislature proved uncooperative, Yates dissolved the legislature on June 10, 1863, and governed the state on his own. At the end of his term in 1865, Yates won election to the U.S. Senate, where he served from 1865 to 1871. He supported radical reconstruction and the conviction of President Andrew Johnson.