January 18, 1815 Birth of Republican Gov. Richard Yates (R-IL), who prevented Democrat-controlled legislature from withdrawing state troops from the Union Army Yates studied law and became a lawyer and Whig politician in Jacksonville, Ill. A state legislator (1842-46, 1848-50) and U.S. Congressman (1851-55), he failed to win reelection because of his adherence to the new Republican party. As governor of Illinois (1861-65), Yates was active in raising troops (he gave Ulysses S. Grant his first Civil War commission) and managed to hold in check the powerful pro-Southern group in Illinois. In the U.S. Senate from 1865 to 1871, he supported the radical Republican program.
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