William Pickering to Richard Yates

Territory of Washington,

EXECUTIVE OFFICE.

Olympia, June 18th 1864.

My Dear Sir,

I have just received the confirmed news of the Illinois nominations, of Genl Dick Oglesby for Govr and Coll W. Ross for Lieutt Govr - also of our Honest Abraham Lincoln for President, & Andy Johnson of Tennessee for Vice Prest by the Baltimore National Union Conn - My first & continuous wish is, May God prosper & crown with abundant success, both the National & the State Ticket. I feel happily confident of that success, if each & every Union Man in Illinois will faithfully and earnestly do his full duty?

But my Good & Well tried Old Friend, there is another point about I feel very deeply solicitous, and about which I do not feel so happily confident, I mean about the present chances of success, of electing a majority of the Union members of both houses of the Legislature.

For upon that success, depends the Election of our United States Senator for six years, from Illinois.

On that subject, I wish I could impressively convey to you, all my views, and opinions, upon the absolute, & positive necessity, of more perfectly establishing a more thorough and complete system of organizing and enlisting the active zeal of every Union Man. Such a perfect & complete combining & uniting, as will bind together every Union man,

in each & in every County of the State, so that not one Union Man shall be left out of the Union League Association, or left out of the County Committee organization, in any County in the State, That & that alone would be a complete & perfect organization and bond of Union, sweepingly binding all, all Union men together.

And then they could safely insure that at least one good Union Speech, or other suitable printed document, should be delivered as often as once a week into each & every House in each & every County, wherever there was the slightest chance or the least hope of electing a Union Senator, or Representative.

Let me beg of you, let me entreat you, let me beseech you not to leave one stone unturned, I mean not to leave any one voter in each County (where any hope can be entertained of securing the Election of a Repe or Senator,) unsolicited, but besiege each & every voter in all said Counties.

Arouse every leading & active Union Man, in each & every county, (and more particularly in all those Counties where a Union member of the Legislature has any chance of being elected) - and get those active Union men to arouse & organize every Union Man in their separate & respective County -

And then prevail upon every voter who can possibly be persuaded to subscribe for a weekly campaign Union Paper, & after the subscribers have read their Papers, then hand them around amongst their neighbours who do not subscribe for it, and get every candidate for County Offices, and all their friends & supporters respectively, and each & every Union Man to subscribe something to raise a County fund to purchase documents for gratuitous circulation; and get the Union

Men in each voting precinct, & in each School Township or in each separate subdivided school district, to provide suitable men to give at least one printed document, or newspaper, into every house in every one of said Townships or lesser sized school districts. Secure the certain delivery into every Democrats house as well as into every Union Mans house, and let this be done faithfully, punctually, & never failing, from the earliest day. you can get the plan started into living active operation, and continue perseveringly, without slackening or faltering right to the day of Election -

Let me say one word about the Central Committee, as a general thing they are a set of good men, but too frequently they are really inactive drones -

It is their especial, & most important duty, to personally visit every County in their respective district, to organize Union Leagues, as many separate Councils in each County as may be necessary, according to their respective population in the several settlements thereof - and to get them drilled & trained into good & efficient working order. - and get all the separate members in each Council, to feel himself a recruiting officer, & distributor of Newspapers & documents -

And as well as spreading political Truth, into every house, by means of Newspapers, & printed Speeches, - also get as many political Pic Nicks & old fashioned Barbecue meetings & all other sort of gatherings as can be roused up in each of said Counties - and get some public speeches delivered at every Meeting - Use all these methods, But more particularly the completely supplying every house, either with weekly Newspapers or printed speeches, or the best plan is with both,

and then after thoroughly well doing all these things, with as much regular care & Industry as a Farmer ploughs his Land & Harrows it, & then plants plenty of good seed, and hoes thins, & weeds, every separate Hill, - and ploughs & harrows every part of the field, between each and every separate Hill, throughout the whole Field, & all that repeated ploughings & harrowings done regularly throughout the whole contending season, until the whole crop is laid bye,

Then & then only, can the farmer expect the blessing of God to prosper his handy work, by the crop yielding him the largest amount, that the soil & climate can produce.

Each member of the Central Committee is honorably entrusted with the highly respectable, yes, & with the highly responsible position, of seeing to it, that every corn Hill, that is, that every voter in his respective district, shall be, & must be, as diligently watered, tended, watched, & cared for as the farmer careth for, watches, hoes, ploughs, around every separate Hill throughout his whole Corn Field -

Let each & every member of the Central Committee, do this himself in each County in his District - or if he cannot personally attend to those duties in due time himself - Then really each & every one of said members ought to employ some confidential Agent to go immediately into every county & organize a Central Committee in each County, if that has not been done, & arouse them to active duties - and said agent should establish the system of procuring & distributing newspapers & printed Documents -

As the best proof I can give you, that I am in really living earnest, in my desire to urge you to begin and carry out this system of spreading political truth into every House, in Illinois, but more certainly into every house in every County where such pains are likely to yield the good fruit of electing a Member to the Legislature - and to prove that my heart & soul is with you & with all my good & trustworthy old political & personal friends, - I most willingly & cheerfully send you the last Dollar, & every Dollar, I can rake up, & spare, - for you to use as a Nest Egg, to aid you in gathering more from each Union Man according to his ability and according to the amount of the warm hearted generosity of his Soul, in behalf of helping to save our country: both his, mine, & yours, together with the Sanitary contributions - the two most holy causes on Earth, in which Dollars can now be invested -

My only regret is, that instead of sending you Fifty Dollars, all I can do, I wish I was able to send you Five hundred - I should be glad & thankful to be able to do it - I have already sent Arnold 40 Dollars for 4000 copies of his speech & 20 to Edwards County to pay for Documents - Arnold will send you 1000 copies

I have requested Hon. I. N. Arnold to distribute - 500 Copies

To send Mr Washburn for distribution - 500

To His Excellency Richd Yates - 1000

To Genl Oglesby - 500

To Hon. Cyrus Edwards, Upper Alton, Madison Co - 100

To Hon Joseph Gillespie, Edwardsville, Do - 100

" Do Do Do for distribution in Highland - 100

To Coll Servant, Chester, Randolph Co - 100

To Dr Phillips Nashville, Washington Co - 100

To Rich'd Nelson Esqr Lawyer Mt Vernon, Jefferson - 100

To Mr Wm Woods Tamaroa Central RR, Perry Co - 100

To C. O. B. Goforth Esqr Mt Carmel Wabash Co - 100

To John Moore Esqr - Jeffersonville, Wayne Co - 100

To A .R. Kenner Flora Clay County - 100

To Kitchel & Hayward Attorneys Olney Richland Co - 100

To My Son Richd Pickering, Albion Edwards Co - 200

To My Son John Pickering Grayville White Co - 200

Total of Mr Arnolds speeches of 16 March 1864 - 4,000

on Reconstruction of the Union & Election of President Lincoln &c - a good Campaign Document - and if others like it, as well as I do, they will send for more, for distribution in their respective neighborhoods. The Fifty Dollars I send, you will purchase such documents with it, as you may think most advisable & most serviceable for distribution where you think they will be most useful to and [in?] electing members of the Legislature -

and Genl Oglesby 500 - for you & Oglesby to distribute - This is the most costly part of the world to live in, & our Greenbacks, are worth no more than half price of their face value - for each & every thing we buy & pay for, thus when I have to pay 100 Dollars for Board, it require one to pay Two hundred Dollars to settle that Bill - and it is so, with everything - This makes me short of money. - Besides I have to pay very liberally for all our costly Elections here - and the Sanitary Fund I will help as much as I can, as long as I have a Dollar left - and all the Churches & preachers & a hundred other rightful & proper things & charities I cannot & I will not close my heart nor my hand & pocket against - May God bless you my good old faithful friend, if we may not meet again on Earth, I hope & trust we shall all meet in Heaven - Give my kind regards to Mrs Yates, to my good old friend Jessee K Dubois, to Mr Hatch, Butler, Judge Thomas, & all our true blue Whig & Republican friends, that we could always rely upon, & tie to, & never once be deceived for those are the men I truly love.

very sincerely & respectfully yours &c.

William Pickering

Gov. Wm Pickering