William Pickering to Richard Yates

45

Albion Edwards Co. Ills.

June 6th 1861.

His Excellency

Richard Yates

Governor of Illinois,

Dear Sir,

I feel deeply grieved, surprised, & insulted, with an Article in the Chicago Daily Tribune of the 4th inst. impudently recommending the appointment of some Douglass Democrat, to fill the present vacancy in the U. S. Senate from Ills.

I promptly take this earliest moment to exhibit to your Excellency my disinterested & honest convictions of my present Duty to you, as one of your earliest & oldest personal & political friends, admirers, & supporters. And I assure you that I feel my first duty to you as my friend & as my Governor, is to beg you to Say to that man who has given and to all men who may ever give you such an unworthy & unholy recommendation. "I Richard Yates, Gov" of Illinois say to thee, "Get thee behind me Satan", and carry all thy mistaken & wicked advice with thee", all dost thou impudently think me such a Dog, as to place all my confidence of trust in, and give the highest rewards to, my most bitter, unscrupulous, & unrelenting Enemies who are now in a minority??? And dost thou think me such a base & detestable ingrate, as to withold all my confidence, faith, & firm trust from, and degrade, disgrace, and drive from me, and from all honorable Office, & reward all my standfast & faithful friends & Supporters both personal & political? who now are in a handsome majority (thank God for it,) in Illinois?? and I hope are in a majority in all the states now loyal to our Govt.

Governor Yates, I feel in all honour, & in all duty, bound to recommend Mr Browning of Quincy, as the most suitable, & the man in the State of Illinois, in every Sense of the word, and in every view of the whole case, for your appointment, as the United States Senator from Illinois, to fill the present vacancy in that Office.

And I beg leave to say, that I am very confident, all Illinois will approve more heartily of that appointment than of any other Selection that can be made, Common honesty, common Justice, common Gratitude, for a life time of faithful services rendered & performed by Mr Browning, whose experience & qualifications, stand preeminently superior. And common & universal approbation will applaud your sending Mr Browning as our U. S. Senator at this time, to support & defend our Illinois President & his administration, in all their plans to uphold our blessed Government against All its opponents and against all Enemies both open, & covert. & both Douglass & all his supporters ever have been, & ever will remain the secret & the open Enemies of yourself & Lincoln, and all of them ever will remain opposed to all our Republican doctrines principles, & actions. And they all would be at this moment if they durst.

You will always have my most cordial & hearty support, praise, & recommendations for your appointing Mr Browning,

But candour compels me to say, that if you become seduced from a just & honest performance of you Duty, to your friends by appointing any Douglass Democrat, Bah! I never can forgive you! and the masses of the twenty thousand majority of Illinois never will forgive you and all the Douglass Men will never Stop laughing at you.

And now Sir, this is the honest advice of your faithful old friend

Wm Pickering.

Gen. Pickering

On Senatorship