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Lenox, Mass
Jan. 9. 1865
Hon. Richard Yates
My Dear Sir
Allow me to express my hearty gratification at your election to the U.S. Senate. It was no more than what I expected, altho' because of the contingencies of all things political, I did not feel sure of the result. You well deserved it, for you have fairly earned it these past four years. The most important & trying period in our national history, it has been no less such in the history of Illinois. Beset as you were by all the craft of treason & faction, you must have had an
untold amount of hard & anxious toil in directing the affairs of your great State.
Our national sky is not yet clear; but the clouds are breaking. Restored Union will come in due time, & then what an onward, upward march to lasting greatness will open before us! Round a glorious verdict the nation gave last November! It was the death sentence of all Copperheads & traitors. Hereabouts they seem like condemned criminals with ropes about their necks, & sitting on their coffins.
I have been surprised & pained beyond measure at the course taken by our old College friend, Nass. I know
nothing of his antecedents up to his entering Congress; but it seems incredible that he whom we know & thought so well of at Jacksonville, should be in the hooks of factious opposition, with such men as Coe, Brooks, Wood, at such a time as this. What satisfaction can he find in the heavier hereafter? But your gladness years to come will be true in your part of duty, you stood by your Country in its struggle for life, & by its noble president, with Earnest, unqualified support. The tories of the revolution have always been lauded with a stigma of shame that nothing could remove. But the time will come & not long hence, when they will be
esteemed saints & angels in comparison with those men in the Loyal States, who have done & said all they dared in the interest of the rebels. The rebel chiefs are guilty of unutterable enime: but the Copperhead Chiefs while at heart guilty of all that are also inspired with a meanness that cannot be equalled I believe, in all the annals of time. One thing we have already gained; we now know our political leaders, not only the traitorous & fractious, but those also as well who are patriotic, good & true.
Excuse my long & hasty note. Having begun, I could not stop; & believe me, Yours truly,
R. S. Kendall
Kendall R S.
Lenox Mass. Jany 9th 65
Congratulatory and friendly
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