I like all the quotes on your home page!
But Illinois is NOT Yankeeland.
It’s DAMNED Yankeeland.
(Those Southern wounds have not scabbed over YET! ;^)
Galena was the home of U. S. Grant, and the inscription was on a monument there. Seen it.
Well, Chicago is DAMNED Yankeeland. The rest of the state, not so much. :)