View source for Edward Bates

{{Short description|American politician, lawyer and judge (1793–1869)}}
{{other people}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Edward Bates
| image               = Edward Bates - Brady-Handy.jpg
| office              = 26th [[United States Attorney General]]
| president           = [[Abraham Lincoln]]
| term_start          = March 5, 1861
| term_end            = November 24, 1864
| predecessor         = [[Edwin Stanton]]
| successor           = [[James Speed]]
| office1             = Member of the [[Missouri House of Representatives]]
| term_start1         = 1835
| term_end1           = 1836
| office2             = Member of the [[Missouri Senate]]
| term_start2         = 1831
| term_end2           = 1835
| state3              = [[Missouri]]
| district3           = {{ushr|MO|AL|at-large}}
| term_start3         = March 4, 1827
| term_end3           = March 3, 1829
| predecessor3        = [[John Scott (Missouri politician)|John Scott]]
| successor3          = [[Spencer Darwin Pettis]]
| office4             = Member of the [[Missouri House of Representatives]]
| term_start4         = 1822
| term_end4           = 1823
| office5             = 1st [[List of Attorneys General of Missouri|Attorney General of Missouri]]
| governor5           = [[Alexander McNair]]
| term_start5         = September 18, 1820
| term_end5           = November 8, 1821
| predecessor5        = Position established
| successor5          = [[Rufus Easton]]
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1793|9|4}}
| birth_place         = [[Goochland County, Virginia]], U.S.
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1869|3|25|1793|9|4}}
| death_place         = [[St. Louis, Missouri]], U.S.
| party               = [[Democratic-Republican Party (United States)|Democratic-Republican]] (Before 1825)<br />[[National Republican Party|National Republican]] (1825–1834)<br />[[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] (1834–1854)<br />[[Know Nothing|American]] (1854–1860)<br />[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] (1860–1869)
| relatives           = ''[[Bates family]]''
| allegiance          = <!-- United States -->
| branch              = [[United States Army]]
| rank                = [[Sergeant#United States|Sergeant]]
| unit                = [[United States Volunteers]]
| battles             = [[War of 1812]]
| signature           = Signature of Edward Bates (1793–1869).png
| caption             = Portrait by [[Mathew Brady]] {{circa}} 1861–1864
| resting_place       = [[Bellefontaine Cemetery]]
}}

'''Edward Bates''' (September 4, 1793 &ndash; March 25, 1869) was an American lawyer, politician and judge. He represented [[Missouri]] in the [[US House of Representatives]] and served as the [[United States Attorney General|U.S. Attorney General]] under President [[Abraham Lincoln]]. A member of the influential [[Bates family]], he was the first [[US Cabinet]] appointee from a state west of the [[Mississippi River]].

Born in [[Goochland County, Virginia]], in 1793, Bates moved to [[St. Louis]], where he established a legal practice. He was appointed as the first [[Missouri Attorney General|attorney general]] of the state of Missouri in 1820. Over the next 30 years, he won election to a single term in Congress and served in both the [[Missouri House of Representatives]] and the [[Missouri Senate]], becoming a prominent member of the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig Party]]. He also represented [[Lucy Delaney]] in a successful [[freedom suit]].

After the breakup of the Whig Party in the early 1850s, he briefly joined the [[Know Nothing|American Party]] before he became a member of the [[United States Republican Party|Republican Party]]. He was a candidate for president at the [[1860 Republican National Convention]], but Lincoln won the party's nomination. Bates was appointed as attorney general in 1861, at the start of the [[American Civil War]]. He successfully carried out some of the administration's early war policies, but he disagreed with Lincoln on the issue of the [[Emancipation Proclamation]]. He did not support full civil and political equality for Blacks. Bates resigned from the Cabinet in 1864 after he had been passed over for a [[US Supreme Court]] appointment. After leaving office, he unsuccessfully opposed the adoption of a new state constitution in Missouri.

==Early life==
Bates was born in [[Goochland County, Virginia]], to Thomas Fleming Bates and his wife, the former Caroline Matilda Woodson (1749–1845). His father was a Goochland County native, having been born on [[Bates family|his family's]] Belmont [[plantations in the American South|plantation]], and served in the local militia, including at the [[Siege of Yorktown]] at the end of the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref>Daughters of the American Revolution, Lineage Book of the DAR founders, vol. 25 p.264, available online at ancestry.com</ref> Like his siblings and others of the planter class, Bates was tutored at home as a boy. When older, he attended [[Charlotte Hall Military Academy]] in [[Maryland]].

==Career==
Edward Bates served in the [[War of 1812]] before moving to [[St. Louis, Missouri|St. Louis]], [[Missouri Territory]], in 1814 with his older brother James, who started working as an attorney. Their eldest brother [[Frederick Bates (politician)|Frederick Bates]] was already in St. Louis by that time, where he had served as Secretary of the [[Louisiana Territory]] and Secretary of the Missouri Territory.

Edward Bates studied the law with [[Rufus Easton]] and boarded with his family. Easton was Judge of the Louisiana Territory, the largest jurisdiction in U.S. history since the [[Louisiana Purchase]]. After being admitted to the bar, Bates worked as a partner with Easton.<ref name="Adamson"/>

In 1817, the two organized the James Ferry, which ran from [[St. Charles, Missouri]] to [[Alton, Illinois]]. Easton had founded the latter town, naming it after his first son Alton.<ref name="Adamson">Bruce Adamson, ''For Which We Stand; the Life of Rufus Easton''</ref>

Bates's private practice partner was [[Joshua Barton]], who was appointed as the first [[Missouri Secretary of State]]. Barton became infamous for fighting [[duel]]s on [[Bloody Island (Mississippi River)|Bloody Island]]. In 1816 Bates was the second to Barton in a duel with Thomas Hempstead, brother of [[Edward Hempstead]], the Missouri Territory's first Congressional representative. The fight ended without bloodshed. Barton was killed in a duel on the island in 1823.

Bates's first foray into politics came in 1820, with election as a member of the state's constitutional convention. He wrote the preamble to the state constitution. He was appointed as the new state's [[List of Attorneys General of Missouri|Attorney General]].

In 1822, Bates was elected to the [[Missouri House of Representatives]]. He was elected to the [[United States House of Representatives]] for a single term (1827–1829). Next, he was elected to the State Senate from 1831 to 1835, then to the Missouri House from 1835. He ran for the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]], but lost to [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] [[Thomas Hart Benton (senator)|Thomas Hart Benton]].

Bates became a prominent member of the [[United States Whig Party|Whig Party]] during the 1840s, where his political philosophy closely resembled that of [[Henry Clay]]. While a slaveholder, during this time Bates became interested in the freedom suit of [[Polly Berry]], an enslaved woman who in 1843 gained her freedom decades after having been held illegally for several months in the free state of Illinois.<ref name="Lucy"/> After she gained her freedom, Berry enlisted Bates's support as her attorney in the separate [[freedom suit]] she filed for her daughter [[Lucy Delaney|Lucy Ann Berry]], then about age 14. According to the principle of ''[[partus sequitur ventrem]]'', since the mother had been proved a free woman at the time of her daughter's birth, the court ruled that Lucy was also legally free.<ref name="Lucy">[http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/delaney/delaney.html Lucy A. Delaney, ''From the Darkness Cometh the Light: or Struggles for Freedom''], St. Louis: J. T. Smith, 1891, Electronic edition, University of North Carolina, accessed 22 Apr 2009</ref> During this time, [[Orion Clemens]], brother of [[Mark Twain]], studied law under Bates.

While Bates is considered by some modern scholars as "generally unsympathetic to the cause of African American freedom," he emancipated all of his slaves and had paid for his last former slave's passage to Liberia by 1851.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Bates, Edward {{!}} House Divided|url=https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/5051|access-date=2022-01-25|website=hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu}}</ref>

In 1850, President [[Millard Fillmore]] asked Bates to serve as [[United States Secretary of War|U.S. Secretary of War]], but he declined. [[Charles Magill Conrad]] accepted the position. At the Whig National Convention in [[1852 U.S. presidential election|1852]], Bates was considered for nomination as [[Vice President of the United States|vice president]] on the party ticket, and he led on the first ballot before losing on the second ballot to [[William Alexander Graham]].  After the breakup of the Whig Party in the 1850s, Bates briefly joined the [[Know-Nothing Party]] but then joined the [[United States Republican Party|Republican Party]].

==Attorney General==
[[File:Abraham Lincoln (1897) (14591028330).jpg|thumb|right|Bates as a candidate for President, published in ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'', 1860]]
Bates was one of the four main candidates for the Republican Party's [[1860 Republican National Convention|1860 presidential nomination]]. Bates initially received support from [[Horace Greeley]], who later switched to support [[Abraham Lincoln]].<ref name=LincIns/> The next year, after winning the election, Lincoln appointed Bates [[United States Attorney General]], an office Bates held from 1861 until 1864. Bates was the first [[United States Cabinet|Cabinet]] member to be appointed from a state or territory west of the [[Mississippi River]].

There was no [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]] until 1870.  Bates had only a small operation, with a staff of six. The main function was to generate legal opinions at the request of Lincoln and cabinet members, and handle occasional cases before the Supreme Court.  The cabinet was full of experienced lawyers who seldom felt the need to ask for his opinions. Bates had no authority over the US Attorneys around the country. The federal court system was handled by the Interior Department; the Treasury handled claims.  Most of the opinions turned out by Bates's office were of minor importance.  Lincoln gave him no special assignments and did not seek his advice on Supreme Court appointments. Bates did have a voice on general policy as a cabinet member with a strong political base, but he seldom spoke out.  At age 68 he was the oldest high-level Lincoln appointee, and from late 1863 was in poor health.<ref>Frank, 1966, pp 35–36.</ref>

<imagemap>
Image:Emancipation proclamation.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.25|''[[First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln]]'' by [[Francis Bicknell Carpenter]] (1864) <small>''(Clickable image—use cursor to identify.)''</small>|alt=A dark-haired, bearded, middle-aged man holding documents is seated among seven other men.]]

poly 269 892 254 775 193 738 130 723 44 613 19 480 49 453 75 434 58 376 113 344 133 362 143 423 212 531 307 657 357 675 409 876 [[Edwin M. Stanton|Edwin Stanton]]
poly 169 282 172 244 244 201 244 148 265 117 292 125 305 166 304 204 321 235 355 296 374 348 338 395 341 469 [[Salmon P. Chase|Salmon Chase]]
poly 569 893 535 708 427 613 357 562 377 456 393 404 468 351 451 317 473 259 520 256 544 283 530 339 526 374 559 401 594 431 639 494 715 542 692 551 693 579 672 546 623 552 596 617 698 629 680 852 [[Abraham Lincoln]]
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One key Bates decision involved the question of Black citizenship. In the summer of 1862, a ship sailing out of New Jersey had been detained by customs because its captain was African American. Ship captains were required to be US citizens, and according to the Dred Scott decision Black Americans were not considered citizens. In an opinion published in mid-December, Bates recognized free African Americans as citizens of the United States, contradicting ''[[Dred Scott v. Sandford]]''. When pressed for clarification by [[Robert Charles Winthrop]], Bates confirmed that citizenship rights were the same regardless of race, and that state laws limiting free Black migration and settlement were unconstitutional.<ref>Polgar, P.J., 2023. Until Justice Be Done: America's First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction.</ref>

Bates's tenure as Attorney General generally met with mixed reviews. On the one hand, he was important in carrying out some of Lincoln's earlier war policies, including the [[arbitrary arrest and detention|arbitrary arrest]] of southern sympathizers and seditious northerners. On the other hand, as Lincoln's policies became more radical, Bates became increasingly irrelevant. Bates disagreed with Lincoln on [[Emancipation Proclamation|emancipation]] and the recruitment of blacks into the Union Army. In 1864, Lincoln nominated [[Salmon P. Chase]] to be [[United States Chief Justice|Chief Justice]], an office Bates had wanted. Bates then resigned and was succeeded by [[James Speed]], a Kentucky lawyer with [[Radical Republican]] views.

==Later years==
[[File:Edward Bates (1793–1869) - Brady-Handy.jpg|thumb|right|Portrait of Bates later in life by [[Mathew Brady]]]]
Bates returned to Missouri after leaving the cabinet. He participated in the conservative struggle over ordinances related to the Missouri constitution of 1865. Bates particularly objected to the "ironclad oath" that was required as a proof of loyalty by residents. He also disapproved of the temporary [[disfranchisement]] of rebel sympathizers. He wrote seven essays arguing against the constitution, but it was ratified. It was notable for abolishing slavery in the state, passed three weeks before the US Congress proposed the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]] to abolish slavery in the US.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/africanamerican/guide/image005c|title=MISSOURI STATE ARCHIVES: Guide to African American History|work=Missouri Digital History|publisher=Secretary of State|date=2007–2021|access-date=10 December 2021}}</ref>

Bates retired from politics, although he commented on political events in the local newspapers. He died in St. Louis in 1869 and was buried at [[Bellefontaine Cemetery]].

==Personal life==
Bates married Julia Coalter from [[South Carolina]]. They had 17 children together.<ref name=LincIns/> She had come to St. Louis to visit her brother David Coalter and her sister Caroline J. Coalter. Her sister Caroline married [[Hamilton R. Gamble]] (another attorney and Unionist), who ultimately became chief justice of the [[Missouri Supreme Court]].<ref name="Boman">[https://books.google.com/books?id=MDacsl1yEBsC Dennis K. Boman, ''Lincoln's Resolute Unionist: Hamilton Gamble, Dred Scott Dissenter and Missouri's Civil War Governor''], Louisiana State University Press, 2006, pp. 1–7, accessed 26 February 2011</ref>

Bates was, for the most part, happy with his large family. His four sons had various roles during the Civil War. His oldest son, [[Barton Bates]], served on the [[Supreme Court of Missouri]] during the war.<ref>Kenneth H. Winn, ''Missouri Law and the American Conscience: Historic Rights and Wrongs'' (2016), p. 92.</ref> Son [[John C. Bates]] served in the [[US Army]] and later became [[Chief of Staff of the United States Army|Army Chief of Staff]]. Son Fleming Bates fought with the [[Confederate States of America|Confederates]], under the command of General [[Sterling Price]]. This caused tension between the father and this son, and Bates rarely mentioned Fleming in his war-time diary.<ref name=LincIns/> The youngest son, Charles, was still attending [[West Point]] during the war.<ref name=LincIns>[http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/inside.asp?ID=83&subjectID=2 "Cabinet and Vice President: Edward Bates"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303202830/http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/inside.asp?ID=83&subjectID=2 |date=March 3, 2016 }}, ''Mr. Lincoln's White House'', The Lincoln Institute, 1999–2011, accessed 4 January 2011</ref>

==In popular culture==
Bates is portrayed by [[John Billingsley]] in the Apple TV miniseries ''[[Manhunt (miniseries)|Manhunt]]'' — an anachronism, since the story takes place in 1865 when Bates was no longer attorney general.

==See also==
*[[Polly Berry]], formerly enslaved woman who hired Bates to represent her in her daughter's freedom suit (1844)
*[[Lucy Delaney|Lucy Berry]], enslaved 14-year-old girl who gained freedom in a suit filed by her mother Polly Berry and argued by Bates

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000231 Biographical Directory of the United States Congress: BATES, Edward]
* Bates, Edward. ''The Diary of Edward Bates, 1859–1866,'' ed. Howard K. Beale. New York: Da Capo Press, 1971.
* Cain, Marvin R. ''Lincoln's Attorney General: Edward Bates of Missouri''. Columbia : University of Missouri Press, 1965.
* Frank, John P. "Edward Bates, Lincoln's Attorney General." ''American Journal of Legal History'' 10 (1966): 34–50.
* George-Nichol, Jesse. " 'Certain Ill-Considered Phrases': Edward Bates and the Disunionist Dangers of Radical Rhetoric," in ''New Perspectives on the Union War'' edited by Gary W. Gallagher and Elizabeth R.  Varon (Fordham UP, 2019) pp.&nbsp;114–142) [https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvh1dnpx.8 online]
* Goodwin, Doris Kearns. ''Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln''. New York : Simon & Schuster, 2005. [https://archive.org/details/teamofrivalspoli0000good_j8p4 online]
* Judah, Charles and George Winston Smith. ''The Unchosen''. New York : Coward-McCann, 1962.
* Neels, Mark. "I Will Continue to Make the Best Defense I Can: Edward Bates and the Battle over the Missouri Constitution of 1865", ''The Confluence'', Vol. 5, No. 1 (fall 2013).
* Shoemaker, Floyd C. "David Barton, John Rice Jones and Edward Bates: Three Missouri State and Statehood Founders." ''Missouri Historical Review'' 92.3 (1998): 254–270.
*Survived by family members who reside in Wilmington, NC.

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*[http://www.mlwh.org/inside.asp?ID=9&subjectID=2 Biography of Edward Bates], Lincoln Institute
*[https://archive.org/details/opinionattorney01bategoog "Opinion of Attorney General Bates on Citizenship"] (1862), via Archive.org

{{s-start}}
{{s-legal}}
{{succession box | before=''(none)'' | title=[[List of Attorneys General of Missouri|Missouri State Attorney General]] | years=1820&ndash;1821| after=[[Rufus Easton]]}}
{{U.S. Cabinet official box
| before     = [[Edwin M. Stanton]]
| after      = [[James Speed]] 
| years      = March 5, 1861 &ndash; November 24, 1864
| president  = [[Abraham Lincoln]]
| department = Attorney General}}
{{s-par|us-hs}}
{{US House succession box
| state=Missouri
| district=AL
| district_ord=1st
| before=[[John Scott (Missouri politician)|John Scott]]
| after= [[Spencer D. Pettis]]
| years=March 4, 1827 &ndash; March 3, 1829
}}
{{s-end}}
{{USAttGen}}
{{Lincoln cabinet}}
{{MOAttorneysGeneral}}
{{Anti-slavery parties (US)}}
{{United States presidential election, 1852}}
{{United States presidential election, 1860}}
{{United States representatives from Missouri}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bates, Edward}}
[[Category:1793 births]]
[[Category:1869 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Goochland County, Virginia]]
[[Category:American people of English descent]]
[[Category:Lincoln administration cabinet members]]
[[Category:Attorneys general of the United States]]
[[Category:Missouri Democratic-Republicans]]
[[Category:National Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Missouri]]
[[Category:Missouri Whigs]]
[[Category:Missouri Know Nothings]]
[[Category:Missouri Republicans]]
[[Category:Candidates in the 1860 United States presidential election]]
[[Category:Missouri attorneys general]]
[[Category:Members of the Missouri House of Representatives]]
[[Category:Missouri state senators]]
[[Category:United States attorneys for the District of Missouri]]
[[Category:Missouri state court judges]]
[[Category:Missouri lawyers]]
[[Category:United States representatives who owned slaves]]
[[Category:19th-century Missouri state court judges]]
[[Category:Charlotte Hall Military Academy alumni]]
[[Category:United States Army personnel of the War of 1812]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Virginia]]
[[Category:Union (American Civil War) political leaders]]
[[Category:People of Missouri in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Burials at Bellefontaine Cemetery]]
[[Category:19th-century United States representatives]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the Missouri General Assembly]]
[[Category:Abraham Lincoln]]