Edward Bates (4 September 1793-25 March 1869) was a member of the US House of Representatives (NR-MO AL) from 4 March 1827 to 3 March 1829 (succeeding John Scott and preceding Spencer Pettis) and United States Attorney General from 5 March 1861 to 24 November 1864 (succeeding Edwin Stanton and preceding James Speed).
Biography[]
Edward Bates was born in Goochland, Virginia in 1793, and he served in the War of 1812 before moving to St. Louis, Missouri Territory with his brother in 1814. He partnered with Rufus Easton to organize a ferry from St. Charles, Missouri to Alton, Illinois, and he practiced law with Joshua Barton, who was killed in a duel in 1823. Bates wrote the preamble to the state constitution in 1820 before being appointed Missouri's first Attorney General. He went on to serve in the state house in 1822 and in Congress from 1827 to 1829, after which he served in the state senate from 1831 to 1835 and in the state house in 1835. A supporter of Henry Clay, he joined the Whig Party and both opposed the extension of slavery into the Western territories and owned slaves himself; he emancipated all of them by 1851. He declined appointment as Secretary of War in 1850, and he was considered for the vice-presidency in 1852. After the breakup of the Whigs, Bates joined the Know Nothings and then the Republican Party. Bates attempted to secure the Republican nomination for President in 1860, representing the conservative faction of the Republican Party. However, Horace Greeley withdrew his backing from Bates in favor of Abraham Lincoln, who would go on to name Bates his Attorney General. In December 1862, Bates recognized free African-Americans as American citizens, arguing that citizenship rights were the same regardless of race and that state laws limiting free Black migration and settlement were unconstitutional. However, Bates disagreed with Lincoln's policies on emancipation and the recruitment of Blacks into the Union Army. After Salmon P. Chase was promoted to Chief Justice, a title which Bates coveted for himself, Bates resigned in 1864 and was replaced by the Radical Republican James Speed. He returned to Missouri, where he disapproved of the temporary disfranchisement of Confederate sympathizers and wrote essays attacking the new state constitution. After it passed, Bates retired from politics and died in 1869.