Edward Bates | |
|---|---|
 Portrait by Brady-Handy, c. 1855–1865 | |
| 26th United States Attorney General | |
| In office March 5, 1861 – November 24, 1864 | |
| President | Abraham Lincoln |
| Preceded by | Edwin Stanton |
| Succeeded by | James Speed |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri's at-large district | |
| In office March 4, 1827 – March 3, 1829 | |
| Preceded by | John Scott |
| Succeeded by | Spencer Darwin Pettis |
| Attorney General of Missouri | |
| In office September 18, 1820 – November 8, 1821 | |
| Governor | Alexander McNair |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Rufus Easton |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 4, 1793 Goochland County, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | March 25, 1869 (aged 75) St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
| Resting place | Bellefontaine Cemetery |
| Political party | Democratic-Republican (Before 1825) National Republican (1825–1834) Whig (1834–1854) American (1854–1860) Republican (1860–1869) |
| Relatives | Bates family |
| Signature | .png){kind=small} |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service | United States Army |
| Rank | Sergeant |
| Unit | United States Volunteers |
| Battles/wars | War of 1812 |
Edward Bates (September 4, 1793 – March 25, 1869) was an American lawyer, politician and judge. He represented Missouri in the US House of Representatives and served as the 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 1814 Bates moved to St. Louis, where he established a legal practice. He was appointed as the first 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. 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 American Party before he became a member of the 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.