Edward Bates

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Edward Bates

Edward Bates (born September 4, 1793 in Belmont , Virginia , †  March 25, 1869 in St. Louis , Missouri ) was an American lawyer , politician and attorney general (Attorney General) under President Abraham Lincoln .

Family, studies and professional career

After attending school in Maryland , Bates , who came from a Quaker family , served as a sergeant in the Missouri Volunteer Brigade during the British-American War of 1812 . In 1814 he began studying law in St. Louis, which he completed in 1817 with admission to the bar. A year later, he became a prosecutor for St. Louis. Between 1824 and 1826 he worked as a federal prosecutor involved (US Attorney).

In addition to Edward Bates, his older brothers Frederick , a governor of Missouri , and James , who was also a member of the US House of Representatives, were politically active.

Political career

Missouri offices and Congressman

Bates began his political career in 1820 when he was elected to the Missouri Constituent Assembly. In the same year he became the first Attorney General of the new state of Missouri. In 1822 he was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives.

In 1827 he became a member of the United States House of Representatives . There he represented the interests of the first Congressional constituency of Missouri for an electoral term ending in 1829 . From 1831 to 1835 he was subsequently a member of the State Senate and then again the House of Representatives from Missouri. He later ran unsuccessfully against the Democrat Thomas Hart Benton as US Senator for Missouri .

Change from Whigs to Republicans

During the 1840s he became a leading member of the Whig Party . In 1850, he turned down President Millard Fillmore's offer to join his cabinet as Secretary of War ; instead, he took over a judge's office at the Land Court in St. Louis.

At the election meeting of the Whigs, he was one of the candidates for the office of US Vice-President for the presidential election 1852 . After a victory in the first ballot, however, he was defeated in the second ballot to William Alexander Graham . In 1856 he was still president of the Whig National Convention.

Lincoln and his cabinet at the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation on July 22, 1862. From left: Edwin M. Stanton , Salmon P. Chase , Abraham Lincoln , Gideon Welles , Caleb Blood Smith , William H. Seward , Montgomery Blair and Edward Bates.

After the Whig Party began to dissolve, he joined the Republican Party . At their Republican National Convention of 1860 he was one of the three shortlisted candidates for the presidential election of that year, but was then subject to the subsequently elected Abraham Lincoln.

Attorney General under President Lincoln

On March 5, 1861, US President Lincoln appointed him as Attorney General Attorney General in his cabinet . As Minister of Justice, he took the view that Afro-Americans who were freed from slavery should be deported to Africa , which led to intense disagreements with the president. Bates was also the first cabinet member to come from a state west of the Mississippi .

On November 24, 1864, he resigned from his position as Attorney General and was replaced as such by James Speed .

Publications

literature

Web links

Commons : Edward Bates  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
personal data
SURNAME Bates, Edward
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer and politician
DATE OF BIRTH September 4, 1793
PLACE OF BIRTH Belmont , Virginia
DATE OF DEATH March 25, 1869
Place of death St. Louis , Missouri