James Woodson Bates

James Woodson Bates

James Woodson Bates (born August 25, 1788 in Goochland County , Virginia , † December 26, 1846 in Van Buren , Arkansas ) was an American politician . Between 1819 and 1823 he represented the Arkansas Territory as a delegate in the US House of Representatives .

Career

James Bates was the older brother of Edward Bates , who served in the United States House of Representatives for the State of Missouri from 1827 to 1829 and served in the cabinet of President Abraham Lincoln from 1861 to 1864 as Secretary of Justice of the United States. His older brother Frederick was the territorial governor and later governor of Missouri. James Bates graduated from Yale College and Princeton College in 1807 . After a subsequent law degree and his license to practice law, he began to work in Virginia in his new profession. In 1816 he moved to St. Louis , Missouri, and in 1819 to the area that became the Arkansas Territory that year.

Bates did not belong to any party, but was still politically active. After the establishment of the Arkansas Territory, he was elected the first congressional delegate of this area in the US Congress in 1819. After re-election in 1820, he was able to exercise his mandate between December 21, 1819 and March 3, 1823. Like all delegates, he had no right to vote there because a territory did not have the same status as a state. In 1822, Bates ran unsuccessfully for re-election.

After his tenure in Congress, Bates worked as a lawyer in Batesville , Arkansas, named after him . Between 1824 and 1828 he was a judge in the fourth judicial district of the territory, from 1828 to 1832 he exercised the same activity at the higher court of the territory. In 1835 he was a delegate to the Arkansas Constituent Assembly. In 1836, Bates became a probate judge in Crawford County . Between 1841 and 1845 he was a land registrar in Clarksville . James Bates died in Van Buren in December 1846. He was married to Elizabeth Moore.

Web links

• James Woodson Bates in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• James Woodson Bates in the database of Find a Grave (English)