The Biographical Dictionary of America/Bates, Edward

​BATES, Edward, statesman, was born at Belmont, Goochland county, Va., Sept. 4, 1793, son of Thomas Fleming Bates. He was educated at Charlotte hall academy. Maryland; removed to Missouri in 1814; engaged in the practice of law at St. Louis, in 1816; became prosecuting attorney for his district, and was elected to the state constitutional convention in 1820. He served as attorney general of the state; was elected to the state legislature in 1822, 1830 and 1834: served as representative in the 20th congress, 1827-'29, and was a delegate to the International improvement convention at Chicago, Ill., in 1847. He became judge of the land court of St. Louis in 1853; was chairman of the Whig national convention in 1856, and was proposed as a presidential candidate in 1859, receiving forty-eight votes on the first ballot in the Republican convention of 1860. He was U.S. attorney general under Lincoln, 1861-'68. He died in St. Louis, Mo., March 25, 1869.

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