The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1860-03-08


Territory. He came to the Bar in the Win
ter of 1sl6-17, and practiced with fair sue
cess as a beginner.
In the Fall of 1920, the State Government
being put into immediate action, without
waiting to be told by any other power wheth-
err or no it was State, or had Constitution,
he was appointed the first Attorney General
of the State, and exercised the Office both be-
fore and after its admission into the Union
He resigned the Office of Acknowledgement
in 1922, and was chosen member of the
House of Representatives Of Missouri and
served as such. In 1924, he was appointed
by President Monroe United States Attorney
for the Missouri District
He was elected a member of the United
served through the XXth Congress as sole
Representative of the State. In 1890 he was
elected to the State Senate, AMI served four
years, and in 1884 he was again elected to
the House, and took an active part in the re-
vision of the State laws.
From that time till the present he has held
no political Office, and sought none; taking
little or no part in local politics; but often
freely expressing his views upon constitu-
tional questions and national politics, in
public speeches and in newspaper essays.
In 1853, he was elected Judge of the Land
Court of st. Louis County, and after serving
in the office about three years, he resigned,
and returned again to the practice of law
He acted as President of the River and Har-
Dor Improvement Convention, which sat at
Chicago, and in lS46, acted as President of
the Wing National Convention which met at
Baltimore.
In 1850, he was appointed by President
retary of War, but declined the appointment
for personal and domestic reasons.
Mr. Bates was complimented with the
honorary degree of L. l.. D. in 1853 by the
Harvard College. Some years before he had
been honored with the same degree by shurt-
left College, Illinois.
In personal appearance Mr.. Bates has
noble and commanding air. In stature he is
the type of Mr.. Webster. His hair begins
to exhibit tokens of age. His eye beams
with intelligence from beneath massive
brows, and his face is marked with deep
thought. His manners are those of pol
ished gentleman of the last generation.
In his domestic relations he is fond hus-
band and kind and indulgent father. He
married, in 1923, Julia D., one of the five
daughters Of David Coulter, late of South
Carolina. He had by that marriage seven
teen children, only eight of whom survive
six sons and two daughters.
Though he was born and always lived in a
Slave State, yet lie has never sought to live
upon slave labor. He formerly owned n few
slaves, whom he kept as domestic servants {;
but he emancipated the last of them some
years ago. His aged mother who died in
1916, set free by will the remaining slaves
she had, and last spring his sister, Sarah
Bates, emancipated by deed 32 slaves, all
that remained to her, having before set free
SIX or eight by separate instruments.
Grape Hill, the residence Of Mr.. Bates,
situated about four miles from the city Of st.
Louis, is a brick mansion, surrounded by
nicely cultivated gardens, and arbors, and
shrubbery, among which the grape, which
gives name to the place, is prominent
Though he is not extravagant, he lives in a
comfortable and substantial style, beftting
the man who has national reputation like
his.
His private character is eminently exem-
plary. The pious teachings of his youth
have become the settled principles of his
manhood. Beyond the decent respect and
veneration for religion which politicians al
most universally affect in their outward
lives he cherishes, by daily acts of devotion
in his family, and other ordinances of reli-
gion, the sentiments of consistent Christian