The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-12-01
GEORGE G. BATES.
The Man Of Three Generations.
Interesting Sketch of an Old Salt
Laker.

The following interesting sketch
Of George G, Bates, will be read
with pleasure by the many who
knew him so well as the United
States District Attorney of Utah.
The sketch was written by the well
known Denver Journalist, Will. l..
Visscher. and appeared first in
Pomeroy's Great West:
Among the most valued of con-
tributorS to Hello during its meteor C
passage, was General George C.
Bates, an eminent lawyer of
Denver, who held high place in
the history of the west. General
Bates is a white-haired veteran
who, in his early manhood, was the
associate and friend of Daniel
Webster, John G. Calhoun, Tom
Corwin, Stephen A. Douglas, Hor-
ace Greeley, William j. Raymond,
Edwin Booth, and numerous other
distinguished statesman, Journalists
and actors of the three last genera
tlons. He is yet a vigorous and
courtly old gentleman, with a mind
unlmpaired, bearing that would
become a duke; an exalted sense of
honor, right aud truth. During his
life he has been more or less con-
nected with the press, and the
product of his trenchant pen has al
ways found honored place in the
prints Of his time and locale. 70
Hello he contributed a series Of ar
ticleS in the shape of open letters to
Hon. John Wentworth, of Chicago,
which We're "reminiscences of early
days in the Senate of the United
States, and charming sketches of
Calhoun. Webster, Corwin, Douglas
and other shining lights of those
times in the galaxy of American
statesmen. Those letters were re-
produced in the press Of Chicago
and elsewhere and also in a hand
some book.
George Clinton Bates was born in
Canandaigua, Ontario County, New
York, over sixty-fveyears ago; was
fitted for college under the Rev.
Icabod Spencer, lat the Canandaigua
Academy; entered Hobart College
at Geneva, Ontario County, New
York, September 1923; graduated
in 1881; then entered the Office of
John t. Spencer, at Canandaigua,
where he studied law until Nav,
1888, when he went west, settled at
Detroit, Michigan. and was admit
ted to the bar Of Detroit, May 5,
1884.
At the age of twenty-five, he was
made District Attorney OF the Uni
ted States, first by General Harrison
and then by General Taylor, for
eight years; and III 1852, he was
made special counsel Of the United
States in California, by appoint
ment Of Secretaries Webster and
Corwin, of Fillmore's Cabinet,where
he lived from 1852 to 1857, and
achieved grand successes in his
profession, accommodating over S15O,-
600 in gold and real estate. On his
return from San Francisco he took
the stump for John. G. Ere
mont as President, ard being
a very popular speaker, he
won, as he had always done, great
applause, and with Col. E. d. Baker,
Leslie Smith and Sergeant S, Prem
tlss, drew vast crowds all over the
west. Having been a cotemporary
OF Fletcher Webster, Daniel Web
ster's son, who was married at the
same time with Bates, and who
lived at the Michigan Exchange, in
1886, 1887 and 1888, he was the pro
tege OF Daniel Webster, who first
appointed him United States Dis
trlct Attorney in 1871, and again in
1914, and who was his patron until
he laid himself down to die at Marsh
held, IN June, 1852, and having been
an ardent deyotee of Henry Clay,
for whom he voted seventeen times
In the Harrisburg convention of
1889, he was much petted by old
Harry, Of the West.
With Stephen a. Douglas, Gen.
Bates was schoolmate and fellow
law student from 1881 to 1888, occu-
pylng the same room and sleeping
on the same bed. They studied law
and the classics, and together lead
and translated all of Cicero's ora
tions and works, from his orations
down to his SeDcetate and De
Officials; and in May, 1888. they
agreed to meet at Cleveland,
Ohio, in October Of that
year and go to New Orleans and
practice law. But L'Hon1ne 41ro-
pose mas Del DISPOSE. Bates went
to Michigan and Douglas to Illinois.
and in 1913, just ten years after
they parted, they met in Washing
ton, Douglas as member of con-
gress and Bates as United States
district attorney, and until Douglas
death they were like Damon and
Pythias-like Chang and Eng
although the one was ALWAYS a dem
ocratic leader and the other an ar
dent an eloquent whig. At Douglas
funeral in Chicago, from BRYAN
Hall, in 1861, no more sincere
m0urner followed the corpse than
George G.. Bates, and his sketch OF
the life and times of Stephen a
Douglas, in Hello, is one Of the most
interesting and truthful of all the
biographies of the brave but little
Douglas. General Bates. although
a most successful lawyer and a
most eloquent public speaker. has
always been an amateur Bohemian
commencing so far back as 1885 as
assistant editor of the Detroit Free
Press. under Sheldon Mcknight.
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