County of statue: St. Louis Independent City
Location of statue: Originally at SE entrance to Forest Park near Kingshighway and Oakland Ave., St. Louis
Moved due to loss of ground for construction of US Highway 40 (today's I-64) to Fine Arts Dr. & Lagoon Dr.,
Forest park, St. Louis
Artist: James Wilson Alexander MacDonald (1824-1908)
Founder: Ames Manufacturing Company
Text of stone at foot os statue:
In Commemoration of
The Foresight of Dedicated St. Louisans
In Preserving Park Space
AND
The Centennial of Forest park
June 25, 1976
This Monument Presented by the Bicentennial Committee
And The Board of Alderman of the City of St. Louis
Paul J. Simon, President
Proper Description: "Standing figure of Attorney General Edward Bates. He wears a beard and a long coat. His proper right arm is held in front of him, slightly bent at the elbow, slightly raised. His proper left arm is down at his side. In his proper left hand is a book, held in an open position with his index finger. The spine of the book is resting on a low geometric pedestal or column. At the base of the column stands an eagle. On the front of the column, near the top, is a circular medallion bearing what may be the seal of Missouri. The figure stands on a red granite base, constructed in several sections. The base is accentuated with geometric designs, and has polished panels, contrasting with more matte areas. On all four faces of the base, approximately 6 ft. up from the bottom of the base, are four bronze, oval medallions with profile portrait reliefs of prominent St. Louis men: James Buchanan Eads, an engineer, is depicted on the front of the base; Governor Hamilton R. Gamble, on the proper left side of base; Charles Gibson, a lawyer, on the back of the base; and Senator Henry S. Geyer on the proper left side of the base."
~ Smithsonian American Art Museum
Remarks:
"Funded by St. Louis County, the Bates Association, and Forest Park Commissioners. Cost $13,000. This monument was originally intended for Lafayette Park, but the sculptor's bill had not been paid; Forest Park Commissioners paid the balance due, and the monument was dedicated concurrently with the official dedication of Forest Park. The medallions on the base were added at a later date. Originally located at the southeast entrance to the park, the monument was moved in the 1930s when Highway 40 was expanded."
~ Smithsonian American Art Museum
"History: This statue was dedicated in 1876 concurrently with the official dedication of Forest Park, and thus was the first statue to be installed in the park. The original location was at the southeast entrance, but when Highway 40 was expanded, the entrance was obliterated and the statue moved to its current location. Bates was a lawyer and rose to the position of Attorney General in President Abraham Lincoln's Cabinet from 1861-1864. He was also a prominent Missouri politician. Bates also served as vice president of the Missouri Historical Society, which he co-founded. The medallions on the pedestal were added at a later date and depict Captain James Eads, Governor Hamilton R. Gamble, Charles Gibson, and Henry S. Geyer." ~ Forest Park Association
Some History of "Edward Bates (September 4, 1793 – March 25, 1869) was a U.S. lawyer and statesman. He served as United States Attorney General under Abraham Lincoln from 1861 to 1864. He was also the brother of both Frederick Bates and James Woodson Bates.
"Born in Goochland County, Virginia on his family plantation Belmont, he attended school in Maryland and served in the War of 1812. He moved to St. Louis, Missouri Territory in 1814 and there studied law, earning admittance to the bar in 1817, and serving as a U.S. Attorney from 1821 to 1826.
"Bates's private practice partner was Joshua Barton who would be the first Missouri Secretary of State. Barton became infamous for fighting duels on Bloody Island (Mississippi River). In 1816 Bates was the second to Barton in a duel with Thomas Hempstead, brother of Edward Hempstead Missouri Territory's first Congressional representative. The fight ended without bloodshed. Barton would be killed in a duel on the island in 1823.
"His first foray into politics came in 1820, when he was elected as a member of the state's constitutional convention and then became the new state's attorney general. In 1822, Bates was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives. He moved up to the United States House of Representatives for a single term (1827-1829), then returned to Missouri to sit in the State Senate from 1831 to 1835, then again in the Missouri House from 1835. He ran for the U.S. Senate, but lost to Democrat Thomas Hart Benton.
"Lincoln met with his Cabinet for the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation draft on July 22, 1862. L-R: Edwin M. Stanton, Salmon P. Chase, Abraham Lincoln, Gideon Welles, Caleb B. Smith, William H. Seward, Montgomery Blair and Edward Bates.
"Bates became a prominent member of the Whig Party during the 1840s. President Millard Fillmore asked him in 1850 to be U.S. Secretary of War, but Bates declined. Charles Magill Conrad then accepted the position. At the Whig National Convention in 1852, Bates was considered for the vice-presidential slot on the ticket, and he led on the first ballot before losing on the second ballot to William Alexander Graham.
"After the breakup of the Whig Party in the 1850s, Bates became a Republican, and was one of the four main candidates for the party's 1860 presidential nomination, which was won by Abraham Lincoln. The next year, after winning the election, Lincoln appointed Bates as his Attorney General, an office Bates held from 1861 until 1864. Bates believed that free blacks should be deported to Africa, a position that sometimes led to clashes with Lincoln. Bates was the first Cabinet member to hail from the region west of the Mississippi River.
Bates returned to Missouri after leaving Lincoln's cabinet. He died in St. Louis in 1869." ~ Wikipedia