Biography of James Woodson Bates, Arkansas

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Submitted by: Joy Fisher < >
        Date: 18 Dec 2007
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BIOGRAPHICAL AND PICTORIAL HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
BY JOHN HALLUM.
VOL. I.
ALBANY: WEED, PARSON'S AND COMPANY, PRINTERS.
1887.

Entered according to act of Congress in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-seven,
BY JOHN HALLUM, 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.


JAMES WOODSON BATES.
BY HON. JESSE TURNER.

  Judge Bates was born in Goochland county, Virginia, about 1788. His collegiate
attainments were acquired at Yale and Princeton, in the latter of which he graduated
about 1810.

  About this time Tarlton Bates, an elder brother, of great promise, then practising law
at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, was killed in a duel with one Stewart, a rival lawyer. Judge
Breckenridge, in his "Recollections of the West," speaks in unqualified terms of
commendation of Tarlton Bates.

  When quite young Judge Bates attended the trial of Aaron Burr at Richmond, for treason.
He has often spoken to the writer of the prominent actors in that celebrated trial, of
Generals Jackson and Wilkinson, and particularly of the very pompous manner of the latter
when on the witness stand.

  Soon after leaving college young Bates commenced the study of law, but under what
auspices is not known to the writer. In the mean time Frederick Bates, his brother, was
appointed secretary of the territory of Missouri, and was acting governor in the absence
of Governor Clark. The west then, as now, was an inviting field for young lawyers, and
James followed his brother to Missouri, and settled in St. Louis about 1816.

  Soon after the organization of the territory of Arkansas, in 1820, he removed to the
Post of Arkansas, the temporary seat of the government, and then commenced the practice
of his profession.

  His office was scarcely opened for the reception of clients before he was elected our
first territorial delegate to congress. His opponent in this election was the celebrated
Matthew Lyon, who, after an eventful career in the east, removed to Kentucky, thence to
Arkansas. He settled at Spadra Bluff on the Arkansas river, where he was engaged in some
government employment, I believe. The election was closely contested. Bates received the
certificate of election, and Lyon declared his intention to contest his seat, but died
before he could execute his design.

  [NOTE.- Matthew Lyon was an educated, brilliant Irishman, born in 1746. He emigrated to
America when quite young, and settled in Vermont among the Green Mountain boys, with whom
he became very popular. He was a member of congress from Vermont in 1801, when the
election of president and vice-president devolved on the house of representatives, voting
by States. The choice was between Jefferson and Burr, the two highest candidates in the
electoral college, from which each had received an equal number of votes, seventy-three,
Adams receiving sixty-five, and Pinckney, sixty-four, Jefferson was the popular choice,
but the federal party, favoring centralization, was then strong in congress, and they
made an effort to defeat the will of the people, by concentrating their strength on Burr.
Burr's strength, and that of the federalists who supported him lay chiefly in the New
England. States, and Vermont instructed her representatives in congress to cast the vote
of the State for Burr. The balloting commenced on the 11th of February, 1801, and
continued until the thirty-sixth ballot was reached on the 17th of February. On this
ballot Matthew Lyon went over to the Jefferson party, and by his disaffection carried
Vermont for Jefferson, and materially aided in securing his election. For this he was
denounced and ostracised in Vermont, and for this reason he moved to Kentucky about 1803.

  During the war of 1812, Lyon obtained very large contracts from the government to
supply the army. The treaty of Ghent found him in possession of a large quantity of
supplies purchased at war prices, which the government, although in honor bound, refused
to take. This disaster reduced Lyon to financial ruin.

  He moved to Arkansas about 1818, and located at Spadra on the Arkansas river, whereon
the 1st of August, 1822, he died in the seventy-sixth year of his age, a very poor, but
intellectual and able man. His son inherited and supplemented his father's talents, and
was a representative in congress from Kentucky.- THE AUTHOR.]

  In 1823 he was a candidate for re-election, but was defeated by the celebrated Henry W.
Conway, an able man, who commanded not only the influence of his own powerful family, but
that of the Hectors, the Johnsons, Roanes and Ambrose H. Sevier, and all the political
adherents of General Jackson, then so popular in the south and west. The influence and
strength of this combined opposition could not be overcome.

  After his short congressional career closed he moved to the newly-settled town of
Batesville and resumed the practice of his profession. Batesville was named after him. In
November, 1825, President Adams appointed him one of the territorial judges, in virtue of
which he was one of the judges of the superior or appellate court organized on the plan
of the old English court in banc, and all our territorial appellate courts are organized
on the same plan. On the accession of General Jackson to the presidency, his commission
expired without renewal, and he soon after removed to Crawford county, married a wealthy
widow and became stationary on a rich farm near Van Buren. In the fall of 1835 he was
elected to the constitutional convention, and contributed his ability and learning in the
formation of our first organic law as a State. Soon after the accession of John Tyler to
the presidency, he appointed Judge Bates register of the land office at Clarksville in
recognition of an old friend. He discharged every public trust and all the duties
devolved on him as a private citizen with the utmost fidelity. Strange to say, whilst he
possessed the most fascinating conversational powers, he was a failure as a public
speaker.

  Edward Bates, Mr. Lincoln's attorney-general, was unquestionably a great orator, but
was not the equal of his brother James in that fascinating polish which indicates high
and magnetic finish.

  He was well versed in the classics and with the best authors of English and American
literature. He died at his home in Crawford county in 1846, universally esteemed.