Frederick Perry Stanton

Stanton was taught at an early age by the Quaker teacher Benjamin Hallowell. Stanton subsequently attended Columbian University to study classical studies, and he graduated in 1833 at age 19.

After graduating, Stanton taught for a while in Virginia, followed by a career at a college in North Carolina. At the time, he prepared to enter a Baptist ministry, but instead focused on law.

In 1834, Stanton opened a law office in Memphis, Tennessee.

Elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-ninth Congress and the four succeeding Congresses, Stanton served from March 4, 1845 to March 3, 1855.[1] After winning his first election, his chagrined Whig opponent shot Stanton in the neck with a pistol. During the Thirty-first and Thirty-second Congresses, he was chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs, and during the Thirty-third Congress he was chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary.[2]

Stanton served as the governor of Kansas Territory from 1858 to 1861, according to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. However, according to the Lecompton Historical Society, he instead served as acting governor from April 15, 1857 to May 27, 1857 and from November 16, 1857 to December 21, 1857. On April 1 of that year, he had been appointed Secretary of Kansas Territory, and he held that office until December 21. After his term ended, he moved to Virginia and subsequently settled in Florida. Upon retiring from the office he purchased a large tract of land near Lecompton and built what was at that time the largest and most costly residence in Kansas. At the beginning of the Civil war Stanton joined the Republican party. In 1861 he opened a law office in Washington, D. C., for practice in the supreme court of the United States. He was president of the International Peace League, and was a delegate to the Richmond convention in 1882. In 1885 he went to Florida for his health, and continued to reside in that state until his death.[3]