Richard Henry Stanton

Richard Henry Stanton (September 9, 1812 – March 20, 1891) was a politician, lawyer, editor, and judge from Kentucky. A Democrat, he served three terms in the United States House of Representatives from Kentucky, played a notable role in the naming of Washington Territory, and was imprisoned during the Civil War for his support of secession.

Stanton was born on September 9, 1812, in Alexandria, then part of the District of Columbia. He was the son of Richard Stanton, a bricklayer, and Harriet Perry Stanton. As a young man he briefly worked with his father in the building trade before turning to the study of law. Seeking professional opportunity on the western frontier of the young republic, he settled in Maysville, Mason County, Kentucky. There he read law and was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1839, beginning a long legal and public career closely tied to the civic life of Maysville.

Even before his formal admission to the bar, Stanton was active in journalism and local affairs. He served as editor of the Maysville Monitor from 1835 to 1842, using the paper as a vehicle for Democratic Party advocacy and local political commentary. His prominence in the community led to his appointment as Maysville’s postmaster, a position he held from 1845 to 1849. These roles helped establish his reputation as a Democratic leader in northern Kentucky and laid the groundwork for his entry into national politics.

Stanton was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives in 1848 and served three consecutive terms from March 4, 1849, to March 3, 1855. During his congressional service he represented Kentucky at a time of sectional tension and national expansion. He served as chairman of the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds from 1849 to 1853, overseeing matters related to federal construction and maintenance, and as chairman of the Committee on Elections from 1853 to 1855, where he dealt with contested election cases and electoral procedures. In 1853, during debate over the organization and naming of a new territory on the Pacific coast, Stanton opposed the proposed name “Columbia” for the region, arguing that it would be easily confused with the District of Columbia. He instead supported the name “Washington,” and Congress ultimately adopted that designation. President Millard Fillmore signed the bill into law on March 2, 1853, officially creating Washington Territory, and Stanton has been credited with playing a key role in securing its name. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1854 and left Congress at the close of the Thirty-third Congress in 1855.

After returning to Kentucky, Stanton resumed the practice of law and continued his involvement in public affairs. He served as a state’s attorney from 1858 to 1862, acting as a prosecuting officer in his jurisdiction. With the outbreak of the Civil War, his sympathies lay with the secessionist cause, a stance that brought him into conflict with federal authorities. At the beginning of the war he was arrested for supporting secession and was held as a political prisoner at Camp Chase in Columbus, Ohio, one of the Union’s principal internment facilities for Confederate soldiers and civilian detainees. His wartime experience reflected the divided loyalties of Kentucky and the broader strains placed on civil liberties during the conflict.

In the postwar period, Stanton remained active in Democratic politics and the law. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1868, a gathering marked by its racially exclusionary slogan, “This is a White Man’s Country, Let White Men Rule,” which reflected the party’s opposition to Radical Reconstruction and Black political equality. That same year he was appointed a district judge, serving on the bench from 1868 to 1874. As a judge he presided over a range of civil and criminal matters and wrote a number of legal books, contributing to the legal literature of his time. After leaving the judiciary he returned to private practice, continuing to work as an attorney until his retirement in 1885.

Stanton spent his later years in Maysville, where he had built his legal and political career. He died there on March 20, 1891, and was interred in Maysville Cemetery. His family was notable in public life beyond Kentucky; his brother, Frederick P. Stanton, served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee and later as interim territorial governor of Kansas. Through his work as a congressman, jurist, editor, and party leader, Richard Henry Stanton left a distinct imprint on both Kentucky’s public life and the broader development of the United States during the mid-nineteenth century.