Richard Henry Stanton (September 9, 1812 – March 20, 1891) was a politician, lawyer, editor and judge from

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

. A Democrat, he served three terms as a Congressman from

and was imprisoned during the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

. Stanton was born in

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

, then part of the

District of Columbia Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

. His parents were Richard and Harriet Perry Stanton. After briefly working with his father, a

bricklayer A bricklayer, which is related to but different from a mason, is a craftsperson and tradesperson who lays bricks to construct brickwork. The terms also refer to personnel who use blocks to construct blockwork walls and other forms of maso ...

, he studied law, settled in Maysville, Kentucky, and was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1839. He was also editor of the ''Maysville Monitor'' from 1835 to 1842 and served as town postmaster from 1845 to 1849.''The Biographical Encyclopædia of Kentucky of the Dead and Living Men of the Nineteenth Century''. Cincinnati, Ohio: J. M. Armstrong, 1878
page 101
He was elected to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

as a Democrat in 1848, serving from 1849 to 1855. There, he served as chairman of the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds from 1849 to 1853 and of the Committee on Elections from 1853 to 1855. He was unsuccessful for reelection in 1854. Afterwards, Stanton served as a state's attorney from 1858 to 1862. At the beginning of the

, Stanton was arrested and held at

Camp Chase Camp Chase was a military staging and training camp established in Columbus, Ohio, in May 1861 after the start of the American Civil War. It also included a large Union-operated prison camp for Confederate prisoners during the American Civil Wa ...

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

for supporting secession. Stanton was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1868, whose slogan was "This is a White Man's Country, Let White Men Rule". He was a district judge from 1868 to 1874. He wrote a number of legal books. He resumed practicing law until his retirement in 1885 and died on March 20, 1891, in Maysville, Kentucky. He was interred there in Maysville Cemetery. Stanton is credited with naming

Washington Territory The Washington Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1853, until November 11, 1889, when the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Washington. It was created from the ...

, later the state of Washington, during an 1853 debate over the territory's preferred name of "Columbia". He argued that the proposed name would easily be confused with the nation's capital, the

. Congress later approved the "Washington" name change and President Millard Fillmore signed the bill into law on March 2, 1853, officially creating the Washington Territory. Stanton's brother, Frederick P. Stanton, also served in the U.S. House from Tennessee and as interim Territorial Governor of Kansas.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stanton, Richard H. 1812 births 1891 deaths Kentucky lawyers Kentucky postmasters American newspaper editors Politicians from Alexandria, Virginia Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Kentucky 19th-century American journalists American male journalists 19th-century American male writers Journalists from Virginia Lawyers from Alexandria, Virginia 19th-century American lawyers 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives