Background
Frederick was born on December 22, 1814 in Alexandria, then a part of the District of Columbia, United States, the son of Richard and Harriet (Perry) Stanton. Richard Henry Stanton was an older brother.
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Frederick was born on December 22, 1814 in Alexandria, then a part of the District of Columbia, United States, the son of Richard and Harriet (Perry) Stanton. Richard Henry Stanton was an older brother.
The boy was taught the bricklayer's trade by his father, and attended the private school conducted by Benjamin Hallowell. Later he taught in this same school, and also at Occoquan and at Portsmouth Academy in Virginia. After receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Columbian College (now George Washington University) in 1833, he served for two years as principal of Elizabeth City Academy in North Carolina.
After graduation from the Columbian College he read law, and was admitted to the Alexandria bar. In 1835 he removed to Somerville, Tennessee, and some two years later to Memphis, where he practised his profession and contributed political editorials to the Gazette.
In 1845 Stanton entered Congress from the Memphis district and served until March 3, 1855. He was assigned to the committee on naval affairs, and became its chairman in December 1849. His speeches reveal a wealth of scientific nautical information. He contended that replacements rather than additions would promote efficiency in the navy, advocated the use of heavier ordnance and the screw propeller, and proposed regular itineraries for both the Atlantic and the Pacific fleets.
In the speakership contest of 1849 he introduced the resolution to substitute the plurality for the majority rule which resulted in the election of Howell Cobb. During the crisis of 1850 he threatened secession unless a satisfactory compromise was effected, and he voted against the District of Columbia slave trade bill, and against the admission of California as a free state.
In discussing the Kansas-Nebraska measure, he assured the North that slavery could not exist in either territory, and that the bill was of no practical importance to the South "except for the principle of non-intervention. " During his last term he served as chairman of the judiciary committee.
After a decade in Congress Stanton retired voluntarily but continued to reside in Washington, where he practised law. On March 10, 1857, President Buchanan appointed him secretary of Kansas Territory, and he went there with a natural pro-slavery prejudice. From his arrival at Lecompton on April 15 until he was relieved by Robert J. Walker on May 27, he served as acting governor.
He urged a general political amnesty, promised a safeguarded franchise, and pledged enforcement of the territorial laws. With inadequate information on conditions in Kansas, he apportioned delegates to the Lecompton convention under an incomplete and inequitable census.
Practical experience in the territory developed open-mindedness, and in the summer of 1857 both Walker and Stanton promised a fair vote in the October election for members of a legislature. They redeemed their pledge by rejecting sufficient fraudulent votes to change the party character of both houses. This act cost Walker his position and Stanton again became acting governor.
At the request of Free-State men he convened the newly chosen legislature in extra session to provide a referendum on the whole Lecompton constitution. His removal for this act completed his transition to the Free-State party, and in the winter of 1858 he toured the North to lay its cause before the people. After Kansas was admitted into the Union in 1861, Stanton was defeated for the United States Senate.
A few months later, when Senator James H. Lane accepted a brigadiership, Governor Charles Robinson appointed Stanton to the supposed vacancy; but the Senate decided that none existed. Soon after his arrival in Kansas, Stanton purchased a tract of land near Lecompton and erected a commodious stone house.
In 1862 he removed to "Farmwell, " in Virginia, and resumed law practice in Washington. Years later (1886) he settled in Florida.
He died at Stanton, near Ocala, Florida.
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Quotes from others about the person
At the height of his congressional career, Buchanan characterized him as persevering, industrious, faithful, and able, credited him with "practical sense and sound judgment, " and designated him as "the most promising young man in the lower house".
On December 25, 1835, he married Jane Harriet Sommers Lanphier of Alexandria. They had nine children, five of whom died in infancy.