United States Congressman from Tennessee

Governor of Kansas Territory during the "Bleeding Kansas" era as the country was about to plunge into Civil War!

(1814-94) Born in Alexandria, Virginia, he was the son of an American Revolutionary War soldier. He graduated from Columbian College, now George Washington University, in Washington, D.C., in 1833, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1834, and practiced in Memphis, Tennessee. He served as a U.S. Congressman from Tennessee, 1845-55, and was the Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs. He also served on the Committee on the Judiciary. Stanton was the Governor of Kansas Territory, prior to the Civil War, during what was known as the "Bleeding Kansas" years. At the beginning of the Civil War he joined the Republican Party, and in 1861 he opened a law office in Washington, D.C., to practice cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. In his later years Stanton was active in efforts for world peace, and was president of the "International Peace League." He was also president of the "National Arbitration League of America," and opened its inaugural convention in Washington in 1882. He retired to Florida for health reasons where he died on June 4, 1894, and he is buried in South Lake Weir Cemetery, in South Lake Weir, Florida.

Signature with Place: 5 x 2, in ink, Fred. P. Stanton, Memphis, Tenn. Very fine.

WBTS Trivia: "Bleeding Kansas," or the "Border War," was a series of violent civil confrontations in Kansas Territory, and in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1861. It emerged from a political and ideological debate over the legality of slavery in the proposed state of Kansas. The conflict was characterized by years of electoral fraud, raids, assaults, and murders carried out in the Kansas Territory and neighboring Missouri by pro-slavery "border ruffians" and antislavery "free staters."