Frederick Perry Stanton was a member of the United States House of Representatives for Tennessee's 10th congressional district and an interim governor of territorial Kansas. He was born in Alexandria, Virginia on December 22, 1814. He pursued classical studies and graudated from Columbian College, now named George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. in 1833. He taught school, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice in Memphis, Tennessee. He was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-ninth Congress and the four succeeding Congresses. He served from March 4, 1845 to March 3, 1855. 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. He 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. He died in Stanton, Florida on June 4, 1894. He was interred in South Lake Weir Cemetery at South Lake Weir, Florida.
