Henry Stanbery

Who was Henry Stanbery?

Henry Stanbery was an American lawyer and United States Attorney General.

Born in New York, he was the son of Jonas Stanbery, a physician. The family moved to Zanesville, Ohio in 1814. Henry Stanbery graduated from Washington College in Washington, Pennsylvania and studied law. He was a member of the Union Literary Society at Washington College. He was admitted to the bar in Ohio in 1824 and to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1832. In 1824, at the invitation of Thomas Ewing, he began practice in Fairfield County, Ohio, and rode the circuit with him. He remained for many years at Lancaster.

In 1846 he was elected the first attorney general of Ohio by the Ohio General Assembly. He accordingly moved to Columbus, where he resided for about five years. In 1850 he was elected a delegate to the convention that framed the state constitution. In 1853 he moved to Cincinnati, and in 1857 he moved across the river to Fort Thomas, Kentucky.

President Andrew Johnson appointed Stanberry Attorney General of the United States in 1866. He resigned on March 12, 1868, to defend Johnson during his impeachment trial. His health at the time was so delicate that most of his arguments were submitted in writing. At the conclusion of the trial, Johnson renominated him as Attorney General and also to the Supreme Court, but the Senate would not confirm him.