Stanton served as a member of the Ohio Senate from 1841 to 1843, and as delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1850.

Stanton served as lieutenant governor of Ohio in 1862, during the American Civil War.

He opined that Ulysses S. Grant and Benjamin M. Prentiss, both appointed from Illinois, should be court-martialed and shot.

General William Tecumseh Sherman, appointed from Ohio, published a sharp rebuttal.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress