Henry Thompson Stanton, one of the most popular poets Kentucky has
produced, was born at Alexandria, Virginia, June 30, 1834. He was
brought by his father, Judge Richard Henry Stanton, to Maysville,
Kentucky, when he was only two years old. Stanton was educated at the
Maysville Academy and at West Point, but he was not graduated. He
entered the Confederate army as captain of a company in the Fifth
Kentucky regiment, and through various promotions he surrendered as a
major. Major Stanton saw much service on the battlefields of Kentucky,
Tennessee, and Virginia. After the war he practised law for a time and
was editor of the Maysville _Bulletin_ until 1870, when he removed to
Frankfort, Kentucky, to become chief assistant to the State
Commissioner of Insurance. Major Stanton's first volume of verse was
_The Moneyless Man and Other Poems_ (Baltimore, 1871). This title
poem, written for a wandering elocutionist who "struck" the town of
Maysville one day, and asked the major to write him "a poem that would
draw tears from any audience," made him famous and miserable for the
rest of his life. For the nomad he "dashed off this special lyric and
it brought all Kentucky to the mourners' bench. It was more deadly as
a tear-provoker than 'Stay, Jailer, Stay,' and though the author wrote
other things which were far better, the public would never admit it,
and many people innocently courted death by rushing up to Stanton and
exclaiming: 'Oh, and is this Major Stanton who wrote 'The Moneyless
Man?' So glad to meet you.'" One Kentucky poet took the philosophy of
_The Moneyless Man_ too seriously, and _A Reply to the Moneyless Man_
was the pathetic result. The rhythm of the poem is very pleasing, but
it is, in a word, melodramatic. Major Stanton's second and final
collection of his verse was _Jacob Brown and Other Poems_ (Cincinnati,
1875). It contains several poems that are superior to _The Moneyless
Man_, but the general reader refuses to read them. From 1875 till 1886
he edited the Frankfort _Yeoman_; and during President Cleveland's
first administration he served as Land Commissioner. Besides his
poems, Major Stanton wrote a group of paper-backed novels, entitled
_The Kents; Social Fetters_ (Washington, 1889); and _A Graduate of
Paris_ (Washington, 1890). Major Stanton died at Frankfort, Kentucky,
May 8, 1898. Two years later _Poems of the Confederacy_ (Louisville,
1900), containing the war lyrics of the major, was artistically
printed as a memorial to his memory. The introduction to the little
book was written by Major Stanton's friend and fellow man of letters,
Colonel J. Stoddard Johnston, and it is an altogether fitting
remembrance for the author of _The Moneyless Man_.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Poems of the Confederacy_ (Louisville, 1900);
_Confessions of a Tatler_, by Elvira Miller Slaughter (Louisville,
1905).