| STANLY, Edward, orator and statesman, born in New Bern NC on 1/10/1810. He was the son of John Stanly. In his earlier years, Stanly bore an uncanny resemblance to William H. Seward, which many politicians of the 1840s and 1850s commented on.
Edward Stanly was educated at New Bern Academy, University of North Carolina (1826); he had to cut his studies short when his father became ill. Attended the Philanthropic Society. Captain Alden Partridge's military academy in Middletown, Connecticut. Graduated from the American Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy, Norwich University, in 1829.
Admitted to the bar in 1832 and commenced practice in Washington, Beaufort County, N.C.
U.S. House (W-NC) 1837-43, 1849-53. Whig nominee for U.S. House, 1843.
NC House of Commons (W-Beaufort Co.) 1844-1846, 1848-1849, Speaker 1844-1846
Attorney General (W-NC) 1847-1848
Presidential Elector (W-NC) 1848
At the close of his second period of service in Congress in 1853, he removed to San Francisco CA, where he practised his profession, and in 1857 was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor.
After the capture of New Bern on 14 March, 1862, and the occupation of other points in North Carolina by National troops, President Lincoln appointed Stanly military governor of his native state on 5/26/1862. The people were embittered by this, and, after vainly endeavoring to consolidate and give effect to the Unionist sentiment in North Carolina, he resigned on 3/2/1863 and returned to California, where he resumed his law practice.
Affiliated with the Liberal Republican Party in 1872.
Died in San Francisco, California, 7/12/1872; interment in Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, Calif.
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[Link]
Norman D. Brown, Edward Stanly: Whiggery's Tarheel 'Conqueror' (University of Alabama Press, 1974). | 
