John White Stevenson (4 May 1812-10 August 1886) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-KY 10) from 4 March 1857 to 3 March 1861 (succeeding Samuel F. Swope and preceding John W. Menzies), Governor of Kentucky from 8 September 1867 to 13 February 1871 (succeeding John L. Helm and preceding Preston Leslie), and US Senator from 4 March 1871 to 3 March 1877 (succeeding Thomas C. McCreery and preceding James B. Beck).
Biography[]
John White Stevenson was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1812, the son of Andrew Stevenson and the maternal grandson of Carter Braxton. He became a lawyer in 1839, and he settled in Covington, Kentucky in 1841 and became Kenton County attorney. He served as a delegate to the 1844, 1848, 1852, and 1856 Democratic National Conventions, in the US House of Representatives from 1857 to 1861, as Governor of Kentucky from 1867 to 1871 (supporting President Andrew Johnson's handling of Reconstruction), and in the US Senate from 1871 to 1877, becoming known as a conservative stalwart who opposed internal improvements, opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1871, and opposed the use of federal money for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. He died in 1886.