Governor of Kentucky, U.S. Senator, U.S. Congressman. Born in Richmond, Virginia, he attended the Hampton-Sidney Academy and later graduated from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1832. He studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practiced as an attorney in Vicksburg, Mississippi. He moved to Covington, Kentucky in 1841 and became a Kenton County attorney. In 1845, he became a member of the Kentucky State House of Representatives as a Democratic Party member and served until 1849. Stevenson was a delegate to the Kentucky State Constitutional Convention in 1849 and was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1848, 1852, 1856, and 1880. He was also the Presidential elector from Kentucky in 1852 and 1856. Elected to represent Kentucky's 10th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives, he served from 1857 to 1861. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1860 and resumed his law profession in Covington. When John L. Helm became Kentucky's governor in 1867, elected for a second time, Stevenson became Lieutenant Governor. Helm had become ill by the time he was inaugurated and died five days after taking office. Stevenson was then sworn in as Kentucky's 25th Governor. As Governor, he advocated the restoration of rights to former Confederates and also resisted Federal interference of states' rights with issues involving blacks. He was reelected and served until his resignation in 1871 to accept election as United States Senator. He served in that capacity until 1877 and was not a candidate for reelection in 1876. He then became a professor at the Cincinnati Law School and later became president of the American Bar Association in 1884. He retired in 1885 and died at his residence in Covington in 1886. He was initially buried at Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky and was later removed to Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1891. His great-grandfather, Carter Braxton, was a Continental Congressman from Virginia and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. His father, Andrew Stevenson, was a United States Congressman from Virginia.