Maecenas Eason Benton

Maecenas Eason Benton ( born January 29, 1848 Dyersburg, Tennessee, † April 27, 1924 in Springfield, Missouri ) was an American politician. Between 1897 and 1905 he represented the State of Missouri in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Maecenas Benton was a great-nephew of U.S. Senator Thomas Hart Benton ( 1782-1858 ). He attended the common schools and studied at the Saint Louis University later. During the Civil War he served in the army of the Confederacy. After studying law and qualifying as a lawyer, he started in Neosho (Missouri ) to work in this profession. Between 1878 and 1884 he served as a prosecutor in the local Newton County. From 1885 to 1889 Benton was federal prosecutor. At the same time he proposed as a member of the Democratic Party launched a political career. In 1896 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, was first nominated on the William Jennings Bryan as their presidential candidate.

In the congressional elections of 1896 Benton was in the 15th electoral district of Missouri in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he became the successor of Charles Germman Burton on March 4, 1897. After three re- elections, he was able to complete in Congress until March 3, 1905 four legislative sessions. In this time of the Spanish-American War was from 1898. In 1904 Benton was defeated by Republican Cassius M. Shartel. After his retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives, he practiced as a lawyer again in Neosho. In the years 1922 and 1924 he was a delegate at meetings to revise the Constitution of Missouri. He died on April 27, 1924 in Springfield and was buried in Neosho.