Richard Henry Dana Jr. | |
|---|---|
 Dana, c. 1868 | |
| United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts | |
| In office 1861–1866 | |
| President | Abraham Lincoln |
| Preceded by | Charles L. Woodbury |
| Succeeded by | George Stillman Hillard |
| Personal details | |
| Born | August 1, 1815 Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | January 6, 1882 (aged 66) Rome, Kingdom of Italy |
| Political party | Free Soil Republican |
| Other political affiliations | Independent Republican (1868) |
| Signature |  |
Richard Henry Dana Jr. (August 1, 1815 – January 6, 1882) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of a colonial family, who gained renown as the author of the classic American memoir Two Years Before the Mast and as an attorney who successfully represented the U.S. government before the U.S. Supreme Court during the Civil War in the Prize Cases. Both as a writer and as a lawyer, he was a champion of the downtrodden, from seamen to fugitive slaves and freedmen.