High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Stephen Russell Mallory (1812 – November 9, 1873) served in the United States Senate as, Senator (Democrat) from Florida from 1850 to the secession of his home state and the outbreak of the American Civil War. For much of that period, he was chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs. This was a time of rapid naval reform, and he insisted that the ships of the United States Navy should be as capable as those of Great Britain and France, the foremost navies in the world at that time. He also wrote a bill and guided it through Congress that provided for compulsory retirement of officers who did not meet the standards of the profession.