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Senate Years of Service: 1913-1919; 1931-1939 Party: Democrat; Democrat
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LEWIS, James Hamilton, a Representative from Washington and a Senator from Illinois; born in Danville,
Pittsylvania County, Va., May 18, 1863; moved with his parents to Augusta, Ga., in 1866; attended
Houghton school in that city and the University of Virginia at Charlottesville; studied law in Savannah,
Ga.; admitted to the bar in 1882; moved to the Territory of Washington in 1885 and commenced the
practice of law in Seattle; member, Washington Territorial legislature 1887-1888; elected as a
Democrat to the Fifty-fifth Congress (March 4, 1897-March 3, 1899); unsuccessful candidate in
1898 for reelection; served during the Spanish-American War as inspector general with rank of
colonel in Puerto Rico; unsuccessful Democratic candidate for United States Senator in 1899; moved
to Chicago, Ill. in 1903 and resumed the practice of law; corporation counsel for Chicago
1905-1907; unsuccessful candidate for Governor in 1908; elected as a Democrat to the United
States Senate and served from March 26, 1913, to March 3, 1919; unsuccessful candidate for
reelection in 1918; Democratic whip 1913-1919; chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the
Department of State (Sixty-fourth and Sixty-fifth Congresses); unsuccessful Democratic candidate for
Governor of Illinois in 1920; practiced international law; again elected as a Democrat to the United
States Senate in 1930; reelected in 1936 and served from March 4, 1931, until his death in
Washington, D.C., April 9, 1939; Democratic whip 1933-1939; chairman, Committee on
Expenditures in Executive Departments (Seventy-third through Seventy-sixth Congresses); funeral
services were held in the Chamber of the United States Senate; original interment in the Abbey
Mausoleum, adjoining Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.; remains removed and reinterred in
unknown location.
BibliographyDictionary of American Biography;
Lewis, James Hamilton. The Two Great Republics, Rome and the United States.
Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co., 1913; U.S. Congress. Memorial Addresses. 76th
Cong., 1st sess., 1939. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1939.
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