James Hay (politician)

James Hay ( born January 9, 1856 in Millwood, Clarke County, Virginia; † June 12, 1931 in Madison, Virginia) was an American lawyer and politician. Between 1897 and 1916 he represented the state of Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives; after that he was a federal judge.

Career

James Hay first attended private schools and went on to study at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. After a subsequent law degree from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, and his 1877 was admitted to the bar he began in Harrisonburg to work in this profession. In 1879 he moved his residence and his law firm to Madison. From 1883 to 1896 he worked as a prosecutor. At the same time he proposed as a member of the Democratic Party launched a political career. From 1885 to 1889 he sat in the House of Representatives from Virginia; 1893 to 1897 he was a member of the State Senate. In 1888 he was a member of the State Board of Democrats and a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in St. Louis, was nominated to the President Grover Cleveland for re-election.

In the congressional elections of 1896 Hay was in the seventh election district of Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he became the successor of Smith S. Turner on March 4, 1897. After nine elections he could remain until a resignation on October 1, 1916 at the Congress. Since 1911 he was Chairman of the Military Committee. He was involved in the preparation of the National Defense Act of 1916. In his time as a congressman fell among other things, the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the ratification of the 16th and the 17th Amendment.

Hays resignation as congressman took place after his appointment as Judge of the United States Court of Claims. This office he held until December 1, 1927; then he withdrew into retirement. James Hay died on June 12, 1931 in Madison.