James Benjamin Aswell

James Benjamin Aswell (* December 23, 1869 in Vernon, Jackson Parish, Louisiana, † March 16, 1931 in Washington DC ) was an American politician. Between 1913 and 1931 he represented the state of Louisiana in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

James Aswell attended the public schools of his home and thereafter until 1892, the Peabody Normal College in Nashville ( Tennessee). Subsequently, he studied until 1893 at the University of Nashville. In the following years aswell began a career in the teaching profession. First, he taught at primary and secondary schools as a teacher. Between 1900 and 1904 he headed the Louisiana Polytechnic Institute; 1904 to 1908, he served as Superintendent of Public Education Ministers of Education of Louisiana. In this capacity, he reformed the school system of his state. Between 1908 and 1911 he headed the Louisiana State Normal College in Natchitoches.

Politically, aswell member of the Democratic Party. In 1911 he applied unsuccessfully for the nomination for election as governor of Louisiana, which then went to Luther E. Hall. In the congressional elections of 1912 aswell was elected to the newly created eighth constituency of Louisiana in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, where he took up his new mandate on March 4, 1913. After nine elections he could remain until his death on March 16, 1931 in Congress. This period was, among other things, the First World War. Between 1913 and 1920, the 16th, the 17th, the 18th and the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in Congress were adopted.