Thomas Lemuel James Signature
Signature of Thomas Lemuel James (1831-1916) was born in Utica NY, the grandson of Welsh immigrants. He learned the printers trade and in 1851 bought the Madison County Journal, a Whig newspaper in Hamilton, NY. In addition he served as collector of canal tolls in Hamilton, was later appointed an inspector of customs in New York City, and subsequently appointed to weigher and finally to deputy collector in charge of the warehouse division and the bonded warehouses of the port. The records of the division were in confusion, and the general work from one to three years behind, but in one month, James reported the exact condition of the division, and within six months he had brought the business up to date. Appointed to and made chairman of the civil service board of the collector's and surveyor's office, he was among the earliest and most steadfast of public officials in advocating and applying the reform of the civil service by establishing the system of appointments upon the basis of examination and merit. In 1873 James was appointed postmaster of New York by President Ulysses S. Grant and reappointed four years later by President Rutherford B.
Hayes. President James A. Garfield appointed James postmaster-general, a position he held until Garfield's assassination. Although James only served ten months, his administration was marked by important and lasting reforms. He inherited an annual deficit of $2 million and instituted reductions that wiped out the debt. He instituted a thorough investigation into the abuses and frauds in his department, resulting in the famous star-route trials which concerned the misassignment of rural postal routes. In his annual report to Congress James announced that, with the reforms and retrenchments, a reduction of letter postage from three to two cents would be possible. Upon leaving the post office department James became president of the Lincoln National Bank of New York.
Signature of Thomas Lemuel James (1831-1916) was born in Utica NY, the grandson of Welsh immigrants. He learned the printers trade and in 1851 bought the Madison County Journal, a Whig newspaper in Hamilton, NY. In addition he served as collector of canal tolls in Hamilton, was later appointed an inspector of customs in New York City, and subsequently appointed to weigher and finally to deputy collector in charge of the warehouse division and the bonded warehouses of the port. The records of the division were in confusion, and the general work from one to three years behind, but in one month, James reported the exact condition of the division, and within six months he had brought the business up to date. Appointed to and made chairman of the civil service board of the collector's and surveyor's office, he was among the earliest and most steadfast of public officials in advocating and applying the reform of the civil service by establishing the system of appointments upon the basis of examination and merit. In 1873 James was appointed postmaster of New York by President Ulysses S. Grant and reappointed four years later by President Rutherford B.
Hayes. President James A. Garfield appointed James postmaster-general, a position he held until Garfield's assassination. Although James only served ten months, his administration was marked by important and lasting reforms. He inherited an annual deficit of $2 million and instituted reductions that wiped out the debt. He instituted a thorough investigation into the abuses and frauds in his department, resulting in the famous star-route trials which concerned the misassignment of rural postal routes. In his annual report to Congress James announced that, with the reforms and retrenchments, a reduction of letter postage from three to two cents would be possible. Upon leaving the post office department James became president of the Lincoln National Bank of New York.