James Hay (politician)

:"'For the Scottish footballer, see Jimmy Hay."

James Hay was an American politician from Virginia. He was a member of the United States Congress and a judge on the United States Court of Claims.

James Hay was born in Millwood, Virginia, Clarke County, January 9, 1856; attended private schools and the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia. He was graduated from the law department of Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, in 1877 and was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Harrisonburg, Virginia in 1877, where he also taught school for a time. Hay married Constance Tatum of Dayton, Virginia on October 1, 1878, and had two sons.

He moved to Madison, Virginia in June 1879 and continued the practice of law.

Hay was Commonwealth's Attorney from 1883 to 1896 and member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1885 to 1889. Hay's first wife died in 1886. On June 9, 1891 he married Frances Gordon of Richmond, Virginia and they had two daughters. Hay served in the Senate of Virginia from 1893 to 1897; was a member of the Democratic State committee in 1888; and was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1888.

Hay was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-fifth and to the nine succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1897, until his resignation on October 1, 1916. In Congress he was chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs (Sixty-second through Sixty-fourth congresses), in which capacity he was involved in the "Preparedness Movement" of 1915–16, and in response to which he drafted and pushed through the National Defense Act of 1916.

Following his resignation from Congress, he was appointed judge of the United States Court of Claims by President Woodrow Wilson on July 15, 1916. Hay's second wife died in 1920. On June 14, 1921 he married his secretary, Eloise M. Cave, of Madison, Virginia. Hay served at the court until December 1, 1927, when he resigned. He died in Madison, Virginia, June 12, 1931, and was buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland.

ources and external links

* Herring, George C., Jr. “James Hay and the Preparedness Controversy, 1915-1916.” Journal of Southern History 30 (November 1964): 383-404.
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