page_title: James Lewis (Louisiana politician)
section_title: Republican appointee
hierarchical_section_title: James Lewis (Louisiana politician) / Republican appointee
caption_attribution_description: English: Lewis in 1887
context_page_description: James Lewis was notable as a soldier and Republican Party politician in Louisiana. Born into slavery and of mixed race, during the American Civil War he left a position as steward on a Confederate steamboat to move to New Orleans, which had been taken over by Union troops. There he helped organize the First Louisiana Volunteer Native Guards, becoming captain of Company K and serving until 1864. After the war he became politically active in the Republican Party during the Reconstruction era, where he was an ally of several other leading men of color in the city and state. This was an especially violent time in Louisiana and New Orleans politics, but Lewis survived for decades as a political leader. He initially worked for the Freedmen's Bureau, where he was an agent to raise money and establish schools for freed slaves. He was appointed as a federal custom's inspector for a short period, the first man of African descent to gain a federal civil position in the state. He was recalled for political reasons.
  Lewis entered the New Orleans Metropolitan Police force, but left in 1872 after more political machinations.
context_section_description: In 1872, at the state Republican Party convention, Lewis was nominated for Congress and made chairman of the Louisiana delegation to the 1872 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. When he returned to New Orleans, party divisions threatened unity. Lewis declined his congressional nomination in favor of P. B. S. Pinchback. He campaigned for William P. Kellogg for governor and was nominated and elected as administrator of public improvements in New Orleans. His opponents in that race were former Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard and Major E. A. Burke. Lewis was well appreciated as a civil servant and noted for his economic efficiency.
  In the mid-1870s, Lewis was the only Republican appointee in New Orleans city government. In 1876 he campaigned with then-Governor Packard and was elected by the state legislature to the United States Senate. But he did not take his seat as the state government was taken over by Democrats, and Lewis refused to press his claim.
  In 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Lewis as naval officer of the port at New Orleans, and he held that position until 1880. In December 1879, Lewis attempted to resolve a political feud between fellow Republicans Emile Detiege and Ernest and Onezyphore Delahoussaye. The four men met in Lewis' office in the Custom House and peace had seemingly been achieved. However, shortly later, Detiege shot and killed the two Delahoussaye brothers.
  At the 1880 Republican National Convention, Lewis was one of the old guard of "306" who supported Ulysses S. Grant until the final vote, which was won by eventual president, James A. Garfield.
  Lewis returned to public life on May 1, 1883, when he was appointed United States Surveyor-General for the Louisiana District to replace James A. Gla, who had been accused of poor management. In January 1884, he was appointed by Secretary of the Treasury Charles J. Folger to superintendent of the United States bonded warehouse in New Orleans and continued to hold the position of surveyor-general of Louisiana. 
  He continued to serve as surveyor general during the administrations of William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Howard Taft, from 1897 to 1913. During this period, Louisiana was dominated by white conservative Democrats, and the legislature passed a new constitution that effectively disenfranchised Lewis and most African Americans. But Lewis was appointed deputy collector of customs and immigration inspector by President Benjamin Harrison in the early 1890s.
  In 1884, Lewis served as a commissioner and Chief of the Accommodation Bureau of the Colored People's Exhibit at the World Cotton Centennial, a World's Fair in New Orleans.
  In October 1890 Lewis was one of the Committee of Fifty appointed by Mayor Joseph A. Shakspeare to investigate the murder that month of Police Chief Hennessy. Italian suspects were rounded up by police. Lewis was one of the signatories of a letter to the Italian community, urging people to inform the committee about the suspects, and threatening extrajudicial action. He was the only man of color on the committee. Nineteen men were arrested. Ultimately eleven Italians were lynched on March 14, 1891 by a mob of 10,000 that stormed the prison where the suspects were held. Some of the victims had already been acquitted at trial and others had not yet been tried.
  In the 1890s and early 1900s, Lewis and Walter L. Cohen were the most important political allies in Louisiana of Booker T. Washington, president of Tuskegee Institute and a proponent of moderation in race issues. Lewis was a member of the National Afro-American Council founded by T. Thomas Fortune and heavily influenced by Washington. In 1898, Lewis actively supported black troops being included in the forces sent into the Spanish–American War. Lewis continued to be involved in politics, although the Republican Party was increasingly hampered in the state. By 1898, the political tides had shifted. Lewis supported the Warmouth wing in an atmosphere of Democrats conducting extreme vote suppression of African Americans.
caption: Lewis in 1887
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