James Bingham (Indiana politician)

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For the Wisconsin politician, see James M. Bingham. For the Northern Irish painter, see James Bingham (artist).
James Bingham
19th Indiana Attorney General
In office
January 1, 1907 – January 1, 1911
GovernorFrank Hanly, Thomas R. Marshall
Preceded byCharles W. Miller
Succeeded byThomas M. Honan

James Bingham (March 16, 1861 – August 19, 1940) was an

American lawyer and politician who served as the nineteenth Indiana Attorney General from January 1, 1907, to January 1, 1911.[1][2]

Biography

Early life and education

Bingham was born in Fountain County, Indiana. His father was Alexander Bingham, a farmer.[2][3]

Growing up, Bingham worked on the family farm and on the

grade school graduations and organized a course of study for the county's common schools (he would later serve on a committee that prepared a statewide course of study for all Indiana grade schools).[2][3]

In 1885, Bingham helped open law offices in Covington. In 1887, he was admitted to the Fountain County bar, but during the course of his "tireless study of law", he had severely damaged his eyesight. Bingham's wife, Elizabeth, had to assist him in his legal work before his vision eventually recovered.[3]

Political career

Bingham, a

prosecuting attorney of Fountain and Warren counties. Ele Stansbury, who would later become the twenty-third Indiana Attorney General, served under Bingham at this time as deputy prosecuting attorney.[2][3][4]

In 1888, Bingham served as chairman of the Fountain County Republican Party and campaigned in the county for Republican presidential candidate Benjamin Harrison.[3]

In 1892, Bingham moved to Muncie. Opening a law office, he practiced in the city until he was elected Attorney General.[3]

Bingham was elected Indiana Attorney General in 1906, succeeding Charles W. Miller. Bingham served in the administrations of Governors Frank Hanly (a Republican) and Thomas R. Marshall (a Democrat). During his time as Attorney General, Bingham enforced state alcohol laws amid the nationwide debate over laws curbing alcohol consumption that would lead to Indiana becoming a dry state in 1918. Bingham is also remembered for his fight for the passage of state legislation on food purity, responding again to another topical cause of the Progressive Era, with the Pure Food and Drug Act having been passed by Congress months before Bingham took office. Bingham also helped to break up an insurance monopoly within the state by obtaining an injunction against the activities of the rating bureaus of various insurance companies. Bingham also voiced his concerns about a 1907 state sterilization law (the first of its kind in the nation, inspired by the growing popularity of eugenics), questioning the constitutionality of the law. Edward M. White, a judge from Muncie, served as Assistant Attorney General under Bingham (the two would later practice law together). Bingham left office after four years, succeeded by Thomas M. Honan.[2][3][5][6]

After leaving office, Bingham remained in

U.S. Supreme Court to affirm the constitutionality of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Amendments, enacting nationwide Prohibition and granting women the right to vote respectively.[3]

In 1908, Bingham wrote a letter to

William Taft to be the Republican nominee in the upcoming election.[7]

Personal life and death

In 1887, Bingham married Elizabeth Remster, a high school

First World War and died young of an illness caused by his service.[3]

Bingham was a member of the

Columbia Club. He attended the Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis.[3]

Bingham died in 1940. He was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery.[3]

References

  1. ^ "Attorneys General of Indiana". Indiana State Library. 2 December 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e Monks, Leander John (1916). Courts and lawyers of Indiana. Indianapolis: Federal Publishing Company.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Bingham, James: Indianapolis Star, Tue 20 Aug 1940 p 14". The INGenWeb Project.
  4. ^ Dunn, Jacob Piatt (1919). Indiana and Indianans : a history of aboriginal and territorial Indiana and the century of statehood. American Historical Society.
  5. PMID 9816819
    .
  6. ^ "Edward M. White Papers, 1898-1905" (PDF). Indiana Historical Society.
  7. ^ "Letter from James Bingham to Theodore Roosevelt". Theodore Roosevelt Center. Dickinson State University.
Political offices
Preceded by Indiana Attorney General
1907–1911 		Succeeded by
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