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Collection of U.S. House of Representatives (detail) |
BECK, James Montgomery, a Representative from Pennsylvania; born in Philadelphia, Pa., July
9, 1861; attended the public schools and was graduated from Moravian College,
Bethlehem, Pa., in 1880; employed as clerk for a railway company in 1880 and
studied law at night; was admitted to the bar in 1884 and commenced practice in
Philadelphia; admitted to the bar of New York City in 1903, and to the bar of
England in 1922; served as assistant United States attorney for the eastern
district of Pennsylvania 1888-1892 and as United States attorney 1896-1900;
appointed by President William McKinley as assistant to the Attorney General of
the United States in 1900 and served until his resignation in 1903; continued
the practice of law in Philadelphia, New York City, and Washington from 1903 to
1921; was elected a bencher of Grays Inn in 1914, being the first foreigner in
600 years to receive that distinction; also received decorations from France
and Belgium; author of several books and articles on the First World War and on
the Constitution of the United States; appointed by President Warren G. Harding
as Solicitor General of the United States in 1921 and served until his
resignation in 1925; resumed the practice of law; elected as a Republican to
the Seventieth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of James
M. Hazlett; reelected to the Seventy-first, Seventy-second, and Seventy-third
Congresses and served from November 8, 1927, until his resignation on September
30, 1934; resumed the practice of law and was also engaged as an author; died
in Washington, D.C., April 12, 1936; interment in Rock Creek Cemetery.
BibliographyKeller, Morton.
In Defense of Yesterday; James M. Beck and the Politics of
Conservatism, 1861-1936. New York: Coward-McCann, 1958.
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