James M. Barnes (congressman)

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James M. Barnes is a former member of the US House of Representatives from Illinois. He was born on January 9, 1899 in Jacksonville, Illinois and attended the public schools. During the First World War, he served overseas as a private in the United States Marine Corps in 1918 and 1919. Barnes graduated from Illinois College at Jacksonville in 1921 and from the law department of Harvard University in 1924. He was admitted to the bar in 1924 and commenced the practice of law in Jacksonville, later serving as county judge of Morgan County, Illinois, from 1926 to 1934. He resumed the practice of law 1934 to 1939. Barnes was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-sixth and Seventy-seventh Congresses (January 3, 1939-January 3, 1943). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1942 to the Seventy-eighth Congress. Barnes was appointed administrative assistant to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 1, 1943, and served until July 15, 1945. He then resumed the practice of law in Washington, D.C., where he died June 8, 1958.