Thomas Lemuel James (March 29, 1831 – September 11, 1916) was an American journalist, government official, and banker who served as the United States Postmaster General in 1881.

[1] At the age of 15, James learned the trade of printing at the office of Utica "Liberty Press" under Westley Bailey, a noted abolitionist of the time.

The abolition paper printed here later partnered with Francis B. Fisher in Hamilton, New York to form the Whig newspaper Madison County Journal which he bought in 1851.

[2] James married four times, first to Emily Ida Freedburn in 1852, then to E. R. Borden, later to Edith Colborne, and in 1911 to Florence MacDonnell Gaffney.

He became one of the first public officials to advocate for the reform of civil service by appointing positions on the basis of examination and merit.

In giving his annual report to Congress, he declared that his reforms would allow for a two or three-cent reduction in postage, which was enacted shortly thereafter.

[3] However shortly after with the assassination of Garfield and Arthur becoming president, the entire cabinet would have been shuffled, and James decided to resign in December of the same year and withdrew from politics altogether.

[5] James was one of the founders and the first "Grand Monarch" of the Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm, an appendant body in Freemasonry.