sentences:  He moved with his parents to Williamsburg, New York, in 1847.He entered the mercantile business in New York City in 1850, became Secretary of the New York Board of Trade and Transportation, and served as Park commissioner of Brooklyn in 1876–1882.James was elected as a Republican to the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses (March 4, 1883 – March 3, 1887) where he became a staunch supporter of free silver.