service by appointing positions on the basis of examination and merit. James urged President Grant to allow him to succeed Alonzo B. Cornell as Surveyor of the Port. Grant instead did one better and made him the Postmaster of New York City on March 17, 1873, and four years later reappointed by President Hayes. James instituted several reforms during his terms, including increasing the efficiency of the postal workforce and improving postal facilities wherever possible. Once General Arthur stepped down, James was offered the position but turned it down as he did not feel it right to supersede his superior. However, David M. Key resigned as Postmaster General in 1880, and James was offered that position by Hayes instead. After consulting with his friends, he declined it as well. He was asked to be the Republican nominee for mayor of New York the same year but turned this down also. United States Postmaster General On March 5, 1881, President Garfield announced his new cabinet, which included James as Postmaster General. Stepping down from his previous position as Postmaster of New York (which was to be succeeded by his son-in-law), he entered into office two days later. In only ten months he enacted lasting reforms. When he first took office, he found an annual deficit of $2 million, varying in amounts with few exceptions going back to 1851. He immediately began a policy of reform, making reductions in the star service amounting to $1,713,541, and in the steamboat service saving over $300,000, and thus clearing the debt. Moreover, he cooperated with the Department of Justice to undertake a thorough investigation of abuses and frauds within his department. The end result of this was the famous Star routes trials. 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. He also set up a convention of money ordering with Jamaica and the Australian colonies. 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. Later life He later became president of the Lincoln National Bank in 1882, as well as the Lincoln Safe-deposit Company of New York., and serving on their board of directors until his death. James moved to