Background
James Daniel Richardson was born on March 10, 1843 in Rutherford County, Tennessee, the son of John Watkins and Augusta Mary (Starnes) Richardson.
James Daniel Richardson was born on March 10, 1843 in Rutherford County, Tennessee, the son of John Watkins and Augusta Mary (Starnes) Richardson.
He attended the rural schools of his native county and Franklin College near Nashville, but he left before graduation to enlist in the Confederate army. He studied law.
Serving through the war, he retired as adjutant of the 45th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry.
He was admitted to the bar in 1867 and began practice at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, which continued to be his legal residence, although for more than half of his active life he actually lived in Washington.
Elected to the lower house of the Tennessee legislature in 1871, he was chosen speaker at the opening of the session.
In 1873 he was sent to the state Senate, and in 1876 was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention at St. Louis. The year 1884 witnessed his election to the lower house of Congress where he served for a full score of years, becoming eventually the Democratic nominee for speaker of the Fifty-sixth and Fifty-seventh congresses, and chairman of the Democratic congressional committee. Meanwhile he was also a delegate to the party national conventions of 1896 at Chicago and of 1900 at Kansas City, and of the latter he was the permanent chairman.
About 1893, pursuant to a resolution of the Fifty-third Congress, he began the preparation of a work published first in ten volumes under the title of A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents (1896 - 99). It has since been republished with additions. In 1900 he was authorized by another resolution "to compile, edit, and publish, without expense to the Government, the State papers and diplomatic correspondence of the late Confederate States. " This work, in two volumes, was entitled A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Confederacy (1905).
In 1881 the degrees of Scottish Rite Masonry were conferred upon Richardson by Grand Commander Albert Pike and two years later Richardson was elected Grand High Priest of Tennessee Royal Arch Masons. In the same year he published his Tennessee Templars (1883), a biographical account of the Commandery and its membership in that state.
In 1884 he was elected to active membership in the Scottish Rite Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction, and during the remainder of his life missed but three of its regular sessions. In 1901 at its centenary observance, he delivered an address which was published separately and also in the Transactions of that year. At the same session of the Supreme Council Richardson was elected Grand Commander and served until his death. Two years after his election he announced his intention to retire from Congress and devote his entire time to Masonic office.
His commandership, which lasted nearly thirteen years (longer than any other save two), was notable for its promotion of internationalism and the construction of the imposing Scottish Rite Temple in Washington, generally regarded as the finest extant specimen of Masonic architecture. His various contacts and experiences had by this time changed him from a local politician to an internationalist with decidedly pacific leanings. He promoted and attended as a delegate the International Conference of Supreme Councils at Brussels in 1907 and was largely responsible for that of Washington in 1911.
He died and is buried at Murfreesboro, but a tablet on the inner wall of the Temple describes that building as his monument.
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Honorary membership was conferred upon him by the Supreme Councils of northern United States, Canada, France, Belgium, Italy, and Greece.
On January 18, 1865, he was married to Alabama Pippin, of Greene County, Alabama.
