James Caldwell (July 4, 1763–1840) was the first Speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives.
Caldwell was born in Virginia. During the American Revolutionary War he served under Archibald Woods and Thomas Wright. In moved Lincoln County, Kentucky where he served under William Whitley in the American Indian Wars.
In 1786 he married Meeke Perrin in Lincoln County. He served in the Kentucky General Assembly from Harrison County, Kentucky from 1800 to 1807.
In 1810 he moved to Libertyville, Missouri (five miles southeast of Farmington, Missouri in Saint Francois County, Missouri -- although it was part of Sainte Genevieve County, Missouri at the time).
He was elected to the Missouri Territorial Legislature (where he served with his half brother Kinkhead) and the first Missouri House of Representatives in 1820 and was named the Speaker.
In 1822 he was elected to the Missouri State Senate but lost re-election in 1824 to his son-in-law James Kerr
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—William James (1842–1910)
“The Government of the absolute majority instead of the Government of the people is but the Government of the strongest interests; and when not efficiently checked, it is the most tyrannical and oppressive that can be devised.”
—John Caldwell Calhoun (1782–1850)