Isaac P. Gray
Encyclopedia
Isaac Pusey Gray was the 18th and 20th Governor
Governor of Indiana
The Governor of Indiana is the chief executive of the state of Indiana. The governor is elected to a four-year term, and responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of the functions of many agencies of the Indiana state government. The governor also shares power with other statewide...

 of the U.S. state of Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

 from 1880 to 1881 and from 1885 to 1889. Originally a Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

, he oversaw the forceful passage of the post-American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 constitutional amendments whilst he was a member of the Indiana Senate
Indiana Senate
The Indiana Senate is the upper house of the Indiana General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Indiana. The Senate is composed of 50 members representing an equal number of constituent districts. Senators serve four-year terms without term limits...

. He became a Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 following the corruption of the Administration of Ulysses S. Grant
Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant
The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant began during the turbulent Reconstruction period following the American Civil War. Grant was elected the 18th President of the United States in 1868 and was re-elected to the office in 1872, serving from March 4, 1869, to March 4, 1877...

 but was regularly stymied by his Democratic adversaries who constantly referred to his tactics while a Republican, earning him the nickname "Sisyphus
Sisyphus
In Greek mythology Sisyphus was a king punished by being compelled to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this throughout eternity...

 of the Wabash
Wabash
Usually refers to or is related to the Wabash River in the Midwestern United States. Wabash may also refer to:Geographical features:* Wabash, Indiana* Wabash County, Illinois* Wabash County, Indiana* Wabash Valley Seismic ZoneOther:...

."

Family and background

Issac Pusey Gray was born on October 18, 1828 in Chester County, Pennsylvania
Chester County, Pennsylvania
-State parks:*French Creek State Park*Marsh Creek State Park*White Clay Creek Preserve-Demographics:As of the 2010 census, the county was 85.5% White, 6.1% Black or African American, 0.2% Native American or Alaskan Native, 3.9% Asian, 0.0% Native Hawaiian, 1.8% were two or more races, and 2.4% were...

, the son of John and Hannah Worthington Gray, two Quaker innkeepers. At age eight, his family moved to Urbana, Ohio
Urbana, Ohio
Urbana is a city in and the county seat of Champaign County, Ohio, United States, west of Columbus. Urbana was laid out in 1805, and for a time in 1812 was the headquarters of the Northwestern army. Urbana was named after the town of Urbanna, Virginia. It is the burial-place of the Indian fighter...

 and in 1842 to New Madison, Ohio
New Madison, Ohio
New Madison is a village in Darke County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2000 census, the village population was 817.-History:New Madison was platted by Zadock Smith in 1817 for purposes of land speculation, but his efforts failed; he was unable to sell any of the lots...

. In New Madison, Gray first attended common school and obtained some formal education. After school he became a clerk in a dry-goods store, and later became the owner of the store after purchasing it from his former boss. He married to Eliza Jaqua on September 8, 1850, and the couple had four sons. Two of them died in infancy, but the other two grew up to become lawyers.

Gray and his family moved to Union City, Indiana
Union City, Indiana
Union City is a city in Wayne Township, Randolph County, Indiana, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 3,584.Union City was a stop along the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, a forerunner of the Pennsylvania Railroad that connected Pittsburgh to...

 in 1855 where he opened a new store. He soon became involved in local politics and became prominent in his community. He began to study law on his own in his spare time and was admitted to the bar in 1861. He later said that he studied law to further his political career, which was very important in Indiana politics at that time.

American Civil War

Only a month after he opened a law office the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 began, and Gray set out to raise a company of volunteers. He entered the Union army as a Colonel and given command of the 4th Regiment Indiana Cavalry in the fall of 1862. He led his regiment against forces under Confederate General John Hunt Morgan
John Hunt Morgan
John Hunt Morgan was a Confederate general and cavalry officer in the American Civil War.Morgan is best known for Morgan's Raid when, in 1863, he and his men rode over 1,000 miles covering a region from Tennessee, up through Kentucky, into Indiana and on to southern Ohio...

 near Munfordville, Kentucky
Munfordville, Kentucky
Munfordville is a city in and the county seat of Hart County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 1,563 at the 2000 census.-History:The city was once known as Big Buffalo Crossing. The current name came from Richard Jones Munford, who donated the land for development in 1816...

 in December 1862. He served for about a year before resigning from the army after being denied a promotion.

When Morgan's Raid
Morgan's Raid
Morgan's Raid was a highly publicized incursion by Confederate cavalry into the Northern states of Indiana and Ohio during the American Civil War. The raid took place from June 11–July 26, 1863, and is named for the commander of the Confederates, Brig. Gen...

 into Indiana in July 1863 occurred, Gray was given command of a regiment of the Indiana Legion to help repel the invasion. His unit was disbanded after about a week, once Morgan was forced to flee the state. Gray remained in the militia after the raid, taking a command role in his region, but saw no action. After the war he returned to his law practice.

Early political career

Gray began to become moderately wealthy and expanded his business interest into grain processing and banking. He was one of the founding members of the Citizens Bank in Union City in 1865. He continued to be interested in politics, and decided to run for public office. He had been a Whig before the party collapsed in the mid 1850s, and decided to become a Republican following the war. In his first run for office, he competed against George Washington Julian
George Washington Julian
George Washington Julian was a nineteenth century politician, lawyer and writer who served in Congress from Indiana. He was the son-in-law of Joshua Reed Giddings.-Biography:...

 in the Republican primary, hoping to become a candidate for Congress, but was defeated in 1866.

Senator

In 1870, he ran as a Republican candidate for the Indiana Senate
Indiana Senate
The Indiana Senate is the upper house of the Indiana General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Indiana. The Senate is composed of 50 members representing an equal number of constituent districts. Senators serve four-year terms without term limits...

. He won the election and represented Randolph County. He was elected Senate President pro tempore. He took an active role in helping to push through the senate the ratification of the post-war amendments to ban slavery, grant blacks the right to vote, and revoke the right to vote from many southerners.

When the final amendment was submitted for ratification, the Democrats attempted to leave the Senate to deny the body quorum. Gray had predicted the maneuver, and had already ran to the door, barred it shut, and locked it. The Democrats demanded to know who had locked them in, and under whose authority. Gray promptly responded that it was he, causing an uproar. The Democrats then crowded into a small cloak room and refused to vote on the measure. After some time passed, and they refused to return to the floor, Gray ordered the clerks to record the Democrats present, but abstaining from voting. The Republicans then proceeded to pass the ratification, over the loud objections of the Democrats. The event would come to cause Gray considerable problems in the future.

He was appointed by President Ulysses Grant and confirmed by the United States Senate to serve as consul to St. Thomas
Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
Saint Thomas is an island in the Caribbean Sea and with the islands of Saint John, Saint Croix, and Water Island a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands , an unincorporated territory of the United States. Located on the island is the territorial capital and port of...

 the same year, but he declined the office and wrote a letter to President Grant saying he was repulsed by the corruption of his administration. Along with many other Republicans, he decided to leave the party over the situation, and joined the newly formed Liberal Republican Party. He attended its national convention in 1876, but after the party made no gains at the polls that year, he decided to become a Democrat.

Lieutenant Governor

In 1876, Gray was nominated to run for Lieutenant Governor of Indiana
Lieutenant Governor of Indiana
The Lieutenant Governor of Indiana is a constitutional office in the US State of Indiana. Republican Becky Skillman, whose term expires in January 2013, is the incumbent...

 on the ticket with James D. Williams
James D. Williams
James Douglas Williams , nicknamed Blue Jeans Bill, was a farmer and Democratic politician who held public office in Indiana for four decades, and was the only farmer elected as the Governor of Indiana, serving from 1877 to 1880...

 in hope of gaining the vote of disaffected Republicans. The ploy worked, and they won the election. Despite the success, he was disliked by a large number of Democrats, who recalled his treatment of them in the Senate. When he sought the nomination for governor in the 1880 convention, he was overwhelmingly defeated, but nominated to run again as Lieutenant Governor, this time with Franklin Landers
Franklin Landers
Franklin Landers was a U.S. Representative from Indiana.Born near the village of Landersdale in Morgan County, Indiana, Landers attended local schools.At the age of twenty-one he engaged in teaching school....

. Only a month later, Governor Williams died and Gray was elevated to his position.

During his time as governor, Gray accomplished very little, as there were only three months remaining in the term. Gray and Landers lost the election, and Gray attempted one last move to stay in public office. He was able to use his friends in the Senate to have his name entered as the Democratic candidate for Senator in 1881, but was defeated in the vote 81–62. He then returned to his law practice, but attempted a run for governor again in 1884 at the Democratic convention. By then, resistance to him had dissipated somewhat, and he won the nomination.

Governor

Gray's campaigned focused primarily on the issues of the day, his position on currency and inflation. Gray was elected governor for his own four-year term in 1884. During his term he oversaw the redistricting of the entire state for the Indiana General Assembly
Indiana General Assembly
The Indiana General Assembly is the state legislature, or legislative branch, of the state of Indiana. It is a bicameral legislature that consists of a lower house, the Indiana House of Representatives, and an upper house, the Indiana Senate...

 elections. He was widely criticized by the minority party for creating gerrymandered districts to weaken their electoral base. All of the redistricting was eventually overturned by the state supreme court.

His term was marked by what came to be called the Black Day of the General Assembly. The assembly was split with Democrats controlling the Senate 31–19, while the House of Representatives was split 52–44–4, with Republicans holding the majority, and Greenbacks holding four seats. In a joint session, it would split the vote 75 Democrat, 71 Republican, with the 4 Greenbacks holding the deciding votes. Knowing that he could probably sway one of the Greenbacks to vote for his bid for the United States Senate, Gray began to attempt to have his name entered as a candidate. Some Democratic leaders were still upset over his actions while he was a Republican, and decided to do whatever it took to prevent him from going any higher in office.

They convinced Lieutenant Governor Mahlon Manson to resign from office, thereby removing anyone to easily take over the governorship should Gray have to resign. They used the issue to prevent his name from being entered as a candidate. Gray decided to have a Lieutenant Governor elected in the mid-term election to fill the seat, removing the issue, and allowing him to resign and accept the candidacy. The election was held and Republican Robert S. Robertson was elected. The Democrats in the Senate refused to accept the election, and declared it unconstitutional and elected Democrat Alonzo Green Smith to serve as Lieutenant Governor. The Senate Republicans were furious and began making a commotion in the opening prayer of the session. They went ahead and had Robertson sworn in but the Democrats filed a court suit to prevent him from being seated.

The situation continued to escalate as a superior court ruled that neither Alonzo or Robertson should be seated until situation was resolved. They then forwarded the case to the Indiana Supreme Court who ruled in favor of Robertson. On the morning of February 24, Robertson entered the Senate chamber to take his seat, but as soon as he walked through the door, he was attacked by several Democratic Senators who rushed him and beat him to the floor. The Senate leader ordered him removed from the chamber by guards, who then locked him out. The Republicans immediately went wild, attacking their nearest Democrat. The fight continued for several minutes until one Democrat pulled a gun and fired it into the ceiling threatening to start killing Republicans, ending the fight but making the rest of the building aware of it. The brawl soon spread to the House of Representatives and throughout the building as Republicans began to attack Democrats. Unlike the Senate, the rest of the building had a strong Republican majority, and the Democrats were soon overwhelmed. Six-hundred Republicans then beat down the door of the Senate Chamber and dragged out the Democratic Senators, threatening to kill them. Gray ordered police and other officials to break up the fight, which ended after nearly a full four hours of fighting.

The Republicans refused to return to the Senate, and the House refused to continue communications with the Senate, effectively ending the legislative session. Despite all the fighting, Robertson was not seated. Gray dropped his attempt to be elected to the Senate, and the situation fueled the public's support of an amendment to make senators elected by popular vote. Gray only achieved three of his campaign goals while governor. He was able to have funds appropriated to begin construction of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument
Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument (Indianapolis)
The Indiana Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument is a tall neoclassical monument in the center of Indianapolis, Indiana that was designed by German architect Bruno Schmitz and completed in 1901....

. He also successfully advocated the switch from a short ballot to a long ballot following several years of high voter fraud. He also successfully had the White Caps
Indiana White Caps
White caps was a general term used to refer to several groups operating primarily in southern Indiana in the late 19th century. They became common in the state following the American Civil War and lasted until the turn of the century. They lynched numerous people; in all recorded cases, the victims...

, a group involved in vigilantism in the southern part of the state, investigated and broken up.

Barred by the Constitution of Indiana
Constitution of Indiana
There have been two Constitutions of the State of Indiana. The first constitution was created when the Territory of Indiana sent forty-three delegates to a constitutional convention on June 10, 1816 to establish a constitution for the proposed State of Indiana after the United States Congress had...

 from serving a consecutive term, Gray retired from office and returned to his law practice.

Sisyphus of the Wabash

Gray was one of the Democratic Vice Presidential
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...

 candidates in 1888, but he lost the nomination to Allen G. Thurman
Allen G. Thurman
Allen Granberry Thurman was a Democratic Representative and Senator from Ohio, as well as the nominee of the Democratic Party for Vice President of the United States in 1888.-Biography:...

, primarily because his enemies again brought up his actions while a Republican. He returned to his law practice, and because of all of the situations he found himself in, he gained the derisive nickname "Sisyphus
Sisyphus
In Greek mythology Sisyphus was a king punished by being compelled to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this throughout eternity...

 of the Wabash
Wabash
Usually refers to or is related to the Wabash River in the Midwestern United States. Wabash may also refer to:Geographical features:* Wabash, Indiana* Wabash County, Illinois* Wabash County, Indiana* Wabash Valley Seismic ZoneOther:...

." He was again almost nominated to run for Vice President again in 1892, but was defeated again after his opponent ascended the podium to retell the story of his actions in the amendment ratification twenty years earlier.

President Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...

 nominated Gray to serve as Minister to Mexico
United States Ambassador to Mexico
The United States has maintained diplomatic relations with Mexico since 1823, when Andrew Jackson was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to that country. Jackson declined the appointment, however, and Joel R. Poinsett became the first U.S. envoy to Mexico in 1825. The rank...

 in 1893. He remained at the post until his death from double pneumonia in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

 on February 14, 1895. The President of Mexico ordered all the flags flown at half staff in Gray's honor and a full division of the Mexican Army
Mexican Army
The Mexican Army is the combined land and air branch and largest of the Mexican Military services; it also is known as the National Defense Army. It is famous for having been the first army to adopt and use an automatic rifle, , in 1899, and the first to issue automatic weapons as standard issue...

 escorted Gray's body back to the border where he was transferred to Indianapolis to lie in state. His funeral was held in Union City and was buried in a nearby cemetery.

Electoral history

External links

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