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Isaac P

Isaac Pusey Gray (18 October 1828 – 14 February 1895) was the Democratic Governor of Indiana from 20 November 1880 to 10 January 1881 (succeeding James D. Williams and preceding Albert G. Porter) and from 12 January 1885 to 14 January 1889 (succeeding Porter and preceding Alvin P. Hovey).

Biography[]

Isaac Pusey Gray was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania in 1828, and he was raised in Urbana, Ohio and then in New Madison. He moved to Union city, Indiana in 1855 to open a store, and he became a lawyer in 1861. Gray served in the 4th Indiana Cavalry Regiment during the American Civil War, after which he became a banker. Formerly a Whig, he became a Republican following the war, serving in the state senate from 1870 to 1874. However, he opposed Ulysses S. Grant's corrupt administration and joined the Liberal Republican Party before becoming a Democrat in 1876. Gray served as Lieutenant Governor from 1877 to 1880, elected with the help of disaffected Republicans, but the state's Democrats disliked him for his harsh treatment of them in the senate. He went on to serve as Governor from 1880 to 1881 and from 1885 to 1889, and Gray's attempt to get himself elected to the US Senate on 24 February 1887 led to an outbreak of legislative violence in the "Black Day of the General Assembly," triggering calls for the popular election of Senators. Gray served as President Grover Cleveland's ambassador to Mexico from 1893 until his death in 1895.

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