George GRAY, Congress, DE (1840-1925)

GRAY, George, a Senator from Delaware; born in New Castle, New Castle County, Del., May 4, 1840; attended the common schools and graduated from Princeton University in 1859; studied law with his father and attended Harvard Law School; admitted to the bar in 1863 and commenced practice in New Castle; attorney general of Delaware 1879-1885, when he resigned, having been elected Senator; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Thomas F. Bayard; reelected in 1887 and 1893 and served from March 18, 1885, to March 3, 1899; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1899; chairman, Committee on Patents (Fifty-third Congress), Committee on Privileges and Elections (Fifty-third Congress), Committee on Revolutionary Claims (Fifty-fifth Congress); member of the Joint High Commission which met in Quebec in August 1898 to settle differences between the United States and Canada; member of the commission to arrange terms of peace between the United States and Spain 1898; appointed judge of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the third circuit by President William McKinley 1899-1914; chairman of the commission to investigate conditions of the coal strike in Pennsylvania 1902; appointed by President McKinley to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague in 1900; reappointed in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt, in 1912 by President William Taft, and in 1920 by President Woodrow Wilson; member of several commissions established to arbitrate various international disputes; member, Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution 1890-1925; vice president and trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; died in Wilmington, Del., August 7, 1925; interment in Presbyterian Cemetery, New Castle, Del.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Crosslin, Michael. “The Diplomacy of George Gray.” Ph.D. dissertation, Oklahoma State University, 1980.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present