George Gray was the great-grandson of William Gray who, leaving Belfast early in the eighteenth century, settled in Kent County, Delaware.
His grandfather, Andrew Gray, moved to New Castle County, in 1808, and his father, Andrew Caldwell Gray, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Frederick Scofield of Stamford, Connecticut, was a capitalist and lawyer practising at New Castle, where he himself was born on May 4, 1840.
Obtaining his early education in the local schools, Gray went in 1857 to the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University, graduating in 1859. He then studied law in his father’s office, spent a year at the Harvard Law School, and was admitted to the Delaware bar in 1863.
Gray practiced at New Castle, then at Wilmington, his father’s various industrial and railroad interests furnishing him at the outset with opportunities of advancement.
He had become the recognized leader of the local bar when Gov. Hall in 1879 appointed him attorney-general of Delaware. In this position, he displayed great energy and efficiency, and despite his corporation affiliations no outside influences were permitted to interfere with enforcement of the law.
Reappointed in 1884 by Gov. Stockley, he resigned March 16, 1885, on his election as United States senator. He remained in the Senate for fourteen years, being reelected in 1887 and 1893 and serving till March 1899.
A masterly speech in which he had nominated Bayard for the presidency at the National Democratic Convention at Cincinnati in 1880 had made him known nationally, and in the Senate he took rank as one of the leaders of his party.
He declined to enter Cleveland’s administration as attorney-general of the United States, but gave the President invaluable support on the floor of the Senate. In 1896, he refused to follow Bryan on the currency question and actively supported the nominees of the Gold Democrats.
During the latter portion of his term, he served on the committee on foreign relations. Though President McKinley was a political opponent, he had a high regard for Gray’s diplomatic temperament and ability and appointed him a member of the Joint High Commission which met at Quebec in August 1898 to adjust outstanding difficulties between the United States and Canada.
Later, in the same year, he appointed him one of the United States commissioners to negotiate peace with Spain. In the deliberations which resulted in the Treaty of Paris he took a prominent share, and though he opposed in principle the acquisition of the Philippines he declined to dissociate himself from his colleagues on that point.
On his retirement from the Senate in 1899, he was appointed by McKinley judge of the United States circuit court for the 3rd circuit, a position which he retained till 1914.
In November 1900, he was nominated by McKinley as a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, an appointment which was continued by Presidents Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson.
In October 1902, he was appointed by President Roosevelt chairman of the commission to arbitrate between the operators and the miners during the anthracite coal strike in Pennsylvania, the successful accomplishment of which was perhaps the outstanding feature of his career.
Later on he was equally effective in terminating labor troubles in Alabama and Illinois. In 1903-04, he acted as the third of the three members of the commission of arbitration between the United States and the Dominican Republic and in 1909-10 was a member of the tribunal in the North Atlantic Coast Fisheries arbitration between Great Britain and the United States at The Hague.
His last public services were as chairman of the United States delegation to the Pan-American Scientific Congress in 1915, and as a member of the American-Mexican Joint Commission in 1916.
The last years of his life were spent in retirement at Wilmington.
George Gray is most commonly known as Attorney General of Delaware. He was a member of the Joint High Commission to settle differences between the U. S. and Canada and was a member of the commission to arrange terms of peace between the U. S. and Spain. In 1899, he was appointed judge of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the third circuit by President William McKinley, serving until 1914 and was a member of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.
A strong Democrat, Gray engaged actively in local politics and was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention of 1876.
Possessing an eminently judicial mind, Gray combined a thorough knowledge of legal principles and practise with a capacity for applying that knowledge to concrete cases, and his decisions were rarely reversed.
His later reputation rests principally, however, on his extrajudicial labors which were varied and responsible.
An able lawyer, a far-sighted politician, strong in his convictions, but ever amenable to argument, his chief characteristics were an unimpeachable integrity, a desire to render service, and an open mind, readily receptive of fresh impressions, which softened political animosities and caused Republican and Democrat alike to entrust him with missions of the utmost delicacy and responsibility.
Gray was married in 1870 to Harriet L. Black, daughter of Dr. Charles H. Black of New Castle. She died in 1880 and on August 8, 1882, he was married to her sister, Margaret J. Black.
