TABLE OF CONTENTS
Descriptive Summary
Biographical Note
Scope and Contents
Arrangement
Restrictions
Index Terms
Administrative Information
Description of Series
Series I: Legal notes, ca. 1833-1855
Series II: Lectures, speeches, and family document,
1852-1859
Series III: Texas Historical Society documents,
1870
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Guide to the Judge Peter W. Gray papers,
1833-1870
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| Creator | Gray, Peter W., 1819-1874
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| Title | Judge Peter W. Gray
papers |
| Dates: | 1833-1870 |
| Abstract: | The Judge Peter W. Gray
papers include extensive handwritten documents on several of Gray’s early Texas
district court cases, lectures, speeches, and official documents concerning the
creation and organization of the Texas Historical Society. Court cases relate
to murder, slavery, counterfeiting, the legal nature of circumstantial evidence
and self defense; the notes related to these cases are generally Judge Gray’s
direction to juries. The speeches include a speech given by Gray at the
Democratic Convention in Austin in 1852 for the nomination of Sam Houston for
the presidency. |
| ID | MS 417 |
| Extent | 0.25 lin. ft. (1
box) |
| Language | Materials are in
English. |
| Repository: | Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University,
Houston, TX |
Peter W. Gray was born in Fredericksburg,
Virginia in 1819 and moved to Texas in 1838. Gray worked in his father’s law
office in Houston, Texas before he became a captain in the Army of the Republic
of Texas. In 1841, Gray was appointed District Attorney of the Houston district
by Sam Houston. He ran for city secretary in 1840 but was elected alderman in
1841 and became a member of the board of health. In 1846, Gray was elected to
the first Texas States Legislature where he authored the Practice Act which is
the first piece of legislation regulating the court system of the State of
Texas. In 1848, Gray founded the Houston Lyceum which eventually became the
Houston Public Library. Henderson Yoakum’s
History of Texas was published with the
financial support of Gray. After being elected to the State Legislature in
1854, Gray served as judge of the Houston district. Gray was a states rights
Democrat and fully supported succession. He also served as a delegate to the
states Succession Convention. During the Confederacy, Gray served as a
representative of the Houston District in the Congress of the Confederacy.
After serving in many important positions in the Confederacy, peace brought
Gray back to Houston where he practiced law privately and built his firm into
one of the largest in the nation. In 1874, Gray was appointed associate justice
of the Texas Supreme Court and served there until he became fatally ill with
tuberculosis. Gray died later that year.
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The Judge Peter W. Gray papers include extensive handwritten documents
on several of Gray’s early Texas district court cases, lectures, speeches, and
official documents concerning the creation and organization of the Texas
Historical Society. Court cases relate to murder, slavery, counterfeiting, the
legal nature of circumstantial evidence and self defense; the notes related to
these cases are generally Judge Gray’s direction to juries. The speeches
include a speech given by Gray at the Democratic Convention in Austin in 1852
for the nomination of Sam Houston for the presidency.
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Arrangement
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| This material has been arranged in the following
series: |
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| | Series I: Legal notes, ca. 1833-1855 |
| | Series II: Lectures, speeches, and family document, 1852-1859
|
| | Series III: Texas Historical Society documents, 1870 |
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Access Restriction
This material is open for research.
Use Restrictions
Permission to publish materials from this material must be obtained from
the Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University.
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| Subjects (Persons) |
| | Gray, Peter W., 1819-1874 |
| | Houston, Sam, 1793-1863
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| Subjects (Organizations) |
| | Texas Historical Society
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| Subjects |
| | Judges - Texas. |
| | Slavery - Texas |
| | Courts - Texas |
| | Law - Texas |
| | Trials (Homicide) - Texas
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| | Murder - Texas |
| | Public prosecutors - Texas
|
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Judge Peter W. Gray papers, 1838-1870, MS 417, Woodson Research Center,
Fondren Library, Rice University.
This material was donated by J. Sears McGee, 1991.
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Series I: Legal notes, ca. 1833-1855
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| 1 | | | State vs. Williams et al, 1841 |
| | The defendants of this case are accused of counterfeiting
money. Gray is going through the three charges that the jury must consider
concerning the defendants and giving them the lecture on how the evidence must
prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the defendants are guilty before they
give their ruling. |
| | | State vs. R and D.E. Mills |
| | The defendants of this case are the owners of a bank in
Galveston that is being accused of printing currency illegally. Gray states
that the defendants were clearly associated together in business and were
forging checks and making illegal withdrawals from the bank. Also the
defendants are accused of giving preferential treatment to some customers,
namely altering their actual credit in a favorable manner. |
| | | State vs. James H. Mitchell |
| | James Mitchell is standing trial for the murder of Francis
Sadler. Gray briefly discusses the definition of circumstantial evidence and
why it is not admitted into the court as proof positive of any wrongdoing. The
defendant was acquitted. |
| | | State vs. John W. Hall, 1855 |
| | The defendant is being indicted for the murder of George A.
Longtaft in Liberty County. The defense is trying to for manslaughter because
they claim that Hall was under the influence of liquor at the time and did not
have control over his actions. |
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| 2 | | | State vs. William Garrett, 1855 |
| | William Garrett is accused of murdering Matthew Newman and the
prosecution is seeking manslaughter. William Garrett is however acquitted
because the jury found the killing to be justifiable or excusable under the
circumstances. |
| | | State vs. Nathan a slave, October 13th, 1833 |
| | The judge begins “the prisoner though a slave is entitled to a
fair and impartial trial as if he were a white citizen”. The slave is accused
of killing George Thomason. The jury was to not only assess whether the slave
was guilty of murder with malice, but also whether his owner helped him to
evade arrest to avoid possibly losing his property. The jury convicted the
slave of first degree murder. |
| | | State vs. John Baker, April 18th, 1839 |
| | John Baker has been indicted for the murder of Benjamin
Stuckley in Grimes County. The judge gives a brief overview of the definition
of self defense and why the defendant’s initial admission is immaterial to the
trial. The verdict is not guilty. |
| | | State vs. M. M. Leach, November 3rd, 1839 |
| | Leach has been indicted on charges that he murdered Isaac Cox.
The judge gives a brief overview of what constitutes manslaughter and
self-defense respectively. The verdict given by Judge Gray “Murder under Code
Manslaughter-Self Defense”. |
| | | State vs. Liccinda |
| | The indicted stands accused of having killed a girl that is
missing, named Susan. Judge Gray discussed with the jury that no charges can be
fully assessed without knowledge of the child’s condition and location. The
Judge gives no verdict. |
| | | State vs. Sloan, June 16th, 1838 |
| | It seems that Sloan has been accused of stealing Spanish
cigars from a general store. The Judge’s verdict seems to say that there are
not enough facts for a fair trial and sentencing. |
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Series II: Lectures, speeches, and family document,
1852-1859
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| 3 | | | “Copy of the Will of Grandma Stone” |
| | The Will of Milly Stone, Judge Peter W. Gray’s grandmother.
Gray apparently wrote the official document for her and signed it at the end.
The actual document is fairly standard, Mrs. Stone left the majority of her
belongings to her daughters and granddaughters. |
| | | Peter W. Gray’s speech to the Democratic Convention, at
Austin, January 8, 1852 |
| | Gray reviews Sam Houston’s political life from his political
service at the municipal level in Tennessee to his fight for “freedom from
political oppression” in Texas. The brief biography contains letters from
political mentors such as Andrew Jackson himself. Also Gray includes a letter
of Houston’s to one of his political adversaries whom he appointed to a high
position in the government of Texas. The speech ends with Gray’s nomination of
Sam Houston as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate. The speech was
given to the state Democratic Convention not at the national democratic
convention. |
| | | Address to Citizens of Houston by Peter Gray on the
African Slave Trade, May 30, 1859 |
| | Initially Gray demonstrates his opinion on whether or not
Judges should involve themselves in political issues. He patently denounces
those who deny judges the right of citizenship based on their public service.
Gray states that he along with all other judges are able to separate their
political tendencies from their impartial stances in court. Gray then gives a
lengthy article by article description and history of states rights and the
constitution. Gray also briefly discusses the Articles of Confederation and the
various reasons for that governments collapse. The purpose of Gray’s discussion
is to reaffirm the state’s pro-slavery stance in the upcoming election, while
vehemently denying that the issue is a political question, offering rather that
it is a fundamentally moral issue free from political bias. The rhetoric
employed by Gray is a common argument made throughout the southern states,
arguing that the dissension between Southern Democrats and Northern Democrats,
Republicans, and Free Soilers is based not on slavery but the issue of the
states’ right to choose. Gray is awkwardly poised as a Pro-Slavery Democrat
opposed to the continuation of the slave trade. He explains his position by
arguing that by allowing the slave treaded to continue slave owners would
appear to Northerners as insecure about the justice of slavery. By continuing
the slave trade, says Gray, slave owners would be destroying the credibility of
the institution on a national level furthering the national opinion against the
continuance of slavery. Gray’s pro-slavery anti-slave trade stance was a common
platform for many Southern Democrats of the time. Often these Democrats would
try to steer political rhetoric away from the hotly contested issue of slavery
and towards states rights and popular sovereignty. |
| | | “There is no Liberty without Law” Lecture given by Peter
Gray before the Houston Lyceum February 28th, 1853 |
| | Peter Gray gives an intelligent discussion of the strengths of
the United States’ government. He begins by informing the reader of the many
subtle differences between liberty and freedom and the way each word was used
in antiquity; namely in the republics of Greece and Rome. Then Gray begins to
dissect our government by branch beginning with the Executive branch and
discussing similar organs in other governments. Throughout his discussion of
both the Executive branch and the Legislative branch, Gray marginalizes their
combined importance in protecting the right of the average citizen from
tyranny. Gray suggests that the revolutionary aspect of the United States’
government is the individuals right to hold the government accountable for
damages and infringements on the charter of the government: the Constitution.
Gray then proceeds with a lengthy discussion of the Judiciary and its supreme
importance to our government and individual liberty and freedom in the United
States. Gray cites interesting examples from Britain and France such as
Richelieu, Napoleon the Great, Napoleon III, The Directory, The Reign of
Terror, Oliver Cromwell, and several British common law cases that embody the
difference between the British limited monarchy and the American democracy. The
essay is 49 pages long in script from the period. The actual document is in
pristine condition and represents the writings of the educated southern gentry
in the antebellum period in United States history. |
| | | “There is no Liberty without Law” Lecture given by Peter
Gray before the Houston Lyceum February 28th, 1853 -- abbreviated version
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| | This document is an abbreviated version of the “There is no
Liberty without Law” lecture. This document is also handwritten. The subject
discussed in the lecture does not include the broad range of subject reached in
the previous lecture. This lecture seems to pertain mainly to the definition of
social liberty and its relation to the United States government. |
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Series III: Texas Historical Society documents,
1870
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| 4 | | | Texas State Historical Society transcript of meeting, May
21st, 1870 |
| | The document mentions several persons involves with the
proceedings and the names of the organizational officers present. The back of
the documents features lists of names that seem to represent different
committees of the Historical Society. |
| | | Minutes of the Second Meeting of the Texas State
Historical Society May 23rd, 1870 |
| | The document contains a list of the people that attended the
meeting and a general overview of the proceedings. |
| | | Constitution or Articles of Organization of the Texas
Historical Society May 23rd, 1870 |
| | The document is an original draft of the official constitution
of the Texas Historical Society. The constitution contains directions for
organization and protocol for various situations. It also includes procedure
for the appointment of officers and official within the society. |
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