Scope and Content Note
The papers of Thomas Watt Gregory (1861-1933) contain correspondence, legal briefs, pleadings, memoranda, printed copies of speeches and writings, and other material relating to Gregory's attorney generalship and later legal career. Although the collection spans the years 1896-1933, there are only a few items before 1914 and only one container of material for the period 1914-1919. There is, however, some correspondence for Gregory's years in the cabinet and a great deal of material for his later life. The collection is organized into General Correspondence , Legal File , Speeches and Writings , and Miscellany series.
The General Correspondence contains letters received and sent by Gregory for the years 1914-1933. These letters relate to a wide range of subjects, but chiefly personal, political, business, and legal matters. Although most of Gregory's correspondence as attorney general apparently remained in the files of the Justice Department, there is some material in the correspondence regarding politics, patronage, and the policies of the presidential administration of Woodrow Wilson. There are letters bearing on the controversy over the arming of merchant ships in the spring of 1916, procedures for dealing with enemy aliens, and other matters. There are numerous letters between Gregory and Woodrow Wilson and between Gregory and other members of the cabinet.
Additional information about the Wilson administration can be found among Gregory's correspondence for the period after he resigned from the cabinet in 1919. Gregory was a close friend of Edward Mandell House, and their letters to each other after 1919 frequently contained reminiscences of events and personages of the Wilson years. Similar material can be found in letters from Gregory to Ray Stannard Baker and others. For the years 1931-1933 there is considerable correspondence between Gregory and House, Louis McHenry Howe, and others that reflects the support given by Gregory and House to Franklin D. Roosevelt's campaign for the 1932 presidential nomination.
The General Correspondence series also reflects Gregory's interest in the affairs of the University of Texas, the Stone Mountain Confederate Monumental Association, Texas politics, and other matters. Among Gregory's many correspondents are George Weston Anderson, Newton Diehl Baker, Bernard M. Baruch, R. L. Batts, Louis Dembitz Brandeis, William Jennings Bryan, Albert Sidney Burleson, Carrie Chapman Catt, Tom Connally, Josephus Daniels, John W. Davis (1873-1955) John Nance Garner, Herbert Hoover, Robert Lansing, W. G. McAdoo (1863-1941), James Clark McReynolds, Thomas R. Marshall, Earle Bradford Mayfield, William D. Mitchell, Daniel James Moody, A. Mitchell Palmer, Key Pittman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charles Seymour, Morris Sheppard, Willis Van Devanter, Thomas James Walsh, Edward D. White, George W. Wickersham (1858-1936), and Edith Bolling Galt Wilson.
Following his resignation from Wilson's cabinet, Gregory resumed the practice of law with offices in Washington and, beginning in 1924, in Houston. The Legal File , by far the largest series in the collection, contains correspondence, briefs, pleadings, memoranda, and other material relating to cases in which Gregory was involved. Among these cases were corporate tax and contract involving oil companies and railroads, the settlement of estates, claims against Mexico, disputes over the wartime seizure of the property of aliens, stockholders' suits against railroads, and boundary disputes between Texas and Oklahoma.
The Speeches and Writings file contains printed transcripts of some of Gregory's addresses and articles. Topics include the University of Texas, the Ku Klux Klan, and Woodrow Wilson.
The Miscellany series contains the report, drafts of statements, and other material from the Industrial Conference, Washington, D.C., of 1919-1920 to which Wilson appointed Gregory; minutes of meetings and printed material concerning the Stone Mountain Confederate Monumental Association; and a file on fund-raising activities of the University of Texas. There is also a small file of miscellaneous clippings and articles.