Governor
Indiana was still a young state during Ray's term, but was growing rapidly. Population increased 55% during his term, and the states finances were strengthened during a period of relative prosperity. Party politics also entered the state during his term. Previously, all politicians in the state were loosely affiliated with the Democratic-Republican Party or none at all, but national politics had stirred the collapse of that party the creation of the Democrat and Whig parties. Ray resisted the rise of the parties and tried to remain neutral.
Ray became the first governor to serve in the new capitol of Indianapolis. He found the Governor's Mansion to lack privacy, and refused to live there, instead purchasing a private home on the site of the current Marion County Jail. His Indianapolis home, the oldest still remaining in Indianapolis, was moved in 1977 and is now within the Lockerbie Square Historic District. Shortly after his elevation, three men, convicted of murdering a group of nine Native American men, women and children, believed to be Senecas, were scheduled for execution. The crime, known as the Massacre at Fall Creek, near Pendleton, Indiana, ten miles northeast of Indianapolis, is historically important because it marked the first documented time that whites convicted of the murder of Native Americans were subjected to capital punishment under United States law. One of the murderers, Thomas Harper, a frontiersman and drifter, who instigated and participated in the murders, escaped, to Ohio with much of the victims' possessions and was never apprehended. One convicted murderer, James Hudson, escaped from captivity but was recaptured and executed on January 12, 1825. The remaining defendants, John Bridge, Sr., John Bridge, Jr. and Andrew Sawyer, were tried, convicted and sentenced to death by hanging in May, 1825. On June 3, 1825, a large crowd, including members of the Seneca Nation gathered to witness the executions. Andrew Sawyer and then John Bridge, Sr. were executed. However, Governor Ray emerged from the crowd and issued a pardon to John Bridge, Jr. when he was on the gallows, with the hood and rope over his head, because of his youth and because he was under the influence of his father and the other men. Bridge, Jr. was immediately taken down from the gallows, untied and set free.
In the summer of 1825, Ray announced that he would seek election to the Governors office. Ray's election campaign against Whig candidate, Chief Justice Isaac Blackford, was difficult, as his opponent had the backing of the Whigs party. Blackford, who was a graduate of Princeton University, charged that Ray was "pompous, poorly educated, and ill-equipped for the job." Ray countered with arguments against party politics and made a strong case for internal improvements, winning the election by 2,622 votes, 13,040 to 10,418, to return to the governors office as an elected governor.
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