Emacs colors in terminals

[cothrige]

If I open a gnome-terminal and type the command 'emacs -nw' it opens 
without any complaint or problem, and the colours I see are those 
specified in the init file.  However, if I instead start emacs using the 
command 'gnome-terminal -e "emacs -nw"' the colours are wrong.  The mode-
line colours are reversed, and everything else is just wrong in seemingly 
random ways.  This also happens if emacs is started by any app started in 
the same way.  For instance, if I start mutt using 'gnome-terminal -e 
mutt' the emacs session it in turn starts for composing or editing will 
have the wrong colours just as if emacs had been started that way.  I 
have also found this same behaviour in xfce4-terminal and xterm.

I am wondering if there is some obvious cause for this behaviour, and is 
there a way I can convince emacs to behave normally when started in ways 
other than a direct command typed in at the prompt of the terminal it is 
running in?