HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX.

GEN. GRANT’S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE.

To Gen.Joseph R. Hawley,President National Union Republican Convention:

In formally accepting the nomination of the National Union Republican Convention of the 21st of May inst. it seems proper that some statement of views beyond the mere acceptance of the nomination should be expressed. The proceedings of the Convention were marked with wisdom, moderation, and patriotism, and I believe express the feelings of the great mass of those who sustained the country through its recent trials. I endorse the resolutions. If elected to the office of President of the United States, it will be my endeavor to administer all the laws in good faith, with economy, and with the view of giving peace, quiet, and protection everywhere. In times like the present it is impossible, or at least eminently improper, to lay down a policy to be adhered to, right or wrong, through an administration of four years. New political issues, not foreseen, are constantly arising; the views of the public on old ones are constantly changing, and a purely administrative officer should always be left free to execute the will of the people. I always have respected that will, and always shall. Peace and universal prosperity—its sequence—with economy of administration will lighten the burden of taxation, while it constantly reduces the National debt. Let us have peace. With great respect, your obedient servant,

U. S. GRANT.

Schuyler Colfax

HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX.

The universal popularity of Mr. Colfax, and the thorough confidence felt by all classes in his integrity, intellectual ability and capacity to fill the highest position in the gift of the nation, should he be called to it, are among the most remarkable circumstances of his life-history. He is not a military hero. His fame, wide-spread as it is, was not won on the tented field, nor in the fierce strife and din of battle. His triumphs have been of a more peaceful character.

Though of a good and honorable lineage, he owes nothing to the accident of birth or hereditary fortune, and though a man of cultivated intellect and extensive general knowledge, he has not the eclat of honors won in college or university to make him conspicuous.

Still less is his fame dependent on exalted political station, long and ably held. He has been indeed a representative of the people in Congress, and for five years past Speaker of the House of Representatives, and his abilities have been fairly and fully proved in both capacities, but other men have presided over the House of Representatives, and been for years members of that body, or of the Senate, and yet no one has thought of them for the Vice-Presidency, or the Presidency.

Whence then comes this universal esteem in which this man is held; this almost brotherly attachment which leads all who know him personally, and tens of thousands who do not, to speak of him, not asMr.Colfax, but as Schuyler Colfax, just as men used to say Abraham, or “Abe” Lincoln, and not coldly,Mr.Lincoln?

We propose to answer this question by a brief sketch of his life, which will we think, give us the best key to this personal magnetism which draws all men to him.

In 1822, there lived in North Moore Street, then a quiet, home-like street running westward from West Broadway, New York, a young couple by the name of Colfax. The husband, named like his illustrious son, Schuyler Colfax, was a bank clerk. The child-wife, for she was then but little more than fifteen years of age, looked up confidingly and tenderly to the brave, noble-hearted young man on whom she had bestowed her heart’s affections, and both anticipated a long and joyous future. But ere the new year of 1823 dawned, that young husband was taken from life, and the girl-wife was a widow.

In the early spring, (on the 23d of March, 1823), a son, destined to cheer and comfort her in her subsequent earthly pilgrimage was given her, and though poor and widowed, the young mother felt that she was not alone. The boy grew up, a slender, delicate, bright, loving boy, flaxen-haired, and seemingly too frail to struggle with the rough world with which he was brought in contact; but though poverty pressed hard upon mother and child, they were all in all to each other. The boy attended the school of the Public School Society, for in those days, Ward Schools were undreamed of, till he had reached his tenth year, and made good proficiency, being always, as one of his schoolmates testifies, at the head of his class. When he was ten years old his mother married again, and this time a merchant by the name of Matthews, who was very fond of Schuyler, and in whose store he became thus early, a younger clerk. In 1836, the fever for emigration, then so prevalent, seized the Matthews family, and they removed to what is now the garden of the west, the valley of the St. Joseph’s river, in Indiana. It was then, much of it, an unbroken wilderness, though South Bend and two or three other villages were beginning to attract emigrants. In one of these villages, New Carlisle, the family made their new home, and Mr. Matthews engaged in trade. Schuyler Colfax was for four years more his clerk. In 1840, Mr. Matthews was chosen Auditor of St. Joseph’s County, and for convenience in his official duties, removed to South Bend, thecounty seat, which has ever since been the home of the family. Mr. Matthews made his step-son deputy auditor, and the boy, who had diligently improved every leisure moment in study, now a tall, flaxen-haired youth, soon became so thoroughly familiar with the law in all questions relating to the auditor’s duties, that he was ere long the standard authority for the region about, on these subjects. But his reading of law at this time was not confined to that required for exercising an auditor’s duties; he found time to make himself master of its great principles, rather however for the sake of the general culture it would afford him, than with the view of adopting it as a profession. During this period too he was practicing himself in that facility for putting his thoughts on paper which was afterwards of so much advantage to him. A gentleman, well known in the philanthropic circles of New York and Brooklyn, who had been a schoolmate of Mr. Colfax in that Crosby Street School, which was the last one he attended in New York city, kept up a correspondence with him during these years of his service as deputy auditor, and says:

“Schuyler’s letters in those days were very interesting; they were filled with details concerning his studies, knotty questions which he wanted me to aid him in clearing up, and brilliant thoughts, often expressed with the same felicity which now marks his writings.”

To such a youth, writing for the newspapers was almost a necessity. There had been a paper in South Bend edited for some years by John D. Defrees, since then a Member of Congress and Government printer. To its columns Schuyler contributed often, and he was but little more than twenty-one years of age, when he became editor and proprietor of theSt. Joseph’s Valley Register, his friend Defrees having removed to Indianapolis to take charge of theState Journal. Previous to this, however, he and Mr. Defrees, with some other enterprising young men of South Bend, had organized a debating society, and by a happy thought had modeled it after the House of Representatives, whose rules they adopted for theirgovernance. Mr. Defrees was for the time the “Speaker” of this Village House of Representatives, and Colfax, yet a youth under age, was “the gentleman from Newton.” Parliamentary rules were insisted upon, and the pages of Jefferson’s and Cushing’s Manuals were carefully and thoroughly conned, till “the gentleman from Newton” became as conversant with the rules and usage of “the House,” as any presiding officer in our State legislatures. This, and the habit of off hand debate, were of great advantage to him in after years, and contributed much to make him, as he is acknowledged to be, by all parties, the best presiding officer the House of Representatives has had for many years.

He entered upon the work of editing and managing theSt. Joseph’s Valley Registerwith but two hundred and fifty subscribers. It was a small sheet, and for some years, it required all his exertions, often protracted far into the night, to make it pay. He had not been bred a printer, but in these years he learned enough of the art to be able to render material service in setting up the paper. His friend Defrees, who knew his abilities, secured his services for two successive sessions of the legislature as Senate Reporter for theState Journal, and this helped him to relieve himself of the burden of debt, which for a time threatened to crush him.

From the first, he made theRegistera good paper. He was a Whig and his sympathies were with his party, and he ably defended its principles; but though often attacked personally and with scurrilous abuse by the Democratic papers of that section, he never allowed a discourteous or abusive word in his paper. He was too thoroughly a gentleman in word and thought and nature to stoop to scurrility, and his opponents soon found that they injured themselves in their efforts to injure him.

In South Bend every body liked him and believed in him; the magnetism of his genial face, his kindly nature, and his cordial hand-grasp won all hearts. He was, the villagers said, a remarkable man, especially for a newspaper editor; he paidhis debts; he drank no whiskey; he was prudent and economical; he never uttered an oath; and though it was only by careful management that he avoided debt, he always seemed to have something to give to the poor.

He was, during this period, steadily gaining reputation as a political writer and speaker. In 1848, he was chosen as a delegate to the convention which nominated General Taylor for the Presidency, and on taking his seat in the convention, was elected its principal secretary. In 1850, he represented St. Joseph’s County in the convention which formed the present constitution of Indiana. In that convention he opposed with all his ability, the adoption of the clause preventing free colored men from settling in the State. The next year he was nominated by his district for Congress, and had for a competitor Dr. Graham N. Fitch, an old, wily, and experienced Democratic politician, subsequently the colleague of Jesse D. Bright, as Senator, and in a district which for years had been Democratic by some thousands majority. Dr. Fitch used his opposition to the black laws, mercilessly, against him, but defeated him by only two hundred and thirty-eight votes.

In 1852, Mr. Colfax was again a delegate to and secretary of the National Convention which nominated General Scott for the Presidency. In the spring of 1858, he was urged to accept another nomination for Congress, but declined, and Dr. Fitch was re-elected by a majority of more than a thousand votes.

It was the era of the Kansas-Nebraska swindle, and though the district which he represented was strongly opposed to this measure, and his constituents used all their influence to dissuade him from supporting it, yet Dr. Fitch was so mole-eyed, and so wedded to slavery, that he advocated and voted for it steadily.

This was too much for the good people of St. Joseph county; a majority of them had voted the Democratic ticket regularly, but they were determined to do so no longer. Theyoung editor of theSt. Joseph’s Valley Registerwas urged to accept the nomination for Congress, and was elected in 1854, a representative in the XXXIVth Congress, by seventeen hundred and sixty-six majority. This result was due in part to the great reaction, but it was aided by the efforts of Mr. Colfax, who took the stump, and discussed with his competitor, through the district, the political questions of the canvass with such ability and spirit as to carry all hearts with him.

He entered Congress at the time of the protracted struggle in regard to the election of a Speaker, which terminated in the choice of Nathaniel P. Banks, and he gallantly plunged into the contest. His maiden speech took the whole House by surprise. It not only demonstrated that he was even then one of the ablest debaters in the House, but its eloquence, its logical power, and its graphic portrayal of the real condition of Kansas, and of the iniquity of the Border-Ruffian movement, made it the most effective campaign document of the season, and of the Presidential conflict of that year. Over five hundred thousand copies of that speech were printed and circulated by the National Committee—a compliment we believe never before paid to any member of Congress, certainly not to the maiden speech of one of the youngest members of the House.

Into the Presidential contest of 1856, the first of the Republican party, Mr. Colfax entered with all his zeal and enthusiasm. The banner of Fremont and Dayton was borne aloft in his paper, and his eloquent appeals in its behalf rang through all the States of the West. Victory was perhaps hardly to be expected for a new party at its first trial, but never was a fight more gallantly conducted.

The people of northern Indiana knew and honored the talents and worth of their Representative. By that personal magnetism which he possesses, in larger measure than most men, he had drawn all hearts to him, and they have kept him in Congress from 1855 to the present time, and always by large majorities. In 1860 he received thirty-four hundredmore votes than his competitor, and in 1866 nearly twenty-two hundred more.

His great power as a debater, his strong, clear common sense, quick intuition, and devotion to the best interests of his country, made him a very valuable member of the House of Representatives, and he was early placed on important committees. As chairman of the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, he was very efficient in promoting mail facilities with our new territories and the Pacific states, and on other important committees he accomplished a vast amount of labor. He was deeply interested, and is still, in the prosperity of the Pacific Railroad, regarding it as a most important measure not only for the prosperity of the nation, but as a means of bringing together the distant sections of our Great Republic.

Into the Presidential Campaign of 1860, Mr. Colfax plunged with all his energy. Mr. Lincoln had been from the first his favorite as a candidate, and he had foreshadowed his nomination, months before it was made, in his paper. There were many points of resemblance in the character of the two men, and Colfax’s heart warmed toward him as toward a brother. Hardly any man in the United States did so much to secure the election of Mr. Lincoln as this western editor, and this from pure love, and not from any hope or desire of reward. Mr. Colfax could have had, if he had sought it, a place in Mr. Lincoln’s cabinet, as he always had, (a very warm one,) in his heart; but he preferred to remain in Congress, and during the whole period of the war, he was a bosom friend and a trusted adviser of the President. In his sound sense, his practical view of matters, and his freedom from hobbies, Mr. Lincoln could confide, with the assurance that his counsels would never lead him astray.

Hopeful, even in the darkest hours, and ready to cheer and encourage the drooping spirits of those whose duller vision could not pierce the cloud-wrack, and see the clear heavensbeyond, his presence and influence were invaluable in the murky and treason-tainted atmosphere of the Capitol.

On the assembling of the XXXVIIIth Congress in its first session, he was chosen Speaker of the House and has been re-elected to the same position twice since, an honor to which no other Representative except Henry Clay has ever attained. At the close of his present term as Speaker, he will probably take his seat as presiding officer at the other end of the Capitol.

It is the testimony of members of all parties, that he is the best presiding officer the House has had since Henry Clay, and in some particulars he excels Mr. Clay. He is always genial and courteous, never betrayed into impatience or vexation, and his marvelous quickness of thought, thorough knowledge of parliamentary usage, and talent for the rapid administration of details, and above all his extraordinary tact, enable him to control the House of Representatives, even in its most boisterous moods, with the skill and grace with which an accomplished pilot would manage the helm of one of our palace steamers on the Hudson. He is never at a loss in deciding a question of order, however delicate or difficult, and the whole array of precedents are at his command. Very seldom indeed are his decisions overruled, and in the rare cases in which they have been, the House have generally found that they and not he, were in the wrong.

It has been said that his talents were administrative and executive rather than deliberative. While this is in itself high praise, we are inclined to doubt its entire truth. He does possess great executive ability, and inherits from his mother that faculty of rapid intuition, which has very properly been denominated “mother wit;” but he has also given indications of the possession of high reasoning and deliberative faculties, and both his editorials and speeches give evidence of fine logical as well as rhetorical power.

He possesses, in a remarkable degree, the power of reading character, and when called upon to select men for specialduties he will not make mistakes. While a Radical in his political views he is still cautious, and will adopt sure and safe policies. His mind is well balanced, no undue predominance of any faculty being observable, but all uniting in such proportions as to make a sound, healthy-minded, judicious man; one who will not be a seer far in advance of his age, nor a conservative lagging in the rear of it, but an able leader, to whose position the whole host of patriots will rally, and whose views will meet with a hearty response from all lovers of their country.

He is a courteous man, not proudly or haughtily so, but genial and gentle from the necessities of his nature. The gentleman in his case, as in all others, is not, of necessity, he who is gentle-born, but he who possesses a truly gentle nature. Mr. Colfax never forgets, he remembers rather with peculiar tenacity, the humble circumstances of his early years, and honors with peculiar love those sons of toil, who like himself have by diligent struggle and earnest endeavor wrought their way up to a higher and more extended sphere of action.

A very pleasant illustration of this is contained in a speech which he delivered at a dinner given him by the representatives of the press in December 1866 at which the presiding officer, Samuel Wilkeson, Esq., had alluded to his passing his office at midnight, eighteen years before, while waiting for the change of horses in the stage, and having seen him busily at work. Mr. Colfax replied as follows:—

“I have had to listen to-night to a eulogy from your distinguished chairman, of which I can only wish I was worthy. What he has said has called back to my mind, what is often before it, the years of my early manhood—and I see a friend seated at this table (Mr. Defrees) who knows much of it about as well as myself—when, struggling against poverty and adverse fortune sometimes, I sought in the profession to which you have devoted yourselves, to earn an honest livelihood for myself and family, and a position, humble, but notdishonored, among the newspaper men of America. I cannot remember the exact evening to which he alludes, when, eighteen years ago, a stranger then, as I am glad he is not now, he saw me through a window in my office, with the midnight lamp before me, and heard the commentary on my life from the lips of some too partial friend from among those who from my boyhood have surrounded me with so much kindness and attention. But well do I remember, in the early history of the newspaper that numbered but two hundred and fifty subscribers when I established it, I was often compelled to labor far into the hours of night. And little did I dream, at that time, I was ever to be a member of the American Congress; and far less that I was to be the recipient of the honor whose conferment you commemorate and endorse to-night. I can say of that paper that its columns, from its very first number, will bear testimony to-day that in all the political canvasses in which I was engaged, I never avoided a frank and outspoken expression of opinion on any question before the American people. And that, as these opinions had always been honestly entertained, I could not have hesitated to frankly and manfully avow them. Though the effect of these avowals was, from the political complexion of the district and the State, to keep me in a minority, the people among whom I live will bear testimony that I was no less faithful to them then than I have been when, in later years, that minority has by the course of events been changed into a majority.”

In the course of this speech he uttered the following noble thoughts in regard to the vocation of the Editor, a vocation which he continued to honor by his own participation in it, until his assumption of the speaker’s chair. Were these views more prevalent, journalism would be a far greater blessing to the nation and the world than it now is.

“Next to the sacred desk, and those who minister in it, there is no profession more responsible than yours. The editor cannot wait, like the politician, to see the set of the tide, but is required, as new necessities arise, not only to avow atonce his sentiments upon them, but to discuss them intelligently and instructively. It is also his duty to guide and protect public opinion in the proper channels, and to lay before the readers of his sheet such matter as shall tend to the elevation of their character. I have sometimes thought that newspapers in their sphere might be compared to that exquisite mechanism of the universe whereby the moisture is lifted from the earth, condensed into clouds, and poured back again in refreshing and fertilizing showers to bless the husbandman and produce the abundant harvests. So, with the representatives of the press, they draw from public opinion, condense public opinion, and finally reflect and re-distribute it back again in turn to its elevation and purification.”

No man ever yet had occasion to complain of want of courtesy, orbrusquenessin Mr. Colfax’s treatment of him. His kindness of manner comes evidently from the heart, and men leave his presence with the impression that he is at once an able, honest and kind man. Political opponents like him personally, as well as his political friends, and even the bitterest of copperheads will tell you that “after all, Schuyler Colfax is a good fellow.” Personal enemies he has none, and the only condemnation to which he is liable, is that of the woe pronounced on those of whom all men speak well.

The breath of slander has never sullied his fair fame. The wife of his youth, after being for a long time an invalid, sank to her final rest several years ago, leaving him childless. At his receptions, which though perhaps not the most brilliant, are certainly the most popular in Washington, his mother, a still comely matron of but little more than sixty years, and his sister, Miss Matthews, preside. Nothing can exceed in chivalrous gallantry his attentions to his mother, who has been his cherished companion from his childhood. When she enters the gallery of the House, Mr. Colfax at once calls some member of the House to the speaker’s chair, and hastens to her, remaining, if possible, with her during the whole time she continues at the Hall of Representatives.

Eminently social and genial in his manners, Mr. Colfax has never fallen into the vices which have so sadly marred the character of some of the noblest of our public men. Early in life he signed the pledge of total abstinence from all that could intoxicate, and that pledge he has never broken. At the National Republican Convention at Chicago in May 1868, at which he was nominated for the Vice-Presidency, the canvass for him was conducted by his special command without a drop of any intoxicating liquor. At the head-quarters of some of the other candidates, strong drink flowed freely, but he preferred to lose the nomination if necessary, rather than to violate his temperance principles.

Mr. Colfax is a religious man, an exemplary member of the Reformed (Dutch) Church, and in all the relations of life, public and private, he has maintained an active and reputable Christian profession. The Sunday-school, the Tract, the Mission and the Bible cause have all found in him an earnest and cordial supporter. During the war, both the Sanitary and the Christian Commissions were indebted to him for abundant labors and the exertion of his powerful influence.

In the summer of 1866, in company with several friends, Mr. Colfax crossed the continent by the overland route, and received a hearty and cordial welcome in the Pacific States and Territories, and increased his already deep interest in the means of speedy and rapid communication with those portions of the Republic. One of the results of this journey was a lecture entitled “Across the Continent,” which he has delivered to many thousands of our people all over the Northern States, and almost always for the benefit of some benevolent enterprise. He has also published another lecture, on “The Education of the Heart,” which has been widely circulated.

To sum up our estimate of his character, we have only to say further, that the nation believes in him, trusts him, and is willing to confide its interests to him, confident that if either in the speedy or remote future he should be called to the Presidency, he will not disappoint the hopes of those whoshould elect him, or prove treacherous to the convictions he had previously avowed. He can not and will not under any temptation be other than a true, honest, upright, God-fearing, manly man. Have we not, then, answered the inquiry we made at the beginning, why Schuyler Colfax is so popular?

SPEAKER COLFAX’S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE.

Hon.J. R. Hawley,President of the National Union Republican Convention.

Dear Sir: The platform adopted by the patriotic Convention over which you presided, and the resolutions which so happily supplement it, so entirely agree with my views as to a just national policy that my thanks are due to the Delegates as much for this clear and auspicious declaration of principles as for the nomination with which I have been honored, and which I gratefully accept. When a great Rebellion, which imperiled the national existence was at last overthrown, the duty of all others, devolving on those intrusted with the responsibilities of legislation, evidently was to require that the revolted States should be readmitted to participation in the Government against which they had erred only on such a basis as to increase and fortify, not to weaken or endanger, the strength and power of the nation. Certainly no one ought to have claimed that they should be readmitted under such rule that their organization as States could ever again be used, as at the opening of the war, to defy the national authority or to destroy the national unity. This principle has been the pole-star of those who have inflexibly insisted on the Congressional policy your Convention so cordially endorsed. Baffled by Executive opposition, and by persistent refusals to accept any plan of reconstruction proffered by Congress, justice and public safety at last combined to teach us that only by an enlargement of suffrage in those States could the desired end be attained, and that it was even more safe to give the ballot to those who loved the Union than to those who sought ineffectually to destroy it. The assured success of this legislation is being written on the adamant of history, and will be our triumphant vindication. More clearly, too, than ever before, does the nation now recognize that the greatest glory of a republic is that it throws the shield of its protection over the humblest and weakest of its people, and vindicates the rights of the poor and the powerless as faithfully as those of the rich and the powerful. I rejoice, too, in this connection, to find in your platform the frank and fearless avowal that naturalized citizens must be protected abroad at every hazard, as though they were native-born. Our whole people are foreigners, or descendants of foreigners; our fathers established by arms their right to be called a nation. It remains for us to establish the right to welcome to our shores all who are willing,by oaths of allegiance, to become American citizens. Perpetual allegiance, as claimed abroad, is only another name for perpetual bondage, and would make all slaves to the soil where first they saw the light. Our National cemeteries prove how faithfully these oaths of fidelity to their adopted land have been sealed in the life blood of thousands upon thousands. Should we not, then, be faithless to the dead if we did not protect their living brethren in the full enjoyment of that nationality for which, side by side, with the native-born, our soldiers of foreign birth laid down their lives. It was fitting, too, that the representatives of a party which had proved so true to national duty in time of war, should speak so clearly in time of peace for the maintenance, untarnished, of the national honor, national credit and good faith as regards its debt, the cost of our national existence. I do not need to extend this reply by further comment on a platform which has elicited such hearty approval throughout the land. The debt of gratitude it acknowledges to the brave men who saved the Union from destruction, the frank approval of amnesty based on repentance and loyalty, the demand for the most thorough economy and honesty in the Government, the sympathy of the party of liberty with all throughout the world who longed for the liberty we here enjoy, and the recognition of the sublime principles of the Declaration of Independence, are worthy of the organization on whose banners they are to be written in the coming contest. Its past record cannot be blotted out or forgotten. If there had been no Republican party, Slavery would to-day cast its baleful shadow over the republic. If there had been no Republican party free press and free speech would be as unknown from the Potomac to the Rio Grande as ten years ago. If the Republican party could have been stricken from existence when the banner of Rebellion was unfurled, and when the response of “No Coercion” was heard at the North, we would have had no nation to-day. But for the Republican party daring to risk the odium of tax, and draft laws, our flag could not have been kept flying in the field until the long-hoped for victory came. Without a Republican party the Civil Rights bill—the guarantee of equality under the law to the humble and the defenseless as well as the strong—would not be to-day upon our National Statute book. With such inspiration from the past, and following the example of the founders of the Republic, who called the victorious General of the Revolution to preside over the land his triumphs had saved from its enemies, I cannot doubt that our labors will be crowned with success; and it will be a success that shall bring restored hope, confidence, prosperity, and progress South as well as North, West as well as East, and above all, the blessings under Providence of National concord and peace.

Very truly yours,SCHUYLER COLFAX.

Very truly yours,

SCHUYLER COLFAX.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTESChanged “CHAPTER LXXXV.” to “CHAPTER LXXXV.—Social Condition.” on p.xvChanged “proportion vicious” to “proportion of vicious” on p.338.Changed “chevaux-de-frize” to “chevaux-de-frise” on p.200.Silently corrected typographical errors.Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

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