The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-05-28
GheGnteltiqettrer.
SCHUYLER coLFAx.
a Pen Picture by Geo. 4. Townsend
YOUNG nanny CLAY.


YOUNG HARRY CLAY.
In what he called his "den,u 1 fount
Schuyler Colfax some days ago; a LITTLE
closet-room lighted by one basemen
window, under the Capitol. It was {
| curiosity shop of manuscripts anC
documents, order reigning through su
perficial confusion. Here the Speaker
pies, and works unassistedly at hi!
speeches and his correspondence, the
latter ofitself drudgery as great anG
| exciting as any accountants.
But a lighthouse never grows
old Z; after the hundred years iti
flame is as youthful as when II
began. The pure, unaffected, ra'
diant cheerfulness of Mr.. Colfaz
keeps him as rosy and hopeful as boy
Here he sits, smoking his cigar, sur.
prised in the midst of a smile, for al
his thoughts are good companions.
took a seat before him and while he
answered some questions I had
brought, L tried to make out his face
and character-a very difficult type
which the Speaker Is SO representative
and yet of q temperament so uncom-
mon.
We are sober-minded people, with
lines of thrift and anxiety in our faces,
like the marks of whip and burden.
We go to law and go to church with the
same countenances. We want to make
money fast, and on the way and after
the end we have remorse, aches, wound
ed elf-esteems, asceticisms. The air,
the soil, the worry and the hurry of
American life provinelaliZe the Amerl-
can into hard, repellant, dreadtully
over-earnest man with skin, stom-
ach. and soul equally dyspeptic.
Out OF this population face grows,
81 oil Il
out of a stock-yard, all freshness and
color, and quick TO feel the earliest
breezes. This Is Mr.. Colfax. His life
perennial hopefulness, having a good
conscience for its compass, and for its
ballast temperament that Is equal as
an hour glass. Full of the elasticity
of the Empire city, a Widows son,
born forty-five years ago, with a pa
rentage reaching back on one side to
the Schuylers, on the other to an ofh-
Ger of Washington's body guard. At
ten years of age his schooling ceased
and he had found new father. At
thirteen he quilted New York and his
ep.father's store for home in Indi-
ana. at twenty he was an editor;
twelve hundred dollars in debt. AT
twenty-seven he was candidate for
Congress, already q young wid0Wer,
made sadder but manlier by deserved
love. At thirty he WAS a Congress-
man, as he has been ever since, and
three times elected Speaker OF the
House, the third position in the nation.
At the base OF this successful career
we find neither wealth, chicanery, nor
patronage, but good citizenship, faith
ful public services, steadfast self-re-
spect and cheerful temper
It is a quiet career of success un-
der Republican institutions, with
steady talents, quick perceptions,
and excellent confidence. His mod
ell in the state has been Henry
Clay, whose manners were like his
own, and he confesses to have modelled
his speakership upon Clay's career as
Speaker of the House: Never hoping"
he says, "to reach this high standard,
it has ever been before my mind, as the
sculptor studies the model of the Great
Master of his art.n In this position he
has been never traduced till of late,
when during the impeachment trial
the majority OF the House has connived
at certain quarrels, but the Speaker
guage, to make all "forgetful of the
asperities which should perish with the
occasion that evoke them" Mr.. Col
fax is a.member of the Dutch Reformed
Church, and total abstinence is one of
his private principles. He is smoker,
however, and a loving traveller by foot
and stage. His oratory is fervid and
florid together, and has served his
party handsomely in trying times,
while his Judgment is guarded, yet de-
cisive as his mode of speech. OF his
speeches have collected some Illus
trAtions from various parts of the Globe.
Thus he said of the employment of
negro troops:
al do not call negro soldiers better than
opinion it would be that those or my own
color are better and drawer. For have al
ways told you, in spite OF charges 70 the con-
was superior TO any other that walks the
footstool Of God"
So he said of moral faithfulness in
legislation:
"whetber travelling in the valley of humi.
Iation or disaster, or keeping my eye nxed
don't believe his blessings will fan upon the
Confederacy. Gods ways are sometimes
dark, but sooner or later they reach the
shining hills of dayW
He first announced the Republican
platform after the breach with Mr..
johnson thus:
aLet us make haste slowly, and We can
then hope that the foundations OF our gov
eminent, when thus reconstructed on the
nal as the stars"
In like manner. on April 10, 1866,
when he made mild but manly issue
with johnson, he said of the civil
rights bill, in the first moment of its
enactment:
'tThat law, misrepresented as 1t has been
repealed, and In the years that are coming it
VIII be the proudest recollection md the
crowning honor Of those men who stood up
in the national councils, that they gave 10
that American Magma Cnarta their cordial
support" E3-k-iE
He treated In this way a taunt OF the
Democracy:
THE new nickname hlng at US ts .Radl-
cals.' had rather be called Radical than
q rebel, at any time. 1 am Radical for
right against wrong; for liberty against
cal friend of my country, and a Radical
hater OF every enemy of my native land. I
pie by the people the world over, and my
Sympathies go ont toTord the Radicals who
are frying 70 initiate our free institutions in
Greece, Italy, France, Ireland and Mexico.
globe" So 80 : 80 :
Here is another curt passage:
'Iau for leyeling up rather than leyeling
down. God do SO to me and more aso. u :!
do auRht more TO crush any man down
lower"
In short, this Is Mr.. Colfax, as de.
scribed in the words of his pastor and
poet at South Bend, his home:
asThou art the clear
Persuasive orator Of right; the pure
UnsuIlIed patriot; the changeless, sure,
And genial friend, TO many hearts how dearI
TEE printers of Chicago are about to
set the Colfax ball rolling by organ
izing Printers' Club, with affiliated
societies in every town in the country
in which a half dozen printers can be
found. The Chicago Post says:
Mr.. Colfax is the first member of the
craft who has ever been nominated fol
/ ay2l 2l,ar ~ kha Nry hfnhn1k 1f11 tn tI1s