Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1868-06-12
From G. a. Townsend's Leader Letters.
Young Harry Clay.


In what he called his "den, I found
Schuyler Colfax some days ago
a little closet-Foom lighted by one
basement window, under the Cap
itOl. It was a curiosity shop of man
useripts and documents, order reign
ing through superficial confusion
Here the Speaker hides himself away
from pages and harpies, and works un-
assistedly at his speeches and his cor
resDOndence, the latter of itself as
great and exciting as any accountants s.
But lighthouse never grows old /;
after the hundred years its fame is as
youthful as when il begun. The pure,
unaffected, FadienB cheerfUlness Of Mr..
COlfax keeps him as rosy and hopeful
as a boy. Here he sits, smoking his
Cigar, surprised N the midst of smile,
for his thoughts are good companions.
/ took a seat before him, and while
brought, i tried to make out his face
and character very difficult type
were both of them for a country Of
which the Speaker is so representative,
and yet of a temperament so Uncom-
mon.
We are a 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 eOuntenances. We want to
make money fast, and on the way and
after the end we have remoTses, aches,
wounded self esteems, ascetIcisms.--
The air, the soil, the worry and the
hurry Of American life .prOvincialize
the American into a hard, repellant,
dreadfully oFer-earnest man, with a
skin, a stomach, and a soul equally
dyspeptie.
Out of this population face grows,
now and then, ike elOVerhead out Of
q stOok-yard, all freshness and color,
and quick to feel the earliest breezes.
This is Mr.. ColfaX. His life is peren-
NAL hopefulness, having a good con-
for its compass, and for its
ballast a 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 par
entage reaching back on one side to |
the Schuylers, on the other to an Off |
Ger Of Washington's body guard.
AT ten years of age his schooling /
ceased and he had found a new father. /
At thirteen he quilted New York and /
his step-fatheF's store for a home in /
Indiana. AttWenty he was an editor, |
twelve hundred dollars in debt. At !
twenty-seven he was a candidate for |
Congress, already a young Widower, /
made sadder but manlier by a deserV- |
ed 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 na-
ton. At the base Of this successful
career we find neither wealth, chican-
cry, nor patronage, but good citizen
ship, faithful public services, steadfast
and a cheerful temper
lt Is a quiet career of success under
Republican institutions, with steady
talents, quick perceptions, and excel
lent confidence. His model in the
state has been Henry Clay, whose man
ners were like his own, and he Confess
es to have modelled his Speakership
upon Clay's career as Speaker Of the
House Never hoping, he says, ito
reach this high standard, it has been
ever before my mind, as the sculptor
studies the model of the Great Master
Of his art"
In this position he has been never
traduoed sill of late, when during the
trial, the majority of the
House has eonnived at certain quarrels,
but the Speaker himself has aimed, ia
his own language, to make all forget
sul of the aspeFities which should per-
sh with the occasion that aWOke
HEM" Mr., Colfax is a member of