Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1868-06-11
soHuyLER coLFAx.
R.m.rH.b,. Career ofa se,f-maso Man.

hObfAhNC @OA NANt tNohoGhtt Wdo WILL ttt
house in North Moore street,
near West Broadway, In the city of New
York, March %, 1923. His mother, as
we learn from an article In the, June
number of Putnam's Magazine, Is but
sixteen years his senior. He received O
good common school education; was
bred q printer and settled in Indiana in
1885. He soon became foreman and
assistant editor OF the village paper of
South Bend. 1t was then very small
sheet, such as every Western settlement
issues, as sort of q flyer to q job print
ing business as soon asit has got it's
school-bouse, grocery, hotel, and black
smith-shop, aud begins to think about
having a fneeting-house The ,"typo" I"
out West frequently gets the start of the
preacher, though the race is close
Those who saw Colfax then TAT thecase"
described him as a light, spindIing,
flaxen-haired, boyish.looking youth
clever rather in the Yankee than the
English sense-with delicacy of tenn
perment which suggesteda doubt wheth-
er he had the Stamina TO live to manhood
without the faintest suggestion that in
his mature years he would be the Speak
er of the House, and the second choice
Of the country for President. The news
then came to South Bend by stage from
Detroit or up the ST., 10 River from the
Lake. There was but little of it, and
though Mr.. Colfax became the editor and
publisher of the South Bend Register
as soon as he became of age, other and
subsequent evidences were required to
establish his claim to intellectual supe-
riority, In 1S4S he was delegate to and
Secretary of the Whig National Con-
vention. In 1850 he was q member of
the Indiana Constitutional Convention.
In 1852 he was again Secretary of the
Wing National Convention. lie was
elected to the Thirty-fourtli Congress,
and has been regularly reelected to every
subsequent Congress. He was elected
Speaker of the Thirty eighth Congress,
and has been reelected Speaker of the
Thirth-ninth and Fortieth. He was
urged but he declined to accept seat in
the United States Senate, preferrihg his
presiding chair in the House. His open,
pleasant face, has become familiar to o
to large audiences throughout the count
ry, who have listened to his addresses
upon political topics, upon the late
President Lincoln-by whom he was
warmly loved-upon his tour across the
nected with the work of the Sanitary
and Christian Commissions.
He Is purejn his personal and moral
habits, has broad, outspoken, and
catholic sympathy with every good work
Of reform, whether political moral, in
tellectual, or religious, and has the warm
and enthusiastic confidence of Chris
tians and temperance reforms through
out the country. He attends, and we be-
lieve is memoer ofthe Reformed Dutch
Church, and is q thorough teetotalist.-
Without being educated as scholar,
industrious reading has given him much
OF. what is valuable in scholarship un-
alloyed by its pedantry, its clannshness,
lawyer, practical familiarity with
legislation has taught him all that is
most valuable in law, freed from the
conservatism and inaptitude of change
and reform which rests like an incubus
on so many of those minds which are
bred by the habit of legal profession to
look forprecedents which show what the
law has been, rather than to broad prin-
ciples which settle what the law ought
to be. Yet Mr.. Colfax has frequently
shown the happiest familiarity with
precedents in questions of parlamenta-
rry practice. AS q presiding officer, he
is the most popular the House has had
since Henry Clay. His marvellous
quickness of Thought, and talent for
the rapid administration of details,
enables him to hold the reins of the
House of Representatives, even In its
most boisterous and turbulent Woodland
with the exception of the New York
Board OF Brokers, the British House of
Commons, or fair Mt Doonbrook, IL Is
the most uproarlous body in the world J
with as much ease and grace us Mr.
Bonner would show the PAGES of Dexter
in Central Park, or rs Gotlschalk would
thread tho keys Of piano, in dreamy
maze OF faultless, qulvering melody
AS an orator, Mr.. ColfaX Is not argument
tative, except as clear statement and
sound Judgement are convincing. He
rides no erratic hobbies. He demands
few policies which the average sense of
intelligent men cannot be made to assent
to ON a clear statement of his position.
He Is eminently representative. A
glance at his broad. well balanced, prac-
tical brain, indicates that his leading
faculty Is the sum of all the faculties
judgement, and that what he believes
the majority of the people either believe
or can be made to believe. Some men
may be further ahead of the age. Mr..
Colfax finds sufficient occupation and
usefulness In adapting himself to times
and things rs they are, without cutting
his throat with paradoxes or stealing a
march on mankind with some new light,
which they are very likely toregard as u
"will-o'-the-wisp y He has no eccen-
trlcities, but great tact. His talents are
administrative and executive, rather
than deliberative. He would make
good appointments, and adopt sure peli-
cies. He would make better Pres
ident, or Speaker of the House than
Senator. He knows men we'll estimates
them correctly, treats them all fairly and
candidly. No man will get through his
business with you In fewer minutes, aud
yet none Is more free from the horrid
6rusqucness OF busy men. There are
heart and kindness in Mr.Colfax's po-
liteness. Men leave his presence with
the impression that he u at once an
able, honest, and kind man. Political
opponents like him personally, as well
as his friends. We have never heard
tn Vt he has any enemies. The breath
of slander has been silent toward his
fair, spotless fame. The wife of his
youth after being for long time an In
valid, sank to her final rest several years
ago, leaving him childless. His mother
and sister preside at thisreceptions, which
for many years have been, the most
popular given at the Capital. Socially,
Mr.. Colfax Is frank, lively, Jolly. 1t may
be that he feels his oats to some degree,
but dignity hasn't spoiled him. The
everlasting I-hood and Us-ness of great
men is forgotten in his presence. His
manners are not quite 80 familiar as
those of Lincoln, but nearly so. They
are gentle, natural, graceful, with q
blrd-iike or husiness-like quickness OF
thought and motion. Though manly,
they are genial and winning, Ameri-