The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1868-06-05
sHGYLER COLFAx.
A Pen Picture by Gee. A. townsend.
YOUNG HARRY CLAY.

found Schuyler Colfsx some days ago
a little rcloset-room, lighted by one
basement window, under the Capitol.
It was q curiosity shopof manuscripts
and documents, order Telgnlng
drought superficial confusion Here
the Speaker hides himself away from
pages and harpies, and works unas-
sistedly at his speeches and his COR
respondence, the latter OF itself a
drudgery as great and exciting as any
accountants. 81,
But lighthouse never grows old !;
after the hundred years its flame is as
youthful as when il began. The pure,
unaffected radiant cheertulness Of
Mr.. Colfax keeps MIN as rosy and as
hopeful as a boy. Here he sits,
smoking his cigar, surprised in the
midst Of smile, tor all his thoughts
are good companions.
] took a seat before him while he
answered some questions / had
brought. / tried to make out his face
and character very difficult type
were both of them for country Of
which the Speaker is so representa-
tive, and yet Of temperament so IN
common.
We are a sober. minded people,
with lines Of Thrift. and anxiety in our
faces, like the marks Of whip and
burden. We so 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, wounded selt-es-
teens, asceticisms. The air, the soil,
the worry and the hurry OF American
life provincialize the American into a
hard, repellant, dreadfully over-earn-
est man, with a skin, a stomach and
a soul equally dyspeptic.
Ont of this population face grows,
and now and~then Ike a cloEerhead
out of a stock-yard, all freshness and
color, and quick 10 feel the earliest
breezes. This IS Mr.. Colfax. His
life perennial hopefulness, having
good conscience tor It's compass, and
for its ballast a temperament that is
equal as an hour glass. Full OF the
elasticity Of the Empire City, a Wild
owls son, born forty FIVE years ago.
with a parentage reaching back on
one side to the Schuylers, on the other
to an officer of Washington body
guard. At ten years Of age his school
ing ceased, and he had found a new
father. At thirteen he quilted New
York and his step-father's store for a
home In Indiana. Twenty he was
an editor-Sl, 200 in debt. AT twenty
seven he was a candidate for
Congress, already young widower,
made sadder but manlier by de-
served love. At thirty he was Con-
gresham, as he has been ever since,
and three times Speaker of the House,
the third position In the nation. At
the base of this successful career we
find neither wealth. ehca merry, nor
patronage, but good enship, faith
full public services, steadiast self-re-
spect, and cheerful temper. 1t is a
quiet career of success under Repub-
hcan institutions, with steady talents,
quick perceptions, and excellent con-
tidenee. His model In the state has
been Henry Clay, whose manners
were like his own, and be confesses to
have modeled@hls@ speakership upon
Clay's career as Speaker Of the
House Never hoping he says,
. 10 reach this high standard, it has
ever been before my mind, as the
sculptor studies the model of the
Great Master of his art. In this po-
sition he has never been tiaduced till
of late, when during the Impeachment
trial the majority OF the House has
connlved at certain quarrels, but the
Speaker himself has AIMED, In his own
language, to make all " forgetful of
the asperities which should perish
with the occasion that evoked them"
Mr.. Coifax is member of the Dutch
Reformed Church. and total absti-
nence is one Of his private principles.
He is q smoker, however, and low
ing traveller by foot and stage. His
oratory is fervid and f0rid together.
and has served his party handsomely
in trying times while his judgment is
guarded, yet decisive as his mode of
speech. Of his speeches / have col
lected some illustrations from various
parts Of the Globe.
Thus he said of the employment of
negro troops:
l do not call negro soldiers better
than white ones. If were to ex-
press my own opinion it would be
that those Of my own color are better
and Drawer. For | have always told
you, IN spite Of charges to the con-
trary, that / believed the Anglo
Saxon race was superior to any other
that walks the footstool of God"
So he said of moral faithfulness in
legislation: l.H
Whether travelling in the valley
OF humiliation or keeping my eye
liked on the heavens, / believe God
relgns! don't believe his blessings
will fall upon the Confederacy. Gods
ways are sometimes dark, but sooner
or later they reach the shining hills
Of dayl'