Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1868-06-10

! very Truly, yours,
SCHUYLER COLFAx.
From Geo. Alfred Townsend's Leader Letters.l
Young Harry Clay.
In what he called his "den," 1 found
SCHUYLER Colfax some days ago; lit
tie closet-room lighted by one base
mens window, under the Capitol. 1t
was a curiosity shop of manuscripts
and documents. order reigning through
superficial confusion. Here the Speak
er hides himself away from pages and
harpies, and works unassistedly at his
speeches and his correspondence, the
latter of itself drudgery as great and
exciting as any accountants.
But lighthouse never grows o.d {;
after the hundred years its fame Is as
youthful as when it began. The pure,
unaffected, radiant cheerfulness OF Mr..
Colfax keeps him as rosy and hopeful
as q boy. Here he sits, smoking his
cigar, surprised in the midst of smile
for all his thoughts are good compan-
ions.
l took a seat before him, and while
answering some questions | had brought
| | tried to make out his face and char
acter-a very difficult type we're both
of them for a country of which the
Speaker is so representative, andye Of
a temperament so uncommon
We are a sober-mnded 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 remorses, aches,
wounded self-esteems, asceticisms.-
The air, the soil. the worry and the
hurry of American life provincialize
I the American into a hard, repellant,
1 dreadfuDy oVer-earnest man, with a
skin, stomach, and soul equally dys-
peptic.
Out of this population face grows,
now and then, like q cloverhead out of
stockyard, all freshness and color,
and quick to feel the earliest breezes.
This is Mr.. Colfax. His life IL peren-
NAL hopefulness, having a good con-
science for its compass, and for its bal
last a temperament that is equal as an
hour glass Full of the elasticity of
the Empire city, widows son, born
forty-fve years ago, with a parentage
reaching back on one side to the
Schuylers, on the other to an officer OK
Wsshington'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-father's store for q home in
Indiana. At twenty he was an editor;
twelve hundred dollars in debt. At
tHenty-seyen he vas q candidate for
Congress, already a young widower,
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 ma
tion. At the base of this successful
career we find neither wealth, chica-
merry, nor patronage. but good citizen-
ship, faithful public services, steadfast
self-respect, and a cheerful temper
1t 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 manners
were like his own, and he confesses to
have modelled his Speakership upon
Ciay's career as Speaker of the House:
''Never hoping" he says, ''to reach
this high standard, it has been ever
before my mind, as the sculptor studies
the model of the Great Master of his
aT."
In this position he has been never
traduced till Of late, when during the
impeachment trial the msjority of the
House has connived at certain quarrels,
but the Speaker himself has aimed, in
mis- own language, to make ali forget
full of the asperIties which should per-
ish with the occasion that awoke them"
Mr.. Colfax is a member of the Dutch
Reformed Church, and total abstinence
is one of his private principles. He is
a smoker, however, and a loving tray-
eler by foot and stage. His oratory is
fervid and forid together, and has
served his party handsomely in trying
times, while his Judgment is guarded,
vet decisive as his mode of speech
OF his speeches l have collected some
from various parts of the
Globe.
Thus he said of the employment of !
negro troops:
~ do not cali negro soldiers better
than white ones. Ii were to express
my own opinion it would be that those
of nv own color are better and braver.
For l have always told you, in spite of
charges TO the contrary, that | believe |
the Anglo Saxon race was superior to
any other that walks the tootstool of
Godw
So he said of moral faithfulness in
legislation:
"Whether travelling in the valley of
humiliation or disaster, or keeping my
eve fixed on the heavens, / belieYe
God reignsl 1 don't believe his bles-
sings will fall upon the Confederacy.
Gods ways are sometimes dark, but
sooner or later they reach the shining
hills of day r'
He first announced the Republican
platform after the breach with DIR.
johnson thus:
LET US make haste slowly, and we
l1En LLAA A-A1 ACN-N-~N-N--0 - 9
our government, when thus reconstruc-
ted on the basis of indisputable loyalty,
will be as eternal 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 enact
meut:
THAT law, misrepresented as 1t has
been by its opponents in Congress. will
never be repealed, and in years that
are coming it will never be repealed.
and in the years thstare coming it will
be the prondest recollection and the
crowning homer of those men who
stood mp in the national councils, that
they gave to that American Magma
Jharts their cordiaLsupport !"
He treated in this way taunt OF the
Democracy
"The new nickname flung at US Is
Radicals. l had rather be called
Radical than a Rebel, at any time.
I'M a Radical for right sgsinst wrong
or liberty against slavery; for Justice :
against tyranny radical friend OF my
country, and Radical hater of every
Enemy of my native land. l believe