New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-06-13
The Vice President.
Indiana Delegates Cell on Mr.. Colfax
speeches ON the Occasion.

Speeches ON the Occasion.
WASHINGTON, June "a number Of In
diana delegates to the National Republican
Convention, with the Indiana Republican
congressman, called at the Vice Presidents
room at the Capitol yesterday, and Judge
Denny, of Evansville, addressed Mr.. Colfax
in their behalf as follows:
Mr.. VICE PRESIDENT: Those of tho In
diana delegates now in the city on their way
home, with others Of your personal and DO
ltical friends, are unwilling to leave without
making this call, and expressing their high
appreciation of the invaluable service rem
dered by you to the Republican party and to
the country, and while we, as Indianians,
regret your defeat at the late Republican
Convention, where we earnestly labored for
your nomination as candidate for the office
OF Vice President of the United States, we
at the same time feel proud of your patriotic
conduct in joining with us in hearty and
cordial Endorsement of the ticket then nOmi-
mated. And we heartily approve the senti-
ments contained in your telegram to Col.
Foster, namely: That principles are every
thing, and men are nothing, and that you
cordially indOrse the nomination and promise
it your earnest support. We feel well as
sured that we have a strong ticket-a ticket
which bears the name of men whose respec-
tive private and public characters are so pure
and high that the country must approve
them at the ballot-bOx in November. Be-
Tore closing this interview we cannot refrain
from expressing also our high appreciation of
the honorable manner in which you saw fit
to conduct yourself during the earnest can
vass made by the Indiana delegation at the
convention to assure your denomination.
While we cannot resist the impression that
If you had consented to make personal efforts
in Won hnh o,,Tl, oil ii Infn
are permitted to make without loss of char
acter or manhood, successmight have crowned
our efforts, we are at the same time con-
strained to admit that the dignified course
which you chose to adopt deserves greater
honor than could be conferred by any office
within the gift of the American people. We
beg leave to reassure you of our gratitude for
the patriotic services you have rendered the
country and Of our personal esteem and con-
fidence.
Mr. Colfax replied that he was proud to be
the recipient of such warm and earnest
friendship as that exhibited by thesdelega-
tons from Indiana and other States, and so
kindly expressed in Judge Denning's cordial
remarks. He bowed to the decision of the Con-
vention without murmur Ofregret and should
prove hereafter as faithful to the Republican
creed in private life as when he had been
standard bearer of the cause. He rejOced
that after eighteen years of public life, with
all his acts like the open pages of book be-
fore the people, the worst that was said of
him at Philadelphia was that he had written
letter stating his willingness and desire to
retire from official position, and had after
ward consented to accept a denomination if
the party deemed it best. This charge he
could not deny, but he had never written or
said anything broader than is found in the
expressions of that much-quOtcd letter. So
much has been said about it that now the
convention is over he felt he had a right to
tell his home friends what his lips had been
sealed on heretofore, namely: That it was
not written or intended for publication. He
had expected to submit the desire he felt, and
which was expressed in it, to leading Re-
publicans from his own State and elsewhere,
when Congress reassembled, for their advice.
But, he said, he must add, in justice to the
valued friend to whom he wrote, that the let
ter was not marked confidential and being
from public man, on public question, that
friend had the unquestiOnabe right to infer
that it was not private, and, therefore, he
justified him fully in printing it. When he
decided last November, at the appeal of many
active Republicans from Indiana and other
sections of the Union that his denomination
or his retirement was q question which the
party should decide rather than himself; he
felt it would be improper to electioneer with
any one on the subject, and he did not. On
the contrary, he told every delegate he saw
that his name ought not to be presented if
another could insure greater unity, and GER
tainty of victory to the cause he loved far
better than political honors. The Republic
can organization, the records of whose great
deeds for liberty, humanity, justice, and ma
tionality during the past decade, arc unap-
preached by any political party in any age,
has other advancing steps of progress and
reform to take before disarmament or furlough
from duty. While going himself, therefore,
to the retired list without the slightest unkind
feeling toward any one who desired change
in the Vice Presidency, and wishing them
especially decisive victory in October in our
closely contested State, he should join with
them in November in cordially supporting
Ulysses S. Grant and Henry Wilson for Presi-
dent and Vice President of the United
States.