Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1873-03-20
SCHUYLER COLFAx AT HOME.
A Grand Ovation at south Bend, Ind.

and on foot. These arrivals, joining the
residents of the city, thronged the streets,
rendering locomotion rather difficult on
the business thoroughfares. A large
number of houses were decorated with
flags, and the city generally assumed
sort of Fourth of July appearance. Mr..
Colfax's name was on every tongue,
coupled with expressions of sympathy
and regard. A platform ard seats had
been erected on the Court House porch,
and the old seats in the square in front,
which had done duty in many an exciting
during the last political cam
paign, had been reftted for the accommo-
dation of the crowd. The train which
bore the ex-Vice- President was to arrive
at IL 30, and as that hour approached the
people made their way to the depot and
crowded around that structure until it
was almost shut out of sight. At noon
the manufactures closed, and crowd of
employees numbering not less than 1900
joined the people at the station, making
1t serious question whether Mr.. Colfax
would be able to reach terra frmG with
out walking over the heads of the crowd.
AT 1885 the train appeared, and as it ran
into the station a loud shout of welcome
rose from the assemblage, mingling with
the strains from the band of tHome,
Sweet Home"
A procession was formed, and the
large concourse of people marched to the
Court House square, when the following
address of welcome was delivered by
Mayor Miller:
Mr.. CoLFAx: In behalf of your towns
men and friends it is my pleasant duty to
speak the words that but family express
your welcome home. The city, county and
district of which, from childhood, you have
been resident, the constituency you have
so long and worthily represented, and the
friends who, from youth to manhood, have
looked with pride upon your success in life,
all bid you welcome, and bid me express to
you their confidence and undiminshed re-
gard. You are no stranger here. The citi-
zens who first saw and appreciated the strug
giles, perseverance and honorable ambition
of your early life; who have had long asso-
citation with you as neighbor and fellow
citizen, who have with jealous pride seen
and felt the results of your constant efforts
on the side of the principles of justice and
Of right, as their immediate representative,
conceive themselves best qualified to give
the estimate of your character, and render a
just verdict upon your conduct. That ver-
dict has been by them freely, promptly and
justly given. Neither the insinuations of
1nsidious foes nor the charges of open enc
mics can change it, nor can calumny nor de-
traction rob you of the well-deserved es-
TEEN of your friends and neighbors. That
confidence in your integrity, ever felt by
them, and earned and won by a consistent,
blameless and serene private and public life,
cannot be destroyed by the Vaccinations
ana articles of scheming hucksters to i'm
pair or impede your course of usefulness to
your country and your future advancement
to the highest honors by the Republic to its
worthlest citizens. We shall ever, as here
tofore, whether as public representative, q
private citizen, or the future recipient of
still higher honors, gladly welcome your re-
turn to our midst, keeping unimpaired our
full trust in character for truth, integrity
and patriotism which has been so we'll mer-
tied, and retaining that affection for your
person and character that has led, and will
ever lead us, to proudly call you our own
Schuyler.
After three cheers were given fol
Schuyler Colfax, the ex-Vice-Presiden
spoke as follows:
Mr.. MAYOR, NEIeHBoRs AND FRIENDS
My heart would be cold and callous indeed
if it did not throb more quickly and happily
at such a welcome home as this one will
which am honored and the gratitude fol
which it would take lifetime to exhibit
Here you have known me from childhood
my goings out and comings in have been be
fore your eyes. My character has beer
formed in your midst, and you know whethel
for paltry sum of money I could be in
duced to wreck it. When you come hither
therefore, by the thousands, spontaneously
and, as am glad to be told and to know
not confined to political friends alone, bui
participated in by prominent and 1ife-lons
political opponents, to honor me with sucf
unmistakab1e manifestations of your un
abated confidence and affectionate regard
feel it due to you, as well as to myself, tc
expose the utter injustice of the crue
~
during the past winter. If had been con
fessed and wicked criminal I could not have
been pursued with more malignity by por
ton of the American press and their Wash
ington correspondents. Day after day every
possible circumstance has been exaggerated
and telegraphed as absolute proof of guilt
day after day it has been demanded that
should explain this Or that or the othel
point, but when explained the same mali
cious enemies have tortured and perverted
and misrepresented the explanation, de
termined if possible that the reputation o.
the man they hated should be destroyed
and as day by day they thus poisoned thu
of exultation at having effected, as the,
hoped, their work of ruin. The frank ex
posure of all my financial affairs did M
good; the disclosure of the sacred con
fidence of the dead only gave them fresh op
portunities for cavil and Justification
The testimony of my step-father and sister
unlmpeachable as you here SO well know
Them to be, was denounced as unworthy O
belief. These enemies were determined O.
having their victim; but conscious of m
entire innocence of this cruel and wieke
charge, and confident that He who knowet
all things will in His own good time max
that Innocence manifest to all, / hav
stood unmoved amid this tempest storm
villifcation and injustice, willing to bide m
time for the complete vindication I know
SO certain to come.
Let me read from the Inter Ocean of Chic,
go, of September 26, 1872, the following e,
tract from the speech I delivered here tt
previous day. It was made, you will remen
Der, in reply to the charge that was one
the twelve apostles who sold out to tt
Credit Mobilier at $4,000 apiece, who ha
been bribed by gifts of stock on which e.
ormous dividends had been paid, and fl
which certain legislation has been enactet
''Never having in my life dollar OF stock of al
kind that did not pay for, claim the right
purchase stock in the Credit-Mobilier or Cred
Immobilier, if there is one; nor do know of al
law prohibiting it. Dol need to add that neith
Oakes Ames nor any other person ever gave
offered to give me one share or twenty shares
200 shares in the Credit-Mobilier or al
other railway stock, and that unfortunately I ha
never seen or received the value of farthing o
ofthe 270 per cent. dividends or the 500 per Ger
dividend in cash, stocks or bonds you have re
tenth Of cent? have ee sd Rsf
shares of it could be purchased at par witho
buying into prospective lawsuit it would be
good Investment if as valuable stock as represeI
ed; but never having been plaintiff or defenda
in court of justice, want no stock at any pri
with lawsuit on topof it,
Although I thus publicly claimed the rigl
to purchase this very stock, and avowe
frankly my willingness to buy and hold twel
ty shares of it if could do it without buyir
into lawsuit, and thus accepted all the od
um there could attach to purchasing it, as
then understood il, I have been charge
with prevarication because did not go
and state that had withdrawn years befo
from an incomplete contract to buy TWEEN
shares, losing what had paid on accoun
If I had supposed that a denial or explain
tion of an entirely different charge ths
that I was answering would be required
me, should certainly have done SO, as
would have strengthened instead of wea
ening what I was stating-but that cou
not foresee.
An eminent divine once said, rather ire
erently: eff mans foresight were only
good as his hindsight he would be but Ii
tie lower than the angels" and nay policy
speaking has always been to discuss and e
plain pending issues and not to explain
discuss those that were not pending b
let us test this by an Illustration, metht