Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1881-09-02
SCHUYLER COLFAN'S TRIBUTE.
His Rcsponsc tn the TOAs;. sour
Prcsfdent.'' as the fBcsA Theta
Pa Banquet

CHICAGO, Aug. 3I.-At the Beta Theta |
Pi banquet this evening schuyler Colfsx, |
In response to the sentiment, "Our Presl- |
dent" said:
"rwiee within less than score of !
years there has been blood upon our
Presidential chair. Twice in that brief
period in q nations history the elected
Chief Magistrate of the republic, guilt
less of crime, of tyranny, of private
grievance or injustice, has been laid low
by the pistol shot of a lurking assassin.
Void of offense toward God or
man, with large, generous, con,
cIliatory hearts, with genial and
unusually popular manners, without
malice or i'll will; but, on the contrary,
in their supreme hour of personal happl-
ness, they were ambushed by malignant
but co~ardly murderers, thirsting cause
lessly for their hfe's blood. No assassi-
nation in history, not even that OF Henry
vi of France, for which RayaIllac was
torn in pieces 10y horses, nor William OF
Orange, approximate TO these in utter and
unparalleled infamy. One of these great
Presidents passed away in a single night
and is enshrined in the hearts of his
grateful countrymen with the father OF
the country which, under Providence, he
| saved. The other, for whose life, so
| precious to the Nation, millions of every
| faith and creed nave almost "stormed
| the battiements of heaven with prayer"
has for sixty long days and weary
| nights looked death in the face with
patient calmuess and serene courage. All
christendom has admiringly eulogized
while he has suffered q thousand times
more pain than the pangs of final disso-
luton. But how much we have all
learned of our nations sufferer during
these sad and painful weeks and months
of anxiety and alarm for US and peril
for him! How closely and tenderly he
| has come into all our family circles
nay, into all our hearts-as no public
man has ever come beforel How we
have stood with that brave and loving
wife, who has so gaandly and sublimely
| illustrated American womanhood, rs she
strives with such mistaken faith and
such tender hopefulness to bring him
| back from the shadow of death to the
sunshine of lifel"
MIR. Colfax reverted to the scenes about
the bulletin boards, to the interest and
intense anxiety of every oper alton per
formed upon the sufferer, to the indig
nation against Guiteau, To tie words
of cheer from this and other lanDs 1, ON
the highest to the lowest in the scale of
society, from atheist, infidel and Christian
sources. He alluded to his sterling quail
tiles, his integrity and manhood, and
concluded: "Not exempt, despite this,
from unjust attacks on his integrity and
truthfulness, which his sworn denlsls
failed to silence, and which he felt more
keenly than the political opposition
which all public men expect, who dares
now to pollute the tongue to them. How
utterly have they all persisted. Who
now would breathe even the
faintest suspicion of his loft
lest integrity3 For IN the ages yet to
come to our country, posterity will honor
the widows son whom the Nation called
to it's highest honor, unsought by him, as
q fitting representative in our history OF
American honor. principle, genius and
worth, and as here Betas assembled from
many States, North and South, East and
West, send across the mountains to ouI
wounded but great hearted President oul
earnest salutation:
Our hearts. our hopes, are all with thee;
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant DER our fears,
Are all with thee, are all with thee"