Year: 1867

SPEECH OF SPEAKER CoLFAx.-On taking his
seat as Speaker of the House in the Fortieth
Congress, Schuyler Colfax said


GENrLEMEN-Elected'fo for the third time to this
responsible and trying position, appreciate more
than ever before the Importance of the trust and
realize more than when entering on its effective
duties the absolute necessity of your confidence
and support. Nor do overrate the gravity of our
positions as Americans and Legislators. The
years have never dropped their sands on mortal
issue vast and grand as ours to-day" A nation
decimated by the conflicts of fraternal strife, a
land desolated by the destructive marches of hos
tile armies, people with the fruits of prolong-
ed war ripened into the gloomy harvest of hearts
dead with the bullet as well as hearts heavy
with bereavements and broken with anguish,
look anxiously from North and South alike, and
by that light should we walk. 1t is to guide our
steps by the justice of God and the rights OF man.


1t is to Danish the malice and revenge, and to
justify our faith by our works. It is to anchor
our legislation on what the great commoner of
England, John Bright, declares to be simple but
sublime principles on which great national ques-
ton should he settled-the basis of eternal
rights. 1t is to write on our banners these words,
that will shine brighter than the stars that gem
the frmament-s Liberty, Loyalty and Law" z"
1t is to make history that posterity shall rise up
and call us blessed. The Congress which has
just passed away has written a record that will
be long remembered by the poor and friendless,
whom it did not forget. Unrepresented and mis-
understood by those who denounced it as ene-
mics, harshly and unjustly criticised by some
who should have been its friends, it proved itseli
to have been more faithful to human progress
and liberty than any of its predecessors. The
outraged and oppressed found in these Congress-
ional halls champions and friends. Its key-notes
of policy was protection to the downtrodden il
uuaiied not before the mightiest, and neglected
nation has freed, to the full stature of manhood
| it placed on our statute books the Civil Rights
bill as our national Magma Charta-grander than
all the enactments that honor the American code,
and in all the region whose civil government has
been destroyed hy vanquished rebellion it de-
clared, as a guarantee of defense to the weakest,
mans ballot it proclaimed that there could be
no safe or loyal reconstruction on foundation
of unrepentant treason or dislOyalty. Fortunate
it will be for US if, when we surrender these seats
to our successors, we can point to record which
will shine on our hstory's page like that of the
Congress which has just expired. Thrice fortu-
nate if, when we leave this Capitol. our whole
national structure shall be permanently restored,
resting on the same foundation stones of loyalty,
unity liberty and right With such convictions
of duty come to this chair to administer your
| rules, but not as partisan. appeal to you for
| that generous support by which alone presiding
officer can be sustained, pledging you in return
an inlexible impartiality, which shall be proved
by my deeds and invoking on your deliberations
the favor of Him who holds the destinies of ma
tions in the hollow of His hand.