Schuyler Colfax
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| Schuyler Colfax | |
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| In office March 4, 1869 – March 4, 1873 |
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| President | Ulysses S. Grant |
| Preceded by | Andrew Johnson |
| Succeeded by | Henry Wilson |
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| In office December 7, 1863 – March 3, 1869 |
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| President | Abraham Lincoln Andrew Johnson |
| Preceded by | Galusha A. Grow |
| Succeeded by | Theodore M. Pomeroy |
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| In office March 4, 1855 – March 3, 1869 |
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| Preceded by | Norman Eddy |
| Succeeded by | John P. C. Shanks |
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| Born | March 23, 1823 New York City, New York |
| Died | January 13, 1885 (aged 61) Mankato, Minnesota |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Evelyn Clark Colfax Ellen Maria Wade Colfax |
Schuyler (pronounced "Sky-ler") Colfax, Jr. (March 23, 1823 – January 13, 1885) was a U.S. Representative from Indiana, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the seventeenth Vice President of the United States.
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[edit] Biography
Colfax was born in New York City to Schuyler Colfax, Sr. (d. October 30, 1822 of tuberculosis) and Hannah Stryker. His grandfather William Colfax had served in George Washington's Life Guard during the American Revolution, became a General in the New Jersey Militia and married Hester Schuyler (Cousin of General Philip Schuyler.)
In 1836 he moved with his mother and stepfather to New Carlisle, Indiana. As a young man, Colfax contributed articles to the New York Tribune on Indiana politics and formed a lasting friendship with that paper's editor, Horace Greeley. He quickly established a reputation as rising young Whig in Indiana politics and at 19, became the editor of the pro-Whig South Bend Free Press. In 1845, Colfax purchased the newspaper and changed its name to the St. Joseph Valley Register.
Colfax was a delegate to the Whig Party Convention of 1848 and the Indiana Constitutional Convention of 1849, and a member of the state constitutional convention in 1850. Colfax was nominated for Congress in 1850 and lost a narrow race to his Democratic opponent. As the Whig Party collapsed, Colfax ran again, this time successfully[1], in 1854 as an Anti-Nebraska candidate in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. After a brief flirtation with the Know-Nothing Party, Colfax joined the new Republican Party that was being formed as a fusion of Northern Whigs, Anti-Nebraska Democrats, Know Nothings and Free Soilers. After Republicans gained the majority in the House in 1856, Colfax became Chair of the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads. Colfax was an energetic campaigner against slavery and his speech attacking the proslavery Lecompton Legislature in Kansas became the most widely requested Republican campaign document in that election. In 1862, following the electoral defeat of House Speaker Galusha Grow, Colfax was elected Speaker of the House.[1] During his term as Speaker, he announced the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment.
In 1868 he was elected Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket headed by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.[1] He was inaugurated March 4, 1869 and served through March 4, 1873. Colfax was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination for Vice Presidency in 1872 and was replaced on the ticket by Massachusetts Senator Henry Wilson. Compounding Colfax's ill fortune, he became embroiled in the Crédit Mobilier of America scandal and left office under a cloud.[1]
On October 10, 1844, he married a childhood playmate, Evelyn Clark, who died in 1863 and had no children. On November 18, 1868, two weeks after he was elected Vice President, Colfax married Ella M. Wade, a daughter of Senator Benjamin Franklin Wade; related to Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes; see Dudley-Winthrop Family. They had one son, Schuyler Colfax III, in 1870.
After leaving office, Colfax embarked on a successful career as a lecturer. On January 13, 1885, Colfax walked some ¾ of a mile in -30˚F weather to Omaha rail station in Mankato, Minnesota. Five minutes after arriving, he dropped dead of a heart attack brought on by extreme cold and exhaustion.[2] He is interred in the City Cemetery, South Bend, Indiana[3].
The towns of Colfax, California, Colfax, Washington, and Colfax, Louisiana, are named for Schuyler Colfax. The "Jewel of the Midwest," Schuyler, Nebraska, named after Colfax, is the county seat of Colfax County, Nebraska. The now ghost town of Colfax, Colorado was named after him. Colfax County, New Mexico is named after the Speaker as well. In addition, the "main street" traversing Aurora, Denver, and Lakewood, Colorado and abutting the Colorado State Capitol is named "Colfax Avenue" in the politician's honor. There is another Colfax Avenue in the Grant City section of Staten Island, NY, and a Colfax Avenue on Chicago's Southeast Side. There is a Colfax St. leading up Mt. Colfax in Springdale, PA and a Colfax Avenue in Benton Harbor, MI, where the school fight song contains the phrase "of that Colfax school" because the high school is located on Colfax.
[edit] Publications
- Hollister, Life of Schuyler Colfax (New York, 1886)
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Bain, David Haward (2004). The Old Iron Road: An Epic of Rails, Roads, and the Urge to Go West. New York City, New York: Penguin Books, 65-6. ISBN 0143035266.
- ^ "Schuyler Colfax Dead", The New York Times, January 14, 1885, p. 1
- ^ Political Graveyard
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Schuyler Colfax's signature on the 1864 joint resolution proposing the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery
- Find-A-Grave profile for Schuyler Colfax
- http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_Schuyler_Colfax.htm
- Fremont's hundred days in Missouri : speech of Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, in reply to Mr. Blair, of Missouri, delivered in the House of Representatives, March 7, 1862 at archive.org
- The life and public services of Schuyler Colfax: together with his most important speeches at archive.org
| Preceded by Norman Eddy |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana's 9th congressional district 1855–1869 |
Succeeded by John P. C. Shanks |
| Preceded by Galusha A. Grow |
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives December 7, 1863–March 4, 1865; December 4, 1865–March 4, 1867; March 4, 1867–March 3, 1869 |
Succeeded by Theodore Medad Pomeroy |
| Preceded by Andrew Johnson(1) |
Republican Party Vice Presidential candidate 1868 (won) |
Succeeded by Henry Wilson |
| Vice President of the United States March 4, 1869–March 4, 1873 |
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| Notes and references | ||
| 1. Lincoln and Johnson ran on the National Union ticket in 1864. | ||
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