USA > New Mexico > Men of our day; or, biographical sketches of patriots, orators, statemen, generals, reformers, financiers and merchants, now on the stage of action > Part 21
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Notwithstanding Mr. Wade's bitter opposition to the slave power, the southern men always respected and liked him. Mr. Toombs, the Georgia fire-eater, said of him, in the Senate: "My friend from Ohio puts the matter squarely. He is always honest, outspoken and straightforward, and I wish to God the rest of you would imitate him. He speaks out like a man. He says what is the difference, and it is. He means what he says; you don't always. He and I can agree about every thing on earth except our sable population."
There was not a northern demagogue in Congress who would not have given gladly all his ill-gotten reputation to have had such a compliment paid him by a southern Senator as was paid by Mr. Toombs to Senator Wade.
In the debates on the organization of Kansas as a State, Mr. Wade avowed himself a Republican-a Black Republican, if they chose to call him so-and as determined in his opposition
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to slavery extension, under all circumstances and at all times. In the course of one of the speeches he made on that question, he made use of the following language :
"Sir, I am no sycophant or worshipper of power anywhere. I know how easy it is for some minds to glide along with the cur- rent of popular opinion, where influence, respectability, and all those motives which tend to seduce the human heart are brought to bear. I am not unconscious of the persuasive power exerted by these considerations to drag men along in the current; but I am not at liberty to travel that road. I am not unaware how unpopular on this floor are the sentiments I am about to advo- cate. I well understand the epithets to which they subject their supporters. Every man who has been in this hall for one hour knows the difference between him who comes here as the de- fender and supporter of the rights of human nature, and him who comes as the vile sycophant and flatterer of those in power. I know that the one road is easy to travel; the other is hard, and at this time perilous. But, sir, I shall take the path of duty and shall not swerve from it.
"I am amazed at the facility with which some men follow in the wake of slavery. Sometimes it leads me even to hesitate whether I am strictly correct in my idea that all men are born to equal rights, for their conduct seems to me to contravene the doctrine. I see in some men an abjectness, a want of that manly independence which enables a man to rely on himself and face the world on his own principles, that I don't know but that I am wrong in advocating universal liberty. I wish to heaven all such were of the African race."
The brutal and cowardly attack on Hon. Charles Sumner by Preston S. Brooks, in May, 1856, called out all the grand and heroic elements of Mr. Wade's nature. Others might hesitate and fear to enter upon the discussion of the question of slavery, when its advocates resorted to the bludgeon and pistol as their reply to the arguments of the anti-slavery men; but it was not In Ben Wade to falter. On the next day after the outrage he
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rose and commenced his speech in denunciation of the atrocious deed, with these memorable words:
" Mr. President, if the hour has arrived in the history of this Republic when its Senators are to be sacrificed and pay the for- feit of their lives for opinions' sake, I know of no fitter place to die than in this chamber, with our Senate robes around us ; and here, if necessary, I shall die at my post, and in my place, for the liberty of debate and free discussion."
The southern men writhed, as if in pain, as his scathing words fell hot and heavy upon them, portraying the cowardice, the meanness, the infamy of the deed, and it required a brow of brass to stand up in defence of it, after this severe yet dignified denunciation of the assault.
During the war, Senator Wade was one of the ablest and most untiring members of the Senate. He was chairman of the Committee on Territories, and also of the special Committee on the Conduct of the War, a committee whose services were of the greatest value to the national cause.
Ohio has wisely kept him in the Senate for three successive terms, the last of which will end March 4, 1869. In the begin- ning of March, 1867, the term of office of Hon. Lafayette S. Foster, President pro tem of the Senate, and acting Vice-Presi- dent of the United States, having expired, Mr. Wade was elected by the Senate as their presiding officer, a position for which his large experience, thorough political and parliamentary know- ledge, and fearless independence, eminently fitted him. During the impeachment trial, he, according to the Constitution, resigned the chair to the Chief Justice of the United States, whose duty it was to preside in such a trial, and it was the understanding that. in case of the President's conviction, Mr. Wade would suc- ceed to the presidential chair.
In person, Mr. Wade is about five feet eight inches in height,
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stout, and of dark but clear complexion. His eyes are small, jet black and deeply cut, and when roused, they shine like coals of fire. He is slightly stooped, but walks without a cane, and is sprightly and active. His jaws are firm and large, the under one being very strong and compact. The lips are full and round, the upper one doubling, at the corners of his mouth, over the lower one, which gives the Senator a ferocious and savage sort of look; and this it is that causes so many persons to misunder- stand the true character of the man, and mistake him for a fierce, hard, cold man, when he is, in reality, one of the warmest, kindest-hearted men in the world. His face is not a handsome one, and if you examine it in detail, you will say he is an ugly man ; and yet there is in that face a sort of rough harmony, an honest, bluff, heartiness that makes you like it. There is nothing weak, bad, or treacherous-looking about it ; and when he speaks the features light up, and the mobilized countenance gives to the straightforward words such an interest that you no longer remember his homeliness at all. When sitting silent or listen- ing, he has a way of looking at one with his piercing black eyes that at once disconcerts a rascal or dishonest man, and is often most annoying to the innocent and honest. You feel he is read- ing you and weighing closely your motives for what you are saying. There is no use in trying to deceive or lie to old Ben. Wade ; if he don't find you out and hint at your motives before you leave, rest assured he understands you, and only keeps his belief to himself, because he does not desire to wound your feelings.
We do not think Mr. Wade ever owned such a thing as a finger-ring or breast-pin. He dresses in plain black, and wears a standing-collar of the old style, and is always scrupulously clean. Always talkative and lively when out of his seat, he is silent, grave and thoughtful when in the Senate chamber. Any
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one who looks at him from the galleries, as he sits daily in the Vice-President's chair, presiding over the deliberations of the highest tribunal in the land, will see in his quiet repose a pic- ture of real strength and dignity such as should characterize the American Senator.
As chairman of the Committee on Territories, he reported the first provision prohibiting slavery in all the territory of the United States to be subsequently acquired ; the bill for negro suffrage in the District of Columbia; carried the homestead bill through the Senate; led the Senate in the division of Virginia and the formation of the new State of West Virginia; and secured the admission of Nevada and Colorado into the Union.
On one point only did he differ from Mr. Lincoln, viz .: his proposed reconstruction policy ; and the difference was for a time strong and decided; but, in the end, Mı. Lincoln acknow- ledged that that was the great error of his life, and receded from the measures he had proposed.
HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX,
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
N the life history of this eminent statesman, so widely known and so universally beloved, we have another of those instances of which we have had so many in this volume, of a man rising by the power of genius and industry from humble life, and filling exalted stations with a grace, ease, and dignity, which could not be surpassed had he been "to the manor born."
SCHUYLER COLFAX comes from some of our best revolution- ary stock. His grandfather, Captain Colfax, was the command- ant of General Washington's body-guard ; his grandmother was a near kinswoman of that noble patriot of the Revolution, Major-General Philip Schuyler. He was born in New York city, March 23d, 1823, his father having died in early manhood, a short time before his birth. When he was ten years old, his mother married again, becoming the "Mrs. Matthews," whom all recent habitues of Washington have seen presiding at her son's receptions. With this event the boy's school life closed, but the scanty term seems to have been well improved, for one of his early schoolmates tells us "Schuyler always stood at the head of his class." The next three years were spent in his step- father's store. In 1836, his stepfather having decided to emi-
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grate to the west, Schuyler accompanied his parents to the valley of the St. Joseph river, and they settled in New Carlisle, St. Joseph county, Indiana. The region was then a wilderness, but it is now densely populated, and its thrift, fertility, enterprise and beauty have made it the garden of the State. The five years which followed, were, we believe, spent as clerk in a country store. His disposition to study was inbred, and every leisure moment was improved. A friend and companion of his boyhood, in New York, now an active business man and philanthropist, tells us that, in those days, he and Schuyler Colfax kept up an active correspondence, and that Schuyler's letters always spoke of the studies he was prosecuting by him- self in the wilderness, and were full of knotty questions, which both tried their best to solve.
In 1841, his stepfather, Mr. Matthews, was elected county auditor, and removed to South Bend. Schuyler became his deputy, and made such studious use of his leisure, that when but little more than eighteen, he became undisputed authority on precedents, usage, and State laws affecting the auditor's duties. He was also very busily engaged in the study of law at this time. A debating society, that inevitable necessity of American village life, was organized at South Bend in 1843, and, on some one's suggestion, it was transferred into a moot State Legis- ture, of which Hon. J. D. Defrees, since government printer, was speaker, and young Colfax an active member. The rules of parliamentary debate, and the decisions of points of order, were followed with amusing punctiliousness in this body, and Colfax, who had improved his previous familiarity with these matters, by two years' service as Senate reporter for the State Journal, soon became the acknowledged authority on all parliamentary questions, and was thus unconsciously qualifying himself for that post he has since so ably filled.
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In 1845, he started a weekly journal at South Bend, the county seat, with the title of the St. Joseph Valley Register, be- coming its sole proprietor and editor. In this connection it is doubtless proper to correct a mistake into which the public has fallen relative to Mr. Colfax's connection with the printing busi- ness. Mr. Lanman, in his Dictionary of Congress, says :- " He was bred a printer." He never was apprenticed to the printing business, and knew nothing of the practical part of the "art pre- servative of all arts," until after he had commenced the publica- tion of the Register. With his ready tact and quick perception, however, and great anxiety to economise, for his means were yet very limited, he soon mastered the art sufficiently to " help out of the drag ;" but he never attained to any great proficiency in the business; his editorial labors, the business of the office, and other duties, soon claiming his entire attention.
The Register prospered, and soon became a source of profit to its proprietor. It was ably edited, and was a model of courtesy and dignity. Every paragraph, however small, seemed to have passed under the supervision, and to reflect the mind and ele- vated thoughts of its editor.
How he toiled at this time, and what was the opinion of the people of South Bend of the young editor, are very pleasantly related by Mr. Samuel Wilkeson, in a speech at a press dinner, in Washington, in 1865, at which Mr. Colfax was an honored guest.
"Eighteen years ago, at one o'clock of a winter moon-lighted morning, while the horses of the stage-coach in which I was plowing the thick mud of Indiana, were being changed at the tavern in South Bend, as I walked the footway of the principal street to shake off a great weariness, I saw a light through a window. A sign, 'The Register,' was legible above it, and I saw through the window a man in his shirt sleeves walking quickly
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about like one that worked. I paused, and looked, and imagined about the man, and about his work, and about the lateness of the hour to which it was protracted ; and I wondered if he was in debt, and was struggling to get out, and if his wife was expecting him, and had lighted a new candle for his coming, and if he was very tired. A coming step interrupted this idle dreaming. When the walker reached my side, I joined him, and as we went on I asked him questions, and naturally they were about the workman in the shirt sleeves. 'What sort of a man is he?' 'He is very good to the poor; he works hard; he is sociable with all people; he pays his debts ; he is a safe adviser ; he doesn't drink whisky ; folks depend on him ; all this part of Indiana believes in him.' From that day to this, I have never taken up the South Bend Register without thinking of this eulogy, and envying the man who had justly entitled himself to it in the dawn of his manhood."
Mr. Colfax himself, in his reply to this speech, acknowledged that in the early history of the newspaper, which numbered but two hundred and fifty subscribers when he established it, he was often compelled to labor far into the hours of the night. His paper was, from the first, Whig in its politics, and frank and outspoken in its expression of opinion on all political questions, but though in a district then strongly Democratic, and sur- rounded by Democratic papers which waged a constant, and often unscrupulous warfare against his paper and his principles, the constant readers of his paper cannot recall a single harsh or intemperate expression in his columns, in reply to the fierce personal attacks made upon him.
In the year 1848, Mr. Colfax was appointed a delegate from his adopted State to the Whig National Convention, of which he was elected secretary, and although extremely young, he discharged the functions of his office commendably. In 1850,
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he was elected a member of the Indiana State Convention, hav. ing for its object the preparation of a State Constitution. Here he persistently opposed the unmanly clause prohibiting free colored men from entering the State. This clause, submitted separately to the people, was indorsed by majorities of eight thousand in his district and ninety thousand in the State, yet, where a mere political trimmer would have waived the personal issue, he, like a man, openly voted with the minority, though he was at the time a candidate for Congress. In 1851, unanimously nominated from the ninth district of Indiana, he made a joint canvass with his opponent, Dr. Fitch, and, solely on account of this vote, was defeated by two hundred and sixteen majority, although the district had been Democratic, by large majorities, for many years.
In 1852, he was again sent as a delegate to the Whig National Convention, of which also he was appointed secretary. In 1854, Mr. Colfax was elected to Congress as a Republican nominee ; and from that time to the present, he has always occu- pied his seat as a Representative.
At the opening of the Thirty-fourth Congress occurred the memorable contest for the speakership, resulting in the election of Mr. Banks to that position. During that session Mr. Colfax took his stand as one of the most promising of our Congres- sional debaters. His speech, upon the then all-absorbing topic of the extension of slavery and the aggressions of the slave power, was a masterly effort, and stamped him at once as a most influ- ential orator. This speech was circulated throughout the coun- try at the time, and was used as a campaign document by the Fremont party during the canvass of 1856. Five hundred thousand copies of it were issued, a compliment perhaps never before received by any member of Congress.
Mr. Colfax labored zealously for John C. Fremont, who was
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his personal friend ; the result of that campaign is well known. In the Thirty-fifth Congress, Mr. Colfax was elected to the im- portant position of Chairman to the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, which place he continued to hold until his elec- tion as Speaker to the Thirty-eighth Congress, on the 7th of December, 1853, to which responsible position he has since been twice re-elected-to the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses- honors awarded before only to Henry Clay.
As Speaker of the House of Representatives he is ready, seldom hesitating, to replace a word, or failing to touch the quick of a question, never employing any thing for stage effect; but straightforward, direct, and often exquisitely elegant in image and diction, he is, in the genuine sense, eloquent. His every speech is a success, and though one often wonders how he will extricate himself, in the varied and often untimely calls made upon his treasury, he always closes with added wealth of grati- fied admirers. If George Canning was once the Cicero of the British Senate, Schuyler Colfax is to-day that of the American House.
In the chair, he is suave and forbearing almost to excess, but as impartial as the opposite Congressional clock. Nothing escapes him, nothing nonplusses him. The marvel of his pre- siding watchfulness is equaled alone by the intuitive, rapid solu- tion of the knotty point suddenly presented, and having either no precedent, or, at best, but a very distant one. In every quan- dary, the Indiana Legislature, or the Journal reporter, or the persistent student of Jefferson or Cushing, or all, rally to the rescue of the wondering House and still smiling chairman. The advocate is never confused with the judge. While presiding, it is as difficult to remember, as when debating to forget, that he is radically a Radical.
He was one of the first advocates, and is still one of the
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warmest friends, of the Pacific railroad. Indeed, he takes a warm interest in any movement looking to the development of the boundless resources of the great West. It was, doubtless, the interest he feels in this section of the country, which induced him to take his celebrated journey " Across the Continent." His trip was a perilous one, but his welcome at " the other end of the line " was so spontaneous, truly genuine and heartfelt, that it more than repaid him for all the dangers and hardships he passed through. This tour led him to prepare one of the most enter- taining lectures ever delivered in this country. It has been lis- tened to with rapt attention by the people of almost every city in the North. Pecuniarily, however, it has profited him but little, for with that liberality which has ever been a marked trait in his character, the entire proceeds of a lecture have as often been donated to some charitable object as they have found their way into his own pocket.
His intimacy and confidential relations with Mr. Lincoln are well known. They labored hand in hand as brothers in the cause of the Union, holding frequent and protracted interviews on all subjects looking to the overthrow of the rebellion, for there were no divisions between the executive and legislative branches of the Government, then, as there are now. There was a patriot at the head of the Government then-a statesman who could give counsel, but often needed it as well. During the darkest hours of that bloody drama which shall ever remain a reproach upon the people of one section of the nation, they were ever cheerful and hopeful. Confident in the justness of the war waged for the preservation of the Union, and placing a Christian reliance in that Providence which guides and shapes the destiny of nations, great reverses, which caused others to fear and trem- ble, at times almost to despair, seemed only to inspire them with
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greater zeal and a firmer belief in the ultimate triumph of our cause.
There has not been a great radical measure before the country, since his advent into Congress, that he has not supported with all the warmth of his ardent nature. But he is not one who will rush blindly forward into a pitfall. He would rather make haste slowly, that no backward step may be necessary-he duly weigh, every measure in all its bearings, and from its various standpoints, before committing himself irrevocably to any par- ticular line of action relative to the subjects under considera- tion. Previous to his re-election as speaker of the Thirty-ninth Congress, in response to a serenade tendered him, he said :
" The danger is in too much precipitation. Let us, rather, make haste slowly, and then we can hope that the foundation of our Government, when thus reconstructed on the basis of indisputa- ble loyalty, will be as eternal as the stars."
Had this warning been heeded, much of the legislation of the Thirty-ninth Congress would have needed no revision at the hands of the one which has succeeded it.
His course, while in the great council of the nation, has been one of straightforward, unswerving integrity; and he counts many friends among even his political opponents. He has so discharged the important duties of the speakership, that he is considered one of the best presiding officers that has ever been called upon to conduct the proceedings of a great body.
Mr. Colfax is only forty-five years of age. In personal ap- pearance, he is of medium height, solid and compactly built. His hair and whiskers are brown, now a little tinged with gray. His countenance has a pleasing and intellectual expression. His person is graceful, and his manner denotes unusual energy. His eyebrows are light in color, and overshadow eyes which sparkle with intelligence and good-humor. He is strongly affectionate
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and kindly in disposition. Whenever his mother-in-law appears in the gallery of the House, Mr. Colfax generally calls some member to the chair, and goes immediately to her side. Such a trait in his character serves still further to deepen the respect and esteem in which he is held everywhere.
As a speaker, Mr. Colfax is earnest, frank, pointed and fluent. His manner is pleasing, and his language is always well-chosen and refined. Urbane in demeanor, and courteous and fair to- ward opponents, he always commands respect and attention on both sides of the House. He is zealous and fearless in main- taining his principles, though his benevolence and good-humor so temper his speeches that he gains few or no enemies. He is one of the few whose personal qualities have secured exemption from the bitterness of feeling generally displayed by the friends of pro-slavery aggression toward their opponents. He seldom indulges in oratorical flourish, but goes straight to his subject, which, with his keenly perceptive intellect, he penetrates to the bottom ; while his close, logical reasoning presents his aspect of a question in its strongest light.
On the question, "Shall freedmen be citizens, and be allowed the right of suffrage ?" he took an early opportunity of avowing his views. At the opening of the second session of the Thirty- ninth Congress, he said : "The Creator is leading us in his own way rather than our own. He has put all men on an equality before Divine law, and demands that we shall put all men upon the same equality before human law."
In an address delivered in 1867, before the Union League club of New York, we find these eloquent passages :-
" How rapidly and yet how gloriously we are making history ; but posterity will read it on the open pages of our country's an- nals. Six years ago-how brief it seems-but a fraction of an individual's life-but a breath in the life of a nation-the banners
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of rebellion waved over the hostile armies and stolen forts from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, and the on looking world predicted the certain downfall of the Republic. Now, thanks to our gallant armies and their gallant commanders-Grant the inflexible-Sherman the conqueror-Sheridan the invincible- and all their compatriots on sea and shore-but one flag waves over the land-the flag that Washington loved, and that Jack. son, and Scott, and Taylor adorned with their brilliant victories -the flag dearer to us in all its hours of peril than when gilded by the sunshine of prosperity and fanned by the zephyrs of peace, at last triumphant, unquestioned, unassailed. Six years ago, millions of human beings born on American soil, created by the same Divine Father, destined to the same eternal here- after, were subject to sale like the swine of the sty, or the beasts of the field, and our escutcheon was dimmed and dishonored by the stain of American Slavery. To-day, auction-blocks, and manacles, and whipping-posts are, thank God, things of the past, while the slave himself has become the citizen, with the freedman's weapon of protection-the ballot-in his own right hand. Nor can we forget, while rejoicing over this happy contrast, the human agencies so potential to its accomplishment. First, and conspicuous among the rest, rises before my mind the tall form of a martyred President, whose welcome step no mortal ear shall ever listen to again. Faithful to his oath, faithful to his country, faithful to the brave armies his word called to the field, he never swerved a hair's breadth from his determination to crush this mighty rebellion, and all that gives it aid, and comfort, and support. Unjustly and bitterly de- nounced, by his enemies and yours, as a usurper and despot ; compared to Nero and Caligula, and all other tyrants whose base deeds blaeken the pages of history, your noble League stood by him amid this tempest of detraction, cordially and to
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