CHAPTER VII. THIRTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS. 1863-1865. DEATH OF MRS. COLFAX.-ELECTED SPEAKER BY THE UNANIMOUS VOTE OF HIS PARTY.-QUALIFICATIONS AND POWER OF THE SPEAKER. --COMPLIMENTARY PRESS BANQUET, EULOGIES.-MOVES THE EXPULSION OF LONG.-THE DEBATE.-PRESENTATION OF SILVER SERVICE, THE "SOLDIERS' FRIEND."-RENOMINATED IN SPITE OF HIS WISHES.-IMPORTANCE OF THE ELECTION.-"STAND BY THE GOVERNMENT."-HIS CANVASS. He writes his mother July 28th: "Just received your note of yesterday. I do not think I will be able to come for some time. I cannot leave town so long yet. Time seems to increase my troubles instead of assuaging them, and I prefer the solitude of thought. In the busy whirl of fall and winter my mind will be relieved-too much, I fear and now I wish to live amid the ruins of the past while I can." Twenty years of happy wedded life had ended in the death of his wife. Detained in Washington after the close of Congress by the increasing feebleness of Mrs. Colfax, for eight years. gradually failing in health, he had been able, between her relapses, to speak at the Union League in Philadelphia. and at the great Sumter meeting in New York, announcing that "not one rood of ground over which the Stars and Stripes ever waved shall be surrendered to treason. It was not so intended, I verily believe, in the providence of God, nor will it so result in the counsels of men. A civil war is not justifiable when there is open the ballot-box for the redress of grievances. It is for this reason that the blood of American patriots slain in this war will ascend to the judgment bar of God, and there plead against the Cati lines of this nefarious Rebellion, who sat in their seats in Congress and plotted the destruction of the Government they were sworn to defend." This was no mere declamation or empty bravado. It was on the eve of the draft riots in New York and elsewhere; the political complexion of the next House was still in doubt, no impression had yet been made on General Lee's army, the Copperheads of the West had completed a secret military organization, and lacked only the nerve to enkindle civil war in every Northern neighborhood. Nothing but the speedy organization in Union leagues of the Union men not at the front and the July victories prevented it. Even then, it would doubtless have been attempted had Lincoln arrested Vallandigham, the Chief of the Order in the North, as General Sterling Price was in the South, upon his return from the Confederacy through Canada, The previous year Mr. Colfax had bought a house in South Bend-the same from which he was to be buriedand had written Mrs. Colfax: "You know it is your house, purchased solely on your account, and you must take charge of it." Instead of taking this house this spring, she was to be taken to "the house of many mansions." "We have engaged rooms in a quiet Quakeress's house in the suburbs of Newport," he writes his mother in April, "away from noise, with no church bells near or piano in the house, and shall go about the 1st of June, if she is able to travel. The postmaster at Newport, Mr. Coggeshall, a friend of mine, has made all the arrangements for us, lives near by, and will assist about everything to make her comfortable. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad have quite unexpectedly offered her a special car, with an invalid's bed in it, to take her as far as Philadelphia, whenever she desires to go North, and will get it across the Delaware and take it to Jersey City if they can. Then to Newport is by boat, and if a pleasant night, she will have a journey as little fatiguing as possible." ' 1 1. In September, 1881, Colfax ran across a letter of his friend Mrs. Samuel Sinclair, written in April, 1863, which brought back a flood of memories to him. "You speak in it," he writes her, "of the probability that I am to be the Speaker of the next House, and you hoped to see me wielding the sceptre of authority over that disorderly body She was moved as indicated early in June. A month later, in this quiet retreat, she breathed her last. On her monument at South Bend is inscribed, as the legend of her life," The path of the just shineth more and more unto the perfect day." Of no one was it ever more true. She was a good woman, such as Admiral Foote, who knew her well, said could ill be spared from Washington. The worldliness inseparable from the place affected her only as the sands of the desert affect the flower that blooms in spite of them. Said the New York Tribune: “A very large circle of admiring friends share to some extent the bereavement of her husband and family. Mrs. Colfax, though for years an invalid, and verging toward that undiscovered country,' from which the most devoted love and the utmost medical skill could no longer hold her, had spent several winters at Washington, and had formed acquaintanceships which ripened rapidly into friendships, of which none was ever withdrawn from her." The bereaved husband came out of his gloom characteristically: "I will tell you a secret," he writes his mother on the 1st of October: "Dr. Hendricks and I are going to educate -. I was looking round to see what I could do for some son of a widow, and it struck us both that Mrs. was worthiest of all we knew; and, as we found, had wanted sadly to do it, but felt too poor. The Doctor pays for his college tuition, books, etc., and I clothe him. He is seventeen, and must have an education now if at all. The Springfield letter Mr. Lincoln read me in manuscript long ago." And to Mr. Matthews, October 5th: "I have a most pressing appeal from Senator Morgan, Ira Harris, Preston King, Thurlow Weed, etc., to speak in New York for at least a week. I can't disregard of schoolboys;' about the cosey little parlor in the Hotel de Parry, where you were often encircled by wreaths of smoke;' about the happiness you enjoyed there. It brings back recollections of that winter on C Street, in Washington, where you spent some weeks, and brightened up Evelyn's lonely hours while I was at the Capitol, and cheered up my low spirits as I can never forget. And then, when her ill-health prevented her returning to her Western home in March, at the adjournment-how the past rises before me as I write! Newport, too, that summer, failed to restore the dear invalid, and she died there. The letter referred also to Carpenter's portrait of me, which you didn't like." it, for if I am to run for Speaker I must recognize political duties, and I know less about the New York delegationelect-nearly all new-than that of any other State. If I refuse it will hurt. I speak there from next Thursday till the Wednesday after, inclusive, and possibly at New York City the day after." The Thirty-eighth Congress met December 7th, 1863. Mr. Washburne, of Illinois, was the "father of the House,' and the only one besides Mr. Colfax spoken of for the Speakership. Mr. Washburne placed Mr. Colfax in nomination, and the nominee received every vote of his party.' The Clerk announced the result, the galleries cheered, all faces smiled, and there was a general turning toward him as Messrs. Cox and Dawson, Democrats, approached and escorted him to the Chair. Gracefully he spoke. He thought the present Congress would have to meet and settle the most important questions of the century, since the Rebellion had probably passed its culmination, and was now nearing its collapse. He trusted gentlemen would approach these questions free from acerbity and relying on Divine guidance for support, remembering that "they who rule not in righteousness shall perish from the earth." Thanking the House for its confidence, and appealing to members for their support and forbearance, he took the oath. His first duty was to repress the applause in the galleries at his installation as Speaker. The New York Commercial Advertiser (Republican) said: "No man in the present Congress is more eminently fitted than he to fulfil the duties of that responsible position. One of the most experienced members, thoroughly familiar with the rules and proceedings of the House, personally popular with both parties, on account of his courtesy and fairness, and bearing an unblemished reputation for political in 1. August 22d, 1863, he writes his mother: "Washburne is working very hard for the Speakership. I have lost much of my ambition for it, though it will probably return by November. But it matters little whether I am in or out of the Chair. If it comes to me, well and good. If not, I am satisfied with whatever fate has in store for me the remainder of my public career." And, December 5th, to Mrs. Sinclair: "Have written twenty-one letters to-night, closing with one to my dear mother. I hear from the Capitol that I am nominated by acclamation. Caucus still in session. It was a hard fight, but I gained steadily till I got above eighty, leaving Washburne less than twenty, when he gave it up. Mr. B. says it is a magnificent result, second only to the Presidency itself." tegrity and devotion to the principles which underlie our Government, he takes his seat with the general acquiescence of the body over which he is called to preside, and of the country at large." The Boston Post (Democratic) said: "The Speaker, for a wonder, is not a lawyer, but has been several years an able journalist, and is a courteous gentleman of strong radical tendencies, but of decision, energy, and integrity of character, and promises to make an impartial presiding officer. As we cannot have a Democrat for Speaker, we would as soon see Mr. Colfax in the Chair as any Republican in the House. He is an intelligent, active, working man, a good printer, a good citizen, and has discharged his duty conscientiously, we have no doubt, as a public man. Soon after his election the Speaker received the following letter: "Hon. Schuyler Colfax. "LA PORTE, IND., December 12, 1863. "DEAR SIR: At a meeting of your personal friends, called together by Mr. George B. Roberts, at his house on the evening of December 11th, it was the common impulse of all to address to you a letter expressive of their congratulations in view of your elevation to the Speakership of the House of Representatives. We rejoice in this event as reflecting high honor upon yourself, upon your constituency, whom you have faithfully served for many years, and upon your associate legislators. We regard it as the fitting and well-earned reward of your fidelity to every public trust which has been committed to your hands. Especially is the event gratifying to us as assuring us that the new Congress, by elevating you to this post of honor, pledges thus its devotion to the interests of human freedom for the sake of the Union, and to the restoration of the Union for the sake of human freedom. "We remain very truly your friends, John B. Niles, A. Teegarden, George C. Noyes, W. H. H. Whitehead, James Moore, Stephen P. O'Neall, W. C. Hannah, Edward Vail, K. G. Shryock, John Millikan, James H. Shannon, Luther Brusie, Alfred R. Orton, George B. Roberts, Daniel Dayton, A. Sherman, W. H. Salisbury." The Speaker replied as follows: "SPEAKER'S ROOM, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, } "MY DEAR FRIENDS: Amid the pressure of multiplied duties, and with large numbers of letters unanswered as yet, for lack of time, upon my table, I seize a few passing moments to reply instanter to your very cordial letter of congratulation which I have just received. The signatures carry my thoughts at a single leap back to the days of my childhood. Nearly twenty-seven years ago, when first entering my teens, I |