Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1873 — SCHUYLER COLFAX AT HOME. [ARTICLE]

SCHUYLER COLFAX AT HOME.

rA ' \ r ::,-. , ai'T'“rW—T-’’ yvwiwif uuu jTvm JjTvT pmyv.j Mr. Colfax here exhibited both of the canceled drafts of June and July, 1868. He then continued: I stated to the committee that I had used still more money in Indiana and elsewhere, for legitimate campaign purposes in that canvass, contributed by friends,and offered to show them all I had expended politically, personally and for household expenses. 1 did this because I did not know how far these investigations were to extend, judging from the researches made after my specific explanation of where I got the money deposited in June, 1868, but the committee declined to inquire into these items, and hence this information has been lost to the world. I will not weary you by further details. You have all read the voluntary affidavit of my life-long friend, Ricketson Burroughs, who, though he had only heard of and not even read my statement as to the thousand dollar remittance of June from Mr. Nesbitt, swore that’ I had told him that summer of having received SI,OOO to $2,000 from Mr. Nesbitt for political uses, proving by his repetition of the larger Sum our times over that I had evidently told him of both the June and July remittances from Nesbitt. He added that I informed him I had sent Mr. Nesbitt’s contributions to the Republican Central Committee at Indianapolis, as I have shown you I did. I read now an extract of a letter from Oliver Hovt, one of the leading business men of New York in the leather trade, who writes me: “You will doubtless remember that yon have honored me with a visit at my house in Stamford, in June, 1869, and while there yon stated you would like to call on Mrs. Nesbitt, whose husband had recently died; you stated to me onihe way that Mr. Nesbitt had been exceedingly generous and kind to you; that be had sent to yon. unsolicited, $2,000 or $3,000 to help in the campaign. You also stated that Mr. Nesbitt seemed to have no selfish end in view; that he was deeply interested in the success or the Republican party, and only desired of you that you would feel free to come to his house and take a meal with him. I was personally acquainted with Mr. Nesbitt, and knew him to be a man of large wealth and of generous deeos.’’ I could read you more letters I have received on this stbject from confidential friends with whom I conversed more or less about this generous man. But it is needless. I must read you, however, a brief extract from a letter written by Hon. J. D. Defrees to A. R. Sample, Esq., of this citv. He says: “ Y’ou know that four years ago the long and intimate relatione which had existed between Mr. Colfax and were broken off. hut my sense of justice will not permit me to sympathize with ' the bitter and cruel denunciation of a portion of the public press against that gentleman I have known Mr.. Colfax from boyhood, and I do not believe him to be corrupt, nor would Ke make a statement under oath he did not believe to be true. I ■ know how easy it is to inflame the public miud on any subject and how unreasonable it becomes when inflamed. A reaction, however, always takes place, and in that reaction, which is bound to come in this instance, a more reasonable, a more charitable and a much less vindictive feeling will exist toward alrthese gentlemen.” ' Need I add. to! thia generous and voluntary letter that, having heard how vigorously he had defended me against all reflections on my integrity and" truthfulness, I was glad the first time I met him to tender him publicly my grateful thanks, and shaking hands together the unpleasant alienation of the past four years ended, and 1 trust forever. Many minor points in this matter I would like to analyze at length, but I have referred to those which have excited the most discussion, and do not wish to unnecessarily prolong this statement. The falsehoods that have been telegraphed over the country during the investigation have been persistent and malicious. I was astounded when, for the first time in my life, I saw the “3. “C.” check in the committee room and found it was to be charged to me, and the astonishment was telegraphed as the evidence of my guilt. Next it was telegraphed that I was going to try and prove that I received the $1,200 from Jasper Bchoemaker, Stuart and Bowen, and when it was found.that this was false it was telegraphed that I had to change tactics and charge it to a deceased man. When 1 wrote to the committee in regard to the other Nesbitt remittances, and the desire of his family, and the decision of my counsel that they should not be presented to account for a deposit on a certain day in June, it was that I had forgotten them; and when another falsehood was telegraphed that I had, after Nesbitt’s death, acted as his attorney,-or lobbyist, the Postmaster-General officially refuted it, and showed that I had done no more than any Congressman could have done without criticism, and no more than I have done as to any department business which any constituent of mine, friend or foe, asked me to have decided justly during the year I represented this district in congress, I could read you more letters I have received on this subject from confidential friends with ; whom I conversed more or less about this generous man. Here I must close. From 4 first to last I have stated all the leading practical points in this transaction, in identical and unchanged language, and I am not responsible for the malicious perversions and twistings of these statements with which the newspapers have been filled. Jn the confidence of the family circle, before „ .you here in a public speech' and in the Committee room at Washington, I have stated what is the sact —that Lnever received a dollar of dividends on the Credit-Mobilier or Union Pacific Railway from Mr. Ames or any one else—on all occasions I have stated that while I would be willing to buv it at par and to hold it as I 'understood it- i'n 1868, no prospect of liberal dividends could induce me to buy into a lawsuit. For over four years, by Mr. Ames’ own testimony, although we have both been at the capital, there has not been a word exchanged between us as to dividends on this ' stock. Could there be stronger confirmation of its abandonment? I stand before you conscious of no wrongdoing in this matter, in thought, word or deed. As was represented to me by Mr. Ames, I agreed to buy twenty shares; afterward, and within a few months, on my own convictions, I abandoned it, preferring to lose what I had paid than to hold it. It ““never influenced a vote or a ruling of mine in the slightest degree. Mind, and heart, and conscience, all acquit me of tile unjust imputations to which I have been subjected. My record has never been stained with dishonor or falsification, and this extraordinary manifestation of unshaken confidence and unchangeable regard by old friends who have known me from boyhood, answers a thousand malicious attacks, and thrills my heart with a gratitude I cannot express jn words. ■ .« After the' conclusion of Mr. Colfax’S address, the following resolution was unanimously adopted: Resolved, That in welcoming Schuyler’ Colfax home to-day, after his twenty years 'of arduous public service, in which he has been excelled by none as a model statesman—temperate, judicious and faithful to principles—we do so with undiminished confidence in his honor and integrity, both as a public man and a private citizen. A New Yobk gambler some time ago had an‘attack of paralysis in the right forefinger, caused by overwork in. his profession. The ..disease has now extended,itself to nearly every joint and muscle in his body, and, to quote from the World, from which We get the information above stated, “the arms hang useless and absolutely fleshless—mere skin and bone—the intercostal muscles are gone, and the man can make no respiratory movements requiring their action; the neck, oesophagus, trachea, and spinal column are clad in skin, and that is all, the processes of the latter standing out as plainly las in a skeleton. The head, un supported, hangs down on the chest, as if it were merely tied on. By a movement of the loins the man can throw his head over so that it will fall resting on his shoulders and back, but otherwise than thus, mechanically, he cannot control its motion. What parts the disease will next attack is a question with the physicians at Bellevue, where the case was shown yesterday, but the result is hardly doubtful. Breathing is done now Tth t t^ 6 ked ” ragm ’ &U d mUSt ceaße —Charles Bradlaugh, the noted British Republican, is coming to this country to lecture next season. He is a large, pow erfiil man, of about forty-five, a cross between Henry Ward Beecher and Robert Collyer, with a ringing voice and a master of oratory unknown to any other speaker now living in Great Britain. He is adored by his Yol lowers, and intensely hated by lociety and the Government. I