02-10-14 Council Agenda & Packet

Home Browse Search

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10 -900 OMB No. 1024 -0018 South Bend City Cemetery St. Joseph, Indiana Name of Property County and State interest in journalism and publishing; eventually serving as the legislative correspondent for local publications. Colfax served as a contributing writer to the New York Tribune, and became friendly with its publisher, Horace Greeley. Simultaneously, Colfax was distinguishing himself as a rising star in the Whig party, which availed him the position of editor of the pro -Whig South Bend Free Press. After a very few years at the helm, Colfax purchased the newspaper and changed the name to the St. Joseph Valley Register. It was his interest in Whig politics and journalism background that truly launched Colfax's career. Colfax was a delegate to the Whig Convention in 1848, the Indiana Constitutional Convention in 1849, and a member of the state constitutional convention in 1850. Contacts made through his journalism work were quite beneficial to him. Colfax was an unsuccessful Whig candidate for election to the Thirty- second Congress in 1851. As the Whig party collapsed, Colfax considered joining the Know - Nothings, but eventually became a Republican, a party born of northern Whigs, Anti- Nebraska Democrats, Know - Nothings, and Free Soilers. The change in party to suit his evolving political philosophies was not unusual for Schuyler Colfax. After a change to the Republican Party, Colfax ran a successful campaign for the Thirty -fourth Congress in 1855 and six subsequent Congresses until 1869. The elections of 1856 gave the Republicans control of the House of Representatives, and allowed Colfax to become the Chair of the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads. During.that same campaign season, Colfax became very vocal about his abolitionist views. Likely the highlight of Colfax's legislative career was his signing of the joint resolution of Congress proposing the 13th amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery. As Speaker of the House, Colfax also got to announce the passage of the 13 °i amendment in 1865. In 1868, Schuyler Colfax was chosen to share the Republican ticket with Ulysses S. Grant for the vice presidency of the United States. Grant and Colfax were successful and were inaugurated on March 4, 1869. At 46 and 45 years of age respectively, Grant and Colfax were the youngest President and Vice President of the United States until the inauguration of Bill Clinton and Al Gore in 1993. Grant had ridden his enormous popularity and notoriety for Union victories during the Civil War, and Colfax and was well known in Washington and beyond for his years of service in the House of Representatives. Both men were supporters of civil rights for African Americans, and the Grant administration oversaw and guided the commencement of America's Reconstruction efforts in the South after the Civil War. Grant was the first President since Andrew Jackson to win two consecutive terms. Colfax was not selected as Grant's running mate in the election of 1872. He had been replaced on the ticket by Henry Wilson due to implications of what is referred to as the "Credit Mobilier Scandal ". Although formal charges were never levied, the mere suggestion of Colfax's guilt effectively ended his national political career. After leaving Washington, Colfax returned to South Bend, Indiana and embarked on a successful speaking and lecturing career. He traveled extensively sharing anecdotes of his years in journalism covering local and national politics and then joining those he'd once covered as a public servant himself. Colfax was a very active member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.), and had been largely responsible for the creation of the Rebekah Lodges in the early 1850s. The Section 8 page 17