Schuyler Colfax
|
- Vice President to:
General Ulysses S. Grant - Republican,
from Ohio.
- Ulysses S. Grant served 1869 - 1876. He died in 1885, at the age of 63.
- Dates Served: Colfax served as Vice President from 1869 - 1872.
- Political Party: Colfax was a Republican, from Indiana.
- Born: 1823.
- Died: 1885, at the age of 62.
- The presidential opponent during 1868 campaign was:
- Campaign issues in 1868:
- With the war over for three years, the primary issue now was Reconstruction.
How would the nation restore the Union? The Republicans wanted to punish the
South for the destruction brought on by the war and during the campaign they
ran General Grant as a war hero who had saved the Union, chosing as their
campaign slogan the noble words, "Let us have peace". The Democrats ran Seymour
as a candidate aimed mostly to the South, promising to continue President
Johnson's "soft" approach towards reintegration. But the Republicans
were successful in painting the Democrats as the party of treason, and since
freed black slaves now had the right to vote there weren't many of them who
voted Democrat. Grant, predictably, won by a huge landslide.
- Notable Facts about Schuyler Colfax:
- Religious affiliation: Colfax's religious beliefs were vague, with his public religious expressions being mostly focused on joining the anti-Catholic rhetoric of his time. His quotes from the Bible were generic and focused on issues like traditional morality and the right to freedom. But expressions of his personal, specific beliefs were about as vague as his sense of financial ethics.
- Schuyler studied law for a short time but then decided to get a real
job and became a journalist.
- He began his political career by taking part in the formation of the
new Republican party in 1854, and was elected to the US House of
Representatives, representing Indiana from 1855 - 1869, with the last
six years serving as Speaker of the House.
- Abraham Lincoln didn't like Colfax. During Colfax's term as Speaker of the
House, Lincoln once described him as "a little intriguer, aspiring beyond his
capacity". He was right, since it was during this time that Colfax was
later found to have been receiving bribes and illegal campaign
contributions.
- He was nominated to the Vice Presidency by the Republican party due to his
long record of party loyalty and his liberal views on black suffrage.
- He was dumped as candidate for Vice President in Grant's second presidential
campaign in 1872, due to his implication in a scandal involving him receiving
bribes involving the Stock Market.
- After his term as Vice President he spent his remaining years on
the lecture circuit. He died on his way to give a speech in Minnesota - when
he stepped off his train in 30-degrees below-zero weather he dropped dead
of a heart attack.
Notable events during his Vice Presidency:
- President Grant was basically a straight arrow, but his administration was riddled with
scandals. Some of the more notorious ones were:
- The Black Friday scandal, on Sept. 24, 1869. Two speculators tried to corner
the gold market by buying up gold aggressively, thereby driving up the price.
To make sure that the government didn't foil their plans by dumping federal
gold reserves on the market, they schmoozed with the president's brother-in-law.
But Grant eventually found out and ordered $4 million worth of federal gold
reserves sold to stabilize gold prices. The price shot down, but ruined many naive
investors in the process.
- The Credit Mobilier scandal, which broke during the 1872 re-election campaign.
The Credit Mobilier holding company had skimmed off loads of money from federally
subsidized construction of the Union Pacific Railroad. To try and avoid a
federal investigation they offered to sell shares of their stock at steep
discounts to members of Congress. Included in their list of recipients was
Vice President Colfax and future-president James Garfield, which resulted in
Colfax being dumped during Grant's campaign for a second term.
- The Delinquent Tax scandal, in 1874. Grant's Secretary of the Treasury had
appointed a special agent in charge of collecting delinquent taxes, but he
allowed the agent to keep, as his "fee", 50 percent of all revenue collected.
Out of $400,000 of back taxes collected he had pocketed half of it. It forced
the Secretary's resignation.
- The Whiskey Ring scandal, in 1875. Hundreds of distillers and federal
officials had been diverting millions of dollars in liquor taxes into their own
pockets. When the scam was discovered Grant called for all guilty parties to
be prosecuted, but when his personal secretary's name ended up on the list of
suspects Grant intervened on his behalf. 110 people were convicted.
- The Belknap Bribery, in 1876. Grant's Secretary of War had been receiving
annual bribes from Indian trading posts for several years. Impeachment procedings
were initiated but he resigned before the trial began.
- Reconstruction in the South. Grant continued the federal military occupation
of the South after the end of the Civil War, which included arresting large
numbers of members of the KKK in South Carolina.
- April 5, 1869, the last surviving soldier from the Revolutionary War dies: Daniel Bakeman,
age 109.
- The vacuum cleaner is invented by Ives W. McGaffey, on June 5th, 1869.
- Chicago Fire in 1871, supposedly caused by Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicking over a lantern.
- The invention of the flushing toilet, in 1872. Thomas Crapper, a British plumber, invented
the first modern cistern. While he didn't invent the toilet itself, he invented the tank
that attached to the wall above the toilet, holding the water used for flushing, allowing
for quiet flushing with clean water. According to popular tradition, Crapper's name became a
euphamism for toilets by American soldiers in England during World War I, who had never
seen the British device before.
- 15th Amendment ratified in 1870, extending the right to vote
to any citizen regardless of race.