backward; not a step impelled by the out-gushing heart of humanity, but a stride backwards into the darkness of past prejudice and oppression." Mr. Colfax knew he was arguing before men whose minds were possessed by a strong prejudice against a particular subject and a particular class and race; he knew, too, that it would be in vain to change the expressed will of a very decided majority of the convention, but he felt it his duty, and his heart prompted him to make a speech as able as he could "against the proposed measure, and in favor of equal and exact justice to all men, regardless of creed, race or color." But the effort proved fruitless. The convention submitted it in a separate article to the people, and they adopted it by an overwhelming majority. To the honor of the present Supreme Bench of Indiana, they have annulled it as in conflict with the Constitution of the United States, thus affirming as just Mr. Colfax's arguments against it sixteen years before.

TARRYING AT JERICHO CONGRESSIONAL CHAIR AND CONSCIENCE-DEFEAT-DELEGATE TO NATIONAL CONVENTION OF 1852-STIRRING SCENES.

IN 1851, when but three years past the constitutional age necessary for a seat in Congress, Mr. Colfax was nominated by the Whigs of his district as their candidate

for Congress. This nomination was unsought, unexpected and unanimous. His competitor was Dr. Graham N. Fitch, then incumbent of the Congressional chair of the district. Dr. Fitch was an able and experienced politician and "a good stumper." According to the custom from the beginning of the Hoosier State, the candidates stumped the district together. In company, they traversed the sixteen counties constituting the district-rode together, ate together, sometimes slept together, but attempted to slash each other most savagely on the stump. Seventy appointments for speaking were kept, requiring more than a thousand miles travelling. The candidates rode sometimes forty or fifty miles a day, besides making two speeches, sometimes taking supper at midnight, and sometimes not at all.

his

The candidates began their canvass in the southern part of the district, where Dr. Fitch was at home and Mr. Colfax was a stranger. Dr. Fitch made the opening speech. Just before sitting down, hoping to overwhelm his youthful competitor with ridicule, he advised him, instead of attempting to get a seat in Congress, to tarry at Jericho till his beard should be grown. The Doctor had been artful and unfair in his speech, hoping to use up competitor at once. This allusion to the tarrying of his beardless competitor at Jericho called out the vociferous yells and derisive laughter of his partisans. Before that derisive laughter had died away, Mr. Colfax was called upon to come forward and begin his first speech in his first canvass for Congress. Stepping forward quickly, and glancing around with his keen, searching eye, he took the hearts of the audience captive, as with the readiness of a practised debater, and with a just indignation, that made his words sound like the twang of a bow

that had sent forth a well-sped arrow, he said, "I was not aware, my fellow-citizens, that brass and beard were the necessary qualifications of a Congressman. If, in your judgment, it is so, I must renounce all hopes of your votes, as I confess, what you cannot but see, that my competitor has a superabundance of both." The cries of "Good, good," and the ringing cheers that greeted this opening, told the Doctor that if he was a Goliath, he had, in the stripling before him, a David to contend with.

Upon another occasion during this canvass the following noteworthy incident occurred:

The new constitution, framed by the convention of which Mr. Colfax had been a member, was then before the people for their adoption or rejection. The clause prohibiting the immigration of free colored persons into the State was to be submitted to the people separately. This provision of the constitution Mr. Colfax had warmly and strenuously opposed, though in vain, as unjust, oppressive, and opposed to the supreme law of the land. The competing Congressional candidates had agreed, however, beforehand, that the issues before the people, upon the adoption of the constitution and of this separate clause of the constitution, were not to be brought into their canvass, as they had nothing at all to do with Congressional matters. But Dr. Fitch, knowing the character of the crowd before him, and that many in it had strong prejudices against the negro, and were strongly opposed to the course which Mr. Colfax and those with him had pursued in the convention, in answer to a public question from one of his friends, replied that he was heartily in favor of the adoption of this separate clause of the Constitution. Mr. Colfax met the unexpected issue fairly and frankly. He stated

the previous agreement of the candidates; he showed the matter had no relevancy to the Congressional canvass, and then fully and fairly and boldly stated his views. 'These," said he, "are my conscientious convictions. If you ask me to sacrifice them for a seat in Congress, I tell you frankly I cannot do it. I would not act counter to my convictions of duty, if you could give me fifty terms in Congress." His bold, manly course lost him no friends from among those whom his competitor had hoped to gain, and who voted so overwhelmingly for the article Mr. Colfax so inflexibly and boldly opposed.

Mr. Colfax far surpassed the expectations of all his friends in the canvass which he made. He was defeated, however, as his friends claimed, through illegal votes along the line of a railroad, then in process of construction, through the district. The majority against him was about two hundred.

In 1852 Mr. Colfax was a delegate to the National Convention that nominated General Scott for the Presidency. He was also one of the secretaries of the convention. The following editorial photograph of the convention in the Register presents us with a vivid picture of the times:

STIRRING SCENES OF THE CONVENTION.

"The Whig National Convention at Baltimore was not only a full convention, but a monster one. Every State in the Union-far-distant California not excepted, and Texas included-was fully represented, and many of them more than fully. One delegate for each electoral vote would have made a convention of two hundred and

ninety-five members-certainly as large a body as could be kept in order by one presiding officer. But a large majority of the Southern States had sent far more than this number, to which, however, every Northern State, without exception, had limited itself. For instance, Virginia, with fifteen electoral votes, had about forty regular delegates, most of her districts having three delegates each. Kentucky and Tennessee, with twelve electoral votes each, had twice that number of delegates. Louisiana, six votes, had twenty-five delegates on the ground, having really chosen one hundred and sixty at her State convention. Thus there were fully five hundred delegates upon the platform, all interested, all excited, and, we were going to say, sometimes almost all talking at once. The very fact that the division on the prominent rival candidates was to a great extent a sectional one, (Scott's one hundred and thirty-one votes on the first ballot being every one Northern men, unless Delaware may be considered a Southern State,) added to the excitement of the occasion. The thousands of spectators who filled every place in the galleries and on the floor where a human being could sit or stand, and who were not chary in expressing their feelings also by applause, hisses, and parenthetical remarks, did not tend to lessen the 'noise and confusion.' While the ladies-God bless them!-who by hundreds thronged the gallery allotted to them, could not be expected to restrain murmurs of approbation, though they always had the good taste, which their worser halves did not, of never manifesting dissent in an offensive manner. With all these concomitants, so agreeable at mass meetings, but so noiseprovoking at conventions, it is not to be wondered at that the tumult often exceeded that of the Philadelphia