Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/338

 COLFAX

COL( r ATE

afterward adopted and made apart of the statute law, punisliing as felons fraudulent contractors speculating on the necessities of the government. He left the speaker's chair on April 8. 1864, in order to move the expulsion of Representative Long of Ohio for words spoken in debate, in which the offending representative had favored the recognition of the Southern Confederacy. His resolution did not pass until modified so as

to make it a reso- lution of censiu'e rather than expul- sion. Temperance associations found in Mr. Colfax an able advocate, and he ad- vanced legislation looking to the carry- ing out of such re- foi"ms. In the Repub- lican national con- vention of 1868, upon the nomination of Gen. L'. S. Grant as the party candidate for the presidency, Mr. Colfax was made the candidate for the vice- presidency on the first ballot. This transferred him on March 4, 1869, to the chair of the jiresid- ing officer of the senate, in which position he sei'ved throughout the 41st and 42d congresses. His apparent encouragement of the Libei'al Re- publican movement of 1872 induced the leaders of that wing of the party to mention his name in connection with the Presidency, and this fact, although in no way encouraged or approved by Mr. Colfax, was sufficient to weaken him before the regular convention at Philadelphia and he was defeated in the vice-presidential contest. The friends of Mr. Greeley, upon his death in November, offered to Mr. Colfax the editorship of the Xeio York Tribtine, which he declined. The congressional investigation of the methods and practices of the credit mobilier of America and the connection of members of congress with the enterprise, together with the allotment of shares of stock to representatives in congress for the purpose of controlling legislation, resulted in the report of the house judiciary committee in 1873, that so far as the investigation implicated Mr. Colfax, the house had no ground to impeach him, as the offence, if committed, was before his election to the vice-presidency. He strenuously denied the charges made before the committee, and his friends remained ever faithful. The charge was based on the evidence of a check paj^able to " S. C. or bearer," and it proved to have been paid to another jjerson; but the impu- tation, coming from those whom lie liad supposed

to be liis friends, liurt him so keenly tJiat he retired to South Bend, Ind., and thereafter de- voted himself to the lecture platform. His more popular lectures were " Across the Continent," and " Abraham Lincoln,"" the first being his ex- periences in a journey to San Francisco and return, made in the summer of I860; and the second of peculiar interest to the public on ac- count of the personal friendship that had existed between the lecturer and his subject. He was a regent of the Smithsonian institution. He also actively engaged in the cause of Odd Fellow- ship and the Odd Fellows of Indianapolis, Ind., erected to his memory a bronze statue in Univer- sity park, unveiled May 18, 1887. Col. O. J. HoUister prepared a ' ' Life of Colfax, ' " published in 1886. He was married Oct. 10, 1844, to Evelyn E., daughter of Col. Ralph Clark of Argyle, N.Y. She died at Newport, R.I., in July, 1863, and he was married at Andover, Ohio, Nov. 18, 1867, to Ellen M., daughter of Theodore L. Wade, and niece of Benjamin F. Wade, U.S. senator from Ohio. Schuyler Colfax died in Mankato, Minn. , Jan. 13, 188.-).

COLFELT, Lawrence Maclay, clergyman, was born in Reedsville, ]\lifflin county. Pa., Dec. 22, 1849; son of Charles and Nancy (Bates) Col- felt; grandson of Charles Colfelt of Tubingen, Germany, and a descendant of the Huguenot.s^ through his grandmother, who was of French extraction. He was graduated from Washington and Jefferson college in 1869, and from Princeton theological seminary in 1872. He was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry May 9, 1872, and was pastor at AUentown, Pa., 1872-74; of the First church, Philadelphia, 1874-84; and of the Oxford church, Philadelphia, 1884-93. In 1893 he sustained Dr. Charles A. Briggs in liis alleged heresies and voluntarily retired from the jjresby- tery of Philadelphia. He then resigned his pas- torate and accepted the chair of ethics in the Pennsylvania state college, being at the same time preacher to the college. In April, 1898, he accepted a call to the pastorate of the Oxford Presbyterian church, Philadelphia, Pa. Hamp- den-Sydney gave him the degree of D.D. in 188.").

COLGATE, James Boorman, banker r id philanthropist, was born in New York city, March 4, 1818; son of William and Mary (Gilbert) Col- gate; and grandson of Robert and Marj' (Bowles) Colgate, who emigrated from the county of Kent, England, in 1795, to escape persecution as sympathizers Avith the American colonists during the Revolution. Robert Colgate received notifi- cation of the enmity of the government from Pitt, a friend of his boyhood. First settling in ^Maryland, he removed to New York city and thence to Delaware county, N.Y., where he died