Library of Congress
COLFAX, Schuyler, a
Representative from Indiana and a Vice President of the United States; born in
New York City March 23, 1823; attended the common schools; in 1836 moved with
his parents to New Carlisle, Ind.; appointed deputy auditor of Joseph County
1841; became a legislative correspondent for the Indiana State Journal;
purchased an interest in the South Bend Free Press and changed its name in 1845
to the St. Joseph Valley Register, the Whig organ of northern Indiana; member of
the State constitutional convention in 1850; unsuccessful Whig candidate for
election to the Thirty-second Congress; elected as a Republican to the
Thirty-fourth and to the six succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1855-March 3,
1869); was not a candidate for renomination in 1868, having become the
Republican nominee for Vice President; Speaker of the House of Representatives
(Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, and Fortieth Congresses); elected Vice President
of the United States on the Republican ticket headed by Gen. Ulysses Grant in
1868, was inaugurated March 4, 1869, and served until March 3, 1873;
unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1872, owing to charges of corruption
in connection with the Credit Mobilier of America scandal; lecturer; died in
Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn., January 13, 1885; interment in City Cemetery,
South Bend, Ind. - - Biographical
Data courtesy of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
