Passed Vice Presidents - # 17 – Schuyler Colfax

  

Grave of Schuyler Colfax (1 June 2022)

Served under Ulysses S. Grant

4 March 1869 – 4 March 1873

Preceded by # 16 – Andrew Johnson

Succeeded by # 18 – Henry Wilson

Born – 23 March 1823

Died – 13 January 1885 (age 61)

Buried – City Cemetery, South Bend, IN

Date Visited – 1 June 2022

We’re going to interrupt the cruise up the Rhone River and complete it later. There will be terrific memories of Lyon and my first visit to Paris but I need to change the subject and return to my roots, so to speak. I need another dose of graves and history.

When I introduced the Vice Presidents Grave Hunt, it was not intended to be a real quest…more an endeavor of opportunity. If I were close to a grave on my way to other destinations, why not pause and take a picture?

Entrance Gate to City Cemetery, South Bend, Indiana (1 June 2022)

The two dates (1832 and 1899) note when the cemetery

was founded and when the gates were erected.

That very situation arose when we recently drove to Wisconsin. The first long day on the road had us stop for the night in South Bend, Indiana. Well, what-da-ya-know? South Bend happens to be the final resting place for Ulysses Grant’s first vice president.

Schuyler Colfax served in the House of Representatives for seven terms (1855-69), three of them as Speaker. An opponent of slavery, he led the effort to pass the Thirteenth Amendment that abolished the practice in 1865.

Schuyler Colfax During his Time as Speaker of the House

(Library of Congress. Forms part of Brady-Handy Photograph Collection)

While James K. Polk (President # 11) is the only former Speaker to rise to the Oval Office, Colfax is one of just two Speakers to become vice president. If I ever get to Uvalde, Texas (yes, the same place), I can visit the other Speaker/VP, John Nance Garner, one of FDR’s seconds-in-command.

Grave of Schuyler Colfax (1 June 2022)

On another side of this modest marker is a similar

inscription for his son who died in 1925.

Schuyler Colfax, Jr. was Mayor of South Bend.

His term as vice president was typical for the times. Apart from presiding over the Senate, he was involved with the administration as little as possible. When Colfax thought Grant would not run for a second term, he began to consider a run for the presidency. When the general changed his mind, Colfax found himself in an awkward position…made worse when he was implicated in one of the scandals that marred the administration.

Tablet at the Grave of Schuyler Colfax (1 June 2022)

The Credit Mobilier affair was a mess that the Union Pacific Railroad schemed to bribe and defraud the government of millions when they built the first transcontinental railroad. Some things don’t change. It appears Colfax did take some railroad money and everyone thought it best that he not be on the ticket for Grant’s second term.

His political career over, Colfax spent the rest of his days as a successful businessman and lecturer. He died in Minnesota. After a January appearance in Mankato, he was walking to the rail station in sub-zero weather and succumbed to a heart attack at age 61.