This CDV image has engraving of 1868 Presidential running mates Ulysses S. Grant and Schuyler Colfax. Grant is in uniform while Colfax wears a dark civilian suit. Bottom front of mount has a printed caption that reads “U.S. GRANT AND SCHUYLER COLFAX.” Image has good contrast and only light surface dirt.

Reverse is blank.

General Grant is well-known and his history need not be repeated here. However, Mr. Colfax is not a household name.

Schuyler Colfax Jr. was born March 23, 1823 in New York City. He was a journalist, businessman, and politician from Indiana. He served as a United States Representative (1855–69), Speaker of the House of Representatives (1863–69), and the 17th Vice President of the United States (1869–73). To date, he is one of only two Americans (John Nance Garner is the other) to have served as both House speaker and vice president.

Colfax was known for his opposition to slavery while serving in Congress, and was a founder of the Republican Party. As Speaker of the House, Colfax voted for passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in January 1865. After winning the presidential election of 1868, President Ulysses S. Grant and Vice President Colfax, at ages 46 and 45, were the youngest Presidential team elected in the 19th Century.

An 1873 Congressional investigation into the Crédit Mobilier scandal named Colfax as one of the members of Congress, who likely received payments of cash and discounted stock from the Union Pacific Railroad in exchange for favorable action during the construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad. Denied re-nomination in 1872, Colfax left the vice presidency in 1873 and never again ran for office. Afterwards he worked as a business executive and became a popular lecturer and speech maker.

Colfax died in Mankato, Minnesota on January 13, 1885 while changing trains in route to Rock Rapids, Iowa to give a speech.  [ad]

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