Schuyler Colfax

“ To be able to retire from this chair When laying down its emblem of authority, with none to reproach me, on the one hand, for infidelity to the principles I cherish, and none on the other to impugn or deny the rigid impartiality with which I have striven to administer your rules, has been my earnest and daily endeavor in the years that now are garnered with the past. ”

“ We can never all meet again. But as in a distant landscape the eye rests with delight on its beauties, while its defects are thrown into unnoticed shade, may memory, as in after years we review our associations here, bring before us all the pleasures of this companionship in the national service, forgetful of the asperities which should perish with the occasions that evoked them! ”

“ Though death has not spared our circle, and New York, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania have been called to mourn the loss of faithful representatives, we come to this closing hour with our ranks thinned less than usual by paralyzing sickness or wasting disease. ”