Editing Schuyler Colfax (section)

==Whig Party politician==
While covering the [[Indiana Senate]] as a journalist, Colfax also served as the senate's assistant enrolling clerk from 1842 to 1844.<ref name="Papers">{{cite web |url=https://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/schuyler-colfax-papers-1843-1884.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/schuyler-colfax-papers-1843-1884.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=Biographical Sketch, Schuyler Colfax |last=William Henry Smith Memorial Library |date=1988 |website=Schuyler Colfax Papers, 1843–1884 |publisher=Indiana Historical Society |location=Indianapolis, IN |access-date=July 25, 2021 |page=2}}</ref> In 1843, several South Bend residents formed a debating society in which members researched and discussed current events and other topics of interest, and Colfax became a prominent member.{{sfn|Brisbin|page=361}} The organization's success led it to create a [[Moot court|moot]] state legislature, in which members introduced, debated, and voted on bills in accordance with the rules of the [[Indiana General Assembly]].{{sfn|Brisbin|pages=361–362}} As with the debating society, Colfax was a prominent member of South Bend's moot legislature.{{sfn|Brisbin|pages=361–362}}

Colfax's success in the debating society and moot legislature made him prominent enough to take part in politics, and he was selected as a delegate to the [[1848 Whig National Convention]], where he was selected as one of the gathering's secretaries and supported [[Zachary Taylor]] for the presidency.{{sfn|Brisbin|page=364}} He was next elected as a delegate to Indiana's 1849–1850 state constitutional convention.{{sfn|Brisbin|page=364}} Colfax was [[1850 and 1851 United States House of Representatives elections#Indiana|the 1851 Whig nominee]] for Congress in the district which included South Bend, but narrowly lost to his [[U.S. Democratic Party|Democratic]] opponent,{{sfn|Brisbin|page=364}} primarily because he voted against a measure at the constitutional convention that stopped free African Americans from moving to Indiana.{{sfn|Brisbin|page=364}}

In 1852, Colfax was a delegate to the [[1852 Whig National Convention|Whig National Convention]] and was selected to serve as a convention secretary.{{sfn|Brisbin|page=364}} He supported [[Winfield Scott]] for president, and after Scott was nominated, Colfax took an active part in the campaign by making speeches and authoring and distributing newspaper articles and editorials.{{sfn|Brisbin|pages=364–365}} In 1852, Colfax's political supporters encouraged him to make a second run for the U.S. House, but he declined.{{sfn|Brisbin|page=365}}