Congress sat yesterday with open doors, devoting their entire session to suitable tributes to the virtues and services of their late fellow-member, the venerable and lamented ex-President Tyler. All day long his honored remains lay in state, in the draped Hall of Congress, covered with the flag of his country, with a wreath of evergreens and white roses on his breast; and multitudes of both sexes visited the chamber to take a last look at his well-known features, and testify by their presence their sense of the public loss. As the hour for the meeting of Congress drew near, the space allotted to spectators rapidly filled with ladies and gentlemen. At twelve o'clock President Cobb took the chair, and an earnest and touching prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. Hoge.
Mr. MACFARLAND, of
Virginia, rose and said:
Mr. President: My
colleagues have been pleased to assign to me the sad duty of preparing
resolutions, to express the sense of Congress of the great bereavement it is
summoned unexpectedly to mourn and lament. I wish it were in my power to
perform the mournful duty in a manner satisfactory to the sensibilities of
Congress and the country. Any announcement of the decease of the Hon. John
Tyler is imperfect and inadequate, fails of giving utterance to the nation's
lamentation, if it do not present him as a statesman and patriot in whom his
countrymen delighted to repose their confidence, and who failed not to derive
fresh incentives to honor and revere him from the faithfulness and ability with
which he administered every trust.
John Tyler is an
historical name. He was himself permitted to hear the judgment of his
generation, and I might say, of posterity, upon the labors and motives of his
life, pronouncing that they were alike elevated and successful. He was the
venerable representative of the memories of a past age, with its renounced
alliances and associations, and zealous and efficient in the reforms and
progress which have made the period of his latter days forever memorable. His
fame is indissolubly blended with the history of his times, and shall survive
the most enduring memorials of personal affection, or of public esteem. Live,
he still does, and will, in his example, his deeds, the purity of his public
and private life, in his matured counsels and inflexible devotion to
Constitutional and Republican Government. However profoundly the blow smote upon
our own feelings, "where else could he have been relieved of the yoke of
his labors so well as in the field where he bore them?"
The time in which he
lived was characterized by fierce political and party divisions; and Mr. Tyler
was ever intrepid in avowing his opinions, and resolute in defending them. His
career as chief-magistrate of the United States exposed him to painful
collisions, and demanded of him the exercise of the highest fortitude and
intrepidity. He met his trials then, as he did all others, as a good and brave
man may, with patience and confidence, in the ultimate vindication of his
motives. It was reserved for him, here in his own State, and in her august
convention, to receive the unanimous vote of the entire body, on being proposed
as a delegate to this Provisional Congress—an emphatic and deserved tribute to
the fidelity of his eventful life, and to the weight of his character.
Mr. President, it is
not alone for his statesmanship, and the length and variety of his public
services, that Mr. Tyler will be gratefully remembered, and that admiring
memories will fondly revert to, and recall him. As in his successive elevation
from one high trust to another, until he had compassed the entire round of
political preferment, an increase of reputation, fame, homage, met him at every
advance, so in private life it was his privilege to secure the respect,
confidence and esteem of all who approached him. Of the most obliging courtesy,
genial, generous and confiding; and withal, so engaging for his copious
eloquence, his sympathy for his fellow man, and his profound views of the
questions which engaged the public attention, all persons were instinctively
attracted to him, nor did any go away without admiring him. You remember, sir,
how the gentlemen of this House were accustomed to cluster around him, and how
engaging and attractive he was always found. Nothing now remains for us, but
the last and sad office of mourning friends, to commemorate the afflicting
dispensation.
I move the adoption
of the following resolutions:
Resolved, That Congress has heard, with the deepest sensibility, of the death, in
this city, on the morning of Saturday, the 18th instant, of the Hon. John
Tyler, a member of this Congress from the State of Virginia.
Resolved, That as a testimonial of respect for the memory of this illustrious
statesman and honored patriot, the members of the Congress will wear the usual
badge of mourning for thirty days, and will attend the funeral of deceased at
twelve o'clock to-morrow.
Resolved, That a committee of one member from each State be appointed to
superintend the funeral solemnities.
Resolved, That the proceedings of this body, in relation to the death of the Hon.
John Tyler, be communicated by the President of Congress to the family of
deceased.
Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of the deceased, that
Congress do now adjourn.
Eulogies on the
deceased were then pronounced by Messrs. Hunter and Rives, of Virginia Wigfall,
of Texas; Venable, of North Carolina; and Rhett, of South Carolina.
The resolutions were
then adopted, but the adjournment was stayed to enable the Speaker to present a
copy of the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly of Virginia, on
Saturday, in relation to the death of Mr. Tyler.
On motion of Mr.
Bocock, of Virginia, a committee to make arrangements for the funeral obsequies
was appointed.
The Speaker
announced the committee as follows: Messrs. Bocock, of Virginia; Smith, of
Alabama; Johnson, of Arkansas; Ward, of Florida; Crawford, of Georgia; Burnett,
of Kentucky: Conrad, of Louisiana; Harris, of Mississippi; Bell, of Missouri;
Morehead, of North Carolina; Boyce, of South Carolina; Atkins, of Tennessee;
and Oldham, of Texas.
On motion, Congress
Adjourned.
SOURCES: Lyon
Gardiner Tyler, The Letters and Times of the Tylers, Volume 2, pp.
674-6; “Proceedings Of Congress,” Daily
Richmond Whig, Richmond, Virginia, Tuesday Morning, January 21, 1862, p. 2,
col. 1 & 2
