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, p. 674-6; “Proceedings of Congress,” Daily Richmond Whig, Richmond, Virginia,
Tuesday Mornigh, January 21, 1862,p. 2, Columns 1-2.
