E 664 H31 J51 :opy 1 H Book .HilH? 4. // ,•) . J a ri -A s:4 3 . JO J\ n -i J a . I MEMORIAL ADDRESSES LIFE AND CHARACTER ISHAM G, HARRIS (Late a Senator from Tennessee). DELIVERED TN THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FIFTY-FIFTH CONGRESS, Second Session. WASHINGTON : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. h .H311151 CONTENTS Page. Proceedings in the Senate 5 Memorial address by — Mr. Bate 14 Mr. Morrill 29 Mr. Morgan 33 Mr. Hoar 36 Mr. Wai.thali, 39 Mr. Hawlev 43 Mr. COCKRELL 44 Mr. Stewart 49 Mr. Chilton 51 Mr. TuRLEY 56 Speech of Hon. David Turpie, at Memphis, Tenn 61 Proceedings in the House 71 Memorial address by — Mr. McMiLLiN 73 Mr. Bland 81 Mr. Richardson 84 Mr. Meyer 89 Mr. McRae 94 Mr. Benton 96 Mr. Rhea 103 Mr. Brownlow 105 Mr. Clarke 116 Mr. Sims 118 Mr. De Armond 1 24 Mr. Gaines 130 Mr. Carmack 132 Mr. Hartman 140 Mr. SuLZER 142 Mr. Cox 170 Mr. King 1 73 Appendix — Memorial ceremonies 148 3 Death of Isham G. Harris. Proceedings in the Senate. July 9, 1897. Mr. Bate. Mr. President, it becomes my painful duty this morning to announce to the Senate the death of my colleague, and as a mark of respect I shall at the proper time make a motion for an adjournment, and will at some future time ask that a day be set apart specially for tributes to be delivered b>- Senators on his life and character. A conspicuous figure, Mr. President, and a famihar one, identified as an active and influential factor in the history of this Chamber and of the country, is no longer one of us. Isham Green Harris for more than twenty years sat in this Chamber as a Senator from Tennessee, and for the last ten j-ears it has been my honor and pleasure to be associated with him as his colleague. He died last eveuing at his residence in sight of this Capitol at an advanced age; an age, however, which he ever kept green and bright and buoyant until prostrated by his recent illness. Tennessee and the entire country mourn his loss. The individual man and his personal characteristics are abun- dantly known to Senators who surround me, as they are to Tennesseeans and to the general constituency. He closed last evening a long career of usefulness to the country, especially to 6 Life mid Character of Is/iain G. Harris. his native State of Tennessee, which honored liini with her highest official gifts and in tuni has lx;en honored by him. He was a man of ideas, with high qualities of leadership and statesmanship, with courage to assert and ability to maintain them. His devotion to duty, as he conceived it, and its faith- ful and fearless discharge inspired confidence and friendship, while it often di.sarmed opposition. The Ijenefit of his rijie e.xpericnce and extended information as to the affairs of gov- ennnent is lost to us. His familiarity with parliamentary usage and his preeminence as a presiding officer make his loss the more keenly felt by the Senate. His honest, earnest, and inci- sive mode of debate and his ready, emphatic, and accurate manner of deciding questions, as presiding officer, will not pass away, but will live in the memory of Senators and in the his- tory of the countrj'. Mr. President, Senator H.vrris belonged to that class of his- toric characters in this country known as ' ' war governors. ' ' He is the last but one of that class upon either side. North or South, who took an active participation and presided over a sovereign State during that interstate struggle. He was not, becau.se he was governor, an active Cotifederate soldier in its stricte.st sense; but all his nature and all his sym- pathies were enlisted upon the Confederate side. He was the governor of a strong and mighty State which fur- nished numbers of troops for the Confederate cause. They were organized under his administration. He could not, being governor of the State, enter the ranks or be swoni into the service by enlistment. He could not take that course, but nevertheless he was a live, active, influential factor in all that concerned the movement of Tennessee and of the Confederacy in that great war. He was present and as voluntary aid took part in all our great battles. Proceedings in the Senate. 7 His life has been an eventful one, his history a noted one, and it will live after him. I need not speak of him here in this Chamber. Those who surround me knew him and understood his peculiarities, his personalities. He had them, and he had them in a generous way, and he always exercised them with a proper feeling and in a generous manner. We may forget many things that transpired here, and some characters who have gone the way that he has gone; but, Mr. President, Senators will not forget the peculiar manner of ex- pression that belonged to him, with his clear, straightforward, direct, and incisive speech on all occasions, without de\-iation. No man ever misunderstood what he meant, and no one will forget that peculiar emphasis which was his. Neither will any one in this Senate forget that promptness and readiness with which he always decided questions when he was in the chair. Such was his history here, and it will not only live in our memories, but it will belong to the political historj- of this country. But he is gone. He is no longer one of us. On yesterday evening the summons came. The clouds seemed to surround him. All his nature, as it were, his past hfe, came before me when I understood that he was dying. I remembered him in my young manhood when he was first governor of Tennessee. I remembered him later on as the Confederate war governor of my State, when he heard the first reveille and the last tattoo in Confederate camps. I remembered him through the good and evil fortune of our Southland, ever \-igilant and ready to further the cause he had espoused— and that his cause was my cause— and in his dying hour my pulse beat a warm sympathy and my heart went out in reverence for the grand old veteran. But he is gone. Yesterday evening, a few minutes before 6 o'clock, the summons came. The shadows of death spread over 8 Life and Character of Isham G. Harris. him as a dark cloiul; the curfew tolled the knell of his departing day; the soothing sound of "taps" iu\-ited sleep to the woni and wearj' veteran ; he entered his silent tent; he sleeps there now on Fame's eternal camping ground. Mr. President, I .shall move to adjourn at the proper time, but meanwhile I will ask for the consideration of the resolutions which I send to the desk to be read. The Vice-President. The resolutions submitted by the Senator from Tennessee will be read. The resolutions were read, as follows: Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound .sorrow of the death of the Hon. Isham G. Harris, late a Senator from the State of Tennessee. Resolved, That a committee of nine Senators lae appwinted by the Vice-President to take order for superintending the funeral of Mr. H.\RRis, which shall take place in the Senate Chamber at 12 o'clock m. to-morrow, and that the Senate will attend the same. Resolved, That, as a further remark of resjx;ct entertained by the Senate for his memory, his remains Ije removed from Wash- ington to Tenne.s.see in charge of the Sergeant-at-Arms, and attended by the committee, who shall have full power to carrj- this resolution into effect. Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these proceed- ings to the House of Representatives and in\nte the House of Representatives to attend the funeral in the Senate Chamber, and to appoint a committee to act with the committee of the Senate. The re.solutions were considered by unanimous consent, and agreed to. The \'ice-President appointed as the committee under the second resolution, Mr. Bate, Mr. Waltliall, Mr. Berrj-, Mr. Turpie. Mr. Allen, Mr. Deboe, Mr. Pettus, Mr. Chilton, and Mr. Wetmore. Proceedings in the Senate. 9 Mr. Cockrell submitted the following resolution; which was considered hs unanimous consent, and agreed to: Resolved, That invitations be extended to the President of the United States and the members of his Cabinet, the Chief Justice and associate justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, the diplomatic corps (through the Secretary' of State), the Major-General commanding the Arm)', and the senior Admiral of the Navy to attend the funeral of the Hon. Isham G. Har- ris, late a Senator from the State of Tennessee, in the Senate Chamber at 12 o'clock meridian to-morrow. Mr. Cockrell submitted the following resolution; which was considered by unanimous consent, and agreed to: Resolved, That the expenses incurred by the select committee appointed to take order for the funeral of the late Senator Isham G. Harris be paid from the contingent fund of the Senate, upon vouchers to be approved by the chairman of said com- mittee. Mr. Bate. Mr. President, I move, as a further mark of respect to the memory of my deceased colleague, that the Sen- ate do now adjourn. The motion was unanimously agreed to; and (at 12 o'clock and 15 minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned until to-morrow, Saturday, July 10, 1897, at 12 o'clock meridian. Life and Character of Ishain G. Harris. FUNERAL OF SENATOR ISHAM G. HARRIS. Jl-XE lO, 1897. Rev. Hugh Johnston, D. D., Acting Chaplain of the Senate, offered the following prayer: Let us pray. Almighty God, Thou rulest the armies of heaven and among the children of men, according to Thy good plea.sure, and none can stay Thine hand or say to Thee, What doest Thou? But though infinitely great. Thou art unspeak- ably good. Thou carest for us. We can not weep the tear Thou dost not see, or feel the pain Thou dost not know, or breathe the prayer Thou dost not hear, for Thy tender mercies are over all Thy works. We thank Thee for life with all its ble.ssings; for all the gen- erations of men who have come and gone, and have sown and reaped and made for us such har\-ests of comfort and culture. We bless Thee that Thou do.st not confine us to this present existence, but that after the training and discipline of life Thou dost open to us the gates of a .second life, even the life that is immortal. We give Thee thanks for the long and valual)le ser\-ice which the great statesman who.se name has so suddenly become a mem- ory was enabled to render to his country and to his State, for his rare qualities of leadership in the councils of the nation, for his sturdiness of purpose, and for tho.se tender personal charac- teristics which so endeared him to his kindred and friends. We beseech Thee to comfort all who mourn. We entreat Thee give to his sons a firm trust in Thee and a tranquil submission to Thy will. And here in this ChamlK-r, where he was so conspicuous a personality, the scene of .so many achievements and successes in public life, give Thy ser\'ants before Thee to see, give us all to see, how Thou dost level to the dust all distinctions of rank and station and honor, and that nothing endures but the fine gold of true character. Proceediugs in the Senate. ii Help us, we beseech Thee, to build up manhood iu Christ Jesus, to put our trust more firmly in that blessed and only Saviour who has died for our sins, who has conquered death, who has achieved a victory over the grave, and who opens the kingdom of heaven to all believers. To whom, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen. The Vice-President. Seuators, by order of the Senate the usual business will be suspended this day to enable the Senate to participate in the funeral ceremonies deemed appropriate upon the death of Isham G. Harris, late an honored member of this bod}- from the State of Tennessee. The reading of the Journal will be dispensed with. At five minutes past 12 o'clock the members of the House of Representatives entered the Senate Chamber. The Chaplain of the House was escorted to a seat at the Secretary's desk, and the members of the House were shown to the seats on the floor provided for them. They were soon followed by members of the diplomatic corps, the President and his Cabinet min- isters, the committee of arrangements of the two Houses, and members of the family of the deceased Senator, who were respectively escorted to the seats assigned them on the floor. The burial ser\-ice of the Methodist Episcopal Church was read by Rev. Hugh Johnston, D. D., assisted bj- Rev. J. W. Duffey, D. D., of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. The benediction was pronounced b}- Rev. H. N. Coudeu, Chaplain of the House of Representatives. The Vice-President. The funeral ceremonies are now ter- minated. The bod}- of our late brother will now be committed to the charge of the ofiicers of the Senate and to the committee representing the two Houses, to be conveyed to his late home in Tennessee, there to be buried among his family and friends. 12 Life and Character of I sham (i. Harris. Mr. Batk. Mr. President, I move that the Senate do now adjourn. The motion was agreed to; and fat 12 o'clock and 30 minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned until Monday, July 12, 1897, at 12 o'clock meridian. MEMORIAL ADDRESSES ON THE LATE SENATOR HARRIS, March 24, 1898. Mr. Bate. Mr. President, the hour set apart for the Senatorial ceremonies in memory of my late colleague, Senator Harris, has arrived, and I offer the resolutions which I send to the desk. The Presiding Officer (Mr. Pasco). The resolutions sub- mitted by the Senator from Tennessee will be read. The Secretary read the resolutions, as follows: Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of the death of Hon. Isham G. Harris, late a Senator from the State of Tennessee. Resolved, That, as a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased, the business of the Senate be now suspended to enable his associates to pay proper tribute of regard to his high char- acter and distinguished public services. Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these resolutions to the House of Representatives. Resolved, That as an additional mark of respect, the Senate, at the conclusion of the.se ceremonies, do adjourn. The Presiding Officer. The question is on agreeing to the resolutions. The resolutions were unanimously agreed to. 13 14 I -iff and Character of I sham (J. Harris. ADDRESS OF Mr. Bate. Mr. B.\TE. Mr. President, to mv late distinguished coUeaRue on this floor all the honors due to the most illustrious citizen have been paid by the officials of Tennessee and by the sjxjn- taneous affection of the citizens of the State. His body, by general and public request, lay in state in the capitol of Ten- nessee, escorted and guarded by old ex-Confederate soldiers, who stood sentinel around his bier under the two flags — Con- federate and Federal. The memorial services on a later day at Memphis, the home of the late Senator H.\rris, were of that character which attest the love and esteem in which he was held by the people of Ten- nessee. On that occasion the drapery of woe gave place to the beauty of flowers, and the vast auditorium bloomed and blos- somed with the festoons of smilax and chrysanthemums, while palms of ancient and sacred memory vied with roses in gi\'ing grace and beauty to a scene which tore evidence of a purpose on the part of the whole comnumity to unite in a grand testi- monial to the honored dead. Representative men, the rich and the poor, were there, and every creed in religion as well as everj- di\-ision in politics united in one testimonial to the memor>- of the citizen, the "war governor," and statesman who had passed away. Noth- ing which affection could suggest or pride projXJse was omitted by that community which he had ser\"ed and in which he had so long resided. The glinnner of the old gray uniform on the Confederate veterans on this memorial occasion recalled the glory of the past without in the least derogating from the duties of the present. He had worn tlial iinif' personal con.sequence and solicitous only for the safety of the State and the protection of her jxiople. To that end, when all hopes of continued peace \anished lx;fore the President's call for troops to invade the Southern States, Governor Harris bent every energy of his character and ex- erted every resource of the State to the organization and equip- ment of her volunteers; and so well did he work in those precarious days that by July, iS6i, he had organized and equipped thou.sands of troops, turning them over to the Con- federate authorities. He relaxed no effort in the defense of the State, but with untiring energy continued his efforts to place the State in a condition to Ix; defended by her own people as well as by the armies of the Confederate States. His example as governor Address of Mr. Bate of Tennessee. 23 was inspiring to all the people, infusing energy everj-where and bringing order out of confusion, until under his administration, which was during the entire war, over 100,000 Tennessee sol- diers, as gallant and patriotic troops as ever mustered under battle flag, had enlisted and had been as well equipped as could be under the existing conditious and completely organized in the armies of the Confederate States, and thus he earned the well merited, and to him the most highly prized, sobriquet of the "War Governor of Teiniessee." When driven by the events of the war from the State and it was no longer possible for him to discharge the duties of the exalted ofiSce, he rested not, nor sought eas}- berth, but imme- diately entered the field on the staff of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, and was with him on the field of Shiloh and person- ally assisted that great chieftain at the time he received his death shot. With the Arm}- of Tennessee, under all its commanders, he ser\^ed through all the years of the war, exerting every effort to mitigate the hard-ships of the soldiers, to supply the necessities of their daily life, and sharing with them the sunshine and the storm, the heat and the cold, the joy of victory and the sting of defeat. Though not technically in the Confederate army, for he could not be, as he was governor of Teinie.ssee, but he was in fact its inseparable companion from beginning to end, and heard its first reveille and its last tattoo. He was emphatically the friend of the soldiers, and omitted nothing that could contribute to their comfort or increase their efficiency. After the war, with all its disappointments, lo.sses. and di.stress, the people of Tennessee still treasure in their hearts the sacred memory of their heroic soldiers. When all the blandishments of life are gone, * * * the brave live on. 24 Life and Cliaraclcr of Isham G. Harris. All else seemed gone, under the inscrutable wisdom of an all- wise Providence, but the manliood of those four years. In all the noblest acceptation of that word, it is a precious heirloom to Confederates, to be transmitted from sire to son. Of tliat man- hood Governor Harris was a living example, in its administra- tive feature, in its brave devotion to duty, in its un.selfish atten- tion to the wants of others, and in its bravery and endurance on the field of battle, and also in exacting demands in bivouac, march, and hospital. The history of Isham G. Harris is inseparably connected with our war period. He was then in the prime of life and in the zenith of his power. He was governor during the entire time, from 1861-65, of a sovereign State, mighty in those effective elements of war, men and resources. It was an ill- starred destiny that came ujwn our country and brought a four- years carnival of suffering and death. W'liL-n the bloodshot eye of Mars looked down upon the .scene, it was "red with unconnnon wrath," and the smile of mercy appeased it not. Ours was then a land of armed men, brothers fighting each other. Destruction and death was the order of the day. Every march was to a battlefield, and ever>" Ixittle- field was a graveyard. Defeat of to-day gave earnest of victory to-morrow, while N-ictorj' to-morrow meant defeat the next day. It was a struggle between giants, as fierce and luirelenting as that between Saracen and Crusader over the Holy Sepulcher when the battle-ax of Coeur de Lion found its death-producing counterpart in the magic blade of Saladin. • It was in the.se times that the subject of this trilnite was at the helm, steering a mighty State through the crimson tide of war. IJut with peace there came not rest to his wear)- spirit. The triumph of the I'nion Army admitted of no magnanimity for him. Tlie fierce ]>assions of politics interposetl to drive him Address of Mr. Bate of Tennessee. 25 into exile. The trumped-up charge of treason to the State, the State he had so courageously defended, was set in motion, and, with a reward for his capture, he was driven to seek safetj^ in Mexico and there await a returning sense of shame to his per- secutors. From Mexico to England was for him a change from enforced idleness to that business acti\'ity so necessary to his energetic and ever-working nature. One year in business in Liverpool completed the two and a half years of exile, during which all charges were abandoned and rewards withdrawn, and he was free to return to the State and people he had ser\-ed so faithfully and loved so well. A period of eight years followed with a successful practice of the law, during which the clouds of politi- cal animosities were being graduallj^ dispelled and the people had become free to exercise their right of selecting their Repre- sentatives and Senators. Governor Harris became a candidate and was elected by the legislature to the Senate of the United States, where, from 1877 to 1S97, ^ period of over twenty years, he was the zealous and faithful ambassador of Tennessee to this Amphictyonic Council of sovereign States. This Senate too well remembers mj- colleague for me to recall the weighty words, the impressive manner, the forcefulness in colloquy, the readj- retort, the executive abilitj', tact, and discre- tion, the parliamentary management, the courtesj' that ever characterized him in the chair — for he had been chosen its tem- porary presiding officer — the firmness with which he maintained his convictions, and the triumph he won. His was a green and fresh old age. His eyes were not dim and lusterless, nor was his natural force much abated. He was never a better or more useful Senator nor more attentive and efficient to his duties than in the later years of his life. Age 26 Life and Cliaractcr of Isham G. Harris. sc-etned only to have brought ripened exjjerience with its advan- tages which he made available. He was generally in his seat and always a watcher, even in weary nights when obstructive legislation was rampant. When younger men were inattentive and sought sleep, he, regardless of age, was awake and vigilant and ready for any turn in the game of political diplomacy that was going on, and generally took on such occasions a leading and effective part in all discus- sions pertaining to the rules of the Senate and parliamentar>' proceedings. Indeed he felt, and it came to be so regarded in the Senate, that debate on parliamentary proceedings was his fight, for he was the admitted authority on parliamentary law in the body. Mr. President, Governor H.vrris lived in an eventful age. No eighty years of human action has brought to light so many useful discoveries and such great results. The map of the world has been changed during the period of his life. Empires have appeared and pas.sed away like bubbles on the surface of the lake. Continents that were comparatively vacant have become the abode of powerful vStates, peopled by intelligent inhabitants that enjoy all the advantages of a high ci\nlization. At his birth this Republic was all east of the Mississippi; at his death the tide of population had crossed the Rocky Mountains and built po%verful States and splendid cities on the Pacific. What at his birth was the American desert has become the abode of freemen, and enterprising communities now cheer the dreary wastes. No railroad was then found on this continent, nor was it traversed by thou.sands of miles in which the traveler scales the lofty mountains and passes over the great rivers in splendid parlor cars, where his meals are ser\'ed and he reposes on his Address of JSI) . Bate of Tennessee. 27 downy bed while he spins along over wonderful scenery at the rate of 40 miles an hour. At his birth no scientist dreamed that each day's proceedings would be distributed through the world with a speed that far outstrips the earth in her daily revolutions around her axis. Yet the lightning has become the great agent of humanity to distribute its messages, propel its cars, and heat its habitations. The telephone is the faithful agent that repeats the human voice scores of miles. The year after his birth the first steamship crossed the At- lantic. Now every ocean is stirred by the swift messengers of nations in peace and war. The world of mind and morals has been evolving new theories of thought and new rules of social and spiritual life. The activity of human genius has brought out new creations in every department of utility. Ancient institutions have given place to new and more refined and deli- cate ones. The wonders of art have outstripped the wildest visions of dreaming fancy and given to human achievement boundless possibilities, that may co\-er the earth with charities and bless- ings that will wipe away all tears and lull into sweet harmony the sighs and sorrows of the human race. Amid this wonderful impulse of human action this distin- guished man has lived and acted and enrolled his name. Mr. President, when the end came to those eighty years of arduous life, when the golden bowl was broken, and the silver cord was loo.sed, and the pitcher broken at the fountain, it covdd be truthfully said of my colleague that "he died at his post." If not like Chatham falling on the floor of the House of Lords, or John Quincy Adams sinking in the House of Representatives, yet he succumbed from the exertion and the labor of liis Sena- torial duties like the great English leader and the exalted American ex-President. 28 Life and Characlcr of Isham G. Harris. The unswerving patriot, Isham G. Hakkis, wliose long life had been devoted to his countrj', had striven to the end. and his last da>s were his best days. He is now in his grave — After life's fitful fever he sleeps well. Neither the call to the hustings, the concourse of admiring friends, the contests in the Senate, nor "the rapture of the fight " shall again summon him to duty. His repose is tranquil in the sacred precincts of Elmwood, overlooking in its beauty and silence the Mississippi as it swells in majestic flow at the ba.se of Memphis, the Ix-autiful city of the valley. Peace to his ashes. Address of Air. Af or rill of I'ermotit. 29 Address of Mr. Morrill Mr. Morrill. Mr. President, generally members of the Sen- ate when first elected are no longer young, and their early departure to ' ' the silent land ' ' is in accordance with nature. Within the past year the decea.se of Senators and ex-Sena- tors has been unprecedented. The list of ex-Senators includes twelve — Voorhees, McPherson, Doolittle, Cameron, Dolph, Mc- Millan, Coke, Dixon, Jones, Robinson, Clingman, and Paddock; and the seats here of three Senators were also made vacant, or those so recenth' occupied b}' Earle and George and h\ Senator Harris, of Tennessee, to whose memory the Senate to-day offers its tribute of respect. All of these men possessed some characteristic and prominent merits which were appreciated by their people at home, as well as by their associates here, who knew them at close range. McPherson, Voorhees, and H.\rris were all recent members of the Committee on Finance, and whatever differences on political and economical questions ma}' have existed, the committee, I feel authorized to say, were personally all friends, and the sur\-ivors are here to-day as mourners. Our late and long-time associate. Senator Harris, of Tennes- see, was born in the State he represented, where, as it may safelj' be assumed, his political influence was probabl}- ne\-er surpassed, except by that of General Jackson, who.se wide national renown served to gild and expand his local influence at home. Nearly fift\' j-ears ago Isham G. Harris ser\-ed in the Thirtieth and Thirty-first Congress as a member of the House of Representatives, then for six years as governor of Tennessee, and during the last three years of the rebellion he was a volunteer aid of the "Confederate Army of Tennessee," 30 Lift' and L 'haractcr of I sham (J. Harris. as he preferred to state it liiinself in the CoiiKressional Director>'. It may be inferred that as a stanch partisan of the State-rights doctrine and a veteran supporter of the Virginia resolutions of 1798 he rather preferred to be a volunteer aid to the Confeder- ate Army of Tennessee than of the army under the direct con- trol of Jefferson Davis. Not obtrusively aspiring to Ix- a national leader, yet he was a leader, and often consulted by his friends and his party. While always courageously stiff in his opinions, these were usually found to be safely behind the political breastworks of the Democratic party. Teniics.see was the home of Senator Harris and also of John Bell, who in i860 received the vote of Tennessee for the Presi- dency as the candidate of the so-called "South American" or Union party; but Tennessee would hardly have been induced to join the Southern Confederacy in 1861 solely because of the Republican election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency but for the potential influence of Governor H,\rris. Near the close of the reljellion, having l^een a Confederate with many conspicuous proofs, he deemed it wise to leave the country, lest the exigencies of f)eace might prove more porten- tous than those of war, and at once departed for Mexico, taking with him for safe-keeping — whatever Parson Brownlow may then have erroneou.sly suppo.sed — S6o,ooo belonging to the State, but which was safely brought back by him and returned to the State treasury. After a brief sojourn in Mexico, he went to Great Britain, and there finally concluded, after all his recent experience, there was no place so dear to him as his old home in Tennessee, and to that he returned in 1S67. In 1877 Mr. H.\RKis was elected to the I'nited States Senate, where he was lox twenty years a very jironiinent and useful Address of Mr. Morrill of ]'crmont. 31 member. As the chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia, its various duties were discharged with abihty and with nearly universal approval. He was long a valuable mem- ber of the Senate Committee on Finance, always in attendance at every meeting of the committee promptly on time, and bills submitted to him for examination and report were sure of early attention. He rareh' made what are called prepared or set speeches; but, as long as health permitted, when the Senate was in session, he was here in daily attendance. Senator Harris was a radical adherent to his party, and when he felt it as his sacred duty to denounce the measures of his political opponents, it was apparent from the unction of his accentuation and his dramatic gesticulation that he was read}- to strike, if not with the sword of the l,ord, certainly with nothing less than the sword of Gideon. Early becoming familiar with the parliamentary rules of the Senate, Senator Harris, as the President pro tempore or when invited to the chair by the presiding officer, discharged its duties not only with excellent ability and absolute impartiality, but with extreme brevity. Socially" he was not egotistical, and never by his conversation made a darling of himself. Even his age was long kept as a per- sonal secret about which the public had no business to inquire. For many j^ears, in my absence. Senator Harris was my standing pair, and it was very scrupulously obsen-ed. He was a frank, outspoken man, and did not hide his opin- ions by silence or by a forky tongue. His integrity appeared to me absolute and unimpeachable. Here he was respected as well as esteemed — certainly he was esteemed bj- me — and had I preceded him — To the undiscovered country from whose bourne No traveler returns — 32 Life and Character of hha»ti G. Harris. as jierhaps from seniority of age might have Ix^eii expected, I do not doubt lie would have tendered a just and kind word in my behalf. But it was long ago written, "There shall he two men in the field ; one shall Ix; taken and one is left." Address of Mr. Morgan of Alabama. 33 ADDRESS OF Mr. Morgan. Mr. MoRGAx. Mr. President, I first saw Isham G. Har- ris near Nashville, in Tennessee, when he was governor of that State and had been driven from his capital by the Federal Army under General Buell. He came to the head of a column I was leading in a reconnoissance under the orders of General Forrest. He came as an aid-de-camp of that distinguished officer, bear- ing orders for my execution. In that brief interview I saw a characteristic display of the intrepidity of the man. The action was perilous and the governor went into the fight with the dash and resolution that plainly revealed his character as a soldier who rejoiced on the field of battle. This gallant soldier passed out of mj- observation into the .high career of splendid service in which he won great distinc- tion as the honored adviser of the eminent men who led the destiny of the Confederac3^ No true soldier ever failed to recognize in him a brother in arms, and a brother in everj' emergency. When that war had ended, the people of Tennessee conferred on him the highest honor in their gift bj' choosing him as a Senator of the United States. It was my fortune to meet Mr. H.\RRis the second time on the floor of the Senate, as a Senator from Alabama, on March 4, 1877, and we took up the grave duties of that office on the same Aa.y, he representing my native State. I had not seeii him since the morning of our brief association on the field of battle. S. Doc. 343 3 34 i'if'^ <"'«' Character of I sham G. Harris. Henceforth our efiforts were to Ix; devoted to the service of the couutry in fields where peace liarvests "her victories more renowned than war." It is a cause for deep pride to nie that in the twenty years of our ser%'ice in the Senate we never differed on any great leading question of public ixjlicy that involved a question of the proper construction of the Constitution of the United States, for he was a true and wise man, whose matured opinions were carefully formed and were always presented with the emphasis of pro- found conviction and maintained with iniflinching courage. No name in the auuals of the South is more honored in the esteem of the f)eople tlian that of Isham G. Harris as a states- man and wise legislator. His fidelity to everj- public trust Ijecame a standard in the minds of the people for the highest duty of an American Senator, and in the Senate that standard is recognized as being worthy of the best men of the best days of the Republic. The history of this noble and genuine man can not be stated in a single addre.ss, nor, indeed, in any single statement of tongue or pen. There are treasured in the hearts of millions of people the legends of Ish.vm G. Harris, that are kept fresh and green by the pulsations of gratitude. These are often repeated at the fireside and to listening groups of children as proofs of the qualities that they should prefer to all other attributes or accomplishments. His life grew to full development in an atmosphere of immacu- late honor until it became a noble structure to stand for all time as a high model of the typical Southern man. I feel intense pride in the privilege of referring to Isham G. H.vrris in this splendid attitude in which he is placed by the universal opinion of the Southern people. It is descriptive of their sentiments on all great questions and of their manner of dealing with Address of Mr. Morgan of Alabama. 35 matters of public concern with honest directness of purpose and action. It is well for us and for our successors in the Senate that we have his record as a guide to correct and just action in the great questions that we must deal with in this great Forum. In this hour of suspense and anxiety that clothes the whole body of the people with a deep .spirit of inquiry as to our duty to the honor of the Republic and a deeper resolve to protect and defend it to the uttermost, it would give me the most sin- cere satisfaction if we could invoke the advantage of his wisdom and his true and courageous sense of duty to advise the Senate as to its course, now pressing for determination. His counsels would not be rash, but they would be just and courageous, and his advocacy of a righteous line of action would give to our resolution the confidence of worthy motives and assured success in a new and delicate line of duty to which we are impelled by the claims of humanity upon the heart of the great and magnanimous American people. I can pronounce no higher eulogium upon the character of this great Senator than to voice the wish of the Senate, if it could be so, that he could now be with us to advise us with his counsels. It is in such moments that we miss great leaders and learn to value their worth to the country. No question was too high or too broad for the grasp of his intellect, and no matter engaged the attention of the Senate to which he refused to give his attention. 36 Life and Character of Isliam G. Harris. ADDRESS OF MR. HOAR. Mr. Hoar. Mr. President, the great career of Senator H.\r- Kis is well known to his countrymen. He has been for more than a generation a striking and conspicuous figure in our public hfe. His colleague, his successor, the men of his own political faith, the people of the great State which he ser\'ed and honored and loved so long, will, each in their own way, portray his character and record their esteem and affection. My tribute must be that of a political opponent. So far as I have been able to exert any influence upon the history of my country during the long conflict now happily past, it has been in opposition to him, to the party to which he belonged, to the opinions which he lield, I am .sure, quite as zealously and con- scientiously as I hold my own. We entered the Senate on the same day. He was a South- erner, a Democrat, and a Confederate. I was bom and bred in New England, a Republican, and an Alx)litionist. W'e rarely spoke in the .same debate except on different sides. Yet I have no memorj' of him that is not tender and affectionate, and there is nothing that I can honestly say of him except words of respect and of honor. He was a typical Southerner. He had the virtues and the foibles that belonged to that character in the generation the last of whom are now pa.ssing from the .stage of public action. He was a man of very .simple and very high qualities; he was a man of absolute frankness in public l)ehavior and in private dealing. The thought that was in his heart corresponded abso- lutely with the utterance of his lips. He had nothing to con- ceal. I was about to say he was a man witliout the gift of Address of Mr. Hoar of Massachusetts. 37 diplomacy; but he was a man with the gift of the highest di- plomacy — directness, simplicity, frankness, courage — qualities which make always their way to their mark and to their goal over all circumlocutions and ambiguities. He was a man of brief, clear, and compact speech. He would sum up in a few vigorous and ringing sentences the argument to which other men would give hours or days. He had an in- stinct for the hinge or turning point of a debate. He was a man of absolute integrity and steadfastness. What he said, that he would do. Where you left him, there, so long as he lived, you would find him when you came back. He was a man of unflinching courage. He was not afraid of any antag- onist, whether in the hall of debate or on the field of battle. He was an acknowledged master of parliamentary law, a sys- tem upon which not only the convenient procedure of legislative bodies largely depends, but which has close relations to constitu- tional liberty itself. How often a few simple and clear sentences of his have dispersed the clouds and brought order out of con- fusion in this Chamber. His great legislative experience made him invaluable as a sen.-ant of his own State, of the countrj-, and as a councilor to his j'ounger associates. He was a pleasant nan in private intercourse. He had great sense of humor, a gift of portraiture, a good memory. So he brought out of the treasure-house of his varied experience abun- dant matter for the delight of young and old. There is no man left in the Senate who was better companj- in hours of recreation. His influence will be felt here for a long time. His striking figure will still seem to be hovering about the Senate Chamber, still sitting, still deliberating, still debating. Mr. President, it is delightful to think how, during the lives of the men who took part in the great conflict which preceded and 38 Li/c and Character of Isham G. Harris. followed the civil war and the greater conflict of the war itself, the old bitterness and estrangements are all gone. Throughout the whole land the word ' ' countryman ' ' has at last become a title of endearment. The memory of the leaders of that great cotiflict is preser\'ed as tenderly by the men who fought with them as by the men who followed them. Massachusetts joins with Tennessee in laying a wreath on the tomb of her great soldier, her great governor, her great Senator. He was faith- ful to truth as he saw it ; to duty as he understood it ; to con- stitutional liberty as he conceived it. If, as some of us think, he erred, his error was that of a brave man ready to give life and health and hope to the unequal .struggle. To liis loved cause he offered, free from stain. Courage and faith; vain faith and courage vain. And, Mr. President, when he returned to his allegiance, he offered to the serv-ice of his reunited country the same zeal and devotion he had given to the Confederacy. There w'as no reserved or half-hearted lo\alty. We coitld have counted on .his care for the honor and glory of the countrj', on his wise and brave counsel, in this hour of anxiety with an unquestioning confidence. So Ma.ssachusetts to-day presses the hand of Tennessee and mourns with her for her great citizen who has departed. Address of Mr. Walthall of Mississippi. 39 ADDRESS OF Mr. Walthall. Mr. Walthall. Mr. President, when the people of a Con- gressional district, after a public .servant has been tried and tested in other positions of responsibility, elect him two terms to Congress and offer him a third, it is but a just recognition of his fidelity and usefulness by the beneficiaries of his service. When later the people of his State, with the record of his public service before them, elect him their governor three times in succession, these added honors attest their appreciation of his growing capacities and prove his increased popularity and influence. When the representatives of the same people, voicing their will, after a great war had intervened and their favorite citizen had rendered three j'ears of militarj- ser\-ice in a conspicuous position, at a trying time summon him from private life to accept the highest trust his State has the power to bestow, electing him four times consecutively, twice after he had passed the age of 70, to the Senate of the United States, then all has been done that the people of a single State can do to honor and glorify a public servant, whatever his merit and ability. And when the same people who had thus honored him in life lament his death as a personal bereavement and a great public misfortune alike; when the State clothes herself in mourning and throughout all her borders the population, in vast assem- blies, in church and court room and in the market place, every- where, in public and in private, manifest their devotion and their grief; when Congressmen in both Houses and officials in all departments of the Government bear witness to his worth; when from no quarter of the Union comes a harsh word of criti- cism upon any feature of his eventful career — when we have 40 Life and Character of Is/iani (',. Harris. seen all this, we feel that what came after death was but a natu- ral sequence and fit complement to all that went lx;fore; but we wonder that a long career of active, positive, forceful, uncom- promising leadership should be followed by such universal tributes of approval and respect. Yet these honors and these tributes were bestowed upon the late Senator Harris, living and dead, and how well they all were earned is known of all men familiar with the history of his life, which has been so admirably outlined to-day by the senior Senator from Tennessee, for many years his coworker and associate. For a young man of limited means and with but a slender edu- cational groundwork to fit himself for the practice of a learned profession in the inter\-als of the employment by which he earns his hving is but the storj' of many a brave-hearted American's early life. But when such a man makes his way from the start- ing point of a country merchant's store through other places of distinction up to the Senate of the United States and promptly becomes an acknowledged power here, and for twenty years holds high rank among the foremost members of the body, we must look el.sewhere than to mere diligence and positive capacity, or to .scheming, or to some accident or freak of fortune which sometimes thrusts mediocrity into temporary prominence, in searching for the .secret of such remarkable success. From causes like these men without aptitude or merit may occupy high places for a time, but without proven fitness for usefulness in some form, turned practically to some valuable account in which the public is directly concerned, a public man's hold upon the confidence of his own people and that of his asso- ciates in ser\nce can never long endure. When it lasts, as the late Senator H.vrris's did, through a half century, marked by stirring and trying events and the .shifting fortunes of other men, and as lime advanced grew firmer and stronger, the secret Address of Mr. Walthall of Mississippi. 41 must be found in some of those rare attributes which in such combination and degree are denied to men in general. After cordial personal intercourse and intimate party associa- tion with him for many years, through which I closely observed his dealings with both men and measures, my belief is that force and faith were the powers which chiefly contributed to his achievements in life. Force of intellect, supported by the force of a \-igorous physi- cal organism equal to any strain, mapped out his plans and purposes with steadiness and continuity; the force of a clear, sententious, and incisive style of argument urged them and impressed them, and force of character, will power that would not be thwarted and could not be subdued, impelled them with persistency and power to consummation and conclusion. Faith in himself, in his own power and purity of motive, gave him strength and independence and made him aggressive, per- sistent, and well-nigh irresistible in the pursuit of all his pur- poses. He had faith in our form of government, in the perma- nence of our institutions, in the masses of the people, and in their capacity to govern themselves; faith in his own construc- tion of the Federal Constitution, from which he never swen^ed, and in his own ideals, which were exalted, of justice and duty, of manliness and honor. He was faithful to principle and to every trust, however great or small; to State, constituents, and friends, and to every obligation they imposed upon him. Stern, direct, incorrupti- ble, and resolute, he encountered enmities and was sometimes a mark for slander; but the charge was never made that he failed to keep faith with any one of his fellow-men. If, as I believe, the faculties and sentiments I have attributed to our late associate belonged to him, we need search no further for the secret of his successes and his long career of usefulness 42 Life and Cluiractcr of /s/iatn G. Harris. and honor, for the results were no more than the causes de- ser\ed. If they did not, I have misconceived his character, although, with excellent opportunities, I have studied his life with interest and have much reason to lament his death sin- cerelv. Address of Air. Hawley of Connecticut. 43 Address of Mr. Hawley. Mr. Hawley. Mr. President, the full and interesting sketches of Senator Harris's life and character to which we have lis- tened leave me little to say beyond testifying my personal regard for him. I congratulate myself that what I had pre- viously intended to say coincides so well with the observations of the Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Hoar] . Mr. Harris was a man of strong convictions — frank and brave in setting forth and defending them. He was always ready for combat, prompt in repartee, skillful in attack and defense. He sometimes struck heavily, but never with personal malice, and no man remembers him unkindl}'. He was a mas- ter of parliamentarj' law, and in his frequent occupancy of the chair he knew well how to keep the true question before the Senate and how to preserve order. He was a gallant and chivalrous man, a foremost champion of what he desired to promote. His bearing is well remembered, but can not be described. He differed at one time from many of us on great issues, but none doubted his sincerity and courage. In private life he was a cordial, genial, hospitable, and typi- cal gentleman of whatever school. Tennessee honors herself in honoring his memory. The Senate records its affection and respect, and will not forget him. 44 Z.//f aitil Characler of Isham G. Harris. ADDRESS OF Mr. COCKRELL. Mr. CocKRELL. Mr. President, Ish.\m Green H.\rris, to whose imperishable memory the Senate of the United States pays this last memorial tribute, was bom in Franklin County, Tenn., on the loth day of February, 1818, lieing the youngest of five sons and four daughters born to Isham Harris and his wife, Lucy Davidson Harris, and died in this city on the 8th day of July, 1897, in the eightieth year of his age. He was endowed with a strong, vigorous constitution and a clear, active, quickly grasping intellect, and was reared amid rural scenes and healthful .surroundings. His education was limited, and o\\\y such as a newly settled country afforded. He attended Winchester Academy, and at the early age of 14 years his untiring energy-, indomitable will, independence, and self-reliance carried him away from home to engage in the active affairs of life. He went to Paris, Tenn., and began his eventful career as a clerk in a mercantile establishment, and by his energy, intelli- gent devotion to his duties, and strict economy was in a few years enabled to engage in business on his own account in Rip- ley, Miss., and proved a successful merchant. This avocation was not the goal of his aspirations and laud- able ambition. While successfully conducting his mercantile business he was studj-ing law at night and preparing for a broader field of action. Having accumulated sufficient means to enable him for a time to devote his whole time to the study of his chosen profession, he returned to Paris, Tenn., in 1S41 and began the practice of his profession in the oflBce of an elder brother, an able and learned jurist. He applied himself to the study and practice of the law with his characteristic zeal, indus- Address of Mr. Cockrell of Missotiri. 45 trious application and devotion, and quickly acquired a lucrative practice and professional reputation which attracted public notice seldom attained so early in life in his profession. In 1846 he was elected as a Democrat from his senatorial dis- trict to the general assembly of his State, and declined a reelec- tion. In 1848 he was chosen a candidate for Presidential elector in his Congressional district, and in the canvass displayed an abil- ity for popular debate which secured for him the respect, admiration, and confidence of the people, which were never betrayed nor shaken in all the long years of his public career. In 1849 he was nominated by a Democratic convention as a candidate to represent his Congressional district in Congress, and was elected by a majority greater than that of his party. In 1851 he was renominated and reelected, and in 1853 ^^'^s renominated, but declined to accept. He then removed to Memphis, Tenn., and resumed the prac- tice of law, and at once took rank with the leading lawj'ers and secured a lucrative share of the legal business. In 1856 he was Presidential elector for the State at large on the Democratic ticket. His competitor in this canvass was the distinguished Whig, ex-Governor Neil S. Brown, a worthy foe- man in public debate. In 1857 he was nominated and elected governor of his State; was reelected in 1859, and again in 1861. His position in public affairs was never equivocal. As gov- ernor of the State and commander in chief of her military forces from 1 86 1 to the close of the war, he did all that was in his power to secure the success of the Confederacy by organizing his State troops, going with them into camp and battle, and remained with the army to the close of the war, and ser\'ed on the staff of the successi\-e generals commanding the army of Tennessee. He was at his post of duty and danger through 46 Life and Character oj Ishain G. Harris. heat and cold, rain and sunshine, in camp and on battlefield, in advance and retreat, in \-ictor)- and defeat. When the war closed, on account of the sur\-i\nng passions and fierce prejudices aroused by the severe conflicts in Tennes- see, he went to Mexico and remained there for eighteen months; and then went to Liverpool, England, and engaged successfully in mercantile business for one year, and then returned to Mem- . phis and resumed the practice of law, and closely applied him- self for ten years. In 1877 he was elected a Senator from the State of Tennessee in the Senate of the United States; was reelected in 1883 and in i88g, and in 1895 for the term ending March 3, 1901. By this brief .sketch of his illustrious life we may profit, as well as the young men of this and coming generations of our great country, to whom we present him as an example, not to deter, but to follow. From his fourteenth year of age to his eightieth — sixty-six years — he was in active life; not a drone, but emphatically a bu.sj- bee, neither losing nor wasting time. In whatever avocation or position he engaged or accepted, he was preeminently successful and useful. To the discharge of all the duties and obligations of his avocation or position, how- ever humble or exalted, he devoted his whole time, energj', attention, and abilities closely, industriously, and intelligently. He was truly the "architect of his own fortune." His exam- ple proves that success can Ije achieved by great labor, and that life gives nothing worthy of a noble manhood without such labor. As a State senator in the general assembly of his native State he was laborious, useful, and ranked among its ablest members, and acquitted himself to the entire satisfaction of his constituency, and was tendered and declined a renomination. As a Representative in the Congress of the United States, .ilthough one of its j-oungcst iiieml>ers, he quickly won a high Address of Mr. Cockrell of Missouri. 47 position as a practical legislator, a sound lawyer, and an able debater, and so acceptably to his constituency discharged the duties that he was renominated and elected and tendered a third nomination, which he declined. He was three times nominated and elected governor of his vState, which fact attests his fidelity and efficiency. As a Sen- ator, for punctuality and promptness in his attendance upon the sessions of the Senate and the meetings of the many committees of which he was a member he had few equals and no superiors. From his entrance to the close of his life he was continuously a member of the District of Columbia Committee and chairman when his party was in control. He was a member of the Com- mittee on Finance during the Forty-ninth to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and served during the Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth Congresses on the Committee on Claims, and was most useful and laborious. He ser\-ed as a member of the Committee on Rules during the Forty-eighth to the Fifty-fifth Congress. He was a member of many other committees and gave close attention to his duties on each. When his party was in control he was unanimously chosen President pro tempore. As a parliamentarian he had no supe- rior in the Senate, and presided with dignity, marked courtesy, and unquestioned impartialit}'. Of the 76 members of the Senate when he entered upon his duties on March 4, 1877, the Forty-fifth Congress, only 6 Sena- tors are now members. During his entire ser\'ice in this Chamber it was my privilege to be on terms of the closest intimacy and warmest friendship with him. I respected, honored, and loved him for his noble- ness of character, his sound judgment, his wise and judicious counsel, and his unquestionable integrity. 48 Life and Character of Is/iani G. Harris. Without any disparagement or reflection upon the vahiable ser\-ices of any other members of this Senate, during his long service here I can frankly and truthfully say that in my judg- ment he had no superior in discharging the \-aried duties, responsibilities, and obligation devolving upon Senators. Few men in public life have had intrusted to them the duties and reponsibilities, the trusts and tlie honors assigned to him by the good people of his State. At all times and under all cir- cumstances he fully met the expectations of his constituents, and to the last enjoyed their respect, confidence, and admira- tion. In this Chamber we have lost an able, earnest, efficient, incor- ruptible, and wise Senator. Full of years, full of honors, he has gone, to return no more, leaving to his family, his State, and his country a character, a record, an example worthy of the emulation of all. Address of Mr. Steivart of Nevada. 49 ADDRESS OF Mr. Stewart, Mr. Stewart. Mr. President, the character and career of Senator H.vrris inspire the strongest faith that can possibly be afforded in the perpetuity of our institutions. Rising, as he did, from the ranks of the people by his own unaided exertions, and accomplishing the great results which he did during a long and eventful life, he presents to all young men the great possi- bilities for advancement which exist in this free country. In no other country on this globe and in no other age could such a career Ije possible. When we behold the great and good men which this country has produced and continues to produce, when we find men on all occasions equal to the great emergencies which are presented, no matter how overwhelming they may appear, we feel more and more confidence in the future of our country, for we know that these examples will inspire those who come after us as the examples of the great men who have preceded us have inspired this generation. Senator Harris was a remarkable man. He had a .grasp of intellect which condensed volumes into sentences. He had a fidelity to truth which never allowed him to swerve or go back from it. He remained throughout his long and illustrious life in touch with the people amongst whom he had lived and with whom he had alwaj's the warmest S3-mpathy. It was manifest to those who associated with him that in all he did his inspira- tion was a desire to benefit and ser\'e the people of the United States. It is not -Strange that such a sentiment on his part was appre- ciated by the people of his State and all who had the honor of knowing him. That, sir, was the secret of the confidence which S. Doc. ;^43 4 5© Life and Chnraclrr of Ishatn (',. Harris. was reix)scd in him. His confidence in and his rehance on the people inspired them with confidence in return, and so they trusted and honored him. He lias furnished an example which gladdens the hearts of all who love their countrj- and who desire to improve the condition of the people. Address of Mr. Chilton of Texas. 51 Address of Mr. Chilton. Mr. Chilton. Mr. President, while I did not know Senator H.\RRis with the intimacy of long personal association, I have since a boy been familiar with his writings, speeches, and pub- lic conduct. The State in which I live has been supplied abundantlj- from the great State of Tennessee. Many of our best citizens emi- grated to Texas from that Commonwealth; and I have noticed that they all seem to know and to love Isham G. Harris. So when I first came to the Senate for a short term by ap- pointment of the governor, more than six years ago, I felt that curiosity about Senator H.\rris which alwaj-s animates younger men to know the actors in great events, sharpened hy the rec- ollection of stories told concerning his achievements by those who had long been his personal friends. When I first saw him, in 1891 , he was well-ripened and proba- bly at his best. I have often watched him, in the cloak room, in his Senato- rial seat, in the chair of the presiding officer, and he always seemed the same. I do not remember ever to have heard him laugh aloud. There was the twinkle in the eye, the manifest enjoyment in the general merriment, but he never appeared to ' ' turn himself loose. ' ' I picture him as he would come into the Senate Chamber. There, in his familiar place on the right of the Vice-President, in the front row, he would take his seat. He hardly seems to say anything, as if by previous design. He seems never to make an occasion, but to find it in the current proceedings as set on foot by others. He seems to spy out that something is taking an irregular direction and that he must set it right. 53 Life and Character of Isltam G. //arris. He first asks a question or calls for the reading of some docu- ment, as if he imperfectly understood it. Then he proceeds to clear up all doubts. First emphasis, then gesticulation — no, not in succession, but an indescribable combination of emphasis and gesticulation. Attention has often been called to his absolute primacy in the Senate on all questions relating to parliamentary law. Up to the very hour of his last apjiearance here he was so clear and so magisterial that he never lost his authority in that field. As has been stated, his sendee in Congress began in the House of Representatives at the session which convened in December, 1849, and in that, his first session of service, he exhibited that peculiar interest in que.stions of legislative practice which marked his long Senatorial career, for the reporter makes the following observation touching the proceedings of a particular day. Some conversation followed on points of order, in which Messrs. H.^KKis of Tennessee, White, Disney, Rumsey, Went- worth, and the Speaker participated. During his four jears in the House I find that he made only one set speech. The Wilmot proviso, with all its exciting inci- dents, was then the subject of consideration. In that speech we find the same principles, the same habits of thought and manner which marked his life fifty years afterwards. There was brev- ity, for tliough the contest was prolonged and the temptation to digress great, he spoke but an hour. There was the strict con- struction of the Constitution, for he dwelt on the rule that Con- gress jwssesses no powers except those expressly delegated by the Constitution or necessary to the exercise of some expressly delegated jxjwer; and he, who rarely ever quoted, repeats in that speech the words of another great American in protest against those "vagrant, wandering powers that find no congenial spot Address of Mr. Chilton of Texas. 53 on which to rest upon the broad face of the Constitution of the countr\\ ' ' This was his chart of pohtical action in even,- place of duty. He followed it after leaving Congress in 1853, and it governed his action during all those stirring years which led up to the civil war. Perhaps the most eventful part of the life of Senator Harri.s was that which related to the great organization of secession. The governors of the Southern States in 1861 were almost with- out exception men of strong character and ability. Perhaps the most remarkable of these governors were Brown of Georgia, Letcher of Virginia, Sam Houston of Texas, and Harris of Tennessee. In the difficulties of their surroundings and in vigor of intel- lectual comprehension, the Texas and Tennessee governors stand highest among this group. Sam Houston was a strong Union man. The whole secession movement was resolutely combated by him, but, notwithstanding his extraordinan,' power in Texas, he found him.self gradually submerged by a rising wave of public sentiment which finally reached the velocity of a torrent, drove him out of the gov- ernor's chair, and took the State out of the Union. There was the spectacle of a man who had been strong in the affections of his State overridden by an excited and determined people, and unable, with all his popularity and influence, to make the slight- est headwa3\ He stood almost alone, a Unionist and a conser\'- ative, in the midst of organized, indignant, irreconcilable revo- lution. The situation of Governor Harris in Tennessee was quite a different one. He sj-mpathized with secession, he wanted to take his State out of the Union, and he used his powers and his influence to accomplish the verj- result which Sam Houston had 54 Z.//r and Character of Isliam G. Harris. endeavored to obstnict in Texas. His task was not like that which fell to the hands of the governors in States like South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, where both the people and the executive, with common impulse, hailed the banner of a new confederation. On the contrary-, a powerful section of the Tennessee people, led by Andrew Johnson, a great Senator Ijelonging to the same party, confronted Govenior Harris in his policy of secession. We need not dwell upon the details of that struggle, but it is enough to say that the courage, tenacity, and generalship of Harris prevailed against the combined efforts of Whig and Democratic Union leaders in Tennessee and added that State to the number of those which constituted the Southern Confed- eracy. IsHAM G. Harris was one of the few public men of whom the people never seemed to tire. Ordinarily popularity- is fleeting. The remarkable changes which come over the House and the Senate in the course of a single decade attest the instability of official tenure; but a few men seem proof against all disfavor; if they are ever criticized their critics are forgotten; if condemned for a vote they are forgiven. To carrj* opposition to the point of actually defeating their reelection would be considered at home a sort of high treason. So .strong is the general confidence in their high pur- pose and right judgment that it always prevails over minor difficulties when election day rolls around. Senator H.\rris was one of these rare characters. He was the hero not only of Tennessee but of Tennesseeans scattered throughout the Union. He grew, in their estimation, to be a sort of lineal successor to Andrew Jackson. His name and hfe and peculiarities always touched their enthusiasm. Perhaps the most impre.ssive thing in his strong individuality Address of Mr. Chilton of Texas. 55 was his willingness always to take responsibility and his abso- lute unconcern about results — that cheerful faith that the right will take care of itself and that there need be no anxiety on the part of a public man except the anxiety to be right. I have seen men whom God had blessed with conscience and courage, but not with equanimity, so that, knowing the truth and voting the truth, they were still nervous that they should not be misunderstood and fidgeting about consequences which they were determined to face. Not so with Senator Harris. He seemed to think that a man who acted truly upon his con\-ictions of right held an abso- lute insurance pohcy against all disaster at the hands of the people. What a great life ma^- be worked out on that sort of logic. You may put a small man in Congress, and if he looks at every question as it arises with a heart single and an eye single to finding out the right, in a few years such a dignity will be given to his apparent mediocrity that he will gradually emerge above the le\'el of his fellows and assume a consideration in the countr)- which will make men wonder at the secret of his rise. If men of moderate mind can be thus lifted by the practice of simple straightforwardness, how splendid becomes the principle when it acts on a man of native intellectual power and force of character? This was the combination in the case of Isham G. Harris. He was always clear, always firm, always true, alwavs great. 56 Life and Character of Ishani G. Harris. ADDRESS OF MR. TURLEY. Mr. TuRLKY. Mr. President, for more than fifty years the name of Isham G. Harris has been a houseliold word and a tower of strength in the State of Tennessee. Probably no other man in the history of the State has exercised so potent an influ- ence upon its fortunes and its destiny. Once he served it in the legislature, twice as Presidential elector, twice in the House of Representatives, three times as governor, for four years in war, and four times in the Senate of the United States. Every honor that the people of Tennessee could confer was bestowed on him. Other of her sons may have serx-ed her longer in particular de- partments, but no other one has served her in so many ways or so long and so faithfully as he did. His power and influence in his native State may be illustrated by the political change brought about by him in 1856. From 1832, the year in which Andrew Jackson was elected to his sec- ond term, to 1856, when James Buchanan was the Democratic candidate — a period of twenty-four years — the State of Tennes- see had been a Whig stronghold. In 1856 Isham G. Harris was an elector at large on the Buchanan ticket. The Whigs elected ex-Governor Neil S. Brown to uphold the principles of their part}'. The canvass made h\ those great sous of Tennes- see is historic in our State. In the judgment of a people who had been accustomed to li.sten to such men as Grundy, Gentry, Andrew John.son, Cave Johnson, Polk, Jones, and others of that class, it was pronounced the most remarkable and profound dis- cussion of gfreat political questions which had ever occurred in the State, and all felt that for years it would settle and control the political character and policy of Tennessee. Governor Brown was a man of great intellect and matchless Address of Mr. Tiirhv of Tennessee. 57 powers of oratory. He was a man of winning and popular man- ners; and he had behind him a compact, powerful party, flushed with a quarter of a century of continuous victory. But nothing could resist the earnestness, the force and power of Isham G. Harris. The campaign was a death blow to the Whig party, and from that time forth Tennessee has been a Democratic State. Senator Harris was one of those rare men who seemed fitted physicall}', mentall}-, and morally for every phase and condition, every changing emergency- of life. His appearance was pleasing and impressive. Above the mid- dle height, his figure was well proportioned and compact. His eyes were piercing and full of intelligence. His features were strong and framed to express and portray every feehng and sen- timent of his mind and soul. With an iron constitution, which defied fatigue and disea.se, he possessed a vitality which seemed inexhaustible. Xo one faculty of his mind was unduly developed, but each was fitted for its special functions, and all went to make up a well-rounded, perfect intellect. While he was a mau of action rather than of books, yet his information was varied and ac- curate. He never entered upon the examination of any .sub- ject without exhausting all the means of information at his command. Men and affairs he studied well and accurately. He was both passionate and impulsive; but his impulses were high and honorable, and his fiery passions were controlled bj- his indomitable will and his strict sense of justice. He was fluent and brilliant in conversation; courteous and gallant in bearing and demeanor. Possessed of an undaunted courage that knew not fear, he had at the same time as kind and sympa- thetic a heart as ever beat in human bosom. His Ufe was one long series of kind deeds and concealed charities. He was the genius of forceful action, of industrj- and work. He never tired 58 Life and Character 0/ Isham G. Harris. Of his rugged honesty and his unspotted honor I need not speak. They are known of all men. He was ambitious of fame, character, distinction, and acliievements; and, while he was aggressive and impatient of opposition, j-et no man was ever more thoughtful and considerate of the rights and feelings of others. There have been greater orators than Ish.v.m G. H.\rris, but few greater debaters; men more learned in books and theories, but few better versed in all the practical affairs of life. There have been lawyers more distinguished, statesmen more re- nowned, men better equipped in special fields and for particular work, but it is hard to conceive, take him all in all, of a more forceful and efficient man, a man better qualified to impress him.self upon his life and times, than was Ish.\m G. H.vrkis. We can see this from his long, adventurous, and remarkable career. A pennile.ss youth, he became a successful merchant before he was 2 1 ; a law>'er of prominence and distinction before he was 25; a member of the legislature before he was 30; a member of the Hou.se of Representatives at 31; governor of his State at 39; an exile from his countrj- at 47; reduced again to f)Overty before he was 50, he became once more a merchatit, and then a lawyer, and finally a Senator in the Congress of the United States — equally great, forceful, and self-reliant under all these conditions and in all the.se places and f)ositions. The universality, if I may so call it, of his character and mind especially marked him as a lawyer. He was equally strong and vigorous in every branch of his profession. His practice em- braced all the courts. Those who were thrown with him could scarcely tell wlien he appeared at his best. Sometimes it seemed in the heat and fire of a great criminal trial, when the life of a client hung on the i.ssue, and again when he was bringing the strength of liis intellect to the elucidation of some intricate Address of Mr. Tiirlcy of Tennessee. 59 principle before a learned chancellor or the highest tribunal of his State. No lawyer in Tennessee ever had greater power and influence on its courts and juries, and I may add here that no client who had a just cause was ever turned awaj- by him because he was unable to bring with him a fee. His sen-ices were alwaj's open to the poor and distressed without fee and without price. He could and would go to any just length in behalf of what he believed to be right, but at the same time he was practical and conser\-ative. This latter phase of his character is shown bj- his conduct after his return to Tennessee from his exile in Mexico and England. The South was in the throes of the reconstruction period; negro suffrage had just been established; passion ran riot; and the feeling of hostility against the Gen- eral Government was, if possible, more intense than during the time of flagrant war. All eyes were at once turned toward him. By his example, by his conduct, and by his advice he counseled moderation and a dignified acquiescence in the new order of things — the inevitable. And no man in Tennessee or in the South did nore to bring about that era of good feeling which now exists between the two sections and to revive in the South- em heart that sense of loyalty to and patriotism for our com- mon countn,- which had been stifled by the fierce strife of civil war. His fairness, his justice, his frank, outspoken, upright char- acter are evidenced by the strong hold he always had on his political opponents. In his hottest political battles he com- manded the respect, the esteem, the admiration of those with whom he contended. His long career in this body is a part of the history of our country. Of his ser\nces here others are better qualified to speak than am I. f' I I. iff and Character of hitam C. I/arris. I can not recall the time when I did not know him. His older sons were my schoolmates and friends. I was raised to respect him as the greatest of living Tennesseeans. From my earliest manhood up to the time of his death our relations were most intimate and confidential. I can say of him what Judge Haj'wood, the early historian of our State, said of Gen. James Robertson, one of its noblest pioneers: He was a man who by his actions merited all the eulogimn. esteem, and affection which the most ardent of his countrymen have ever bestowed ujxDn him. Like almost all of tho.se in America who have attained eminent celebrity, he had not a noble lineage to boast of nor the escutcheoned armorials of a splendid ancestry; but he had what was far more \-aluable, a .sound mind, a healthy constitution, a robust frame, a love of virtue, an intrepid .soul, and an emulous desire for honest fame. Mr. B.'\TE. I ask that the sf)eech made by the Senator from Indiana [Mr. Turpie] on the occasion of the memorial at Mem- phis, Tenn., the home of Senator Harris, as a representative of the Senate, ha\nng been selected by the committee, be printed in connection with the proceedings here to-day. He made a speech, and one would know what it was from the man — a verj- able effort and e.sjjecially an analysis of Mr. H.xkris as a Sena- tor. It was brilliant, beautiful, logical, and all that can l)e said about it. The \'ick-President. Is there objection to the request of the Senator from Tenne.s.see? The Chair hears none, aud it is so ordered. Address of Mr. Tiirpic of Indiana. 6i Speech of Hon. David Turpie, at Memphis, Tenn. In the midst of the dearth and dryness of mind, the mere inertia and indifference that have so much beset our age, save upon the subject as to how riches may be gotten and profits may accrue it is a goodly relief as well as a wholesome solace to recall the memory of one who chose and cherished an ideal, a standard of life more noble than this— one who devoted his labor, his attention, his time, his great abilities, with incessant diligence, with unfaltering fidelity, to the public ser\ace of the people. IsHAM G. Harris, President of the Senate, for more than twenty years a member of that body, was not born in the pur- ple. He was no favored son of wealth or fortune. The circum- stances of his early years were undistinguished by anj^ prestige of superior advantage or opportunity. His education was that of the common school and the academy. For the rest he was well taught, being self-taught. He did not disparage the learn- ing or knowledge of the schools, but he gathered wisdom yet more abundantly. Nature had so richly endowed him for the whole course of the journey of life that he needed not to tarrv' long by the, way for other assistance. He was a man of manifold gifts, and so truly many sided that it would be presumption in anyone to attempt to describe him except under those aspects in which he came under his observa- tion. In the later years of his Senatorial service he was very often engaged in the discharge of the duties of the Chair. He presided with much dignity, with equal impartiality^ and deci- sion. His long experience with legislative bodies, his thorough acquaintance with the rules of the Senate, and his thoughtful study of the general principles of parliamentary' law had qualified 62 Life and Character of /sham G. I /arris. liini in tlie most eminent manner for the position to which he hail lx;en elected by the free choice of his colleagues. It was well worth a journey to Washington to see him in the chair in a full Senate at some period of lively colloquy or exciting debate. Order reigned first in silence save as to the member who was speaking in his place. And this condition was unbroken, un- disturbed, continuous; yet as President of the Senate he seldom used the gravel. The face, the figure, the whole demeanor was such as to require and enforce respect and attention. Questions of recognition were instantly decided. Interrupting messages from the House or from the President were smoothly announced and dispatched with all due celerity and the regular course of discu.ssiou was resumed. If a knot or tangle, |>erchance, oc- curred in the day's proceedings, it was untied by an explanation from the Chair so succinct in statement, so clear in its tenor and effect, so absolutely fair and candid in its purpose, that all acquiesced therein. Sometimes near the dose of a long and tedious sitting a ques- tion of order was raised which required a review of the former proceedings of the Senate for the whole day, or perhaps longer. Tliis review, in his terms and language, was a plain, clear nar- ration of events in the precise order of their occurrence; no step was omitted; nothfug forgotten. Every amendment and modification was noticed and the time of its offer. Even the motions that failed — the unsuccessful motion to adjourn, to refer, or to reconsider^were not overlooked. His opinion was an oral transcript of the record during every hour up to the moment when the question in argument arose. It w-as deliv- ered without note or memoranda, and then followed the final ruling. Such a passage in parliamentary procedure showed Ijeyond question the most retentive power of memory, intel- lectual acumen and discernment, an accurate knowledge of Address of Mr. Tiirpie of Indiana. 63 precedent and practice, a compreheusi\'e grasp of the present and actual condition of affairs so much required in the Presi- dency of the leading parliamentarj^ bod}- of the world. Now and then a new Senator, unacquainted with the rules, would take the floor with an impossible motion, one out of time, out of place, contrary to rule. Such an occasion afforded an opportunity for a study of the manner of the President worthy the closest obser\ration. With the shadow of a smile, almost suppressed, upon his face, the Chair, having heard the motion, stated that in his opinion the same could not just then be enter- tained, always in such an instance giving the reasons for his action, briefly, but firmly, and accompanying the ruling with a suggestion to the honorable Senator of another way in which he might probably accomplish his purpose. This was done not after the fashion of a master toward his pupil, but rather in the tone and manner of civilitj- with which a gentleman engaged in conversation with another upon a topic of some moment in which both were interested, would remind his friend of a cir- cumstance which he knew quite well, but had for the moment forgotten. Yet he could administer a rebuke when reproof was necessary in the most courtly phrase and with great severit)', but the occasion of this exercise of discipline must have been plain, apparent, salient. It must have been some action of the ofifender in violation of the ordinary rules of decorum and pro- priety .so marked as to overcome, for the time being, the natural kindness of heart and the habitual .suavity of the presiding offi- cer. For no man ever participated in the deliberations of a leg- islative assembly who had a more particular regard or a more considerate deference for the rights, the opinions, the feelings, and sensibilities of others. His excellence as a presiding officer, his studies and research in the annals of Congress and in the history of precedents in 64 Life and Characlcr of Isliam G. Harris. free representative assemblies, caused him for many years to be consulted as an arbiter uix)n these subjects. It was no uncom- mon thing for him to be calletl upon in the open Senate by Senators of either side, sometimes by the Vice-President or other occupant of the chair, to deliver from his seat an opinion in re- gard to some disputed question of order which was at the time pending. When he spoke thus in response to an inquiry from his scat. there was quite a difference in his tone and conduct from that which accompanied his utterances when in the chair — a differ- ence easily ob.ser\'ed by one accustomed to note his manner. It was seldom expressed in words, always implied by the most courteous but constant intimation. It seemed the result or ef- fect of the change in his position. There was in both instances the same lucid statement of the point in difference, the same temperate, careful, and thoroughly rational discussion of the diverse sides of the controversy, followed by his own conclusion and the course of argument which led him thereto. But in the chair he spoke always as one having authority, an authority de- rived from the Constitution, vested in him as such by the suf- frages of his fellow-members. When he spoke from his seat upon like questions, his de- meanor, his language, and action were no longer those of com- mand, but of advice, of counsel. He was now the elder brother in consultation with his peers. In every mode of implication, by the tone and rhythm of the voice, by gesture, always signifi- cant and picturesque, it was made apparent that another now occupied the chair, upon whom devolved the duty of deciding, and those who had honored him by asking his views of the case were alike responsible — answerable for the action which the Senate might take, not at all bound by any judgment of his any furtlier than reason might show its propriety. Address of Mr. Tiirpic of Indiana. 65 This delicacy of adjustment to change of position was one of the most singular characteristics of his whole course. I do not suppose that he was at all conscious of it, or that it was in any wise premeditated. It was in the nature of the man. He was one of those lofty spirits who could afford not only to recognize but to defer to his associates, having such rare and absolute tol- eration for the freedom of speech and opinions that he declined, in such ca.se, to dictate to others, as he would have spurned dic- tation to himself. Too much praise can hardly be given him for the sedulous care, the uninterrupted regularity, with which he performed the duties of his office and of his position as a Senator. He recognized in the most practical way the several obligations which were due from him to the country at large, to his own beloved State, to the Senate, to the committees of that body, to his colleagues in both branches of the Congress, to his very luimerous correspondents in all parts of the country. He seemed to have made an allotment of his time to each of these acknowledged claimants, and with respect to an engagement concerning his official action he was of all men the most precise in terms and the most punctual in performance. This regular performance of daily duty had become with him habitual— as manifest in the last days of his active ser\4ce as in the beginning. He participated very often in the debates of the Senate, but he seldom spoke at much length, insomuch that those who heard him wished most heartily, not that he had .said more — for few could say as much in less compass — but that he had spoken longer. He was very forcible in colloquy, rapid and keen in retort, very able in reply. When he addressed the Senate at greater length, upon some measure of national or general con- cern, he used great care both in preparation and delivery. Fact followed fact, statement succeeded statement, argument, S. Doc. 343 5 66 /-/A" iiiid Character of /s/iaiii (i. Harris. with the reasoning in its supjwrt, was presented in the most perfect symmetry and order. If a good style has to be defined, as it has l)een l>y a high authority, "as the use of proper words in ])roper places," he had a style most excellent. His voice was a full tenor, clear, musical, res6nant; the sound of it lin- gered in the ear after the words had cea.sed. To this was added a certain demeanor of the body only partially described in the term gesture, since the whole person .seemed to lie informed with the spirit of his utterances, and when he kindled into enthu.sia.sm, as he sometimes did, the V;ffect was in the highest degree impressive. He was by nature an admirable actor, without the slightest trace of art or affectation; yet, in the ordinary course of events when he rose and addressed the Chair, although something was always .said, it was more especially looked for that something was to be done. His executive force, tact, and discretion were well known and highly appreciated, so that it frequently oc- curred that he was designated by unanimous consent to a.s.sume the parliamentary management and conduct of the most impor- tant measures. This took place with reference to the revenue bill of 1894. After its introduction and second reading, and toward the close of the general debate, he was selected to take charge of its further progress. The measure was at that time yet in most jierilous ca.se. It was threatened with a deluge of adverse amendments, it was encountered by the sharpest and most capable opposition, it was endangered by the cold indifference of some of those who had voted in support of it, but the Senator from Tennessee did not decline the ta.sk thus given him. He was even then well stricken in years, but he was a friend of this measure. He and many others of his side earnestly desired its passage. Under these conditions his eves were not dim. nor was his natural Address of Mr. Titrpic of I/idiaim. 67 force abated. Through the prolonged hours of that laborious session, day and night, whenever the Senate convened, during the repeated periods of delay, obstruction, and postponement, he was always in his seat or in his place on the floor. If an}' had grown weary, he was alwaj's on the alert; if some were even inclined to slumber, he was always awake upon the watch. Those present he encouraged, the absent he chided — he chided but he sent for them. Message after message, written and verbal, with his compliments, with his regards, with assur- ances of his highest consideration, only they must come — the ab-sentees must attend. It was hard to decline an invitation from Senator Harris. It was usually more effective than a summons from the Sergeant-at-Arms. One of the mo.st remarkable of his varied accomplishments was that of felicitous importunity, an importunity full of ease and elegance, not discouraged by refusal, biding time in cour- teous patience, not to be gotten rid of either as to the man or his subject. The eye, the touch, the tone of wistful entreaty, stirred the living, and would, were that possible, have rai.sed the dead into action in behalf of the cause for which he pleaded. The act of 1S94 could hardly have failed with such an advocate. He had announced soon after taking charge of the bill that it was possible to pass it. What was possible was accomplished. The measure became the law of the land; and this result was largely due to his parliamentar)' tact and judgment — his patient, persistent, unwearied assiduity. And again, at a later period in his life, when the weight of years must have pressed still more heavily upon his pow-er of endurance, he took upon himself, at the request of those near him, the labor and duty of organizing and uniting those inside of his own political household in favor of the policy of bimetal- lism — a policy which he always declared involved neither change 68 Life and Character of [sham ( i. Harris. nor innovation, but was as to our law restoration, as to silver itself restitution, and a safe return to the ancient, long-tried, and well-established usage and practice of our fathers. With what success he prosecuted and completed his portion of this great design the official record of the late national convention specially discloses, and we all are witnesses. It must have seemed even to his ardent zeal in the Ijeginning a work of mountainous difficulty and of much uncertainty in the e\-ent. It involved a correspondence under his direction and supen'ision with persons residing in everj' State and Territory and Congressional di.strict of the United States. It required a daily comparison of part with part, a sinnmary of very numerous details, sudden and constant re.sort to the best method of answer and reply, information wide and accurate, with ceaseless vigi- lance and circumspection to the close. Such were for many months his labors, worthy of the man and of the cau.se. Those versed in modern mechanism and invention have fur- nished us with a phrase now become quite familiar — "applied science." Called upon to designate in the briefest terms the controlling, guiding principle of a career so greatly prolonged, so highly di.stinguished, we might justly name it "applied com- mon sense" in its broadest significance and in the most active development. Action was a nece.ssity of his being. He was as prone to take the initiative, and to keep it, as the sparks to fly upward. Someone, now many years ago, in Washington, spoke to him once about accepting a position upon the Federal bench. "No," he said, "I desire no .such position. I do not wish to be tied up like a log in a raft with nothing to do but to float or to drift at the end of a line. My boat must l^e in the moving current. I must feel the gale ; should it come, must ride out the storm, if I have nothing left but the rudder in my hand." Address of Mr. T^irpie of Indiana. 69 This readiness to participate actively in affairs was not exer- cised without care or caution. He was neither rash, reckless, nor indifferent to consequences. His -vision, his view of men and events, was clear. He was subject to no delusions. He sometimes failed, as men must who will act while others wait, but he was of valiant heart, strenuous will, and of that fertility in resource which either eluded or defied disaster. Failure, with him, was no finality — rather a cause and occasion for further endeavor. His life was so crowded with action that it is not known that he had the leisure, even if he had the inclination, to have left behind him a single line of personal history- or reminiscence. Moreover, he was a man of strong attachments ; in friendship, earnest and sincere. How he loved Memphis, the city of his home and residence! He delighted to speak of its thrift and progress, of its harbor and landings, of its public buildings and other improvements, all of which had felt the fostering hand of his care and solicitude. How inseparably his name is connected with the magnificent transit-waj' of commerce and travel which, hard by, spans the broad current of the Father of Waters. Often he .spoke of his State, always in the language of the warmest affection — his native State, whose great and generous constituencies had so long and so bounteously given him their support and confidence. The faculty of almost instant adaptation of himself to circum- stances of whatever exigenc}', his manner of molding men to his side and way, his steady advance against insurmountable obstacles, his survival of the rudest shocks of adverse fortune were as manifest throughout his whole course as they are inde- scribable. Witness his departure to Mexico at the conclusion of the great civil war, his adventurous sojourn within the domain of that 70 Life and Character of hham (',. Harris. Republic, his voyage to England, for he crossed the ocean not in quest of ease, but of fresh fields of new enterprise, his return to Tennessee and to this city, the reentry upon the business of his profession, his continuous and very successful practice in the courts, the canvass for his first election to the Senate, his successive reelections to that position — these are testimonials written at large to the genius, character, and conduct of one destined to so conspicuous a career. Last scene of all — his death at the capital — at his place and post of duty, the obsequies in the Senate Chamber, the funeral cortege thence bearing his remains to their final resting place, a whole city in niouniing to receive them, a State — the whole sisterho- on this work that when the war closed alxjut 100,000 men had been furnished to the Confederate army, notwithstanding the thousands that had gone to the Union Army, the State lieing divided in sentiment on the question of secession. When Tennessee was overrun by the Federal forces and the capitol had to be abandoned, Senator Harris took up his line of march with the Confederate troops and stayed with them to the close of the conflict. He was a portion of the time with that great cavalry commander. Gen. Bedford Forrest; but proba- bly a greater portion of his time prior to the death of that distinguished general was spent with Gen. Albert Sidney John- ston, by whose side he was when that great commander of Confederate forces was killed as Shiloh. One of the most graphic descriptions I ever heard was by Senator H.\rris, only a few days before the beginning of his last illness, giving an account of the death of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston and the great battle in which it occurred. During this period he had in his custotly the school fund of Tennessee. It was a coin fund, dedicated by the people of Ten- nes.see to the cause of education alone, and amounted to many hundred thousand dollars. \\''hen conijjelled to leave the State he carried this trea.sure with him, and month after month and year after year, from city to city, as the army went, the fund was taken. Through all troubles it was presented intact, and when the war closed, not being able to return to the State, he sent it back to be used as the law had dedicated it. At the close of this fierce conflict, in which more than 2,000,000 soldiers had participated, sectional and war prejudices were at the highest pitch. Tliu IIkii ruling government of Tennessee, Address of Mr. Mc Mill in of Tennessee. 77 on the charge that he had been guilty of treason to the State, offered a reward for Senator Harris, by reason of which he left the United States and went to Mexico. After staying some time in Mexico he went to England, where he lived and engaged in business for one year. The prejudices of war subsid- ing, he returned to the State he had loved so well and resumed the practice of his profession. He continued this, taking intere.st in the political affairs of his State, but seeking no office until 1S76. In that year the Democratic part}-, in convention at Nashville, moved by a re- markably eloquent address delivered by him to the convention, nominated him over all opposition as candidate for elector on the Tilden-Hendricks ticket. It soon developed that there still existed in some portions of the State prejudice against him to such a degree that he came to believe that votes would be polled against his party on account of prejudices against him. With the same manliness and devotion that had characterized his whole life he came forward in a patriotic address to the people, declining to make the race for elector, in order that some man against whom there were no prejudices might be put forward by his party. At the same time he declared his purpose to be no laggard in the conflict, but to go forward, doing battle wherever his services were needed, which he did. In 1877 he was elected by the Democratic legi-slature to the United States Senate, where the balance of his life was spent in faithful and efficient service to his country. Those who ser\'ed with him in the Senate have already testified to his efficiency in everj- department of legislative life. It will, therefore, not be necessary for me to recount all of his characteristics in that body. Suffice it to say that as a debater he was courteous but bold, pointed, able, and eloquent. As a parliamentarian, he probably had no superior in the distinguished body of which he was a "8 Life aiitf Cfiarai/er of Isham G. Harris. member. He adhered with unflinching devotion to the principles of the Democratic party. He l)eheve' spirit quenched. But the end came, as it must come to all. The time arrived when the spirit, though unimpaired, could not pull forward a weary, worn, and wasted body. Until a very recent period before his death he continued to wait upon the daily sessions of the Senate with his accu.stomed regularity. Finally, when the breakdown did come, he went to the seashore to gain strength and recuperation. And well might he, for during the period that they were contemporaries the waves had not been more ceaseless in their motion than his spirit ceaseless in its exertion. The recuperation obtained there was only temporary-. He returned to the Capitol and to the Senate Chamber to again take up the struggle; but the effort was useless. The time had come when a long and eventful life must terminate — that earth was to reclaim its dust, and God the spirit He had lent it. I stood at his bedside and felt his last pulse beat. The end was as calm as the summer's eve on which it came. The man who had been so fiery in life was as a .sleeping child in death. With appropriate ceremonies his funeral occurred in the Sen- ate Chamber. There is where it should have occurred. He had had every- trial that could test youth, every struggle that could embarrass young manhood, and ever}' difficulty that could hamper mature manhood and old age. Step by step he had gone forward and upward, till he had held almost every oflBce in the gift of his State. And having been honored by it as few men are honored, he tecame an exile from it — a wanderer in foreign lauds, where none but strange faces were to meet him and none but strange voices to greet him — a standing reward offered by his native State for his capture and return. But over all of these he triumphed, and returning to his loved Commonwealth, 8o Life and Characlcr of Isham G. Harris. was again chosen as tlic leader of its thoujj;ht and action, and for a fifth of a century occupied with distinguished abihty a seat in that great Chanilx;r. It was therefore fitting that the scene of his activities should be that of his funeral. The jxiverty under which he rested in his youth and the difficulties he en- countered in after years neither retarded nor crushed him. Mr. Speaker, it is said that the eagle builds its nest never near the ground, nor ever in the valley, but on loftiest and most inaccessible p)eaks. It is al.so said that when the parent bird concludes that the eaglets have lingered long enough around the nest she carries them, not down with tenderness and care to earth to try their wings, but bearing them aloft upon her back above the clouds she shakes them off in mid-air to defy the dan- gers and gain the glories of the skies. Like that young bird, our dead statesman was shaken off in tender years, but like the eagle, he soared above all difficulties. Accompanied by a jxirtion of his many faithful friends and associates, we took his remains to his native State. At the Cap- itol the dead statesman, in the senate chamber where he had first had legislative experience, was visited by thousands. The men whom he had fought in past years and those with whom he had done battle alike came to pay the tribute of their respect to his memorj'. The old Confederate was there, the old Democrat, the aged Whig, the Republican — all were there, and there was no heart that was not sad. Thence his remains were taken to Memphis, and there thousands gathered to attend his funeral and to witne.ss his burial. Near the great river, in the greatest of all the valleys of earth, in the l>eautiful cemetery of the .splendid city of Memphis, we laid him to rest. Nor shall his glory l)e forgot While Fame her record keeps. Or tiieinory points the hallowed spot Where valor proudly sleeps. Address of Mr. B/aiid of Missouri. 8i Address of Mr. Bland. ' Mr. Bland. Mr. Speaker, the first acquaintance I had with the late Senator Harris was after he came to the Senate in 1877. Senator Harris was, I believe, for most of the time he was in the Senate, a member of the Finance Committee. Dur- ing this time I was a member of the Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures in the House. The jurisdiction of these two committees often brought us in close relations personally and political!}-. He became the leader of the Democratic party in the Senate in all the great battles for the free coinage of silver and in resist- ing the efforts of the opponents of bimetallism in further de- monetizing it. During the great battle that is memorable in our histor}' as probably one of the most notable in the annals of parliamentary debate that took place in the effort to repeal what is commonly known as the Sherman Act, the late Senator Harris took the leading part; in fact, he was, to all intents and purposes, the parliamentary coun.seIor and leader in the Senate on the side of the bimetallists. I often saw him in the Senate when the questions of parliamentary law were raised during this contest take the leading part in maintaining the position of his side, and anyone who ever saw him in one of those contests, who had an opportunity to obser^•e the great force with whith he put his points and the clearness in which he stated his proposi- tions and the strong and emphatic language in which he made his demonstrations, can never forget the power, both mental and physical, that was exhibited bj' the man. Every word came from him as a shot from a cannon, and it went to the mark as if aimed by an expert. There was no effort at ornate speech, but S. Doc. 343 6 82 Life and Character of Isham G. Harris. an immense c-ainionading of loj^fic, ])o\vc-r in statement, and con- viction in argument. I always regarded liim as a 6rm and determined friend of the people as he understood their interests. He was a man who possessed great courage, and was not afraid to announce his views and opinions on any subject. He had that faith in the intelligence and fainiess of the American people to believe that a man would lie measured by them according to that degree of courage and fidelity with which he fought for the principles that he honestly maintained. I shall not attempt to give a historical sketch of him. hut shall leave that to those who knew him as a neighbor and friend from the State which he so long and abh- represented not only in official positions at home but in the councils of the Federal Gov- ernment. I shall not attempt to enter into a eulog>- upon his high character. I could not pronounce a greater eulogy upon him than the simple truthful statement that from my knowledge of him, extending over a period of twenty years, he impres.sed me as a man of great abilit\- and wide attainments; a man of undoubted courage and strong convictions, and was alwa>-s ready to maintain them; that he was a true friend of constitu- tional liberty; that his heart went out to the great mass of American people, and it was their interest under the Constitu- tion upon all economic questions that he brought all of his great ability to promote and subsen-e. His State has lost its greatest champion in the national councils; bimetalli.sm has lost one of its most laithful advocates in the nation. His loss is felt not only in his Slate and throughout the nation as a great advocate of this cause, but is regretted by bimetallists throughout the world. I speak especially on this question, because it was in the con- tests uix)n this subject that I became more intimately acquainted with him, and was enabled to form a just opinion of the man. Address of Air. Bland of Missouri. 83 But his labors were confined to no particular subject. There was no great question of legislation affecting the interests of the people of his State and of the nation that he did not give to it his earnest attention, and upon all tlie subjects of the currency, tariff, of Federal and State control, of the rights and powers of the States as contradistinguished from the powers of the Federal Government; in other words, the great dividing line between these jurisdictions received his earnest investigation. He was .sincerely a .strict constructionist as it is understood and taugiit by such leaders as Jefferson and Calhoun and others of the part}' to which Senator Harris belonged. His discussions of these subjects were marked by great ability and zeal. He was a leader naturall}-. He towered above the average man, and by his will power and ability inspired confidence in those around him as a leader; hence he was a leader in the Senate, and to say that he took a leading part in that \mA\ is to pay a high tribute to hi.s qualities as a great man. Peace to his ashes; honor to his memorv. 84 Lite and Characler of Isliam (i. Harris. ADDRESS OF MR. RICHARDSON. Mr. Richardson. Mr. Speaker, when Senator Ish.vm G. H.VRKis died I felt a sense of jjersonal loss such as I never real- ized iKjfore ill the death of a public man. He was not only my jxilitical friend, but my intimate personal friend. In his death, therefore. I was conscious of the fact that while the country had suffered the loss of a \alued public ser\-aut who.se place could not well be filled, that personally I had lost one to whom I had been accustomed to look for that counsel and ad%-ice which only a true friend can give. I had known him from my toyhood. The first time I ever saw him I remember well. It was in 1856, when I, a mere youth, went to my county town to listen to a joint debate Isetween himself and ex-Governor Neil S. Brown, of our State. They were the electors for the State at larj^e that year, he representing Mr. Buchanan while Governor Brown represented Mr. Fillmore. I next saw him the following year, when he was a candidate for governor of Tennessee, and had for his opponent Robert Hatton. Two years later, as a candidate for reelection to the office of governor, I witnessed the joint debate between himself and his Whig opponent, John Netherland. He was successful in both these campaigns for go\'ernor, and was renominated by his party for that office in 1861. During that year as a candi- date I heard him in joint debate with his opponent, WiUiam H. Polk, a younger brother of President Polk. Inheriting as I did the political sentiments and theories of my father, who belonged to the old Whig part>-, I of course did not agree with Governor H.XRRis in the opinions he gave expression to and in the argu- ments he made in those several joint debates which I have mentioned. Address of Mr. Richardson of Tennessee. 85 While I did not agree with him, I was greatly impressed by him as I observed his intense zeal, his fiery eloquence, his ear- nest gesture, and at times impassioned flights of oratory. The impressions I derived from his speeches, boy as I was, and fight- ing against them as I did by reason of the inherited opposition thereto, to which I have referred, made lodgment in ni}- mind which was never eradicated. I shall not undertake to follow the career of this great man through all his public life in our State. Others have done this in their eulogies of him, which will appear along with my own. He was born in Franklin County, Tenn., Februarj* 10, 1818. This countj^ I had the honor to represent upon this floor for eight years, though it is not now within my district. At an early age he removed to Henrj- County, Tenn., where his parents died and are buried. Soon after his death many of the people of that county met in Paris, the count}- seat, where he had grown to manhood and practiced law, to pa}' tribute to his memory. A graceful and loving tribute was then and there paid to him bj- his former neighbors and friends. I take the liberty of using the resolutions they adopted for certain facts in his life and that of his family, which I .set forth below. He was the son of Isham G. Harris and wife, Lucy Davidson Har- ris, and was the youngest son of a family of nine children. His oldest brother, George \V. D. Harris, was an able and eloquent minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His brother Will- iam R. Harris was on the supreme bench of Tennessee at the time of his death, which occurred on the 19th of June, 1S5S, from the explosion of a steamboat boiler on the Mississippi River. Another brother, James Harris, a gallant Confederate .soldier, fell at the battle of Shiloh in April, 1862. Senator Harris went to Paris, Tenn., at the age of about 14 years, and began to work as a salesman in a dry goods store. 86 Life and Character of fs/iani (i. Harris. Three years later he went to Mississippi and engaged in mer- chandising in partnership with his brother. After about three years he sold out his interest in the store and was paid in the notes of a Mississippi bank and returned to Paris with the inten- tion of studying law. The Mi.ssissippi bank failed, leaving him penniless, and he again engaged in merchandising, studying law at night until the year 1841, when he sold his interest in the business and entered upon the study of the law. Having applied himself closely to his studies while in business, he ver>- early secured license and entered upon the practice. He was admitted to the bar at the May term of the court in 1841. He Ijecame at once a successful practitioner, taking rank as one of the best lawyers of the State. He was married in 1843 to Miss Martha Travis, of which mar- riage there were lx>rn a family of eight children, four of whom sur\nve. In 1847 he was elected to the State senate of Tennes- see and in 1849 to a .seat on this floor. He was reelected in 185 1, and was again nominated in 1853, but declined the nomi- nation and removed to Memphis that he might find a larger field in which to practice his profession. He continued in active practice until 1857, when, as I have stated he was chosen governor of Tennessee. He was the go\'enior of our State from 1857 until the war between the States closed. He took a ver>- active part in behalf of the Southern States during that war, participating in many battles. After the establi-shment of peace he went to Mexico, wliere he remained alxjut two years, going from there to London, where he remained until November, 1867. He then returned to Memphis and again entered upon the practice of law with great success. In 1876 the State convention placed him at the head of the electoral ticket of his party in Tennes.see. His selection to this position did not meet with universal favor in Address of Mr. Riciiardsoii of Tennessee. 87 one section of the State. He thereupon resigned as elector, but proceeded to make a thorough and extensive canvass of the whole State for his part}-. By this course and conduct he added great popularity to himself, and at the close of the canvass announced his candidacy for the United States Senate. When the legislature assembled the following January he was chosen Senator almost unanimously. He was reelected a Senator in 1883, in 1SS9, and in 1S95. I .shall not attempt to di.scuss his long career in the Senate of the United States, but it is well known of all men that he adorned the position and met even,^ requirement of the high trust with which he was clothed with earnestness, fidelity, and signal ability. He was a great debater, a faithful public .serv- ant, and a courageous .soldier. He was the foremost man in Tennessee politics during his generation. He posse.ssed fine conversational powers, and was a most entertaining companion. His manner was sometimes severe and apparently cross, but within him there was always sympathy and love for humanity. It has been truly said of him that more people are indebted to him for favors extended than to any other man who ever occu- pied a public office. Mr. Speaker, his death was a great national calamity. For more than fiftj' years he ser\'ed his countrj' in the State and national councils. He held the highest stations the people of his State could give him. He had opportunities to accumulate wealth, but died poor. He was .scrupulously honest in private life and incorruptible in the public ser\'ice. He had all the courage of the most courageous, and would have gone to the stake rather than yield his convictions of right or duty. He was never of those who would follow a multitude to do e\nl. He was ambitious, but was not sordid or venal. He loved the people, but was in no sense a demagogue. 88 Life and Character of Ishaut G. Harris. His character was ix>sitivt: and admitted of no compromise. He was always frank and sincere. He was either for you or against yon. He either favored your measure or opposed it. You were never in doubt as to whether he favored you and yoiu' measure, for guile and deceit were strangers to him. He was the chief architect and builder of Tennessee's Democracy, and the place he occupied in their hearts can not Ix; filled. His in- tegrity was never a.s,sailed nor questioned, and no man ever accused him of breaking a pledge or violating a promise. From early manhood through a long life and an hotiorable career, clothed oftentimes with trusts of the highest character, fre- quently taxed to the utmost of his phy.sical endurance, his course had been steadily and unfalteringly upward. His can- dor, his faithfulness, his .sagacity, his probity, with his integrity, honesty, courage, devotion to duty, and his succes.sful career entitle his fame to endure and give conspicuous luster to Ten- nessee. Address of Mr. Meyer of Louisiana. 89 Address of Mr. Meyer of Louisiana, Mr. Meyer of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, vSenator Isham G. Harris, of Tennessee, whose nieniory we now meet to com- memorate, was in every way a remarkable man. He was born in Franklin County, Tenn. , in 181S. Sprung from Revolutionarj- stock, a coimtry-bred boy, he had no special advantages of wealth, education, or family influence. He was the architect of his own fortune. At the early age of 14 years, with only a country-school edu- cation, he began the battle of life. Leaving his home, he settled at Paris, Tenn. , hired himself as a merchant's clerk; next entered on business for his own account, and meantime studied law at night; then finall}- graduated, went to the bar, and began the practice of law at Paris. His great industry and energy, which as a business man made him successful, soon made him preeminent in his chosen profession. The attractions of the political field in a country where the people actively control prevailed over the habits and induce- ments of legal pursuits. His advancement here was rapid. In 1846 he was elected to the State legislature; next behold him the candidate for Presidential elector in his Congressional dis- trict; then elected and reelected to the House; then in 1853 declining reelection; next. Presidential elector; then in 1857 elected governor of the State of Tennessee, reelected in 1S59, and again in 1861. Honors such as these, worthily won, might well fill the meas- ure of any man's ambition, but these honors were onlj' the prelude to a career which for nearly forty years since has made him conspicuous. He was the great war governor of the State of Tennessee; go Life and Characlcr of Isliaiii G. Harris. or^nni/cd ioo.oikd voUinteers for the Confederate ser\Mce; tcx)k his own full share of the perils of Ixittle; led a regiment into the bloody field of Shiloh; stood by Gen. Albert Sidney John- ston, the great Confederate commander, when he received his mortal woutid: carried him from the field; and served for three years more as aid on the staffs of the generals who successively commanded the Confederate army of Tennessee. At the close of the war he was for years an exile by reason of his distinction and ser^•ices to his State, which made him a special mark for slander and malignity. But when, in 1867, the abatement of passion finally permitted the step, he returned to Memphis, where he again practiced law for ten years. In 1877 he was elected a Senator of the United States from the State of Teinie.ssee, taking his .seat March 5, 1877. He was reelected in 1883; again in 1889, and finally in 1895, ^or the term of six years. On the 8th of July last he pas.sed away, full of years and full of honors. Such a succession of public honors was not the result of acci- dent, nor of pertinacity in seeking public trusts. More than once he declined public station for private pursuits. He was a man of convictions, fearless, bold, uncompromising, and took all risks in times of conflict, .strife, disorder, violent prejudice, and strong excitement. If, therefore, we find such a constant and unvaried tide of success, we nuist study the causes in the intellectual and moral force of the man. Pursuing this pathway, I find no difficulty in locating the cause of his success and popularity. He did not inherit for- tune, nor did he ever acfjuire any large means. He .showed grit and determination at llie ver>- begiiuiing. He had excel- lent busitiess habits; he had the i|ualities of action — the execu- tive faculty. He had quickness of perception, and, what is far more, ([uick- Address of Afr. Meyer of Louisiana. 91 ness of decision. He had energy, industn-, close application, persistence, and the ambition to succeed in everything he nn- dertook. These qualities told on everything he did. They are largely the secret of his success as merchant, lawyer, governor, politi- cian, and Congressman. Perhaps the most trying time of his life was as governor of Tennessee from iS6i to 1865, and the two or three j-ears of exile and straitened means that followed the war. But while adversity might come, he was not the man to lie down and surrender. His nature was heroic. He tri- umphed over adverse fate. The personal and moral heroism that bore him to the field of Shiloh and through the perils of the war marked his entire career. In peace and in war he was a born fighter and a leader of men. He exercised marked influence upon his associates and con- temporaries. He did not carry Tennessee out of the Union, as some would say, but he led in the movement, and gave it much of its strength. The same influence was witnessed in his career in Congress. He was not a great or a learned lawyer. He had given too much time to other things to fill a role that is only filled by those who give their whole lives to that arduous, zealous pro- fession of the law; but he was a good business lawyer. His success at the bar can not be otherwise explained. He was a clear-headed, logical man, and never neglected what he had on hand. As a speaker in the Senate he might not,- indeed, be eloquent. His style did not smell of the lamp. He did not often speak at length. He did not speak for the sake of display or merely to make a speech; but when he did speak he was forcible, clear, strong, and convincing. He went at once to the turning point of the case. He wasted no words. He struck fairly at the shield of his antagonist. He had the ability, 92 Lite and Clniraclcr of [sham G. Harris. if he pleased, to discuss profound aud difficult economic ques- tions. His speech some years ago ujwn the silver question was regarded as one of the lx:st of that long and able debate in the Senate. \'ery soon after he came to the Senate Senator H.vkkis was placed on very important committees, which he filled up to the time of his death. Hut while a hard-working, business Senator, he gave special attention to parliamentary' law. He was made President pro tempore of the lx)dy, and ver>- often occupied the chair. He enjoyed it, and the Senators of both parties were glad to have him sit there. They all knew that he was abso- lutely fair, impartial, and always courteous and conser^•ative. The knowledge of parliamentarj' law, and, above all, the abil- ity to preside, is a rare gift. It is a great, a respon.sible trust to be the presiding officer of the vSenate or the House of Repre- sentatives: and one who worthily, ably, and conscientiously fills such a trust has rendered a most important ser\'ice to the body over which he presides and to the cause of representative government, upon which our public liberties dejjend. In private life Senator Harris was a simple, natural man. His sincerity and frankness were his most striking qualities, but he was also kindly and genial. He did not go out of his way to conciliate foes, but he was rarely aggressive, almost always conciliatory, and to his friends was true as steel. I have said he was a man of con\-ictions. He was always a Democrat. He was true to his party, and never went back on his flag. He abhorred treachery or duplicity in politics. But while a .strong party man, his political foes felt that he would never strike them unfairly. They respected and houored him. They never doubted his word or questioned his integrity. After a long life, in peace and in war. filling many trying positions, this plain man of the petiple, simple, natural, strong. Address of Mr. Merer of Lotiisiana. 93 heroic, has passed from our midst, with no stain on his record, no page of his life that his friends would wish to blot; honored and mourned by his State, and by all who had the good fortune to know him. I count it a high privilege to pay this last trib- ute of my respect to one on whose career I would willingly dwell longer if the work had not been so well performed by others. 94 I-'h' """' Character of Isliaiii (J. Harris. ADDRESS OF Mr. McRAE. Mr. McRae. Mr. Speaker, the eloquent, affectionate, and interesting eulogies to which we have listened make it unneces- sary for me to say more than to testify ray personal regard and reverence for the gp^eat statesman and Democratic leader who.se memory we commemorate to-day. He deserves all of the enco- miums bestowed upon him here or elsewhere. In many respects he was one of the most remarkable men that this countr>- has ever produced. His life was a success, and yet full of struggle and adventure. We first hear of him as an ambitious, penniless youth of 14 years, struggling against those dread jailers of the human heart, humble birth and jwv- erty. At 21 a .successful country merchant; at 25 a good lawyer; at 30 a leader of his party in the State legislature; at 32 a Rep- resentative iu Congress, and at 40 governor of his State. He served through the late war as governor of Tennessee, and at the same time on the staff of Geu. Albert Sidney Johnston until the death of the general at Shiloh. The .success of the Union Army made him an exile from the home of his birth and the people he loved. After more than two years in Mexico and England, he returned to Memphis broken in fortune and began again the practice of his profession. As soon as the people of his native State were allowed to control their elections and vote, the Democrats of that State turned to him as their leader. In 1877 he was elected to the United States Senate, where he ser\-ed the State until his death. He lived almo.st fourscore years, and held oflice for nearly fifty years. At the end of a career so remarkable and eventful it is pro]x.-r that the Congress of which he was a memljer should temporarily Address of Mr. McRae of Arkansas. 95 suspend its ordinarj- labors to pay tribute to his chaiacter and find, if possible, the great secret of his wonderful success. He was without college education and was an entire stranger to the artful practices of the pohtician, but he possessed a strong, well- balanced mind and from childhood was not ashamed to work, not afraid to tell the truth, and in ever\-thing was direct and honest. In boyhood, in manhood, in private tran.sactions, in public life, in military life, in adversity, in prosperity, in his own coun- try, or in exile, his personal integrity and superb courage never failed him. He was true to himself. He was true to everj- trust reposed in him — to his State, his constituents, and to his friends. He was courteous and candid to his foes. He trusted the people; they had faith in him. He never betrayed them; they never deserted him. He died comparativel}- poor in purse, but rich in that which above everj-thing else he desired, the love and confidence of the people of this Republic and particularly those of Tennessee. 96 Life and L'liaractir 0/ Isham G. Harris. ADDRESS OF Mr. Benton. Mr. Hknton. Mr. Sjx.Tiker, the first name of a piililic man that I ever learned to utter was that of Isham G. H.vkris, or. as he was famiharly known in our section of Tennessee, Grekn H.VKRis. I was born a constituent of his. He was the first public man I ever heard on the hustings. I come of a family that did not originally lean to Mr. H.a.rris's views. It was after the decay of the Whig party began, in 1854, that my father and uncles (declining to become members of the Know-Nothing party ) joined fortunes with H.xrris. So that my memories of him began as a political opi)onent, but early rijjened into those of a political friend and leader. The most remarkable thing to my mind as a cliiUl was the fascination the man had for me. I always attended, when I had permission, the public sjieakings in my own county, and especially a.sked the privilege of hearing Governor Harris. His head looked to me in those days exceedingly large. He was bald when yet a very young man. His eyes set deep back in his head and, when animated in debate, were searching and commanding. He was not what we call an eloquent man after the manner of Haskell and Hayues and Henry, yet there was a peculiarity about his expressions, a directness, as if in a steady charge, that absolutely fascinated me as a child, and I can re- memlx;r well, when I would go home from a meeting, that I insisted upon explanations Ijeiug made to me of what was meant by certain of his arguments. I reniemlx;r, as well as if they were j'eslerday, his great de- bates in the fifties, with Governor Brown, General Hatton, and Colonel Xellierland, his discussions of "squatter sovereignty" Address of Mr. Benton of Missouri. 97 aud the "Kansas and Nebraska bills," and the attitude which he demanded Tennessee should maintain (questions of which I as a child could have no understanding), but I was so interested by the manner and force of the man that I was compelled to inquire the subject of his talk. I can remember well when he first became a candidate for governor and came into our section of the State. It was a remarkable campaign; perhaps not so remarkable as the cam- paign ju.st before it, in 1856, when he defeated Governor Brown for elector at large, but from the standpoint of national politics more important and far-reaching than the great debates between Johnson and Henry and Johnson aud Gentry. But in our sec- tion of the State it was more important than either of those campaigns I have mentioned. Harris was our idol, our polit- ical leader. To our section of the State he was neighbor and friend, and we were greatly interested in the outcome of the cam- paign. The men with whom he debated these questions in 1856 and 1857 and 1859 were men of the finest character and the highest ability and education, and it was a subject of conversa- tion and comment among the educated and accomplished Ten- nesseeans that Harris always held his own with the most accomplished and best learned of the public men of his day. As has been before stated, he was what, for the lack of a better definition, we call a "self-made" man. That is to say, he was without a college education. He had not been trained by anj^ literary ma.ster. He had a little of what we call academy educa- tion. He commenced life without means and without being well equipped in college; but I am told by his confreres that he was a student of men aud events rather than of books, though as a j'outh he read books. I well recollect hearing a conversation in the cloakroom here last winter, by the only man who ever held a successful tilt with him in politics, Emerson Etheridge, that it S. Doc. 343 7 98 Lift- and Cluiractir of /s/iain d. Harris. was commonly known in Henry County in his lx)yhood days that every book Ijcaring upon pubUc questions which could pos- sibly be borrowed or bought Harris read; and while he lacked college training, he gave all of his spare time to informing him- self on the great questions of the day. And when he came out into public life, it was a cause of mar\'el among the prominent men of the State that on all the questions of interest of that day he stood in the forefront. I believe, Mr. Speaker, that I do no violence to the glory roll of Tennessee when I say that next to General Jackson ISHAM G Harris was the most potential figure that has ever lived in that State. He had at one period of his life bitter and resent- ful enemies. A man of his positive character always has; but up against them he had the most powerful, positive, and affec- tionate friends of any man who has lived in the State of Ten- nessee since I can remember. To him, to his force of character, to his indomitable energy, to his tremendous courage, to his in- cisive arguments, more than to any other man, and I may say than to all other men of the State, is due the jxisition which Tennessee assumed in 1861. In 1*60 the Democratic party of the State was divided. He and Senator Johnson at that time both supported Mr. Breckin- ridge. Early in the year 1861 they separated. Governor H.\r- Kis insisted that the election of Mr. Lincoln would lead to the destruction of State sovereignty and centralization of govern- ment. Taking the resolutions of 1798 as his text and Mr. Cal- houn as his political guide, he demanded that the State of Ten- nessee should follow her sister States of the South. In this contention he was met and resisted by the most powerful Demo- crat then living in the vState, Senator Johnson, afterwards Presi- dent, who led the Union element in the Democratic party. He was met by that other powerful element, the renniants of the Addi-ess of Mr. Benton of Alissoitri. 99 old Whig party, led by Brownlow, of East Tennessee, and M. R. Hill and Emerson Etheridge, of West Tennessee, all of them the brainiest and bravest of men. In the first contest, in February, 1861, an election was held for delegates to a constitutional convention, as well as to test the sense of the people on the question of secession. The ad- vocates of secession were defeated by more than 60,000 major- ity. But Governor Harris was not dismayed. Under his undaunted leadership those who believed that Tennessee should join the South kept up the fight. He called the legislature to meet in special session. In this connection I desire to call at- tention to his justl}" celebrated message to the general assembly of Tennessee. At this period, Mr. Speaker, far removed as we are from those troublous times of civil war, when we can .speak of the public questions of that period with calmness and without being offensive, I may be permitted to call attention to his message to the general assembly of Tennessee in the spring of 186 1. I do not believe I ever read a state paper on the sovereignty of the States, or the original doctrine of " State rights," as it was un- derstood by our school of politics, that was in all of its elements so strong, convincing, and conclusive as that message. In aid of his irresistible arguments, his energy and his cour- age were .so intense that in spite of the fact that Tennessee had voted in February, 1861, by a majority of 60,000 to remain in the Union, in less than six months the State of Tennessee joined her fortunes with the South and became a member of the Con- federacy. My attention was not called to Governor Harris's message in a serious way until after the war. I procured a cop>- of the acts of the general assembly and have it in my librar\-, and once in a while I read it, more becau,se of the strength of the paper than in memory of its subject. And I saj' to-day that ICO Life and Character of Isliam (',. Harris. in my oi)iiiiou it is the most i>o\verful argument ever made from that standpoint. Govenior Harris's distinctive characteristics were "honesty of purpose" and "directness of speech." He was a positive and affirmative man. He wa.s quick to decide, and forceful and lucid in explaining his position. His worst enemy never de- clared of him that there was any doubt about where he .stood upon any public question. Public men, as we know, nearly all at some time bend to public opinion and give up cherished views, but Go\ernor Harris fought with the same degree of courage public opinion, when he thought it was wTong, as when he was leading in the current running his way. He fought and won with public opinion against him in 1849, 1856, and 1S61. And his last great battle was for bimetallism against a strong current. He did not study to ascertain the popular side. He only waited to convince himself of what was right for the people and constitutional. Then he spoke and acted. Secession was as unpwpular in i860 and early in 1861 in Tennes.see as it was in Illinois. But it did not deter him. He believed that the reser\'ed rights of the States were to be invaded and the Consti- tution violated, and he acted accordingly. The general belief in his honesty of purpose and his force of character, together with his powerful arguments, made Tennessee a part of the Confederacy. There is a potent lesson to young ambition in the life of Sen- ator Harris. He was honest — honest in thought, honest in speech, honest in private life. His word to his neighbor was suflBcieut. This made him strong with the people. And he believed in the people. Like his great political master, Jeffer- son, he trusted the people, and they in turn trusted him. I knew fiovernor H.vrris well in niv lx)vhood davs. He was Address of Mr. Benton of Missouri. loi often in my town. I lived within a stone's throw of his illus- trious brother, Rev. George W. D. Harris, one of the strongest and most distinguished men in the Southern Methodist Church. Force of character and integrity of purpose is and was in the name. It has been said of the Harris name that there was no compromise in them. It has been stated often that the dead Senator was dogmatic. Mr. Speaker, what man of strong mind, g^eat force of character, information, and positive convictions but what is more or less dogmatic? And yet with all, this great forceful, driving man, when properlj' approached, was as gentle as a woman. I was not taught to regard Governor Harris as a jurist of equal merit with his brother. Judge William Harris, or Judge William B. Turley. But he was a ver}' successful practitioner of the law. His character for honestj% his forceful and positi\-e way of approaching everj'thing made him a success at the bar. He did not study rhetorical art, hence did not rank with the orators of Tennessee. He did not delve deeply into the philosophy of the law, so as to become a great judge, for, as has been well said by the gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. Meyer], "the law is an exceedingly jealous mistress, and will not permit her votaries to become great who worship at any other .shrine." Yet, Mr. Speaker, Governor Harris was one of the best lawyers I have ever known who was also a success- ful politician. While he was not a great orator, he had that character of speech which is the best eloquence. He persuaded men to his wa}- of thinking by his integrity of intention and his simple but forceful expression. He was a successful politician without veiling any of his opinions. Isham G. Harris was more than a politician. He was a statesman. That .splendid term as applied to him is deser\-ed. He believed that the fathers of the Republic builded the Constitution to guard the rights and I02 Life and Character of Isliam G. I/arris. contribute to the happiness of the people, and so Ixrheving he was a "strict constructionist." His last struRRle was to restore to the {xrople "bimetallism," their constitutional right. He spoke that which he thought; he acted his convictions; he thought not for himself but for his people. Of such are statesmen. Histor)' will say that all in all Isiiam Green Harris was one of the ver>- strongest men that ha\'e ever lived in the State of my nativity. I Address of Mr. Rhea of Kentucky. 103 Address of Mr, Rhea of Kentucky. Mr. Rhea of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, in the public life of this countr>', no man has more fully and honorably left the im- print of his character and great ability than Isham G. Harris. For half a century and more he stood in the fierce light of the public gaze, and the universal judgment of his fellow-citizens vindicates the integrity of his actions and bears testimony to his honesty and manhood. In all the affairs of life, in all its walks, as the private citizen, as the public servant, his qualities of heart and mind have vindicated the purity of his motives and the high purposes that e-\'er impelled his intercourse with his fellowmen. With that great State, Tennes.see, that so long recognized and valued his worth, and which he so long honored as State official and in the larger sphere of Federal public service, his name is inseparably linked. And whether in the discharge of his duties as a State ofiicial or the broader arena of Federal legislation, a wisdom and fidelity not surpassed and rarely equaled have marked his public career. A singleness of purpose, guided b>' the best interests of all the people, as he could understand and know them, was the rule of his life. For a brief time, laying aside the duties of civil station to enter into the more stirring scenes and activities of warfare, the same high resolves and purposes, the same fidelit}' to duty as he saw it, guided his feet. He saw his people divided — the North against the South. He cast his fortunes with the people of 'that sun-kissed land that gave him birth and whose rights, as he believed, were assailed. When this darkest page in our country's history was closed, when the cause for which he fought was lost, when the starry banner of the Union floated 104 Life and Character of hham (i. //arris. once more over a reunited country, the roar of cannon, the rat- tle of musketry, the ^leam of saljers had ceased, this man, accepting the issues as settled, in good faith did what he could to heal the breaches made by war and to set in motion again the forces of cinl government for the upbuilding of our com- mon country. Broad gauged, liberal minded, he still admired the beauty of the Southern Cross, but its eflfulgence did not in his eyes dim the brilliancy of the Northern Star. Reaching a rip)e old age, the sands of life run out. He .slept. How well he met the obligations of life, with what fidelity and integrity he discharged them, the judgment of the present is known, the history of the future will record — In his honor iniprejLjn.ible, In his simplicity sublime: Xo cause ever hail a nobler (i' embarrassing to not onlj' ourselves but to our party. In that speech, Johnson, you advo- cate a new basis of representation in Congress and the Electoral College, eliminating the three-rifths of the slave population now represented, and you advcKate changes in the Federal Consti- tution by which the President, \'ice-President, United States Senators, and the entire Federal judiciary shall be elected by a direct \-ote of the people, and the judiciary for a limited period. Not one of your propositions can be found in any platfonn of the Democratic party, State or national. I am opposed to all of them. They are not Democracy: they are only Andy John- sonisms, and you can not force them on me as a keynote for my campaign." For the first time Mr. Johnson encountered within his party a will as imperious as his own. He was ardently desirous of the election of a legislature which would make him Senator, and Address of Mr. Broivnloiv of Tennessee. 107 as the Whigs had elected the three previous legislatures he felt compelled to yield to the ^-ounger leader to prevent division in his party, and he failed to deliver the speech he had prepared. But there was never any cordial feeling after this between the two leaders. Had not Johnson been accustomed to the unques- tioning obedience of the politicians of his party he would not have made the mistake of trying to put his collar over the neck of his younger confrere. He would have remembered that H.\RRis was almost the only Democrat of influence in Teimes- see who had dared oppose Mr. Clay's compromise measures of 1850 in the face of the overwhelming sentiment of the people of that State in favor of their adoption. In 1859 and 1861 he was reelected governor of his State, which office he held till the close of the late war, and from the inauguration of the rebellion of 1861 until his death his suprem- acy was as absolute in his party in Tennes.see as was ever that of Andrew Jackson and Andrew Johnson, and lasted longer than that of either. Johnson's began with his election as governor in 1853 and terminated in 1861', when he patrioticallj' refu.sed to follow his party and State into rebellion. True, he was elected to the Senate in 1875 by a majority of only i v'ote, but a ma- jority of his part}- voted against him because he had opposed it on the war question, and because of this ground of opposition the Republicans in the legislature voted for and elected him. The supremacy of Andrew Jackson in Tennessee politics began in 18 15, with his .superb victory at New Orleans, and terminated in 1836, when the people of the State became weary of worth- less "wild-cat" local bank money and free trade. Johnson's domination in his party was for a period of eight, Jack- son's twenty-one, and Harris's thirty-six years and imtil his death. Of the large number of able men in the executive chairs of lo8 Life and Character of hham G. Harris. the States, North and South, with the inaiiKuraiion of war in 1861, no one of them was possessed of more determinalion than the governor of Tennessee, or of as much executive abihty, except the great and lamented war governor of Indiana, OHver P. Morton. It was tlie expression of the London Times that the most plausible justification of the reasons for the action of the seceding States was made by Governor Harkis in his mes- sages to the legislature of Tennessee in 1S61. Unsound and sophistical as I regard his reasoning to have lx:en, it is a fact that in tlie labor demanded of him as the governor of a State reluctant to secede, and divided in sentiment as Tennessee was, he showed such herculean energ>' as to entitle him to a position among the first of the forceful meti of that era of forceful men. What Governor Morton was to his State and the Federal Gov- ernment, that was Governor H.vkkis to Tennessee and the ill-fated Confederacy. At no time did he .shrink from any responsibility, however perilous; any lalx)r, however arduous. Although prior to the election of Mr. Lincoln he was recognized in Tenne.s.see as the ablest man of his party except Andrew Johnson, yet it was as governor of that State he liecame a national figure. The rapid- ity with which he organized 120,000 men for the Confederate army, despite the fact that 40,000 Teinie.s.seeans enlisted in the ITiiion Army, stamps him as a man of extraordinary executive ability. In an account of the battle of Shiloh, by Col. William Preston Johnston, son of Albert Sidney, in the Century Maga- zine for February, 1885, the writer .says his father's army "was weakened by the nece.ssity of keeping thousands of troops in Ea.st Tennessee to overawe the Union population of that sec- tion, .so as to guard the only line of railroad communication between Virginia and Tenne.s.see. ' ' He says further, " This hostile secliim i)onctrated the heart of Address of Mr. Brownloiv of Teimessee. 109 tilt Confederacy like a wedge and flanked and weakened Gen- eral Johnston's line of defense, requiring as it did constant vigi- lance and repression." And he adds that, of all the executives in the vast territor}-, "an empire in extent," constituting the department of Albert Sidney Johnston, ' ' the onlj' governor who furnished his State's quota of troops was Governor Harris, of Tennessee. ' ' These words are in reph' to the criticisms of Gen- eral Johnston by Southern newspapers for the loss of Forts Henry and Donaldson and tlie retreat of the Confederate army from Bowling Green and Nashville, and were intended as a vin- dication of that distinguished officer, but it will be seen that the)^ are at the same time a high tribute to the executive abihty of Governor H.IRRIS and to the unflinching loyalty and heroism of the Union patriots of East Tennessee, with whom the Governor had to contend. Xor were Senator Harris's activities confined to recruiting a large army. During nearly the entire war he served as an aid on the staffs of the various commanders of the leading Confed- erate army of the Southwest, periling his life for a cause he deemed just — a feature of his character wherein he differed from nearly all the political leaders who aided in precipitating the civil war, for history records that these gentlemen almost invari- ably preferred bombproof positions to the perils of the battlefield. Had he chosen arms for his profession he might have made a great general, and rivaled the fame of that distinguished soldier. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, on whose staff he served. Whatever Generals N. B. Forrest, William B. Bate, B. F. Cheatham, John C. Brown, and others did for the militar}- fame of Tennessee and for their mistaken cause is largely to be shared b\- their coadjutor, the chief magistrate of Tennessee. And to the arbitrary and herculean labors of Governor Harris to force the highlanders of East Tennessee into a service abhorrent to I lo Ltfc and Character oj Jsham G. Harris. their consciences is largely to be attriljuled the most heroic and sublime manifestation of physical and moral courage and patriotism recorded in the annals of American histor>-. But when this "man of blood and iron" attempted the coer- cion of the descendants of the heroes of Kings Mountain and New Orleans he encountered a people whose courage and deter- mination were equal to his own, and who so far from yielding to his imperious will, backed up as it was with regiments and brigades, furnished to the Ihiion Army a larger numlxrr of sol- diers, in proportion to population, than any section of the United States; and I take pride in stating that I represent a district whose quota to the Federal Anny of white soldiers exceeded that of any district in the Union. And these loyal heroes and their leaders. Generals Samuel P. Carter, Joseph A. Coojier, Alvan C. Gillem, James P. Brownlow, and others did as much for the military fame of Tennessee as did the heroes and their leaders of the opposing side; and after Tennessee's vast mineral and other resources shall have been developed under free labor, the verdict of impartial history will be that they loved their State as well and served it lietter. Thus from the crosses of war came the heroes who have shed imperishable fame on Tennessee. "Wine issues from the trodden grape; iron is blistered into steel." With the downfall of the ill-fated Confederacy, for whose suc- ce.ss he had performed such herculean labors, Governor H.\rris retired from participation in public life until in October, 1869, when he came to Nashville to aid in the defeat for the United States Senate of his old rival and enemy, Andrew Johnson. With the termination of the war an incident occurred illustra- tive of Senator H.vkkis's personal integrity in connection with the public funds of the State, and I give ihe facts somewhat in detail l)ecause they have been distorted and misrepresented by Address of Air. BroTcnlow of Tennessee. iii certain of his political and personal opponents and in turn by those who would do injustice to Republicans. The school fund of Tennessee in 1S62 amounted to $2,679, - 01S.33, all deposited in and constituting a part of the assets of the Bank of Tennessee. In 1862 the Confederate legislature of the State directed that this fund should be invested in Confed- erate bonds, and it was so invested. That was an end of the Tennessee antebellum school fund, as at the close of the war the Confederate bonds were without value. In these assets, before the}' were removed south on the approach of Buell's army to Nashville, was $720,380.94 in coin. The fact that the reports of the bank on January i, 1862, showed this sum in coin among the assets is probably the basis of the unintentionally untruth- ful statement that has been often published that $700,000 of the assets were turned over to the State authorities in 1865 and wasted. But the truth is the coin so turned over amounted to onlj' $446,719.70. Part of the original sum was paid in salaries of State officers, part of it loaned before its return to Nashville, as the receipts in the boxes showed. These receipts and mem- oranda accounted for the difference between the $720,380.94 in coin, as shown by the report of January i, 1862, and $446,719.70, the amount returned to Nashville and turned over to the State authorities in 1865, less the necessar\' expenses incident to their return to Nashville. By act of the legislature of Januarj^ 9, 1865, the governor, secretary of state, and comptroller were directed to invest the coin so returned, the $446,719.70, for the benefit of the school fund. In obedience to that act 7-30 United States bonds were bought, and the premium on gold being large at that time, the bonds purchased amounted to $618,250. These bonds were in the custody of the State treasurer, R. L. Stanford. In violation of the law, which required that they be kept at Nashville, he 112 Life and Character of Isliam G. Harris. depositetl them iti a Memphis national bank which subsequently failed. When the action of the treasurer Ixrcame known, the governor, by authority of the legislature, sent a committee to Memphis which recovered for the State $368,433.85. How much of the remainder, $249,816.15, has been recovered. I can not say, as there has not lieen a final termination of some litiga- tion growing out of the matter. The treasurer, when detected in his violation of law in sending the.se bonds away from the capital, was the president of a Johnson political club in oppKJsi- tion to the reconstruction ixjlicy of Congress. He was not a Republican or ex-Confederate. He had lx;en an officer in the Federal Army, and owed his election as treasurer to the influ- ence of his personal and political friend, President Andrew Johnson. When his ofFen.se was made public the treasurer committed suicide. The probabilities are he had not intended to become a defaulter. He thought to speculate on State funds without the State losing by it. When the war ended, Senator H.vkkis left the I'nited States, going first to Mexico and then to England. In 1866 he returned to Tenne.ssee. Had he not been an honest man, he could have taken as much of this coin with him as he and his servants could have carried on his overland trip through Texas to the City of Mexico. Totally differing from him on the leading que.stions of cur- rency and tariff, and above all on the injurious consequences of his teachings in favor of .secession, I do not think that the final influence of his energies, talents, and courage uj)on the public mind of his State and country will be beneficial. But never- theless there was much in him to admire. His directness of purpose, his courage, his scorn and contempt for jMjlitical trimmers, his generosity to the poor (for his purse was ever open to them ), his industry, his iron will — these were excellent Address of Mr. Brozcnlozc' of Tennessee. 113 qualities, and to them he largel)' owed the great popularity he had with the people of Tennessee and his success in public life. But there were some questions on which we had kindred sym- pathies. For the oppressed people of Ireland, for the struggling patriots of Cuba, for the vindication of the rights of American citizens in foreign lands, he had strongly pronounced opinions. And our S5'mpathies were kindred in opposition to that greatest of modern humbugs, miscalled " civil-ser\'ice reform." Senator H.-VRRis was too manly to pretend to fa^•or the law while secretly endeavoring to have it violated, but he was openly opposed to this un-Democratic, anti-Republican system of life tenure in office holding. He was as much iu favor of honesty and effi- ciency in the public service as the pretentious people who shout loudest for reform. He knew that — A man may cry Church! Church! at ev'ry word With no more piety than other people — A daw 's not reckoned a religious bird Because it keeps a-cawing from a steeple. We live too near the great "war in which he was so potent a factor and the party strife growing out of it to expect that all should do justice to his good qualities of head and heart. He was as little influenced bj- a personalh- revengeful feeling as any man of positive opinions I ever knew. He could hate what he believ'ed to be political heresy and yet cherish kindly per- sonal feelings toward those whom he knew held such views. In this respect he was more liberal in spirit than many of the lead- ers of his party or of his provincial supporters in the lowlands of middle and western Tennessee. Senator Harris was not a man of education or culture as these terms are usually understood, nor was he an orator accord- ing to the generally accepted definition of that term. He was what neither education nor culture nor oratory can make — he was a tireless and fearless worker. He was not a scholar as S. Doc. 343 8 114 ^-'J'' "'"' c //;?/(/,/< ;- oj Jsiiaiu (j. Harris. implying knowledge of books, but in a larger sense he was not untaught. He had a niar\'elous knowledge of men and how to control them. His speeches were terse, \'igorous, full of enthu- siasm. They were practical, dealing in facts, never above the comprehension of the popular assemblies he addressed, and cal- culated to produce the effect which is lx)th the puqxjse and result of true oratory — that of challenging attention and pro- ducing conviction. In breadth of intellect I do not think he was equal to Jackson, White, Grundy, Bell, or Johnson, who preceded him in the Sen- ate, but a.s a party organizer and leader he surpa.ssed them all. As an organizer of campaigns he never had an equal in Tennes- see, and often during the past ten years his party would have been badly beaten under the leadership of any other man. Tennessee has furnished more names that stand high on the national role of honor than any State save \'irginia and Massa- chusetts. Not to mention Tennesseeans who, like Claiborne, of Louisiana; Sharkey, Yerger, and Cocke, of Mississippi; Gwin, of California; Tipton, of Indiana; Sevier, of Arkansas; Benton and Barton, of Missouri; Henry Watterson, of Kentucky; Houston, of Texas, and Commodore M. F. Maur>-, who attained influence and celebrity, either local or national, in other States, Ten- nes.see has given to the National Go\'ernraent a uumlx;r of Pre.si- dents and Cabinet officers entirely out of proportion to its wealth and population. We have furnished one Secretary of the Treasurj', two Secre- taries of War, one Attorney-General, and four Postmasters- General. To this Hou.se Tennessee has furnished two Speakers and to the Senate two pre.siding officers, one of whom was IsH.\M G. Harris. Besides having had three Presidents, Tennessee has had two unsuccessful candidates for the Presi- dency, each (if whom received the electoral votes of several Address of Afi-. Broivnlow of Tennessee. 115 States. We have had two associate justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. In addition to this Tennessee has furnished manj^ representatives to the diplomatic service. But of this brilliant galaxy few were equal in force of character and ability to the late Senator Harris. His political convictions in the most important period of his life were on trial in the midst of remorseless war, when thousands of his friends were going down before the iron tempest of battle. He should be judged by the times in which he lived. That he possessed many manly qualities none can deny. " Let us pass him to the grave as we would ha\-e others pass ourselves, forgetting the frailties incident to our nature and which appear to be inseparablj' connected with our being. ' ' Ii6 Life auff Character of I sham G. Harris. ADDRESS OF Mr. Clarke of Nev/ Hampshire. Mr. Ci„\RKK of New Hampshire. Mr. Spjeaker, I did not know that arraiigenieiits liad Ijeen made to-day to pay tribute to the memorj' of the distingui.shed statesman who most ably and honorably and for so long a time represented the great State of Tennes-see in various high oflBces, or I should have prepared a suitable eulogy to his great fame and memorj'. But I can not, sir, allow the opportunity to pa.ss without at least paying a word of tribute to the name and fame of Senator Harris. It was not my good fortune to know him closely as a companion or as a friend; but I thought I knew him as an able Senator and states- man, as a rugged, sturdy, honest man; and yet, as a member of the funeral party which accompanied the remains of the distin- guished Senator to his late home at Memphis, when I ap- proached the confines of the State which he had so honorably repre.sented I .soon learned my mistake — I then a.scertained that I had but partially and imperfectly estimated the man. When we reached the State of Tennessee, I found that his friends were legion and that they had all abandoned both busi- ness and pleasure and were present to pay their sad tribute to his fame, to his memory, and to his greatness. I rememtjer the large concourse of people that met us at the capital of the State and the distinguished honor that all seemed anxious to p)ay to the statesman's memorj-. Rich and poor, high and low, every- body, seemed to be the friends of Senator H.vrris. They knew his work, they knew the great and valuable serv'ices that he had performed for them in his representative capacity in many ways, and they were there to add their last tribute to the great man who had lx:eu called beyond the borders that no eye can pierce. And when we reached his liome, there was an impre.s,sion made Aaddress of Mr. Clarke of A'ew Hampshire. 117 upon me that I shall never forget. I remember that distin- guished gentlemen, representing all departments of business, all vocations in life, all professions, turned out as one man to meet the funeral part}- and to shed a tear at the loss of their neighbor and their friend. I remember, Mr. Speaker, as we entered that great church and took our places within the chancel the words of his pastor and that beautiful sen-ice of song, the words of which ring in my ears even to-da}': Lay him low, lay him low; Under the clover,- or under the snow. What cares he ? He can not know. Lay him low, lay him low. Mr. Speaker, we did lay him low; we accompanied his re- mains to that beautiful field of the dead, and I remember as the sun went down beyond those great shade trees that he had helped set out, and amid the scenes he loved so well, that we did not lay him into a cold, damp, stuffy grave, but rather in a repository that was literally smothered with flowers, brought there by people of all ages, all distinctions, all colors; and I said to myself, "Surely, Senator Harris, it is blessed to die under such circumstances as these, when all 3-our neighbors and friends have come here, with one accord, to pay their sad tribute to your memory, aud are saying, ' Well done, thou good and faithful ser\-ant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.' " Ii8 Life and C/immltt of I sham G. //arris. Address of Mr. Sims. Mr. Sims. Mr. Speaker, the first jjuhlic men that I have any recollection of hearing mentioned were Governor Ish.\m G. H.VKRis, President Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, and Jefferson Davis. I was only 8 years old, but rememljer distinctly hearing my father speak in the highest terms of Governor Hakkis, although m>' father was an intense Whig. I went out to Camp Alger a few days ago, and it reminded me of the first gathering of volunteer soldiers that I ever saw, thirty-seven years ago, assembled at the call of Governor Isham G. Harris, of Tennessee. When those volunteers of 1861, those that were left of them, returned to their desolate and ruined homes in the spring of 1865, my childish heart prayed that the day might never come again in the history of this country when there would be a call for volunteers to go forth to fight other \'oluuteers of our own lilood and brotherhood; and, thank God, so far that prayer has been an.swered. After so much has been said of the life and character of Sen- ator H.YRRis by those so much more able and better fitted to do justice to his fame and memory, I feel great delicacy in attempting to speak here to-day, for fear that I may rather detract from than add to the interest of the occasion. Senator Harris's early years were sf>ent in the laeautiful and intellectual little city of Paris, the county seat of Henry County, noted then, as at present, for its pubUc men of national reputa- tion. Such a home and surroinidings were well calculated to develop the talents of the young and ambitious Harris. While his home was at Paris he was twice elected to represent that district on this flixir. His beloved wife died there only a short while before the death of her illusirions hnsh.md. Address of Mr. Sims of Tennessee. 119 On account of the long and intimate association of Senator Harris with the people of the Eighth district of Tennessee, I should feel that I had not discharged my full duty if I did not at this time and on this occasion give some expression of the esteem in which he was held by his old friends and associates. Senator Harris was in public life almost continuously for over fifty years, and in all that time never suffered even a tem- porary defeat, while at times he had to and did overcome an adverse party and political majoritj*. Of how few of our suc- cessful public men can the same be said? While courteous and affable, he was not that character of man known as a good elec- tioneerer, a good hand shaker. He was rather blunt and plain in his manner and address, but always sincere and candid. He was a man of great moral and physical courage. He was not a political diplomat. He never .sought to accomplish his purposes by scheming or machine methods. He spurned an attempt at indirection. It was never charged against him that he belonged to anj- political ring or that he was in any sense a party boss. His was a most positive character, bordering on the dogmatic. He had enemies, as all such men have, but he was never revengeful. He never sought to popularize his views bj' other means than clear and forcible arguments, terseh' stated. He used no circum- locution, no confusing platitudes. When he stated a proposi- tion, no one, however simple or untutored, could possibly mis- understand him. While there is perhaps no single great legislative enactment bearing his name, there was no man in the Senate during the last twenty years who had or exerted a greater influence in the national legislation of that period than Senator Harris. There was no man in the Senate of the United States during his long period of ser\-ice whose word was more implicitly relied on. No I20 Li/f and CIniiactcr of I sham (J. Harris. one ever questioned bis sincerity or honesty. It is useless to give details or circumstances to justify this statement, as no enemy, jiersonal or political, ever (|Uesti(jned his liDiior or integ- rity. While Senator H.^rris was twice a nieniljer o\ this Ixxly, three times governor of Tennessee, and twenty years a Senator, all the details of his public career have been so fully statetl by others who have gone liefore me that it is unnecessary that I should make further mention of them at this time. I suppose that if all his acts of usefulne.ss during his long and eventful public life were stated in detail it would require volumes to con- tain them. Senator Hakkis was endowed with a most remarkable mem- ory. I will ask the indulgence of the House to relate an in- cident that goes to show how great a memor>' he possessed. In the campaign of 1876 Governor H.vrris and Gen. William B. Bate, now the honored senior Senator from Teiniessee, were to deliver addresses at an old-fashioned Democratic rally and bar- becue held in Linden, Tenn., then and now my home. I was selected, together with Dr. S. A. McDonald, to go to Waynesboro, the county seat of Wayne County, 30 miles dis- tant, and pilot Governor H.vrris through the countr>' to Linden. Dr. McDonald and I were on horseback, while Governor H.vrris and his son were in a buggy. About halfway between Waynes- boro and Linden, while riding some 200 yards in advance of the buggy, we .saw a covey of birds by the side of the road. Dr. McDonald alighted and picked up a stone, threw it into the covey, and killed two of the birds. We waited until his bugg>- came up and gave the birds to Governor H.\rris. We went on to within S miles of Linden, and .stopped over at the home of Dr. McDonald for lunch and to feed and re.st the horse the Governor was driving. The birds were at once dressed and Address of Air. Sims of Tennessee. i2i cooked, and Govorner Harris ate them. Twenty years after this date, at the time Senater Harris was elected to the Senate for the fourth consecutive term, I was in Xashville and with Gen. M. H. Meeks, called on Senator Harris at his hotel to pay our respects and to congratulate him on his election with- out opposition. I had not met him since that trip from Waynesboro to Linden. At the time I piloted him through the country as above stated I was very thin in flesh, but at the time I met him at his hotel I had become stout. When I presented myself, the Senator took me by the hand and looked me steadily iu the face, as was his custom. I said to him that I was the young man ' ' who, twenty j-ears before, had piloted him from Waynesboro to Linden," and asked him if he remembered me. He replied "Oh, yes, I do; and I remember those birds that Dr. McDonald killed and that I ate for my dinner that day." The incident had long passed out of my mind, but the Senator remembered it quite well. He then gave every incident and detail of his visit to Linden, and what occurred after he arrived, and the names of old friends he met while there, and related all that took place on the day of the barbecue, with nuich more circumstantial detail than I could have possibly done. Onl\- a short time before his death I heard him go over the details of court trials in which he had been engaged that had taken place more than fifty years before, giving all the minute particulars as though they had occurred only the day before. For man3^ j'ears before he died he was regarded b\' the whole people of Tennessee with the warmest feelings of affection. He was lovingly called "the old Senator." When "the old .Sen- ator" made a promise, no one ever entertained the slightest doubt but that he would most faithfully keep it. No public man has passed from this life within the last fifty 122 /.//<• and Cliaracltr of' Isliam (i. Harris. years who was so universally inourned throiijjhout the State of Tennessee as was Senator Hakkis. Expressions of heartfelt and sincere grief knew no jiarty lines. At an informal meeting which took place at the Ebbitt House, in this city, on the night after his death, was gathered every Tennesseean in the national capital to give fitting expression as to the great loss our beloved State had sustained in his death. In that meeting were men of all shades of ixilitical opinion. In that meeting were men gathered together from the highest to the lowest walks of life. The gray-haired statesman of wide national reputation .sat beside the humblest Department em- ployee, all drawn together by a common sorrow; all grieving over the loss of a loved and cherished friend. No one could tell who was republican or Democrat in that assembly, but anyone could easily see that all were sincere mourners. Such di.stin- guished Republicans as Hon. A. H. Pettibone, Hon.W. P. Brown- low, Gen. George H. Maney, and many others were present and took conspicuous part in the proceedings, all evincing a genuine and unaffected sorrow. No man that ever lived had truer friends than Senator H.\k- KIS. and no man ever lived who was more faithful and devoted to his friends than was Senator H.\kris. Though dead, yet does he live. His life and teachings are to-day exerting a great and lasting ijeneficial influence over the minds of our young people. He has left us an example that we will do well to imitate. His life and accomplishments are a h()])e and a comfort to tho.se worthy and ambitious youths of our land who are hampered and cramped by poverty. He was in the mo.st literal sense a self-made man. Beginning life without money or inBueutial friends at the tender age of 14 years, by his own unaided efforts he won the highest jxjsitions within the gift of the people. He is a conspicuous examjile of Address of Mr. Sims of Tennessee. 123 what can be accomplished in this goodly land of ours hy untir- ing effort and perseverance. His life will be a beacon light to worthy thousands who are now struggling against the cold and chilly waves of adversity and poverty. Mr. Speaker, Senator Harris did not live in vain, and he has not died in vain. Full of years and honors, he sleeps the sleep of the just. 124 f-'l' """ <~ "'"'''''> "/ hiiani (,. J/iirris. ADDRESS OF Mr. DE ARMOND. Mr. De Armond. Mr. vSpeaker, I do not know that the deaths in the pre.Mint Congress have been more numerous than the average in preceding Congres.ses; but it has .seemed to me that the stricken ones were miusually prominent. Out of this House went that man of long service and great usefuhiess, WiUiam Steele Holmau. From the Senate were taken Senator Earle, of South Carolina (a new man in the body, but eminent in his State), two great Senators from the State of Mi.s,sissippi, and the great veteran Senator from the State of Tenne.s.see. In these notable deaths our attention has been directed pointedly to the fact that a number of great men of the older period, of the generation to which but few now li\nng belong, have passed from us lately; and scarcely can we hope that the present and the oncoming generation will be equal to the task of filling as well as they filled the places which they vacated. It is not much that I can add to what has Ijeen said in sketch- ing the career and outlining the salient points of the character of the distinguished Senator from Tennessee. It has Ijeen said very truthfulh' that he was one of the foremost men of his day and generation — gifted with great ability, a man of superb cour- age, a man honest and direct in all his methods. Through a long period in the ser\'ice of his State and his country, his tri- mnphs liavc been such as but few men reach and .scarcely any can rival. At first hhish it inij^ht seem to us that, starting as he started, ]X)or and obscure, is a disadvantage in the great race of life. To the comparatively weak, the timid and the fearful e.si>ecially, jioverty and the lack of influential family do indeed amount to great hindrances — hindrances tli.nt nftt-ii make miscarriage and Address of Mr. Dc Ariiioitd of Missouri. 125 shipwreck of all the voyage of life. But, however it may be in other countries, it is true, I think, in this, that a considerable portion of the men really strong by nature are made stronger by earlj' contact with povertj' and earl)' experience of privation. We often look upon the careers of our great men in retrospect and say to ourselves that they would have been much greater, that their achievaments w'ould have been more marked and their success more signal if they had started in life with better advan- tages; if their earh^ opportunities had been superior to what they were; if family influence had given them aid which they were denied. I believe, however, that in this country such an idea involves a superficial and incorrect view of the possibilities of life and the achievements of our great men. In a countrj' like this, where the people do their own governing — where the people are the great power, the source of all power, and where those who fairl}- attain high position and honestly' retain it long must be intrenched in the confidence and support of the people — it seems to me nothing so well fits a man for an illustrious career, noth- ing so securely binds him to the interests of the great masses of the people as the hard but valuable experiences in >-outh of a life of penury, of toil, of sacrifice. This country can attain its high destiny- — the people of this country can be measurably prosperous and happj- — only when those who administer the laws, those who are clothed with great power, capable of great things good or bad, are true to the inter- ests of the masses. Steadfa.st fidelitj^ to the public interests generallj' can be found in large measure only with those who partake of the feelings and sentiments and experiences — who enter experimentally into the lives — of the great masses of the people. Those who have been brought up in aiBuence, those whose early opportunities were great, those who have had the 126 Life and Characlcr of I sham G. Harris. pathway of life made smooth and easy for them from beginniup to end — they can not, from the very nature of things, enter into the Hves, appreciate the motives, understand the difficulties, estPmate properly the rights and the duties of that stern, that noble citizenship which belongs to the common people of our great Republic. With very few exceptions — there are some notable ones — the men who have made illustrious the history of this country, who have been l)enefactors of human kind in their age and genera- tion, who laid the foundations of this Republic and builded the nation, who sustained it in times of trial and who will sustain it in all the years to come, they have Ijeen and are those who came from the plain level of the people — the men with the experiences which are common to the masses, and therefore with the sympathies which must reside in those who represent properly, and who only can thus represent, the great body of American citizenship. This man was peculiarly strong in that re.spect. His early struggles with poverty, his early privations, his early triumphs over difficulties which assail so many in a country like ours, marked him and fitted him for the great career which he rounded grandly. Without high ability, without superb courage, with- out unshaken honesty, wi Jiout fidelity to friend and candor in dealing with the foe he never could have been as great as he was; and perhaps he never could have developed in high degfree any of the great, the inestimable, the noble qualities which he exhibited if he had not had that stern, hard discipline in youth and early manhood in which such qualities are developed if tlie germ of them exist at all. But a few years ago, Mr. Speaker, when the great party to which the departed Senator belonged was considering, away back in the school districts, in the .small conventions and the Address of Mr. Dc Arviond of Missouri. 127 chance assemblages of the masses of its people, questions of vital party and national -importance; when a great question was brought up within the lines of the Democracy to which he was devoted as to whether the few or the many should control within the party; as to what should be declared as the party creed; as to who should be in command and w'ho, for the good of the part}', should be retired — I recollect that then he was one of four great Senators, men of influence and might in the partj', men of influence and might in the country, who were instrumental in assembling, in an unofficial way, a large number of representa- tives of the party in his well-loved city of Memphis, to consider, quieth" and as American citizens, what ought to be done, what the needs of the party and the country were in the crisis through which we then were passing. To Senator Harris, Senator George, Senator Turpie, and Senator Jones of Arkansas — they are the four whom I remember particularly and preeminently — from the standpoint of those who think as I think and who try to act as I try to act with regard to these great public questions, a world of gratitude is due. Then there took form in the great party of which Sena- tor Harris was an exemplar and a leader that which was in , the minds of the masses. The movement then inaugurated and put fairly upon its feet gathered strength and force until a year later the efforts of those who thought as he thought were crowned with success, and the representatives of the party, meeting in national convention, declared at Chicago what the true part}- creed was, what the true part}- creed should be. Ver}^ much indeed did this dead Senator add to the reputation of the State, already great, which he honored and which hon- ored him. High, no doubt, will he- rank in all time to come among the great men of that great State. High will he rank as long as the annals of Congress are read or known among the 128 Life and L'liaraclcr of I sham G. Harris. great men of this nation. He possessed in marked degree qual- ities which it has sometimes seemed to me are not too common, not too generally found in public men. He was thoroughly devoted to any cause in which he was enlisted. He was thor- oughly open and direct in his methods, and his position, once taken, was held with Spartan tenacity. He may have seemed impetuous in advocacy, as has been remarked here this after- noon; he may have seemed impetuous in action, but it was the impetuosity of courage and conviction. The subject considered, the conclusion reached, the die cast, he may have appeared impetuous in execution. Nothing re- mained but to make known the decision and to act upon the lines deliberately chosen. In action there is no time for con- sideration of whether there should be action. When the charge is sounded there is no time for considering whether it .should have been sounded. Senator H.vrris di.stinctively recognized this, as every great man in history has recognized it, and acted upon it. Careful and cautious in reaching his conclusions, thorough in his investigations, his conclusions once reached, his determination once arrived at, the time for action once at hand, he was impetuous in the charge — there was no halting and no hesitancy about his course. He struck home, struck quick, and struck hard. It was this quality, among others which he pos- sessed in a high degree, that made him the conspicuous figure that he was and that he will remain in the histor>- of our country. Beautiful and feeling tributes have been paid to his memory by those who knew him jiersonally far better than I did. Dis- tinguished men from his own State have delighted to prai.se him by telling the truth about him. Distinguished men throughout the land, while they may not have known him so well, delight also to join, though far distant they may be, with Address of Mr. Dc Ani/oiid of Missouri. 129 their tribute. And the great mass of the people the country over, forgetting whatever faults he may have had — and all men have faults — recognized that his virtues triumphed over his faults and in their splendid glow obscured them almost entirely from view. Among all the great men of the land, Tennessee's venerable Senator ever will stand as one of the most able, most coura- geous, most useful. Such a standing few men attain. Such a standing reflects at once honor upon tlie man who attains it; honor upon those connected with him b}' blood, by position, by association; honor upon the conununity which honors him, and which he in turn honors. Such a man, with such standing, was IsHAM G. Harris. S. Doc. 343 9 Ijo Life and Characltr o/ Jslunu <,. llmris. ADDRESS OF Mr. Gaines. Mr. (i.MNKS. Mr. Six-aker, Senator Harris was in public life many years l^efore I was Ixjrn. I was not privileged to Iw .socially intimate with him for the reason that his home was in the distant end of the State, but from my earliest cliildhood my father taught me to love and respect him, and as I grew to manhood I learned to look up to him as a leader, a patriot, and a statesman worthy the exalted love of a great i>eople. I have frequently a.sked myself, " Why do the people love this man so devotedly?" and I found its solution when I came to know him and his works better. It was because he never abused their confidence. No man has ever lived to say that Isham G. Harris deceiveil him. I have woudered also why it was that his political foes held him in such high esteem, and I have concluded that it was becau.se they always knew where to find him and he never struck below the belt. He was a man of magnificent courage, phy.sic- ally and morally. Never in his long and splendid public life did he palter with truth or hesitate between two opinions. He dared to be right. What lofty courage it .sometimes requires! He never betrayed a trust, and he made candor the cardinal principle of his life. Senator H.vkris was stricken with his fatal illness shortly after I entered upon my duties at this ca])ital, and I was denied much of his wise counsel which I had so much depended uj)on to equip me for duty here; but as a Teinies.seean and one of his constituents and di.sciples I am joint heir to a ricli heritage of benefit that flowed out of his great and eventful life. His mind retained its vigor initil the last. When the hand of death was upon him and he awaited with calm fortitude the dire e\-ent, I Ad /rcss of Mr. Gaines of Tennessee. 131 called upon liim and found him greatly interested in the four- days adjournment question then pending, and with wonderful precision and almost supernatural clearness he laid down the principles involved, which I afterwards found the law books verified. He had nol investigated the books; it was intuitive, evolved out of his own innate wisdom. Mr. Speaker, when this great spirit had winged its flight to other spheres, we took up the wasted tenement it had so long- occupied and bore it lovingly to Tennessee, where his people might do it honor, and the multittides of people, regardless of politics, creed, or race, who crowded past his bier bore eloquent though tearful testimonial to the universality of that love which they all bore him. On that occasion, when the best men of Tennessee were assembled to pay tribute to his memory. Col. John J. Vertrees, of Nashville, presented re.solutions, which I ask to have printed here, together with the remarks he made, and I offer them in lieu of further remarks my.self. They pay masterful tribute to the memory and deeds of a great man, and I ask that they be printed here that they may be perpetuated in the forum he so long honored. 132 Life and Character of Isltam Cr. Harris. ADDRESS OF MR. CaRMACK. Mr, Cakmack. Mr. Speaker, it was the profound remark of a wise old Mohainniedau caliph that men are more like the times they live in than they are like their fathers. Mind and char- acter are cast in the mold of environment; they take form and color from their siirrounditigs; they are fashioned to the hour by the plastic hand of circumstance. Types of character come and go with the varjing phases of .social, economic, and political conditions, of national KTOwth or decay. Times change and men change with them. The rough-hewn characters who lay the foundations of empire in the midst of pains and perils are but feebly stamped upon the lineaments of a .softer age. We are not born of the dead past, but are children of the living hour. Upon its Procrustean bed the tyrannical present fits each genera- tion to its own whim or need . ISH.\M G. H.\KKis was a sur\'ival of a type which has pa.ssed or is fa.st passing with the conditions that gave it birth — the old frontier or pioneer t>-ix;. He was born in the early years of the century, when Tennessee was but young in the Union, when the smefl of the wilderne.ss yet lingered in the air of its new-born civilization, when the character of the age drew its sap and vigor from the forest mold. He pos.se.ssed all the essential qualities of the hardy and heroic state.smen-warriors who on the Watauga and the Cumljerland made a clearing for ci\-iliza- tion and free government. He was of the mold and fiber of Andrew Jack.son; a character of ma.ssive simplicity, of heroic force and clearness; fearless, resolute, masterful, and imjserious, he was born to lead, and, by the shci-r fon-i- of his ]K-rson;ilit\ . to rule. The com])osition of his nature was \v\\ complex or uuncaie — Address oj Mr. Car mack of Tennessee. 133 its elements were few and simple. To know him at all was to know him well. Long j'ears of close and intimate association only strengthened and deepened the earlier impressions. You were never startled or surprised b}' the revelation of new and unexpected traits, except that the softer and gentler side of his character was not kept on public exhibition. In his many acts of kindness and generosit}-, indeed, his left hand was hardly suf- fered to know what his right hand did. Otherivise all his traits and qualities were stripped to every eye. His intellect was not subtle or ingenious, but robust, vigorous, direct, guided always by unfailing common sense. His judg- ment was wonderfully swift and wonderfullj- true. He was not widely or deeply read — though he knew accurately the political history of his own country — but he knew men, and he under- stood the springs of human action. His long public career, unbroken bj- a single defeat, is worthy of study, for it is stored with les.sons to the ri.sing generation, in which may be learned the secret of failure or success. He lived a life full of stormy conflicts, in which were given many a hard and bitter blow — blows which left behind them lasting enmities and uuforgi\-ing animosities. Yet from the first to the last of his long career victory chnig to his standard, and amid all the g^eat and rapid political changes of his time popular confidence never wavered from the man who adhered with stubborn, de- fiant, combative tenacitj- to his earliest creed. Manj' a man his equal in intellect and in many other quali- ties of leadership would have gone down in any one of the many storms through which he passed triumphantly and with honor. His success was a triumph not so much of intellect as of charac- ter. The people had marked him as a man worthy of confi- dence, and he justified their faith, not by seeking to find and follow the popular opinion, but to instruct and guide it. He 134 . /-(/'■ end Character of J sham (i. I farm. dealt with perfect candor both with individuals and the public. He was, I Ijelieve, the most truthful man I have ever known. Mis statements of fact were never colored or warped from the line of accuracy by prejudice or self-interest. Perhaps the highest tribute that could be paid him is to be found in the negative fact that, though he lived for years under the full blaze of a pa.>i.sionate and hostile criticism, no accusation tainting his honor has ever adhered to his fame. No charge of double-dealing, of deception, or even of a lack of full and perfect candor was ever laid at his door. His bitterest foes have been forced to admit that Isham G. Harris was a man to Ije trusted when he had given his word. Such qualities as the.se won and retained for him througliout all his stormy life the un.shaken confidence of the people. He had few of the arts of a popular politician. His manner was lacking in warmth and cordiality, and, except to those who knew him well, he often seemed distant and reserved. With a mar- velous memory for fact and incident, he had a poor memor>- for names and faces, and he never affected to remember a face he had forgotten. His enemies, who could not or would not understand his suc- cess, attributed it in large measure to his matchless skill in the management of a well-organized machine. Yet in truth no man e\er profited less by such methods. His methods were perfectly open, straightforward, and direct. He made no promises. He sought no alliances. He wrote few letters and made few sug- gestions as to the management of his own political affairs. He went straight to the people and appealed to them from the hustings, and there he won all his battles. No man in Tennes.see was ever more powerful or effective as a public speaker, and he was preeminently so in joint discussion, where all the latent ]K)wer and fire of his nature were stirred by I Address of Mr. Carmack of Tennessee. 135 the presence of a strong antagonist. In the days when the Whig and Democratic parties in Tennessee possessed an unusual array of briUiant orators, Isham G. Harris wasthe peer of the best. He met in joint debate such ma.sters of political contro- versy as Neil S. Brown, Robert Hatton, John Netherland, and others, and no antagonist ever bore away from him the prize of combat. He was not a phrase maker or a rhetorician, but he possessed the faculty of sinewy, terse, incisive speech, with in- tense earnestness of manner, an impressive deliver3^ and a gift of plain and logical presentation. His manner of public speak- ing may be described as argument, warm and glowing with earnestness and passion. In the discharge of public duty he was rigidly conscientious. He loved to do things well — not brilliantly or with splendid dramatic effect, but well. It was not enough for him to gain the approval of his countrymen. His conduct and the results were subjected to the merciless analysis of his own judgment and .scrupulously tested by his own estimate of the scope and measure of his duty. It would not be true to say that he took no thought of his own fame; but no man ever made less effort to gain a factitious popularity. No man ever did less purely to win public ap- proval. He did not delight in the applause of the moment. He valued onlj' that solidly built esteem formed to endure the impartial criticism of the future and against which the pitiless years may beat in vain. He trusted the people as implicitly as they trusted him; he trusted not ov\y their good intentions but their intelligence and capacity for .self-government. Believing, with never a shadow of doubt, in the truth and righteousness of his own principles, he was never apprehensive as to his own political fortunes. But even to the people he never stooped his high, imperial crest. 136 Life and Character of Jsliavi 1 ,. J /arris. He never wheedled them nr crinjijed to or flattered them. His kingly manhood stood erect in the pride and dignity of its character, and he faced the people confidently and without fear. It was a confidence both in himself and in them. He was never troubled with doubts. H is opinions once formed were never clouded by any vague misgivings. His beliefs and his purposes were alwaj's as clear as the noonday to his own mind. He never groped in the fog or stumbled in the dark. He knew his way and walked with confidence. In the course of his long and eventful career the fiber of his character was many times put to the sternest trial. When the war of sece.s-sion l)egan. he was serving his second temi as gov- ernor of Tennessee. He was a thoroughgoing secessionist. He believed in secession, lx)th as a constitutional doctrine and as a practical remedy. He l)elieved that it was impossible for the Union to endure and the institutions of the South to be pre- served, and with characteristic courage he accepted the inevi- table. Teiniessee was slow to yield to the secession movement, and Senator Harris's enemies have often said that he dragged it out of the Union against its will. Certain it is that the tre- mendous force of his per.sonality was a powerful factor in bring- ing the State under the banner of the Confederacy. As governor of Tennessee his resourcefulne.ss, his marvelous energy, his intuitive judgment and decision of character, his thorough knowledge of men, his genius for administration, made him the greatest war governor of the South. In spite of the fact that his capital was in the hands of the enemy and that a large part of his State wAs loyal to the Union, he gave to the Confederacy ioo,ooo.soldiers thoroughly organized and equipped. It had been his purpo.se upon the expiration of his term as gov- ernor to take command in the field; but because his succe.s,sor could not be inaugurated owini; '•■ I'l inital bi-imr i" the Address of Mr. Car mack of Tennessee. \'i>l hands of his enemy, he served as governor to the end of the war. He was, however, with the army of Tennessee from the time of the fall of Nashville, rendering gallant and conspicuous service. He was volunteer aid on the staff of Gen. Albert Sidney John- ston at the battle of Shiloh, and in the thick of all that bloody fray. He rallied in person a Tennessee regiment which was retreating in di.sorder and led it back to the position from which it had been driven. He was by the side of General Johnston when fatally wounded, and bore him from the field. The end of the war found him broken in fortune, an exile from his country, the proscribed representative of a ruined cause. But he returned to face the new duties, problems, and responsibilities of the hour, and he faced them with courage and practical wisdom. It was not in his nature to repine. He cherished no illu.sions as to the results of the war. He .saw what had been irretrievably lost and what might yet be saved from the wreck and ruin. He turned from the dead past with sorrow and faced the future with high resolve. His deare,st hopes had been entwined with the fallen Confederacy; but he knew that the cause he loved had died on the field of battle and he did not withhold his beloved from the grave. Thenceforth the destiny of his people was to be cast with the Union, and under its flag and law its future must redeem its past. To the Union, therefore, sincerely and ungrudginglj', he gave his re- newed allegiance. He reentered pulilic life as a candidate in the Presidential election of 1876. His name was in that 3'ear presented to the Democratic convention as one of the electoral candidates for the State at large. There developed in the convention an unex- pected opposition to his candidacy. There was still some preju- dice against him among the "Old Line Whigs. " There were those who feared that his conspicuous activity in the secession 138 /.///■ and I liaraclcr 0/ I sham (,. J /arris. movement would alienate a considerable body of Union Demo- crats, and there were the usual number of pusillanimous spirits who always visit the blame of their misfortunes ujxjn the leader of the unsuccessful cause. All these sentiments found voice in the convention. He was nominated in spite of this opposition, but, stung to the qr.ick. he appeared before the convention and in a speech full of patri- otic fire declined to allow his name to he the cause of di.scord it) the ranks of his party. All opposition was swept away in the enthusiasm which his speech evoked, and in spite of his declination the convention again selected him by an almost unanimous vote. He adhered, however, to his decision and announced that he would canvass the State on his own respon- sibility. So effective were the .series of sjieeches which he delivered in that memorable campaign that by the time the leg- islature assembled there was not an opponent to dispute his election to the Senate. U])on his subsequent career I need not dwell. It is enough to say that during all the years of his .ser\'ice in the Senate he held fast to his fundamental conception of Democracy, a strict construction of the Constitution. To that doctrine, as to the Ark of the Covenant, he fixed his faith and hope. During all these years he was the acknowledged leader of the Teiuie.ssee Democracy, infallible in coiuicil and invincible in the field. The growing infirmities of age never dimmed his mind, weakened his intellectual energies, or abated his zeal tor the principles he loved. In the great battle of 1896, though weakened by disease, his interest in the campaign burned with unwonted energy and power. Perhaps it was Ix'cause he realized, as I know he did, that amid the tunuilts of the next Presidential contest, the "thunder of the captains and the shouting." his \n\cc would Address of Mr. Car)nark of Tcniu'ssee. 139 not be heard. He felt, like Ossian, that this was the "last of his fields." He determined to give the last remnant of his .strength to liberty and the people. Charge once more, and then be dumb; Let the victors when they come, When tlie forts of folly fall, Find thy body by the wall. His last da^'s were characteristic of the man. He had known for weeks that death was upon him. He accepted it serenely and without a murmur. It is natural for men when the hope of life has passed or is passing away to seek consolation in the sym- patli\' of those about them, to touch their hearts to pity by allu- sions to the dread event, and find a wretched comfort in the sor- row of their loved ones. Not so with him. He trod the wine press alone. For long weeks and months he looked steadily in the face of the king of terrors, and his own .stout heart, which had su.stained him through life, sustained him in death. Calmly, silently, and heroically he awaited the "inevitable hour." A character both unique and great has passed. His conquer- ing spirit, his iron will, his brave and true and generous heart, will be with us no more amid the scenes of this mortal life. In the soil of his own beloved State his a.shes have been laid to rest, and sorrow's tears will keep green Iiis grave, while love and honor will .sentinel the hallowed spot where he sleeps his last, long sleep. We may not hope to see another who can draw his bow or wield his sword, for "he was a man, take him for all in all; we shall not look upon his like again." 140 Life and Chaiacl,r 0/ /.Ji,t»i (,. Iluiris. Mr. Haktman. Mr. Speaker, once again ha.s the Hou.se of Representatives lieen called ujwn to pay the tribute of its re- spect to one of the distinguished servants of the Republic. Senator Isham G. Harris, whose memory we revere and whose death we sincerely regret, was one of the strong, original, and patriotic characters of the present generation. But few men in the history of the Republic have been called upon to fill so many and varied places of responsibility as he. In no place of public trust which was assigned to him was there ever the suggestion (if the failure of the full performance of duty. In the great and momentous conflict of 1861 to 1865 he took his place where his conscience told him his duty lay, and while I, like many others, am entirely convinced that his decision was wrong, yet no one who knew him will ever question the sincerity of his Ijelief or the honesty of his purpose. When the great strife was over and the disaffections and disagreements of North and South were in process of reconciliation, he contributed by his counsel and by his example very greatly to the accomplish- ment of the desired result. In all of his legi.slative career those who knew him best, whether agreeing with him politically or oppo.sing him, were glad to attribute to his every act the highest and purest motives which control public men. One trait of his character which stood out most prominent was his positive, aggres.sive, firm, and courageous stand upon all questions of public moment which had received long and serious investigation at his hands. At times .some of his as.sociates were tempted to become annoyed at his very abrupt and positive way of giving utterance to his feelings, but a more mature knowledge ■>!" his iharartir li.is Address of Mr. Hartman of Man /ana. 141 generally resulted in the conviction among his associates that whatever words he uttered or whatever act he performed were inspired by the loftiest and most patriotic of purposes. Numerous conversations with many of his colleagues in the Senate have convinced me that among his associates he easily took rank as the leader of that V)ody in questions of parliamen- tary procedure and practice. His .speeches upon the great money question, the question of the tariff, and other subjects of public concern rank among the best delivered in either body of Con- gress. The influence of his life and character upon the rising generations of the Republic has been and will continue to be most beneficial. Through all his long career of public service, extending from a time prior to the late war up to the day of his death, his repu- tation for integrity, for patriotism, for courage has never been doubted. These are the three most essential and most desirable traits of character to be po.ssessed by a public man. It is fitting, then, that the Congre.ss of the United States should, by the adoption of the resolution presented, pay this their last tribute of respect to the memors' of this distinguished man. 142 Li/f and Cha racier of hluuh ADDRESS OF MR. SULZER. Mr. SiLZHK. Mr. Speaker, we meet tou want to progress you must plod on and on. Senator H.vkkis was a man of few words, but those words were always eloquent, sincere, direct, and they spoke and tneant volumes. He always told the truth; he did not Ijelieve words were made to conceal thoughts. He had no cant, no chicanery, no liy])ocrisy; he loved truth for the .sake of truth; he loved justice for the sake of justice. He was no pretender; he never dissembled; he cared naught for expediency. He was a man of noble impulses, with a high .sense of honor and an unblem- ished character. He was not ahvavs rii;lit; he made mistakes Address of Mr. S II leer of Xeze York. 143 in human ways like other human beings, but they were the mistakes of the head and not of the heart; his heart was ahva^* true, and he alwaj's did his duty as he saw it; he never flinched. He had few principles, few rules of life, few maxims, but those he had he adhered to with bulldog tenacity. He did not believe in compromises. He did not believe in halfway measures. With him a thing was either right or wrong. He tested ever}' proposition in the crucible of experience, of truth, and of justice. If it could not stand the te.st, he had no use for it; he was then open and aboveboard a.gainst it. He alwaj's had the courage of his convictions. Xo one ever doubted where he stood on anj- question. He was Tennessee's gjand old man for the last two decades of his life. He was born on her soil, and lived within her con- fines nearly all his life. He was one of her greatest sons and the product of her own free institutions. He loved his State, and his State loved him. He stood by her people, and they always stood by him. For years he was their popular idol, and during his long and stormy political career he never met with a political defeat when he submitted his cause to them and appealed to the people of his own State. The people of Ten- nessee knew him, thej' loved him, thej- revered him, and the}' honored him as they have few men in the history of that grand old Commonwealth. He deserved it all. He never betrayed their confidence. He was true to every trust confided to him. He was a sterling Democrat, a disciple of Thomas Jefferson and a follower of Andrew Jackson. He li\'ed in early life in their day. He knew their principles, and at all times he .strug- gled for them and fought for them most tenaciously. He could not surrender principle. He loved the Constitution; he believed in a strict construction of it and in the reser\'ed rights of the sovereign States. He believed in a government of the people. 144 ^-'.1' """' CJiiiracltr of hliam G. Harris. aiul he lx.-lievetl thu jieople could Ix- trusted and were capable of Sfclf-goveninient. He was a robust man, of great physical endurance, and capa- ble of great mental exertion. He was a busy man, a hard- working man. His life work is a great monument, more endur- ing than marble and bra.ss, of human effort, human endeavor, and human accomplishment. He exhausted every subject he considered. He went to the Ixjttom of every proposition, and by etenial and fundamental principles determined whether it was right or wrong. He took nothing for granted — he proved all things. He was a self-made man. He graduated from no college, but from the university of hard work and experience. He knew books and he read books, but he knew men and read men bet- ter. He was at home in nature, and he was a past master in human nature. He understood the motives, the hopes and the fears, the passions and the prejudices of men. He was not narrow-minded, not bigoted; he was broad, liberal, and charitable. He thought for himself. He had opinions of hi.s uwn. Ik was a direct, a positive man. He had enemies, he made enemies; but for every enemy he made by rea.son of his inflexible character and his positive a.sser- tion of opinion he made a thousand friends. What forceful, tx)sitive man ever lived without enemies? A man without an enemy is a man without an opinion, and generally without a friend. He lived long before the great conflict of States and long after. He was always an active man, a go-ahead kind of a man, and during all his long career he was a part of the life and history of his country. He made history. He met Xapoleon's test — he did something. Address of Mr. Sit her of Nezv York. 145 He was born on the lotli day of February, 18 18; nearly eighty years afterwards he died in harness, a Senator in Congress from his native State. He died in the capital city of his country on the 8th day of July, 1897. During all those years what a busy life was his! The story of his struggles and triumphs, his reverses and suc- cesses, his poverty and his progress, his joys and sorrows, his trials and troubles, is one of the most interesting and instruct- ive in biographical literature. It has been well told here to- day by man}' gentlemen more fluently and more eloquently than I can do. His life was a busy one, an exciting one, replete with incidents that read like a romance. At the early age of 14 a clerk in a country store, at 21 a merchant doing business for himself, a few years later a lawj'er with a good practice. Then a member of his State legislature, then a member of the House of Representatives, then twice governor of his State, then the war and the days that tried men's souls. In 1877 he was elected to the United States Sen- ate, where he remained the balance of his life. It would take volumes to tell what he saw, what he did, and what he knew. What wonders have been accomplished during the fourscore years he lived! What a marvelous story of growth, of prog- ress, of development, of expansion, of invention, of social evo- lution and commercial revolution! In all the history of the world there is nothing like it, nothing to equal it. Senator Harris lived and was a part of all this. He grew with events. He kept abreast of the times. He never lagged behind. He was always a leader. His career in the Senate of the I'nited States is remarkable alike for length of service and for dut>- well performed. He was a good debater and one of the best parliamentarians that ever lived. For man}- years he was the Democratic leader in that S. Doc. 343 10 146 Life and C/mraittr oj Isiiam (j. Harris. branch of the National Legislature. In the great duties which devolved on him he was zealous, patient, and untiring. He was an indefatigable worker, and had the faculty of accomplishing a great deal in a short time. He was seldom absent, never n»;g- lected a duty, and his name is recorded on nearly ever>' roll call. He realized his responsibility, and brought forth all his powers to intelligently and faithfully carry out his mission. No State ever had a more zealous and a more conscientious representative. All his life he stood for true Democracy, but in the Senate he had a mighty field to demonstrate the principles of Jefferson, Monroe, and Jackson and display his varied talents and profound knowledge. He is dead and gone, but the great work he did lives in a thousand acts and volumes of Congress. That incomparable work is his enduring monument, and will live as loug as the lan- guage in which it is indelibly written. He will live, too. in the memory of thou.sands and thou.sands whom he help)ed and l)e- friended in innumerable ways. His life was a running chapter of kind and loving deeds. He knew a good deed lives and a kind act never dies. He lived to a ripe old age. He died in the fullness of time — after his course was run, after he reached the goal. Looking back over the long vi.sta of his eventful and exciting life, he had few regrets. His la.st moments were calm and placid. Sur- rounded by his friends and his loved ones, this grand old man yielded back the life and quietly and peacefully was gathered to his fathers. In his death a nation nionrned. and the Stale that gave him birth and all his honors put on the garb of .sorrow. Her first and foremost citizen was no more. This is my tribute, the tribute of Ntjw York, to the great and noble dead of Tennessee. Address of Mr. Siihcr of Nen' York. 147 This is my tribute, poorh- expressed, for human words after all but poorly express the feelings and the sentiments of the human heart. This, then, is my tribute to the memory of IsHAM G. Harris, toiler and lawyer, soldier and statesman, friend and humanitarian, and above all and beyond all a true, a noble, and an honest man, upon whose like we shall not look again. 148 Life and Character of hliam G. Harris. HEMOKi.-.L ■:;■.:,:.;.:.:. IKS. Mr. W. J. Crawford, pennaneut chairman of the coniinittec on arrangements and teniporarj' chairman of the fjreat meeting of the people at tlie Auditorium, said: L.VDiKS AND Gkxtlkmen: In behalf of the committee charged with the preparation of a memorial ser\-ice befitting the dignity and character of the late Senator Harris, I take the liberty of calling this assemblage to order, and find pleasure in presenting the presiding officer on this occasion in the person - as one of the ' ' war goveniors. ' ' Without going into detail, it is suSicient to .state that from the first reveille to the last tattoo in Confederate camps Gov- ernor Harris was an active factor in our great unequal contest. Being by nature, as he was by profession, a Democrat in its broadest and most liberal .sense, he was easily a favorite with his people and was one of the leaders who was rarely if ever out of touch with them. Hence it was an easy matter for him to be elected to anything within their gift. Since peace came unto us he was four times elected to the United States Senate from Tennessee. The State has honored him and he has honored the State. The Senate likewise hon- ored him by electing him President pro tempore of the Senate, and he thus became its presiding officer in the absence of the Vice-President; and in this, as in other official place; held by him, he became master of the situation and brought credit alike to himself and the office he held. In no part of his life was Senator Harris ever a drone in the human hive, but an active participant in its make-up and man- agement. As an actor on the stage of life he played a leading part, and when the curtain fell at the close of the la.st act in the drama it but removed the actor from sight, leaving fresh and pleasant memories of his .sayings and the impress of his doings upon tho.se who .saw and heard him. But ' ' Thy scythe and gla.ss, O Time, are not the emblems of thy gentler power," for even "the Old Guard" must surrender to thy inexorable demands. Senator H.\rris, one of the last of the Old Guards — and they are getting scarce now — stood for twenty years in the Senate a sentinel to guard the Constitution of our countrv. But this faithful old sentinel has l)een called Memorial Ceremonies. 151 by the decree of fate from his post of duty, and his mother, Tennessee, has put him to rest in her bosom within the sacred precincts of your own Ehnwood. It is well— And if through patient toil we reach the land Where tired feet, with sandals loose, may rest, Where we shall clearly see and understand, I think that we will say, " God knew the best." When Senator Bate had concluded his brief speech he asked the audience to rise, and then called upon the Rev. Dr. N. M. Woods, pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, who offered prayer. The invocation was impressive, asking the blessings of Heaven upon the exercises and praying God that the good lessons to be learned from the life of Senator Harris might be impressed upon all present. Governor Taj" lor made a graceful speech as the representati\'e of the State of Tennessee. Professor Arnold's orchestra rendered a selection when Senator Turpie had concluded. The governor of Tennessee, Hon. Rob- ert L. Taylor, was the next speaker, and Senator Bate introduced him as the representative of the State upon the occasion when citizens of the State would honor the dead who, when living, labored so ably and conscientiotisly to honor the Commonwealth of which he was a Senatorial representati\-e. Governor Taylor was accorded the closest attention while he delivered the follow- ing graceful utterance: Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen: I come to drop a flower of love and reverence on the grave of Isham G. Harris in the name of the State which he served so long and so well. If all the noble deeds he has done for his country and his fellow- man were flowers I could gather a million roses from the hearts of Tennesseans to-night. Whatever else may be said of him, he was an honest man. His heart was the temple of truth and his 152 Life and Characlcr of Isltam G. Harris. lijjs were its oracles. He loved his native land, and loyalty to the public duty was his creed. He lived a long and stonny life; he tlied a hero. The summons came to him in the triumphant hour of the State, when the centennial liells were ringing out the old centur)' and ringing in the new. In the glorious noontide of Tennessee's joyful jubilee, when the trunij>ets of peace were pouring out the soul of music on the summer air, he heard the solemn call of another triunpet, which drowned all the melodies of this world. He .saw the .shadow of an invisible wing .sweep across his pillow, a pallor came over his face, his heart forgot to beat; there was only a gasp, a sigh, a whispered " I am tired," and tired ej-elids were drawn like purple curtains over tired eyes; tired lips were closed forever; tired hands were folded on a motionless breast. The mystery of life was veiled in the mystery of death. What is life? What is death? To-day we hear a bird sing- ing in the tree top; they tell us that is life. To-morrow the bird lies cold and .stiff at the root of the tree. It will sing its song no more. They tell us that is death. A babe is born into the world. It opens its glad eyes to the light of day and smiles in the face of its loving mother. They tell us that is life. The child wanders from the cradle into the sweet fairyland of youth and dreams among its flowers. But soon youth wakes into man- hood and his soul is afire with ambition. He ru.shes into the struggles of real life and wins his way from the log cabin to the gubernatorial chair. The lightnings begin to leap from the gathering clouds of war; the live thunders begin to fall around him, but he stands like a lion at his post, and when the dreadful shtx:k at Shiloh comes, where the flower of Tennessee are rush- ing to glory and the grave, through the rifted smoke I see him kneeling on the bloody field with the jjeerless AUjert Sidney Johnston dying in his aims. At last his flag goes down in blood and tears. He is exiled from his country, but the clouds soon clear away and he returns in triumph, to be clothed by the people with greater power than ever before, and to sit like an uncrowned king in the highest council of the nation, until his raven locks turn white as snow. Memorial Ccrcntoiiics. 153 But the scene shifts again, and as we are called from our rev- elry to stand around the coffin of our matchless Senator, there are tear stains on the cheeks of merriment, and mourning muffles mirth. They tell us that is death ! The song of the bird is the soul of melody, and the laughter of the child is the melody of the soul. The joys of youth are the blossoms of hope; manhood gathers the golden fruits. But death robs the bird of its song and steals laughter from the lips of childhood. Death plucks the blossoms of youth and turns the golden fruits of manhood to ashes on the lips of age. Poor bird, is there no brighter clime, where thy sweet spirit shall sing forever in the tree of life? Poor child, is there no better world, where thy soul shall wake and smile in the face of God? Poor old tired man, is it all of life to Uve? Is it all of death to die? Is there not a heaven where thy tottering age shall find immortal youth and where immortal life shall glorif>' thy face? It must be so; it must be so. A solemn murmur in the soul Tells of a world to be. As travelers hear the billows roll Before they reach the sea. There must be a God. We look up through the telescope into the blue infinite and catch glimp,ses of his glory. We see millions of stnis flaming like archangels on the frontier of stel- lar .space. And still beyond we see on ten thousand fields of light crowns and shields of spiral wreaths of stars, islands, and continents of suns floating on boundless opal seas. And are there no worlds like ours wheeling around those suns? Are there no eyes but ours to see those floods of light? Are there no sails on those far-away summer seas ? No wings to cleave that crystal air? Surely there can not be a universe of suns without a universe of worlds, and reason teaches us that there can not be a miiverse of worlds destitute of life. We turn from the telescope and look down through the microscope and it reveals in a single drop of water a tiny world teeming with animal life, with forms as perfect as the 154 /,//'• t<^ L Jie audacious. As Johnson .say.s — Wlii-ii desperate ills (leinaiul a speody cure, Distrust is cowardice, and prudence folly. Alcmorial Ceremonies. 157 I shall not give you in detail a history of the man's career. Suffice it to say, he became from that time ou a tnisted coun- selor in party life. In 1849 he went to Congress; remained two terms; refused a proffered nomination for a third. There was perhaps a reason for this course not at that time perfectly clear even to him. It was a da}' of compromise and diplomacy, when good men on both sides were striving to forestall foreseen calamities — to avoid the humanly unavoidable — disunion and war. This young man, then only 30 years of age, was not then, nor indeed at any time of his life, even when old age had mel- lowed him much, fitted to shine when compromise was the goal of leaders and the wish of followers. He thought, to be sure, that everything possible in that direction ought to be tried, and hence gave his voice to the experiment. But between the lines it was soon easilj^ to be seen that this decisive and incisive intel- lect had no confidence in conciliators- makeshifts, however patriotically intended, but would be found when the time came with those who, like Yancey on one side and Seward on the other, announced themselves openly as being ' ' in line of battle ' ' for "the ine\atable conflict" — to them plainly, recognizably inevitable. Until other men saw how ' ' coming events cast their shadows before," his best place was in private life. He had no u.seful place in public life. In 1S56, when nominated as Presidential elector, he began to speak out the thought which had become clear in him. It was then that he took the at that time bold position for practical politics that the Union was a mere means to an end, a contriv- ance of our forefathers to secure the liberties and lives and pro- tect the property of the people; that when it ceased to subscribe those ends, or either of them, much more when it became a threat to the least of them, it was time to cease to regard it with superstitious awe and to seek to substitute for the means which had failed some other and adequate means. In a word, he was enlisted as a disciple of John C. Calhoun, driving his theories of right to their irresistible conclusion in action. Nor did he, foreseeing the possible issue, dread it as an alternative. Among all the disciples of John C. Calhoun there has never been one who was better fitted by boldness of temperament, log- 158 Liff iiiiii r /Kiiiiiii r iif Jsmtiii <,. Jlnrn's. ical directness, and sympathy of intellect to carry his theories unswervingly to their practical, necessan.-, and unavoidable con- clusions of fact. Long after these theories had been shattered on the battlefield, during the Fifty-fourth Congress, Governor Hakkis, speaking of the i)ublic men with whom his loug career had made him acquainted as factors- in poUtical thought and work, brushing the other men whom we had been discussing aside as, after all, of small estimate, said: "But the greatest mind and the greatest man political life has ever furnished was John C. Calhoun." Such was his estimate of the great logician, the great apostle of State rights and local .self-government. H.VKRIS IN HISTORY. But to pa.ss on. History was made rapidly in those days. In 1857 Ish.vm G. H.\KKis became chief executive of this great Commonwealth. In 1859 and 1861 he succeeded him.self. Those of us who love him txrst like to call him "Governor" yet. He was the last of the "war governors." Nothing but the fear of the charge of invidiousness prevents me from .saying that he was, in executive ability, the greatest of them all. The Confederacy rose and fell. A few years of exile, and in 1S67 he returned to his home town and practiced law among you until 1876. From 1876 to the day of his death he was a Senator in the Congress of the United States. I have given this bird's-eye view of a career familiar to you all, in order that you and I lx)th might realize liow long Gov- ernor H.\RKis has Ijeeu a moving factor, how long a leader, iu American politics and during what troublous times. For these were the days that stirred men's passions and tried men's .souls; first the days of antislavery agitation, the first sounds of which had alarmed Jefferson "like a fire lx?ll in the night;" then the days of civil strife, when more than Greek met more than Greek in the fearful sweat and tug of war, and then, most trying of all, the days of reconstruction, when the ver>- ground- work of civilization itself seenuil miiUrmiiud, when dav after Memorial Cereiiioitirs. 159 day Southern manhood was huniihated and Southern woman- hood was menaced. Think of it! This man whose memory we celebrate to-day saw almost the birth and saw the end of the greatest constitu- tional agitation the world ever saw. His public life was as long as the natural lives of two full generations. It lapped over in many cases to the third. I know of an instance where he ser\-ed in Congress with the grandfather, afterwards dis- cussed the constitutional right of peaceable secession with the father, to whom he subsequently issued a commission as a Confederate officer, and then, long after, sensed with one of the present representatives of the family once more in the Congress of the United States. There are many families in Tennessee with whom he has been similarly associated in public life. But why do I wish you to realize the length and variousness of his public sendee? Because, during all that long period, this man was never once lacking in thought, feeling, utterance, or service to the common people, nor to the State of Tenne-ssee, nor to the South. Because, most remarkable of all, during all that long time, amid all the entanglements of practical politics — and it brings strange bedfellows — no man ever so much as claimed that this man had broken his plighted faith or been lacking in service to an}- friend who had not first been notori- ously untrue to himself. Because, during all these generations, his enem}' never accused him to another enemy of a misstatement of fact or of a deception, and for the simplest of all reasons — the other euemj' would not ha^•e believed him. No man was ever more soundly hated than Isham G. Harris, and he was himself what Samuel Johnson called a ' ' good hater," and j^et no man's word was ever more impHcitl}' and universally accepted as final in a statement of fact. Tho.se who knew him, therefore, were not astonished when, in the city of Washington, a bitter Republican Senator from a New England State rose to his feet when a bill was pending for the payment of a very important claim against the Go^'ernment and, ad- dressing the Senate, the following conversation, substantialh-, occurred : i6o Life and Character of Isliam G. Harris. " Mr. President, I would like to ask the senior Senator from Tennessee a question. Has the Senator from Tennessee made a personal inve-sti^atiou of this ca.se? " Senator H.\kkis replied: "I have." " Is it the opinion of the Senator from Tennessee that this claim is just and ought to l>e paid? " Senator H.vkkis rei)lied: "It is." "Then, Mr. President," said this Republican Senator, "this is sufficient for me, and will, in my opinion, be sufficient for the Senate of the United States." In all this long period, though many ix;ople thought him often wrong, and radically wrong, nolx)dy who understood the meaning of the word ever accused him of Ijeing a demagogue; that is, of ad\-ocating a measure becau.se it was popular, and not because he verily believed in it, or opposing a measure because it was unpopular, and not because he verily reprobated it. HIS INTKLLKCTUAL POWKR. Vou have known men of higher intellectual powers, though not many; you have known men — many men — of greater and broader educational cultivation, but I have never known a man whose conclusions were more logically, unfalteringly, and im- personally drawn from his premises, nor one more sincerely convinced of the eternal truth — the subjective verity — of the basic principles embodied in his premi-ses. But this logical faculty, rare and unerring as it was, was not the secret of his success nor the mainstay of his greatness. Nor was it his power of speech, though this rose at times to the level of that of the orator "born, not made" — persuading men's wills as well as convincing their judgments. After all, however, he persuaded chiefly because he was himself so thoroughly per- suaded; he convinced chiefly by the emphatic utterance of the unornamented truth, his own convictions being so intensely earnest and so palpable to all men. There were few men who equaled him in resourcefulness and in what may Ix; called intellectual energy. He was simply un- tiring, setting for himself, in the seventh decade of his life, tasks Miinon'a/ Ccrciiioitics. i6i from which strong youth would have shrunk. But this even was not the main secret of his power over men. Many men have possessed equal intellectual energy and have none the less fretted away their una\-ailing lives. Nor can you find the se- cret in his remarkable executive or administrative ability — ' ' the power to organize," as it is called in this latter day^though as a political organizer he seemed all-seeing, aggressive, at once bold and comprehensive^practically perspicacious of the charac- ters, motives, opinions, and surroundings of men. The secret which we seek is to be found in his force of charac- ter, resting on the three rocks of his courage, his confidence in the common people, and his integrity; chief of all, on the integrity of the man — integrity in its etymological sense; that is to say, the "oneness" or "wholeness" of the man. His worst enemy in his fiercest moment never charged Isham G. Harris with duplicity; that is, with doubleness of purpose, or two-sidedne.ss of utterance, or half-heartedness in action. It is the opposite of these that make a man what he was — an integer, not duplex: a whole number, not a half number; a single number, not a mixed number — in the affairs of life. His ends were single, his means direct. In his old age some one a.sked him, ' ' Governor, to what do \ on attribute your long success in practical politics?" His reply was, " I don't know, unless it be to the fact that I early learned the difficult art of telling the truth." "Difficult" is well said here, for although Buhver is right wheu he says, ' ' Xo task is so difficult as that of systematic hypocrisy," j-et none is more in- viting to the ordinary office seeker and officeholder, none ea.sier to enter upon. Duplicity, the all-things-to-all-men face, man- ner, carriage, and utterance, which is the entrance into the field of hypocris}-, is so easy in the beginning. Governor Harris carried his directness of purpose and utter- ance so far that he did not have even what are called ' ' popular manners ' ' to help him on. The little hypocrisies of con\-enance even, excusable as they are held to be in the mixed associations of public life — even these he scorned to practice. When men said, "Governor" or "Senator, I don't believe you remember me," S. Doc. 343 II i')2 /.//' itiiii iharnclir »/' /s/iani G. Harris. his reply was lun the usual formula, "Your face is famil- iar, but — '■ etc., unless, indeed, the formula was the very ex- I)ression of the very fact. His reply was, "Xo.sir." or " No, madam, I do not." His friends have heard him say these Words in this way, not once, hut many times, and have seen sensible men receive the resjjonse sensibly and many fools gooff ofTcnded. .\ M.\K\'l-:i.(>rS .MKMOKV. He cultivated the habit of accuracy in detail to .such an extent that it was marvelous merely as a display of the mental powers of memory. His reiietitions of cfjnver.sations, of arguments, and of repartee drawn from his many camjjaigns were intended to Ix- in letter, word, and ge.slure precisely as they were uttered forty, twenty, and ten years Ijcfore. I have heard him relate some of these in the office of Harris. McKissick & Turley in Memphis, and then, nearly twenty years afterwards. I have heard him re- jjeat them in Wa.shington in the same words, with the same intonation and emphasis, and frequently with the .same gestures. If he had failed verbally to italicize anything he or the other inlerlest precious little of his time in doubt, sjxfnt now none at all in doubt, and none in doubtful utterance. Law is but the voice: government itself onlv the bodv; civilization is the es.sence, the Memorial Ceremonies. 165 spirit — the spirit of ages of progress and conquest from rude nature and ruder men — a spirit sometimes, alas! misvoiced; sometimes misembodied. How much he had to do with that magnificent spectacle of constancy and luiity, that sublime spectacle of self-mastery, as well as mastership over others, which a people subdued in bat- tle, and from their battle purpose, but not in spirit, nor in man- hood, presented to the world for ten long j-ears; harassed, mis- governed, robbed — bearing and forbearing — waiting patientl}' in the leash, read}- to spring whenever the opportunity for triumph came, and how much to do with the final triumph when it came, history, perhaps, will never trul)- tell, but you and I, resenting as he did the invitation to come down to the level of an inferior race and to "herd with narrow foreheads, ignorant of otir race's gains," will, I hope, never forget. Most of us spend 20 per cent of our time in arriving at conclu- sions and 10 per cent later on in reviewing them and in wonder- ing if, after all, we may not be wrong. Half of this first 20 per cent and all of this last 10 per cent Governor Harris saved. After having satisfied himself that "the ends he aimed at were his countr)-'s and truth's," and therefore God's, and that the>' were practical of attainment, I doubt if irresolution ever cost the man five seconds of time. Andrew Jackson once said: "Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action comes, stop thinking and go in." The two men were in man>- respects alike, and both possessed this advantage over common luunanity, that they knew precisely and definitely what they wanted to do, and the time which others consumed in making up their minds what to do they spent in devising means to do and in doing. Goethe would have reverenced Isham G. Harris, because Goethe says: "I rev- erence the man who understands distinctly what he wishes to do, who unweariedly advances, who knows the means con- ducive to his object and can seize and use them." He also says truly that "the greater part of all the mischief in the world ari.ses from the fact that men do not know definitely their own aims. ' ' i66 Life and Charactir of /sham (i. Harris. HIS IMIYSICAI. HKAVhKV. You need not In; told that lie was brave in battle — physically brave. The man's devotion to the truth would have told you the story of his moral couraj^je, and his moral courage would have led you to presupjxjse his jihysical braverj-. For Waller Scott was right when he said, "Without courage there can not be truth, and without truth there can not Ijc any character. " As voluntary aid-de-camp to AUjert Sidney Johnston and his succe.s-sors in conunand of the Army of the West, this governor of a sovereign State delivered messages and led regiments to the charge at Shiloh and in every engagement of that army t(j the close of hostilities. You will reniemljer that he was off leading a Tennessee regiment into battle at a place so plowed with bullets that the regiment had trembled in the balance and sought the cover of a hill, when Albert Sidney Johnston was shot, and that he returned just in time to di.scover him wfunided and to ease him off his horse to die. I have said that the other trait of character which made him great as a leader was his confidence in the judgment of the peo- ple — in the common sen.se and just intentions of the connnon people. Even Thomas Jefferson was hardly suiierior to him in this respect. No man who has this denuKrratic faith well grounded — this abiding faith in the capacity of the people to understand, provided he himself have information and ideas to connnunicate and ability to convey them — this abiding faith in their intention to do the right thing, when they learn what it is, can have any temptation to Ix-come that vilest of all creeping, hi.ssing thing.s — a demagogue. Both his own mind and his con- cept of what is in the mind of his hearers forbid it; they give him, on the contrary, every cause to "be just and fear not." The very groundwork of the faith of such a politician is the doctrine that if he is right he must finally be successful, because the people are neither fools, to Ije permanently mi.sled, nor knaves, to do the wrong intentionally. 1 will be here pardoned for telling an incident from which I ilerived my first les.s govern himself and to l>e individually resjxmsible for his own Address of Mr. Cox of Tennessee. 171 conduct. Every right under the law was equal with him: every protection given b)- law should operate for all alike. No fear of the mighty and great; no oppressing the poor and needy. The public funds under his control were sacred for the objects intended. The demoralization of war and disruption of society had no effect on his integrity. He defended the funds of the people from thieves and marauders in time of peace, and in time of war carried the sacred funds of our common schools through camps, battles, and marches; and, although an exile himself, with a price set on his head, he returned every dollar to its place without the lo.ss of a cent. What a contrast with the thieves who seized it after such honesty and stole the entire trust from our children! Indeed, such honesty as Senator Harris displayed is noble and grand. I knew him in war. The first conimi.ssion I ever held in the array was signed by him. I saw him a commander in chief of Tennessee soldiers. Uneducated in military affairs, \et he seemed to grasp the full and extended scope of his duties. Kind yet firm with his troops, they loved him. Without fear, they admired him, and, full of energy and .self-control, he won justly for himself the great title of ' ' war governor of the South. What a scene it was when this great governor lifted from his horse the dying genius of war, Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, whom President Davis pronounced the greatest of all his gen- erals, at the terrible battle of Shiloh. I have often heard the old Senator talk of this incident, and it seemed to arouse every emotion in his true, honest soul. A volume could be written of interesting epi.sodes in his life — his conte.st for governor with John Netherland. The good joker, genial humorist, was a power on the stump. The keen, decisive logic and clear expression of thought Harris had were equal to the occa.sion. ij2 Life and Charailcr of Isham G, Harris. He foinul in Kol)t;rt Halton a conipelilor worthy of any man. Logical, learned, generous, and brave, he was ready for the lance of his ajmijetitor. Senator H.vrkis always regardetl Hat- ton as the strongest coniiH;titor he ever met. Both are gone. General Hatton fell on the field of battle and rests with the dead who fell in a cause he and Senator H.\rris loved so much. Tennessee is proud of her sons, and she has Ijeen fortunate in the honor her sfjns have reflected on her name. She has had her warriors as renowned as any this great Re- public ever produced, and the world cati not show an>- greater soldiers. Tennessee has furnished the United States many ora- tors and statesmen. Their history is woven into the history of our connnon country. Amon^ all the.se the late Senator H.\rkis forced him.self to the front. No man jirobably lived in Ten- nessee who more eflfectualh' impressed his views upon our peojile, and did so for their own good. He will not die. He will live in spite of death; his great efforts will tell on children yet uni)orn, and his virtues live as long as we have a record. No man coniiiianded more respect in the United States Senate tlian did Senator H.xrkis. No Senator could mi.sunderstand him, and he was acknowledged to l)e the l)est presiding officer of that Ixxly. W'e were engaged in this House.- in paying respect to another sterling old-school Democrat, Judge Holman, who had Ijeen taken away. His praise was being sounded by true friends, and almost in hearing of the .same the spirit of Senator Isn.\M Gkkkn H.vrris took its eternal flight. Two great men! Two good men' Two honest men, and as noble Democrats as ever defended the doctrine of the party! I pray that in our country's history and in the defense of republican institutions young men may ri.se as loyal to duty and as devoted to countrv as the late Senator H.vrris. Address of Mr. King of Utah. 173 ADDRESS OF MR. KING. Mr. King. Mr. Speaker, as a representative of the youngest State in the Union I feel honored in having this opporttniity of testifying to the greatness of Senator Harris. The last star added to the constellation forming our imperishable Union .shines this day with subdued lu.ster and its citizens join in the univer- sal grief expressed by the people of the United States as the memorial services of this repre.sentative body recall the death of a great American and the heroic life of one who, though dead, so entwined himself in the woof and warp of our national exist- ence that he still lives. The American people are not hero worshipers, but they are proud of the achievements of their countrymen, and follow with eager and anxious gaze those who n:a\' climlj the dizzy heights that mark the way to glory and immortality. While the American people love the State which gives them birth, they regard with interest and affection persons from diiTerent sections who have been important factors in the country's growth, and who, by their illustrious li\-es, have brought renown not only to native State but to States united. The\- are jealous of their States and everything affecting the latter' s welfare, but all lines are forgotten in the fellowship extended to those whose genius and worth have raised them to commanding heights. The American who adds glory to Tennessee, or Maine, or California, and whose place of birth, because of valorous deeds, becomes a sacred spot, bequeaths an inheritance to every State and a patrimony to all his countrymen. The aifectionate regard which comes to one ( whose achievements have made him illtis- triousj from the citizens of his State becomes the fotmtain of 174 f-'f'' ("Iff Character of hliani (',. Harris. till.- iiiij(hty stream, fed from every section, which s\vee])s on in its resistless course freighted with tlie loyal devotion of the citi- zens of the Republic. So I feel that the life and fame of Isham Ci. Hakkis tjelonged not to Tennessee alone, Init in part to the State from which I come, though the Stars and Stripes was nut its ensijjn until years after he had l)een given to our country. My personal acquaintance with Senator Harris was limited. I met him but a few times, but in those few meetings I learned something of his greatness and n.any of his virtues. I met hiiu for the first time in this building, during the winter of 1891-92. A mea.sure was then jiending in Congress aiming at the disfran- chisement of my coreligionists. To protest against its enact- ment was the purpose of my visit here. He listenetl to the importunities that he inter]X)se to avert the impending danger. He regarded the pro]X)sition as repugnant, and declared that no American citi/.en should suffer the pains and jjenalties of disfran- chisement if he could prevent it. The constitutional asjK'Ct of the case was dwelt uiKin by hini with remarkable clearness. This and other questions invo!\nng constitutional limitations and the domain of the Federal Gov- erinnenl were di.scussed by him in that incisive, epigrammatic, resistless manner which made him so powerful an ally and so formidable a foe. He was devoted to the Constitution. It was the anchor to his political career. Every governmental mea.sure and political question was de- termined !)>• it. To him it was a living oracle. It was a .sacred Ark of the Covenant, not to be profaned by impious hands. A ])erfunclory allegiance was not yielded by him to the sacred principles wliich it guarded. Freedom and con.stitutional gov- ernment, the dream of martyrs and patriots of the past, had lieen realized, he felt, in the Republic founded by our fathers. The preservation of this inestimable bles,sing was regarded by Address of Mr. King of Utah. 175 him as the chief object of Ufe. If he had a creed, it was written by Jefferson, and its articles pre.scribed, not by a council of theo- logians, but that immortal one over whose solemn deliberations presided Washington, the greatest American. They were to him a constant source of inspiration, and his political footsteps he sought to guide 1)y their overshadowing light. He denied the oft-reiterated charge that there can be no national growth and progress if the Constitution of the United States is invoked against policies and measures approved and championed by the people, and for the enforcement of which an apparent neces-sity exists. He saw the perilous seas upon which nations ha\-e been wrecked and the dangerous channels which governments have threaded. The lesson which histor\- teaches, that the efforts of patriots have been to establish gov- ernments limiting the power of those who govern and to pre\'ent oppressions born of tyrannous' de.sires of the htunan heart, was learned by him early in life. The Constitution was his chart and his compass; not his alone, but the nation's; and he felt that there could be na- tional safetj' and liberty perpetuated only so long as the ship of state inflexibly and undeviatingly followed that course pointed by the chart and compass. Progre.ss to him was only made when the path of safety was followed. A prosperous, progressive, puissant country he believed could only be realized by battering down the obstructions interposed by bureaucracy and con- centrated power and wealth; and the debris of monarchical institutions and the barriers, restrictions, and manacles which result from centralized power must be cleared away with invincible courage before the hosts of freedom can march on to victorious conquests in the political, industrial, and intellectual domains. Progre.ss and national srrowth did not mean to him national 1/6 Life and Cliaracltr of Isliaiu (,. //tin if. ix)\ver and national sunx-illance of the individual conduct. These were the cloaks under which the id^'ves of servitude were fastened ujxjn the people. He was conservative in that he desired the triumph of natural law and the avoidance of the dangers which had destroyed nations. He was progressive in recognizing that there is a power in man which leads by evolutionary methods to higher activities and. when unlrammeled by unnatural laws and improper legislation, i)ropels stales and 7)eoples with giant strides from darkne.ss into increasing light, from industrial, jxiliiical, and ecclesiastical .ser\-itude into that jierfect day of freedom where the mind and Ijody and soul jx),s.se.ss the fruition of all labors. He Ix'lieved that political emancipation and industrial develop- ment result not from laws and statutes and penal provisions and courts and judges, but flow from that government which makes each man a .sovereign and stretches forth its hand only to re- press the lawless and restrain the vicious. That is not the progre.ssive nation which controls every utility, legi.slates to direct every activity, and intrudes itselT into every path and avenue and into every heart and brain. That is the progre.'vsive nation which ixjints to the great luiexplored and inexhaustible fields of truth, of knowledge, of wealth, and bids each person godspeed in the effort ( unre.strained and unrestricted so long as the right of each to continue the race is not invaded ) to enrich himself from the illimitable products of a lx)unteous harvest. There was no dissinuilation in his nature. Something of Washington's .seriousness and Jackson's detennination were revealed iu his life. He had Dr. Johnson's bluntne.ss, though not his cynicism. He only traveled one roatl at a time. He never attemjjted two victories sinuiltaneously. He asked no quarter a)ul gave none, but was generous to a vanfjuished foe and loval to everv friend. He never reasoned in a circle. Address of Mr. King of UtaJi. 177 There was onh' one way between given points, and that was the shortest wa}-. There was nothing of compromise in his character. With him there could be no bartering of principle, no trafficking in truth. No doubt ever exi.sted as to his posi- tion upon every public que.stion. He had the sincerity of Crom- well, without the latter's devoutness. Measured by Carlyle's standard of what constitutes greatness, Senator Harris was transcendently great. Sinceritj-, Carh-le declares, is the chief fact about a man. That person is truh- great who sincerely, earnestly, faithfully lives his life no matter his calling or station, no matter what the world may say of him. If to him life has a meaning, a duty, an overwhelming responsibility, and with unfaltering courage he sincerely strives to perform it, his life l^ecomes an epic, and though spurned by or unknown of the world, that life is a divine contribution to the uplifting of humanity. Though unknown to the world, the example of his life is more than a sweet perfinne, .stealing into the materialism of our lives, a benediction that brings peace to rebellious hearts; it is a potential force acting upon the very groundwork of society for the advancement of the human family. But few men may kuow of him; his fame ma\- die when he dies; but, neverthe- less, measured in the great scales of the Divine One, he is a great man. The great men of the world, those who have moved nations and have been potential for good, were those who were sincere, who earnestly struggled for the triumph of the principles which they represented. It were better to be mistaken, it were better to fall oftentimes and to stumble haltingly by the way tmtil renewed strength and courage be gathered, and, Antceus-like, rise from the earth to fi.ght on for what the heart and conscience demand, than to be so purposeless and forceless as to passively S. Doc. 343 12 17'^ /-//' "'"'' Cliaractcr of I sham U. Jhirns. witness life's saiiKuinary conflict. Some men are so vacillating that they accomplish nothing; others so innncible in their pur- ]Kjses that they seem like a Nemesis. They are like the storm; and the stupendous forces of nature seem to be raging in and alxjut them. Like the ruggetl clifTs. with bared heads they meet the temjxj.st's roars, and are un- shaken by the storms upon life's ocean. Such a man was Isham G. Harris. He was a .sincere, force- ful, irresistilile man. He was sincere, rugged, hone.st; when- ever he lx;lieved anything to be right, he tirele.s.sly and courageously walked in that pathway until he had achieved that which his conscience demanded of him. There is only one djiiasty, and that is the dynasty of geniu.s — the d>-nasty of gjeat men. Dynasties of men i>ass away, the lin- eage is destroyed, and the links in the great chain are broken; but the dynasty of great men will live on so long as this world moves, and in that dynasty will be found the name of Ishajj G. Harris. Only a few men can tread the glittering heights that lead to success; and .some of us lx;low. gazing aloft at the perilous heights which great men .scale, oftentimes are timid lest they fall from precipices to destruction. But where genius, honesty, and sincerity control there is no misstep, no faltering. He goes on, passing from the clouds to the heights beyond, where, if we can gaze with undinuned vision, we see him .standing like a proud, glorious archangel in the hea\-ens above. We know that he who .surpasses or sub- dues mankind must look down on the hate of them l)elow. IsH.\M G. Harris pierced the clouds and reached the sunmiit of greatness. He exemplified the fact tliat greatness does not come from a great name, nor is it a legacy which man can lx;queath. ' It is inherent. It comes from lieyond. It develops not in the midst Address ofMi. King of L'tak. 179 of affluent circumstances, btit upon the hard rock of want, of penury, and of necessity. The hothouse plant does not thrive when it comes in contact with the rtide forces of this earth. IsH.\M G. Harris was not a hothouse plant. He had dwelt amidst the forces of the forest and the mountains, and had ab- sorbed strength from the virgin forest and the rugged heights, like the giant, gnarled oak with its roots penetrating deep into the -soil, gathering strength by the rude shocks encountered. Such a man was Ish.a.m G. H.\rris. This is as I read him and as I knew him. I remember a few years ago the circumstance referred to by my distinguished friend from Missouri, when, especially in the West, the Democrats were concerned lest the party, partially wrecked bj- those who had accepted the views of the Republican party upon financial questions, would continue under their leadership until demoralization, if not destruction, of the party would ensue; but when it was announced that Ish.\ji G. Harris liad called a convention in the city of Memphis, and that he had placed himself at the head of a movement to rescue the Democratic party from the dangers which were menacing it, we all felt that a new era was dawuiug and that the Democratic party would rise from its lethargic slumber, and, shaking its invincible locks, would scatter its foes as the lion disperses its assailants. We felt that Isham G. H.\rris, with his honesty, his force, his sincerity, and his devotion to the principles of the great party of JefTerson, woidd lead it out of the paths of dan- ger, and that under his guidance it could know no defeat, but would go on and accomplish the great work which had been committed to its hands. And that is the way that the people of the \Ve.st felt. And so the name of Isham G. H.vrris is not confined to Tennessee or to the East; but the youngest State of the Union learned of i8o Life and Characlcr oj /s/mni G. /Jarris. his fame, of his glory, aud to-day testifies to his matchless worth and his splendid achievements. Mr. Speaker, Ish.vm G. H.^kkis is not dead: his inlluence lives, and for gootl. There is no death; the stars jjo down. ■ To rise upon sonic fairer shore; And brijjht in heaven's jeweled crown They shine forevenuore. 00137854, -^L :^- y -- r.. '/ i" ^Y\ ■■^A y y 1 \ 1 1 •; ! ; ! ; 1 i 1 '■■<•., 1 -J^..^