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University of California. 
 
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MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 
 
 ON THK 
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 OF 
 
 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER, 
 
 (A SENATOR FROM MICHIGAN), 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE 
 
 SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 U-S. 
 
 FORTY-SIXTH CO^TG-RKSS, SECOND SESSION", 
 
 JANUARY 28, 1880. 
 
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 < -AMKnKSlA. 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
 I860. 
 
JOINT RESOLUTION to print the eulogies delivered in the two houses of Congress 
 upon the late Zachariah Chandler. 
 
 Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of 
 America in Congress assembled, That twelve thousand copies of the eulogies 
 delivered in the two houses of Congress upon the late ZACHARIAH CHAN 
 DLER be printed, eight thousand for the use of the House of Representa 
 tives and four thousand for the use of the Senate, and the Secretary of the 
 Treasury have printed the portrait of Mr. CHANDLER to accompany the 
 same, and for the purpose of defraying the expense of procuring the said 
 portrait the sum of five hundred dollars he, and is hereby, appropriated out 
 of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 
 
 Approved, February 17, 1880. 
 
ANNOUNCEMENT 
 
 OV TIIK 
 
 DEATH OF ZAOHAEIAH CHANDLER, 
 
 A SENATOR FROM MICHIGAN. 
 
 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1879. 
 
 llev. J. J. BULLOCK, Chaplain of the Senate, offered the fol 
 lowing 
 
 PRAYER : 
 
 Almighty and most merciful God, our Heavenly Father, we 
 adore Thee as the only true and living God, the creator, the 
 preserver, and the supreme ruler of the universe. We thank 
 Thee, O God, for all thy providential blessings to us. They 
 are more in number than the stars of heaven and the sands 
 of the sea-shore. Especially do we thank Thee for Thy kind 
 preservation of us since last we met together in this Chamber, 
 and that we are permitted to enter upon the duties and re 
 sponsibilities of another session of this venerable body, under 
 circumstances of great mercy, in the enjoyment of reason, and 
 of health and every needed blessing. 
 
 It hath seemed good unto Thee, O God, in Thine inscruta 
 ble providence, to remove by the hand of death from this body 
 one of its members. We pray that Thou wouldst bless his 
 afflicted family. Sustain them in their sore bereavement, and 
 
 r 
 
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE 
 
 comfort them with the consolations of our most holy religion. 
 And may we be deeply impressed, by this solemn event, of 
 our own mortality, of the shortness and uncertainty of life, 
 and of the importance of being prepared for our departure; 
 for we know neither the day nor the hour when we shall be 
 called hence. 
 
 And, O God, we invoke Thy blessing to rest upon another 
 member of this body, whom Thou hast sorely stricken, in re 
 moving by death from his companionship the partner of his 
 joys and his sorrows. We invoke Thy blessing to rest upon 
 him in his sore affliction. And if there be any other member 
 upon whom Thou hast laid Thy afflicting hand, we pray that 
 Thou wouldst remember them in great mercy and sanctify 
 their afflictions to them. 
 
 We commit ourselves and all that are dear to us to Thy 
 guidance and protection. We implore Thy grace, and the 
 forgiveness of all our sins. We pray for our rulers, for the 
 President and Vice-President, the Senators and Representa 
 tives in Congress, and for all others in authority. Guide their 
 counsels and lead them to the adoption of such measures as 
 shall redound to Thy glory and to the best interests of our 
 common country. Be Thou their guide and support through 
 all the trials and changes of life ; be with them in the solemn 
 hour of death ; and finally receive us all into Thine everlasting 
 kingdom, through the riches of grace in Christ, our Redeemer. 
 Amen. 
 
 Mr. FERRY. Mr. President, the sorrowful duty devolves 
 on me of announcing to the Senate of the United States the 
 recent and sudden death of my late colleague, ZACHAEIAH 
 CHANDLER, of Michigan, which occurred in the city of Chi 
 cago, on the 1st day of November just passed. 
 
DEATH OF ZACHARIAII CHANDLER. 
 
 In making this announcement, it is not my purpose now to 
 speak of the character and services of one so long and so nota 
 bly a member of this body ; but at some suitable time I will 
 invite the Senate to express, by resolution and by eulogy, its 
 sense of the irreparable loss the nation sustains in the death 
 of so distinguished a citizen. 
 
 Mr. President, as a mark of respect for the memory of a 
 Senator present at our last adjournment but absent now for- 
 evermore, I move that the Senate do now adjourn. 
 
 The motion was agreed to ; and (at three o clock and ten 
 minutes p. in.) the Senate adjourned. 
 
ADDRESSES 
 
 DEATH OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER, 
 
 A SENATOR FROM MICHIGAN. 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE SENATE. 
 
 WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2&, 1880. 
 
 The VICE-PRESIDENT. By tlie unanimous order of the 
 Senate this day has been set apart for the delivery of eulogies 
 m commemoration of the death of the late Senator from Michi 
 gan, ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 
 
 Mr. FERRY. Mr. President, the time having arrived for 
 the delivery of eulogies upon my late colleague, the announce 
 ment in the Senate of his death having already been made, I 
 now offer the following resolutions and move their adoption : 
 
 Resolved, That the Senate receive with profound sorrow the announce 
 ment of the death of ZACHARIAH CHANDLER, late a Senator of the United 
 States from the State of Michigan, and for nearly nineteen years a member 
 of this body. 
 
 Resolved, That to express some estimate held of his eminent services in 
 a long public career rendered conspicuous by fearless patriotic devotion, 
 the business of the Senate be now suspended, that the associates of the 
 departed Senator may pay fitting tribute to his public and private virtues. 
 
 The VICE-PRESIDENT. The question is, will the Senate 
 agree to the resolutions ? 
 The resolutions were agreed to unanimously. 
 
ADDRESS OF MR. FERRY ON THE 
 
 Mr. FERRY. I send other resolutions to the desk and ask 
 that they be read. 
 The resolutions were read, as follows : 
 
 Resolved, That the loss the country sustained in the death of Mr. CHAN 
 DLER was manifest by expressions of public sorrow throughout the land. 
 
 Resolved, That as a mark of respect for the memory of the dead Senator 
 the members of the Senate will wear crape upon the left arm for thirty days. 
 
 Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate communicate these resolutions 
 to the House of Representatives. 
 
 Resolved, That as an additional mark of respect for the memory of the 
 deceased, the Senate do now adjourn. 
 
 The VICE-PRESIDENT. The question is upon agreeing to 
 the resolutions just reported. 
 
 Address of Mr. FERRY, of Michigan. 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT : The observance of the Senate this day is in 
 memory of no common man. The sterling qualities of his man 
 hood none ever dare assail. He wore his faults upon his 
 sleeve. Charges of his defamers were frivolous and discred 
 itable to themselves ; for of all the great men who have lived 
 and died in this generation, there was no keener seer, no 
 shrewder organizer, no franker partisan, no truer patriot than 
 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 
 
 The Chandlers of Bedford, New Hampshire, were well-to-do 
 farmers of the Puritan Mayflower stock. There, in 1813, he 
 was born, and there he passed his childhood, receiving what 
 was then thought a good primary education. As the boy 
 grew up his father gave him his choice, a college training or 
 a thousand dollars to stock a business life. He chose the 
 latter, and, with the spirit of adventure which has always 
 marked the New England race, he made for western wilds. 
 
 Michigan at that time was a trackless wilderness, whose 
 solitude lay unbroken save by the roar of surrounding waters. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACIIAKIAII CHANDLER. !) 
 
 Detroit then was a town on the border, with a population of 
 some five thousand souls. There he stuck his stake and be 
 gan his mercantile career, llis main object in those days was 
 to win commercial success. This he achieved by his self-denial, 
 energy, fidelity, sagacity, and integrity. No man worked 
 harder, lived more frugally, or upheld a higher standard of 
 business morality. Many a night he slept on the floor or 
 counter of his store, and many other nights, through the for 
 est roadway, under the light of the stars, he traversed the 
 peninsula from point to point, doing business by day and 
 pushing his way by night. For several years he thus had 
 been toiling, when the great financial crash of 1837 overtook 
 him. Smaller country merchants could not meet their paper. 
 CHANDLER S store in Detroit felt the wave of disaster, and, 
 gathering up all available effects, he pushed for New York 
 and laid before his creditors the exact situation, proposing to 
 make to them an assignment of all ho had. Their answer 
 was equally creditable to him and to them : " CHANDLER, 
 you are too good a man to be lost for want of confidence ; go 
 back and go on with your business, and if you want more 
 goods send on your orders." The result showed they had not 
 misjudged. In a couple of years he had weathered the storm, 
 and paid every debt, dollar for dollar ; and from that hour his 
 fortune was assured. 
 
 Meanwhile he became most thoroughly identified with his 
 city and State. Generally known as a thorough business man, 
 his acquaintance with the business men of Michigan was bet 
 ter than any one of his associate pioneers. His public spirit 
 led him into all relations with his fellow-citizens which prom 
 ised to promote the welfare of his adopted home. Then, in his 
 earlier vigor, he took part in the various organizations of the 
 young men of Detroit, and first became known as a speaker in 
 
 2 c 
 
10 ADDRESS OF ME. FERRY ON THE 
 
 the debating society of the city, attracting special attention by 
 a public lecture on the " Elements of Success." At that time 
 the whigs and democrats were the contending political parties, 
 and Michigan was controlled by the then powerful democratic 
 party, under the distinguished leadership of General Lewis 
 Cass, himself a worthy, honored, and influential resident of 
 Detroit. CHANDLER, as became his New England origin, sided 
 with the whigs. His first decidedly political speech was made 
 in 1848, at Detroit, one evening, upon a box at a corner of the 
 street, in favor of the presidential candidacy of General Zach- 
 ary Taylor. He began that speech by saying in a sprightly 
 way that one of the reasons he had for supporting his candi 
 date was that his name was " Old Zach," a name he honored, 
 for his name too was "Zach," scarcely dreaming as he said 
 it that thirty years afterward, from the platform of a crowded 
 hall in a great city west of Detroit, on the eve of his death, he 
 himself, as "Old Zach," would be greeted by admiring thou 
 sands of his fellow-citizens, assembled to hear the last and 
 ablest speech of his life. 
 
 From the election of General Taylor to the Presidency, 
 CHANDLER took a more active part in the local politics of 
 Michigan. In 1851 he was chosen mayor of Detroit, against 
 the powerful influence of his political opponents, through his 
 personal popularity. The next year he was nominated by the 
 whigs for governor of the State, but the time for party change 
 had not then come, and he sustained defeat. Undaunted he 
 bore the taunts of democratic leaders in those days, who con 
 temptuously smiled upon his political aspirations and jeered 
 him with the hint that a mere merchant and business man 
 should never aim so high! ! 
 
 Controversy in national politics gradually ripened a new 
 order of things. The issues forced upon the people by the 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER. 1 1 
 
 repeal of the Missouri compromise and the consequent scenes 
 in Kansas gave birth to a new party, whose history should 
 surpass all others since the foundation of the Government. 
 CHANDLER was one of the fathers and founders of that repub 
 lican party, and, notwithstanding his pretensions were so de 
 rided by his political adversaries, he displaced the honored 
 democratic champion, General Cass, by taking his seat in the 
 Senate of the United States -on the 4th of March, 1857. 
 
 In a single week after his election to this high place he had 
 retired from an active and large mercantile business, with all 
 its aft airs definitely arranged, that private matters should not 
 divert him from his more responsible duties to the people of 
 State and country. When this change of pursuit occurred he 
 was in business capacity the peer of Astors, Stewarts, and 
 Vanderbilts. The secret of success he had found. His wealth, 
 already assured, was so disposed that before his death he was 
 accounted with the country s millionaires. The energy and 
 zeal which had wrought out so large a fortune was now di 
 rected to questions of public interest which for years he had 
 seen arising, and had been preparing himself to meet, with a 
 faith as clear as his courage was invincible. Elected to this 
 body, he continued a Senator for three consecutive terms, end 
 ing March 4, 1875. At the choice for the fourth term he was 
 defeated, when the qualities of the man shone forth as never 
 before. Silent and serene he bided his time. He well knew 
 that the body of the State was with him, and that he had been 
 abandoned by a handful of men who in an hour of fatality were 
 incapable of measuring either him or themselves. Knowing it 
 was unjust, he felt sure that his own State, for which he had 
 labored for years, would on the first occasion right the blun 
 dering wrong. She was early to discover and prompt to cor 
 rect her mistake. Happily, too, that she rejected the example 
 
12 ADDRESS OF MR. FERRY ON THE 
 
 of the Greeks, who persecuted their sages and heroes to death, 
 then afterward repented in monuments and tears. The inter- . 
 val of loss to the State was gain to the nation. The lapse 
 proved auspicious. It was needed to furnish opportunity for 
 his commanding business capacity and Spartan virtue to dis 
 play on another field. Eetiring from the Senate did not long 
 end his public service. The Department of the Interior, one 
 of the most important and complicated branches of the Gov 
 ernment, was suffering under the cloud of evil repute. He 
 was invited by President Grant to assume its charge, and, in 
 October, 1875, took the office. Those who knew him well at 
 once predicted that he would clear that Department of long- 
 prevailing scandals, and manage its affairs vigorously, wisely, 
 honestly, and for the best interests of the country. How well 
 he met this expectation the record of his official relation to it 
 will best answer. Upon the inauguration of President Hayes, 
 CHANDLER was superseded and returned to his home in De 
 troit, ending apparently his official life. For himself he could 
 well then, and honorably, withdraw from all active participa 
 tion in the political struggles of the day; but the public felt a 
 loss which he alone could repair. On the resignation of Sen 
 ator Christiancy, by whom he was defeated, he was replaced in 
 the Senate by an overwhelming voice of the Legislature of his 
 State, and at once resumed his seat here, which he held to the 
 close of the late extraordinary session. 
 
 To justly take the measure of this man we must recall the 
 times and associates of his labors. CHANDLER first came to 
 his senatorial seat at the called session of March, 1857. He 
 stood up in this Chamber and took the oath of office with 
 HAMLIN, of Maine ; Bayard, of Delaware; Bright, of Indiana; 
 Broderick, of California; Sumner, of Massachusetts; Preston 
 King, of New York; Rusk, of Texas; Cameron, of Pennsyl- 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER. 13 
 
 vaiiia; Dixou, of Connecticut; Wade, of Ohio; Doolittle, of 
 Wisconsin; Mallory, of Florida; and Jefferson Davis, of Mis 
 sissippi. That oath was administered by Mason, of Virginia, 
 and faithlessly as some came to regard it, CHANDLER meant 
 every word of it, officially lived it, in his last public words in 
 the presence of assembled thousands glowed with it, and died 
 with the supreme joy of having through all tests of ambition, 
 fortune, and peril obeyed its obligations faithfully to the end. 
 On taking his seat and casting about him he saw the veterans 
 of the Senate, the venerable fathers and orators of the Be- 
 public, and men, too, as he gazed, who even then were pre 
 paring for revolt upon the contingency of an adverse pres 
 idential election. He saw Breckinridge, of Kentucky, just 
 then sworn into the office of Vice-President of the United 
 States and President of the Senate. lie saw here then, as 
 seen now, a democratic majority and the leading spirits of the 
 then policy of that proud party. There were the venerable 
 Butler, of South Carolina; Slidell and Benjamin, of Louisiana; 
 Toombs, of Georgia; Houston of Texas; Johnson, of Tennes 
 see; and greatest, if last, Douglas, the giant of Illinois. And 
 among the master spirits of the policy of the broadest liberty 
 as the true construction of the national character, were Sew- 
 ard, of New York; Wade, of Ohio; HAMLIN and Fesseuden, 
 of Maine; Sumner and Wilson, of Massachusetts; Hale, of 
 New Hampshire; Crittenden, of Kentucky; Collamar and 
 Foot, of Vermont; Broderick, of California; Harlan, of Iowa; 
 Cameron, of Pennsylvania; and Trumbull, of Illinois. Many 
 of these were lawyers and statesmen of ripe experience in 
 these halls, some of whom had sat with Calhoun and Clay and 
 Webster and Benton, sharing in the debates of those giants of 
 earlier days. CHANDLER, fresh from the counter, had many 
 things to learn; but he was not long in taking his bearings. 
 
14 ADDRESS OF MR. FERRY ON THE 
 
 The whole country was then profoundly agitated. President 
 Buchanan was surrounded by Cass and Cobb, Jacob Thomp 
 son, Toucey and Floyd, Brown and Black, and Chief -Justice 
 Taney. Filibuster Walker was maneuvering in southern 
 waters, threatening by his piratical movements to embroil the 
 nation in foreign war; the Kansas conflict was raging with in 
 creasing fury, and Abraham Lincoln, then a quiet country law 
 yer in Illinois, was carefully noting the situation and uncon 
 sciously bracing for his herculean labor. CHANDLER lost no 
 opportunity to express concern for manifest disregard for the 
 welfare of the North and West. Observing this early, in place 
 ment on committees in the first session of the Thirty-fifth Con 
 gress, when committees were announced, he rose and in earnest 
 but dignified remonstrance said, " Sir, we are not satisfied, and 
 we desire to enter our protest against any such formation of 
 the committees as is here proposed"; and, on one of his first 
 measures a bill to deepen the Saint Clair Flats said, "I 
 want to see who is friendly to the great Northwest and who 
 is not, for we are about making our last prayer here. * * * 
 After 1860 we shall not be here as beggars." Upon the ques 
 tions of more general character in the national policy he, with 
 becoming reserve, deferred in debate to more experienced mem 
 bers; but when measures were proposed which he could not 
 indorse, he was of such a mold that he could not sit by in 
 silence. His face was squarely set against the Lecompton 
 constitution and the acquisition of Cuba. His speeches on 
 those projects are among the most telling protests raised in 
 the Senate upon kindred measures. In the fiercer debates 
 which followed, the custom of the duello popular at the 
 South, but deprecated at the North received new life. Me 
 nace and insult had reached their limit. They were no longer 
 to be borne. CHANDLER, Wade, and Cameron signed a com- 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 15 
 
 pact to fight on the first provocation. It certainly was a 
 bold step, but it was effectual. CHANDLER and Wade soon 
 had occasion to act upon their purpose. Seward s "irre 
 pressible conflict" drew insult, and CHANDLER took up his 
 cause. Sumner was smitten down and Wade repelled the 
 dastardly act. Whatsoever may be said of the means em 
 ployed, the code thenceforth practically came to an end. 
 CHANDLER was as ready with words as with blows. When 
 the John Brown raid at Harper s Ferry was under discussion 
 his allusion to the fury which sealed the fate of those whose 
 zeal for human liberty knew no bounds, was a most biting 
 piece of satire. 
 
 If 
 
 Said he 
 
 seventeen men were to attack the city of Detroit in any capacity, and the 
 mayor should appoint as a guard more than seventeen constables to take 
 care of them, the city auditor would decline to audit the account. He 
 would not pay it. 
 
 His foresight was even more remarkable than his fearless, 
 patriotic zeal. In the great presidential contest of 1860, when 
 four candidates were before the people and the whole land was 
 kindled to the highest state of excitement, his belief that on 
 the success of Lincoln hinged the life of the nation made him 
 most active and conspicuous in the campaign. He may be 
 said to have been the triumphant knight of that great tourna 
 ment. When Congress assembled, following this presidential 
 race, he, with others, saw the national heavens black with 
 portent. He watched with anxiety the days of winter unfold 
 ing signs of national disintegration, and marked the powers of 
 national self-preservation scattered, and the Chief Magistrate 
 in grave message declaring the Government powerless to pre 
 vent separation. In these and other unmistakable signs he 
 
16 ADDRESS OF MB. FERRY ON THE 
 
 read the deep-seated purpose of destroying the Union, and 
 when a peace convention of all the States was called to meet 
 in Washington he could not restrain or disguise his judgment. 
 The cry for "peace" then, and under such indications and 
 preparations, was to him a pretext, the outcome of which was 
 war. He so penned a private letter to the governor of Michi 
 gan, which, purloined, was made the subject of mock solemnity 
 of horror by Powell, of Kentucky, and the occasion for Eich- 
 ardson, of Illinois, to taunt him with the authorship of what 
 has come to be known as "CHANDLER S blood-letting letter." 
 CHANDLER S reply to these was a manly, frank utterance, and 
 such a scathing arraignment of the scheme of secession and 
 rebellion that the loyal spirit of the country was roused, mock 
 oratory in the Senate for the time put at rest, and this famous 
 letter signalized as the one prophecy of patriotic foresight 
 which the muse of history writes down sadly fulfilled. It was 
 by him then memorably said that peace conventions would 
 prove vain and fruitless. The 4th of March found many seats 
 in this Chamber vacated. Subsequent events developed seven 
 States of the Union organized at Montgomery into a separate 
 government, with Jefferson Davis its president and ALEXAN 
 DER H. STEVENS, now a distinguished member of the other 
 House, its vice-president, Fort Sumter invested, fired upon, 
 and war suddenly opened on a generation that had as little 
 practical knowledge of war as belief that arms were to settle 
 what votes had legally expressed as the will of loyal people. 
 The lack of the art and practice of warfare was, however, more 
 than made up by the spirit and enthusiasm for the old flag, 
 which knew no bounds. 
 
 Of the few rare men reared and raised into prominent place 
 by an all- wise Providence for the matchless struggle, CHAN 
 DLER was one. He had in large measure the very qualities 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 17 
 
 to animate and inspirit a bravo and willing, but unmartial 
 people, loving country above peace and life. Such men were 
 needed to quicken and encourage the forces on the field amid 
 the reverses which fell to our Army during the first years 
 of the war. Congress met in December, 61 ; a great shadow 
 lay on the loyal heart; undismayed, and firm and hopeful 
 midst disaster, CHANDLER was the first to move in this body 
 a committee on the conduct of the war, which was on the part 
 of the Senate composed of Wade, CHANDLER, and Johnson. 
 And well did it perform its great task. Keports from it fill 
 seven large volumes of the public records. To give a glimpse 
 of the character of its work, and the lamentable national situ 
 ation calculated to appall the bravest, it seems due at this 
 time to this stout heart that his own words should voice that 
 work and that situation. He said in this Senate, July 16, 
 1862: 
 
 At an early day of the present session of Congress the Committee on the 
 Conduct of the War was raised. * * The committee has been in con 
 stant, almost daily, communication with the Administration, and has from 
 time to time submitted such information as, in their opinion, should be fur 
 nished to the Executive. How valuable this information may have been to 
 the Administration is not for mo or the cou.mittee to decide, but, in my opin 
 ion, when the history of the war shall have been written the country will 
 give credit where credit is due. 
 
 The last one of that valiant trio of this body has gone to 
 join his colleagues where just merit is rewarded ; and on this 
 occasion and in this presence, one voice at least of that coun 
 try shall say that it already gives and will thenceforth " give 
 credit where credit is due." As to the situation, he continued: 
 
 The battle of Bull Run seems to have been the culminating point of the 
 rebellion. Up to that time the North hardly seemed to appreciate the fact 
 that we were in the midst of war; that a gigantic and wicked rebellion 
 was shaking the very foundation-stones of our political institutions ; that 
 the rebels meant a bloody, fratricidal war. The firing upon Sumter was 
 considered rather the action of a frenzied mob than the fixed, determined 
 
 3 c 
 
18 
 
 ADDRESS OF ME. FERRY ON THE 
 
 intent to break up and destroy the best Government the world had ever seen. 
 That battle left the enemies of the country masters of the field and virtually 
 besiegers of the capital. From that 21st day of July, 1861, the nations of 
 the earth considered the experiment of republican institutions a failure, or 
 at least an untried experiment. Rebellion had triumphed, and the nations 
 believed the Republic was tottering to its fall. Our securities became val 
 ueless outside our borders, and our armies to be raised were considered men 
 in buckram. Not so the brave and loyal millions of the North. They knew 
 that the resources of the North had not been touched, that the battle of 
 Bull Run was but an insignificant skirmish, without results to either side, 
 and forthwith began to put forth their mighty energies. Up to this time 
 the earnestness of this rebellion had not been appreciated by the North. 
 
 Later than this painful recapitulation of our then sorry con 
 dition, and in the second year of the war, our fortunes proved 
 no better than the first. Eepeated disasters not only thinned 
 our ranks and spread distrust of success, but made the enemy 
 bold and defiant. The hearts of the loyal people sank within 
 them. A peace party began to develop in their midst. Mc- 
 Clellan, the popular idol of the hour, was at the head of the 
 finest army the world ever saw. Instead of fighting the enemy 
 in the field, peninsula malaria was permitted to decimate that 
 army, which, later, emerged from the seven days disaster in 
 covering an inglorious defeat. Still an idolized commander, 
 no one dared arraign him notwithstanding the Union cause 
 was on the brink of ruin till on the 1st day of July, 1862, 
 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER pronounced his master speech on the 
 conduct of the war, and closed by demanding the removal of 
 McClellan. It fell like a thunderboldt, but it cleared the sky. 
 From that hour hope, and new vigor, stirred the masses of 
 the Xorth. 
 
 To speak of his labors during the years of the war how 
 watchful, useful, tireless, fearless, hopeful, defiant, and active 
 everywhere would be to reflect upon the memories of our 
 country and households for whose sake he battled in this Sen 
 ate and elsewhere ; visited field and camp ; viewed the hospi- 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 10 
 
 tills; cared for the maimed and dying; cheered and upbore the 
 President and his sorely pressed Cabinet, until victory perched 
 upon the Union banner. Congressional records will reveal 
 the multiplied forms in which his sagacious and practical 
 mind shaped the measures which were so vital during the 
 years of the war, and which now stand as the policy of the 
 Government, and his memorial legacy, bequeathed to a saved 
 and grateful nation. 
 
 Of his labors since that period, time will not permit me to 
 speak at length. As chairman of the Committee on Commerce 
 of the Senate, and of which he was a member at his death, he 
 imparted to its varied labors that freshness and vigor of 
 thought and breadth of suggestion for which he was ever noted. 
 As in war, so in peace, anything which concerned the honor 
 of, or advanced American interests never escaped his ready 
 attention. Whether at home or abroad, her rights and wel 
 fare were to him of the first importance. To the revenue and 
 financial measures which have contributed to restore the nation 
 to a condition of prosperity, and have raised our commercial 
 credit and standing to the front rank with the powers of the 
 globe, he gave the aid of his rare experience and ripest judg 
 ment. Occupied with the exhaustive labors that grew out of 
 the attempt to destroy the Union by force of arms ; with the 
 care, thought, and legislation demanded to provide adequate 
 organic guarantees to forever remove the source of national 
 division ; to assure to slaves made free their rightful citizen 
 ship, and utterly extirpate every vestige of electoral disqualifi 
 cation ; to retire to the body of the people an army millions 
 strong ; to safely reconstruct and restore desolated States ; to 
 re-establish civil service upon the basis of preference given to 
 maimed Union soldiers in Government employ ; to provide 
 ways and means to meet the cumulative obligations of the na- 
 
20 ADDRESS OF MR. PERRY ON THE 
 
 tion and place the money of the people upon a safe and stable 
 basis 5 to prove that under monarchies and not republics u laws 
 are silent in the midst of arms" since all the functions of 
 popular sovereignty went on with uninterrupted precision I 
 repeat : with care for all these subjects, Mr. CHANDLER found 
 time and occasion to guard as well against any acts encroach 
 ing upon our rights and just relations with nations abroad, as 
 to watch and advance the supremacy of the political party 
 charged with the defense and welfare of the nation at home. 
 He offered and advocated a resolution for reclamation upon 
 Great Britain for the destruction of our shipping by the 
 Anglo-Confederate privateers at sea; discussed non-inter- 
 course with England ; spoke with indignant fervor upon the 
 raids from Canada ; and urged a termination of the reciprocity 
 treaty with that Dominion. He as freely denounced European 
 despotism on this continent and raised his voice against its 
 usurpations. He submitted a resolution of inquiry into the 
 alleged acts of the Mexican imperial government toward the 
 officers and men of the Juarez party, who were reported to 
 have suffered death by order of Maximilian. His speech on 
 this resolution was the bold denunciation of a soul burning 
 with indignation at the intrigues and cruelties by which a 
 hated throne had been set up on republican soil, uttered, too, 
 at a time when our word was thought in Europe to have lost 
 its prestige and power. He said of this imperial intruder : 
 
 If this man, under similar circumstances, had been captured in Austria he 
 would have been whipped to death ; France would have put him in a cave 
 and smothered him with smoke ; England would have blown him to pieces 
 at the muzzle of her guns. I think Mexico made a mistake. He had for 
 feited the right to die a soldier s death. 
 
 No one, I believe, ever doubted CHANDLER S courage to be 
 equal to any emergency, public or personal. I can recall but 
 one occasion in my long acquaintance with him when he 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAII CHANDLER. 21 
 
 seemed disheartened and borne down by the force of public 
 events. It was when President Johnson, attempting the re 
 moval of the great War Secretary, Stanton; quarreling with 
 the then famous hero of the war, General Grant, and defying 
 the Congress of the United States, escaped impeachment so 
 narrowly. CHANDLER felt that republican government was 
 then at stake and impeachment a necessity. Never was there 
 a time when he came so nigh despairing of the Eepublic as at 
 that event. He, however, as others, happily learned that a 
 republic that could survive the tragic loss of its beloved martyr 
 President, and live under the misrule of an ignoring accession, 
 has beneath its destiny a Divine grasp which gives assurance 
 of its survival of all human device or human ill. 
 
 Men die, but the Republic lives. This Senate, as well as the 
 country, will, however, miss Senator CHANDLER. Upon many 
 and varied topics he shared in debate; direct, forceful, and 
 accurate, he spoke with effect. lie at times was matched with 
 the foremost of his associates and seldom had to retract or 
 surrender his propositions. His discussions with the classical 
 and accomplished Sumner are striking examples of his accu 
 racy and force in all matters of substantial fact and interest. 
 
 In the session of 1874- 75 he was putting forth his ripest 
 powers in support of measures which he thought would tend 
 to the general prosperity, relieve commercial depression, and 
 bring back better times. 
 
 When his senatorial term expired his expectation was that 
 the State he had honored and served would mark its approval 
 by his return to the Senate for another term. Changes, how 
 ever, of a partisan character had occasioned the alienation of 
 many supporters of the republican party in several of the 
 States of the Union. The democratic party had thus gained 
 the ascendency in enough of those States to place the House 
 
22 ADDRESS OF MR. FERRY ON THE 
 
 of Representatives in their hands. Michigan was more or less 
 affected, and some of its old friends had turned away from the 
 republican party in that State, as well. The republican ma 
 jority in the Legislature was in a measure reduced. Though 
 he received the nomination of his party friends, yet in the 
 elective contest he was defeated, through the fusion of a few 
 members with his political opponents. Never did he carry 
 himself through any struggle with a loftier crest. He scorned 
 to stoop for so glittering a prize. 
 
 This defeat did in no wise abate his zeal for the party which 
 had failed to return him to his seat in the Senate. Chosen 
 chairman of the republican national committee, although then 
 filling the place of Secretary of the Interior, he promptly ac 
 cepted its burden and actively entered upon the presidential 
 campaign of 76. It is needless here to mention the causes 
 which had depressed the ardor of the people and had alienated 
 many from the support of the party in power. CHANDLER, 
 with a trained hand, organized the campaign, and, through all 
 the summer of fear and doubt, his unquailing spirit directed 
 its movements. When the hearts of others began to fail, he 
 rose in the might of his energy and infused new courage to all 
 around him. At length, when the decisive day had come and 
 gone, and many waited in painful suspense weary days for the 
 tidings of the result, he, with the first consciousness of the 
 truth, sent forth from the city of New York that ever-memora 
 ble dispatch : " Hayes has 185 votes and is elected." And so 
 it proved. Through all the tempest of the electoral count, the 
 clamor, outcry, threats, defiance, fierceness, and bitterness of 
 contending partisans, rank and file, that prophet-sentence 
 brooded in the air ; and when the 4th of March arrived the 
 nation joined in the fact, and Rutherford B. Hayes was inaugu 
 rated President of the United States, and you, Mr. President, 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACIIAR1AII CHANDLER. 23 
 
 duly installed Vice-Fresident and President of this august 
 body, over which you preside with impartial ability. 
 
 Placed also at the head of the republican State central com 
 mittee of Michigan for the fall campaign of 78, the happy 
 result showed that his interest in his own State in no wise 
 flagged. The State did not forget his national and State work. 
 When, by the resignation of Senator Christiancy, a vacancy 
 occurred here, CHANDLER was chosen by the Legislature with 
 substantial unanimity to fill the place, with manifest gratifica 
 tion on his part, and expressed satisfaction on the part of many 
 of his former associates. 
 
 The closing days of the late extraordinary session record 
 another chapter in his remarkable history. The debate on the 
 bill to pension the soldiers of the Mexican war brought Jeffer 
 son Davis conspicuously before the Senate. Fervid encomiums 
 were pronounced upon him, till from the gallery floated down 
 and passed among Senators this waif, " There seems to be no 
 one here that dares call treason by its right name." When 
 CHANDLER read it he quietly remarked, " There will be some 
 one before the debate is closed." At three o clock in the morn 
 ing he rose and delivered that philippic which will never cease 
 to be famous in the annals of our national polemics. Nor will 
 any of us ever forget the last time he addressed the Senate. 
 Senators know well, and the country minds well, the purport 
 of his thoughts as in closing he said, " As a Senator of the 
 United States and a citizen of the United States I appeal to 
 the people. It is for those citizens to say who is right and who 
 is wrong." 
 
 Congress dispersed, and in a few days he went back, as he 
 declared he would, to the people. In several of the States 
 there were approaching elections. Political excitement surged 
 over the whole country. Many prominent men took part in the 
 
24 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. FERRY ON THE 
 
 canvass of States and did efficient work everywhere, but no one 
 was held in greater request than he. It is not now invidious to 
 say it. For the first time a Detroit merchant was summoned 
 to New England to recount the political situation. It was my 
 pleasure to witness his gratification on reading the telegraphic 
 invitation from the scholarly courtesy of the Senator from 
 Massachusetts nearest me. He traveled thousands of miles; 
 spoke during the season at various places in Maine, Massachu 
 setts, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin. 
 
 Wending his way homeward, he spoke at Chicago the even 
 ing of the night of his death to what the Senator from Illinois 
 near me, who nobly stood by him, has said, was the finest audi 
 ence ever assembled in that great city of the West on any po 
 litical occasion, and delivered what history will write, the 
 greatest forensic achievement of his life. He spoke as one 
 already chosen for the shaft of death. His counsel seemed the 
 utterance of a dying father. Never was he more inspired, 
 direct, powerful, and convincing. Of his party he there said : 
 
 The republican party is the only party that ever existed, so far as I have 
 been able to ascertain, which has not one single solitary unfaithful pledge 
 left not one. The republican party was created with one idea, and that 
 was to preserve our vast territories from the blighting curse of slavery, and 
 we saved them. But we did more than that. We pledged ourselves to 
 save your national life ; we saved it. We pledged ourselves to save your 
 national honor, and we saved it. We pledged ourselves to give you a home 
 stead law ; we gave it. We pledged ourselves to improve your rivers and 
 harbors, and we did it. We pledged ourselves to build you a Pacific rail 
 road ; we built it. And not to weary you, the last pledge we gave was that 
 the very moment we were able we would redeem the obligations of this 
 great Government in the coin of the world ; and on the 1st day of January, 
 1879, we fulfilled the last pledge ever given. Notwithstanding all this they 
 say your mission is ended and that you ought to die. 
 
 The multitudinous huzzas that greeted this closing effort of 
 an eventful career made it the proudest moment of his life, 
 when he was never so appreciated, and never so dear to the 
 loyal heart of the American people. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTEE OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 25 
 
 A fitting fiuale to the sad disclosure of the morning dawn. 
 "CHANDLER dead," as the lightning bore it on the mournful 
 Saturday morning, stirred the soul of this people with the sad 
 dest tidings since the assassination of Lincoln. Alone in his 
 chamber, where he had retired for the night, he cast his har 
 ness off, and the morning of November 1, 1879, discovered to 
 the nation a loss which sent a thrill and shock as if some 
 monarch of the forest had fallen. The people mourned as for 
 a prince departed. 
 
 To have given in any manner a faithful touch of the public 
 career of this earnest man without recalling great landmarks 
 in the progress of the nation, with which he was identified, 
 would be the play of Hamlet with Hamlet s part left out. 
 Simply to characterize him has been my purpose, and to show 
 mid what shoals he steered with safety. Words would fail to 
 analyze such a spirit. Acts were the methods of his life, and 
 national struggles must be retold to do even partial justice to 
 one who, with their rise and fall, fought to win. Action was 
 the eloquence of his life. He who is ever disturbed by the 
 recital of the rugged pathway of the Republic, fails to learn 
 that with nations, as with men, mistakes are the steps to suc 
 cess. Those who made them need not spurn the mention of 
 them, for they have occasioned the grandeur of our national 
 growth ; those who won by them need but joy over them, for 
 without them slavery with its woe, in the place of liberty with 
 its glory, would to-day be the inheritance of the nation. 
 
 What more shall I say of him? He was emphatically a self- 
 made man, shaped on a giant mold; of intense conviction and 
 resistless will ; a rough rudely-cut diamond, unpolished by 
 culture of the schools. In strength massive, in sense surpass 
 ing, in mental force subduing, in fidelity steadfast, and in 
 straightforward honesty as transparent as the crystal which 
 
 4 
 
26 ADDRESS OF MR. FERRY ON THE 
 
 from every angle reflects the liquid light. Little did he care 
 for theories. This, all his speeches show. We have learned 
 how he toiled in the early years of his life, and how, when the 
 time came, he wove his own personality into the web of the 
 national fabric. His arguments were living things. His sen 
 tences were catapults. He went right to the core of every mat 
 ter. He dealt with marrow, while bone and flesh were left to 
 their own decay. He was as disinterested in the public service 
 as man well can be. 
 
 It cost him time and money to serve his country. He asked 
 nothing in return but a place for service. His aspirations for 
 office were laudable ; position he used as a means to an end, 
 and that his country s good. A man of deep feeling, but his 
 impulses always took a practical turn. It was not rose-colored 
 sentiment, but vigorous thought and rugged act that filled the 
 measure of his life. 
 
 With all his public labors he never lost his fondness for home. 
 In wife and daughter and grandchildren was garnered una- 
 bating devotion. By the frankness of his nature, the ease with 
 which he was approached, and by his broad and ready sym 
 pathy, his hold upon his friends and attachment of the masses, 
 gave him hosts of zealous followers. 
 
 Floral tokens of admiration and affection were various and 
 plentiful at his funeral rites. Crowning his casket was a char 
 acteristic tribute from the custodian of his business interests. 
 It was a tablet of white azaleas, across which, with beautiful 
 violets, was traced u Faithful to the end." The procession to 
 his last resting place was a remarkable scene of devotion. A 
 violent snow-storm prevailed, and yet, from home to grave, the 
 avenues were literally thronged with men and women, defying 
 storm, to pay their mournful tribute to their distinguished 
 dead. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZAOHARIAlt CHANDLER. 27 
 
 CHANDLER S memory rests not alone in the measures which 
 have become a part of the policy of the Government, or in the 
 many phases of his active life, but dwells largely in the hearts 
 of his countrymen. Time will best award him his rightful 
 meed. To that just arbiter, as an attached friend and cola- 
 borer, I submit his varied career, from which I make no appeal. 
 
 In closing my humble tribute to his fame, I cannot forget to 
 note that he never left a doubt upon the minds of others, wher 
 ever he moved, that, however he may have faltered at times 
 and ways himself, he held with reverence and faith that belief 
 which reckons life but the vestibule of immortality. All forms 
 of infidelity he despised. If he did not always practice, he 
 often recognized his highest obligations. A touching instance 
 of this was the sad occasion of his burying a brother in a land 
 of strangers, at dead of night, in the dreariness of rain. 
 As the body of that brother was let into the grave without 
 Christian word of parting, with none to voice a single senti 
 ment of faith or hope, he himself bowed his knees to the earth, 
 and there, in the pitiless storm, offered prayer to Almighty 
 God. He did not forget, but generously befriended the Chris 
 tian church. Into the secrets of his heart, on that solemn 
 morning, when alone he met his God, we dare not, and, indeed, 
 we cannot penetrate. Immortal now, he rests with One, who 
 gives supreme value to all that is good in life, and, what is infi 
 nitely more, " He doeth all things well." 
 
 We have seen the nation mourn as the heroic figures that 
 held sway in trying periods of our history passed to the dust 
 of death Lincoln and Stanton, Chase, Seward, Sunnier, Wade, 
 and Morton, and the thronging procession of valiant captains 
 and men who wrought out the salvation of the Union. Added 
 now to the roll is CHANDLER. All these are borne upon the 
 hearts of a grateful people who delight to honor, buc who are 
 
28 ADDRESS OF ME. ANTHONY ON THE 
 
 powerless to recall. With no murmuring, but rather with 
 hopeful spirit, do we trust steadfastly in that Providence by 
 whose mysterious courses kingdoms and republics rise and 
 fall; and do we reverently speak of that Being whose designs 
 embrace countless myriads of men, by whose almighty will all 
 nations live, and in whose omniscience the vast future of our 
 beloved land is at this moment folded up. 
 
 Address of Mr. ANTHONY, of Rhode Island. 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT : This scene and this occasion renew to me 
 the shock which I experienced when the sorrowing wires un 
 laded their burden of grief and told me that CHANDLER was 
 dead. It is difficult to associate ZACHARIAH CHANDLER with 
 the idea of death. His exurberant vitality, his overflowing 
 spirit, his commanding air and presence, all forbid it. I 
 almost look to see his manly and vigorous figure fit tene 
 ment of his manly heart and his vigorous intellect rise from 
 his accustomed seat, towering above his peers in this Cham 
 ber ; I almost listen for that voice whose stentorian tones these 
 walls have so often sent back to our ears. 
 
 Born and educated in New England, passing the maturity 
 of his years in the West, he united, in an uncommon degree, 
 the qualities and characteristics of each: the shrewdness, the 
 steadiness, the keen observation, the inflexible purpose of the 
 one; the freshness, the eager earnestness, the sturdy robust 
 ness of the other ; the fidelity, the truthfulness, the manliness 
 of both. His sincerity was beyond question ; his honest belief 
 in the principles which he professed was never disputed; he 
 meant what he said, and he said all that he meant. He had no 
 halting opinions ; he had a judgment, and a decided judgment, 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHAUIAH CHANDLER. 29 
 
 on every question that was presented to him; and although at 
 times he seemed to be hasty of speech, it was the haste of the 
 occasion, not the haste of sudden conviction or of uncontrol 
 lable impulse. Those who knew him intimately knew how 
 closely he had studied, how deeply he had thought upon the 
 questions that he had discussed with apparent suddenness, 
 and that his impulsiveness of manner followed long and care 
 ful examination of the subject under consideration. It was not 
 the rushing of the stream swollen by violent rains, but the let 
 ting loose of the imprisoned waters of the lake, which, long 
 collected and confined, waited but the opportunity of outlet to 
 pour forth with more than the impetuosity of the mountain 
 torrent. He was a forcible but not a frequent speaker. The 
 strength of his convictions found expression in the boldness of 
 his utterance. Disdaining the lighter graces of rhetoric, his 
 speeches did not sparkle with wit nor glow with sentiment, 
 but they bristled with facts; if he did not captivate by his 
 style, he compelled assent by his reasoning ; and when he had 
 arranged his facts and constructed his argument, his conclu 
 sion followed with almost irresistible force. 
 
 Devoting himself to commerce and to politics, he attained 
 eminent success in each and secured the highest rewards of 
 both. To enumerate the positions which he filled and the 
 honors that he received would be but to repeat, in feebler 
 phrase, what has been so well said by the Senator who was his 
 colleague. I think I shall do violence to the feelings of no 
 man, and to the friends of no man who survives him in 
 that State, so eminent for its distinguished sons, when I 
 say that he was, by common acceptance, the first citizen of 
 Michigan. The respect and affection in which he was held 
 at home were manifested on the day of his burial. It was 
 a fitting day for that sad office. Detroit was in mourning. 
 
30 ADDRESS OF MR. ANTHONY ON THE 
 
 From every public building floated the emblems of sorrow, 
 and the doors and windows of numerous private houses 
 were draped in sable. The streets were whitened by the 
 early snow of winter, which fell with blinding fury upon 
 the city. The sidewalks were thronged with thousands upon 
 thousands of men and women, who, unable to get near the 
 house, stood exposed, for hours, to the inclement weather, 
 waiting to see the long and melancholy procession. 
 
 To dwell at length upon his qualities as a partisan might 
 offend the proprieties of the occasion, and I forbear. But even 
 the slightest sketch of him would be imperfect without some 
 reference to his partisan character. He was a party man. He 
 held that the division of the people into parties was essential 
 to the balance of elective institutions. He early selected for 
 his support the party that was, in his judgment, most conform 
 able to the spirit of the Constitution, to the rights and liber 
 ties of the people, and to the prosperity of the country ; and 
 having deliberately made his choice, he adhered to it with all 
 the tenacity of his nature. He believed in strong measures, 
 and had no confidence in half-way methods and expedients. 
 Whatever was right and proper he held was to be promoted by 
 all legal and proper means. 
 
 He died as he would have preferred to die suddenly, pain 
 lessly, and with his harness on. He fell as the warrior falls, 
 on the eve of battle, with his sword in his hand and his shield 
 upon his arm. Death was kinder to him than it often is to the 
 race of man, to all of whom " it is appointed once to die." No 
 lingering disease wasted that stalwart form -, no protracted suf 
 fering enfeebled that masculine intellect. The Pale Messenger, 
 unheralded and unexpected, summoned him in the vigor of 
 health and of active usefulness; touched him with his wand, and 
 he sank to eternal sleep no, we believe he rose to eternal life. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 31 j 
 
 Address of Mr. BAYARD, of Delaware. 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT : The relations I have held with the deceased 
 Senator CHANDLER have arisen only as a consequence of ray 
 service as a member of this body, and it has so happened that 
 by the organization of political parties we usually found our 
 selves in decided opposition to each other. 
 
 Of his political opinions, actions, and methods I will not 
 therefore speak, for I could not do so approvingly, nor would 
 it be worthy of myself or of him to attempt qualification or 
 reconciliation of our decided opinions on policies or principles 
 of government in regard to which few men differed so widely 
 as he and I. 
 
 It may be adopted as a wise rule in arriving at an estimate 
 of men and their careers, to precede a formation of judgment 
 of an antagonist by the inquiry, " How would we have re 
 garded the action of our adversary had his energies been 
 exerted in favor of the party and policies with which we our 
 selves have been allied ?" 
 
 May it not well be, that seen thus through a medium of sym 
 pathetic ends, the means of attainment would have appeared 
 somewhat less objectionable? 
 
 In the maze of action and passion of daily political life we 
 are not apt to judge men justly, and may easily fail equally 
 to appreciate the faults of an ally and the virtues of an 
 opponent. 
 
 But there were traits and qualities in Mr. CHANDLER that 
 all men may dwell upon with admiration and respect, and 
 which I have now a melancholy satisfaction in attesting. 
 
 He was manly, impulsive, outspoken, sincere, and generous ; 
 an open but not implacable foe, and a steady and courageous 
 friend. 
 
 
32 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. BAYARD ON THE 
 
 His hand was open, for he was " a cheerful giver." He 
 possessed a mind of superior force and sagacity, and his facul 
 ties for the administration of affairs were eminently practical 
 and effective. 
 
 In one important respect he supplied an example valuable 
 in any government, and especially in one so popular in its for 
 ward nature as our own. I refer to the fact that on no occa 
 sion was Mr. CHANDLER known to use his official position for 
 his own pecuniary gain directly or indirectly. 
 
 His death has ended a long career of public service in 
 executive and legislative capacities, and throughout his 
 hands were ever clean of unjust or illegitimate gain, nor 
 did his bitterest political foe (and no man evoked a stronger 
 personal criticism) ever charge, or even suspect him, with 
 making personal profit out of his political station and oppor 
 tunities. 
 
 He was a man of vigorous, frank nature, and his virtues and 
 his faults were the natural outgrowth. Free-handed and open- 
 hearted, he kept his word, despised a coward, and loathed a 
 hypocrite. 
 
 Standing now as it were above his newly made grave, I bear 
 willing testimony to these personal virtues, and can recall 
 many instances of his accommodating kindness and personal 
 courtesy, which rendered the transaction of business with him 
 so easy and agreeable. 
 
 For the rest, I feel that we are too near the years of his act 
 ive political career to express positive judgment. 
 
 To justly measure so aggressive, vigorous, and influential 
 a character as his, it must be viewed at a little distance, as 
 sculptors often ask for the consideration of their strongest and 
 most rugged works. 
 
 Time will mellow, and reflection will soften the asperities 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER. 33 
 
 and animosities caused by recent and heated conflict and 
 which may obscure somewhat present judgment. 
 
 Mr. President, the messenger of death came to our departed 
 associate suddenly, and in the very midst of his most ardent 
 and strenuous pursuits. 
 
 Here in this hall of public deliberation, once more are we 
 confronted and startled by the foot-prints of the Pale Archer, 
 whose shafts intended surely for each one of us remain as 
 yet in the quiver unselected. Busied as we all are with the 
 thoughts and cares of daily life, should we not pause to-day, 
 and thinking of the strong man who has been so suddenly 
 called from our side, and from the home and wide circle of 
 friends, to whom his warm heart and manly qualities so en 
 deared him : glance down the inevitable pathway he has been 
 called upon to tread, and so order our living that each may 
 not fear to follow in his turn! 
 
 Address of Mr. HAMLIN, of Maine. 
 
 The friendships formed in this body in long association are 
 no inconsiderable compensation for the labors and annoyance 
 incident to senatorial life. While patience and forbearance 
 are sometimes exhausted in earnest, extended, and at times 
 angry debate, and many things are said and done in zeal which 
 the calmer judgment will not approve, yet the ties here formed 
 and cemented will never be severed in life. As a rule these 
 friendships, differing in degree, are far more general than is 
 supposed. The cases are rare and exceptional where associa 
 tion here does not produce a cordial and sincere greeting as 
 we mingle and meet along the pathway of life. And the ac 
 quaintance formed here with the deceased distinguished Sena- 
 
 5 c 
 
34 ADDRESS OF ME. 11AMLIN ON THE 
 
 tor, which ripened into permanent and undisturbed friendship, 
 justifies if it does not require that I should add a few words of 
 personal tribute to his worth and memory in the same spirit 
 with which the friendly hand would place a garland of flowers 
 upon his new-made grave. Some have spoken and others 
 will speak more elaborately of his public life and valuable 
 services. 
 
 I first knew of Mr. CHANDLER as a distinguished merchant 
 in the city of Detroit, where he had become eminent for his 
 high commercial and financial integrity, and had established a 
 business reputation which extended far beyond the limits of 
 his own State. In one of those financial tornadoes which at 
 times disturbed the business and industries of our country, 
 when older and apparently more firmly established houses 
 were wrecked by the blast, so well established was his reputa 
 tion for unquestioned mercantile capacity and integrity that, 
 when himself in doubt as to his ability to withstand the crisis, 
 on consultation with those with whom he had business rela 
 tions, and acting under their united advice and assurances of 
 support, he went forward triumphantly and successfully out 
 riding the storm. An honorable merchant of known and un 
 questioned integrity, he was at all times entitled to receive 
 and did receive the highest consideration. It is indeed a 
 priceless legacy which he has left to his family, and he fur 
 nishes an example which should be imitated by all who care 
 to be honest. His sterling character in that regard is the 
 brighter in times like these, when the crime of repudiation 
 stalks at noonday and finds unblushing advocates among 
 States and corporations as well as among individuals. It is a 
 truth that cannot be too often or earnestly expressed, that 
 an honest man is God s noblest work. 
 
 I knew of the Senator also as a distinguished leader in the 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACllAllIAU CHANDLER. 35 
 
 whig party in the days of its strength and its triumph. He 
 was once its honored leader in a gubernatorial contest in his 
 State. I also knew of him well as one of the prominent and 
 leading men in the State of Michigan by whose counsels and 
 under whose guidance the republican party was formed, and 
 those who thought alike were induced to act together; a party 
 in which he was at all times prominent, and to which he ad 
 hered with unwavering fidelity to the close of his life ; and by 
 which he won that national confidence and respect to which 
 he was so eminently entitled. 
 
 But I became personally acquainted with Senator CHAN 
 DLER on that day when we were sworn in as members of this 
 body, and at the time when he first took his seat in the Senate 
 of the United States. 
 
 In my judgment, the most prominent and distinguishing 
 traits in the character of Senator CHANDLER were his sincere 
 convictions of what he believed to be right, and his indomitable 
 courage in expressing and maintaining those convictions re 
 gardless of consequences. He who possesses those character 
 istics may always have enemies, but he will never be without 
 friends. I have myself but little respect for that man who has 
 not enough of character to make an enemy, for he cannot be 
 worthy to claim others as his friends. The frankness with 
 which Senator CHANDLER expressed his opinions upon all oc 
 casions was not acceptable to many, and if he did not thereby 
 incur their hostility he certainly failed to attach them to him 
 as friends. But none were left in doubt as to the position he 
 would occupy upon any question in regard to which his opin 
 ions were known. He was a man of convictions and courage; 
 never a man of policy and compromise ; nor did he believe in 
 that timidity which in effect was treason to right and justice. 
 
 That in his life for which he was perhaps held in the highest 
 
36 ADDRESS OF MR. HAMLIN ON THE 
 
 esteem by the loyal people of this country was the zeal and 
 courage he displayed and the labor he performed in maintain 
 ing the supremacy of the Government. Many there were who 
 talked more ; few, if any, who labored as much and as effect 
 ively. With him it was always actions rather than words. 
 He had then, as at all times, the boldness to characterize 
 things and events by their right names, however distasteful it 
 might be to others. I would award all honor to the brave men 
 who by their heroic acts and undaunted courage have been so 
 instrumental in advancing the best interests of our common 
 country in the field or on the ocean. I would pluck no leaf 
 from the wreaths that so justly adorn their brows. I yield to 
 none in the respect I would pay to them. But courage, cool, 
 deliberate, unmistakable courage, is as requisite and is as 
 certainly displayed in the deliberative councils of the nation 
 as on the field of battle. The highest courage is that which 
 always dares to do the right and fears only to do the wrong. 
 The victories of peace are more important than those of war, 
 and to those who win them the highest homage is due. 
 
 Not to the ensanguined field of death alone 
 
 Is valor limited : she sits serene 
 
 In the deliberative council, sagely scans 
 
 The sources of action, weighs, prevents, provides, 
 
 And scorns to count her glories, from the feats 
 
 Of brutal force alone. 
 
 Those of us who were so long associated with the late Sen 
 ator in this body will miss him exceedingly. In the wisdom of 
 an inscrutable Providence, his seat here has been made vacant. 
 All that was mortal of him now reposes in the soil of his 
 adopted State, which he had honored as the State had hon 
 ored him. Those who knew him best will mourn him most, 
 while the nation pays homage to his memory for public serv 
 ices so grandly performed. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 37 
 
 Address of Mr. BLAINE, of Maine. 
 
 Mr. CHANDLER sprang from a strong race of men, reared 
 in a State wbich has shed luster on other Commonwealths by 
 the gift of her native-born and her native-bred. She gave 
 Webster to Massachusetts, Chief-Justice Chase to Ohio, Gen 
 eral Dix to New York, and Horace Greeley to the head of 
 American journalism. Mr. CHANDLER left New Hampshire 
 before he -attained his majority, and with limited pecuniary 
 resources sought a home in the inviting territory of the North 
 west. He had great physical strength, with remarkable pow 
 ers of endurance, possessed energy that could not be over 
 taxed, was gifted with courage of a high order, was imbued 
 with principles which throughout his life were inflexible, was 
 intelligent and well instructed, and in all respects equipped 
 for a career in the great and splendid region where he lived 
 and grew and strengthened and prospered and died. 
 
 For a long period following the second war with Great Brit 
 ain the Territory of Michigan was governed by one of the 
 most persuasive and successful of American statesmen, whose 
 pure and honorable life, whose grace and kindness of manner, 
 and whose almost unlimited power in what was then a remote 
 frontier Territory, had enabled him to mould the vast major 
 ity of the early settlers to his own political views. When Mr. 
 CHANDLER reached Detroit General Cass had left the scene 
 of his long reign for reign it might well be called to assume 
 control of the War Department under one of the strongest 
 administrations that ever governed the country. The great 
 majority of young men at twenty years of age naturally 
 drifted with a current that was so strong; but Mr. CHANDLER 
 had inherited certain political principles which were strength 
 ened by his own convictions as he grew to manhood, and he 
 
38 ADDRESS OF MR. ELAINE ON THE 
 
 took his stand at once and firmly with the minority. He was 
 from the outset a strong power in the political field ; though 
 not until his maturer years, with fortune attained and the 
 harder struggles of life crowned with victory, would he con 
 sent to hold any public position. But he was in all the fierce 
 conflicts which raged for twenty years in Michigan, and which 
 ended in changing the political mastery of the State. It is 
 not matter of wonder that personal estrangements occurred in 
 such prolonged and bitter controversy, without indeed the loss 
 of mutual respect, and in one of the most exciting periods of 
 the struggle General Cass spoke publicly of not enjoying the 
 honor of Mr. CHANDLER S acquaintance. It was just three 
 years afterward, as Mr. CHANDLER delighted to tell with good- 
 natured and pardonable boasting, that he carried to General 
 Cass a letter of introduction from the governor of Michigan 
 which so impressed the General that he caused it to be pub 
 licly read in this Chamber and placed on the permanent files 
 of the Senate. It is to the honor of both these great men that 
 complete cordiality of friendship was restored, and that in the 
 hour of supreme peril to the nation which came soon after, 
 General Cass and Mr. CHANDLER stood side by side in main 
 taining the Union of the States by the exercise of the war 
 power of the government. They sleep their last sleep in the 
 same beautiful cemetery near the city which was so long their 
 home, under the soil of the State which each did so much to 
 honor, and on the shores of the lakes whose commercial devel 
 opment, spanned by their lives, has been so greatly promoted 
 by their efforts. 
 
 The anti-slavery agitation which broke forth with such 
 strength in 1854, following the repeal of the Missouri com 
 promise, met with partial reaction soon after, and in 1856 Mr. 
 Buchanan was chosen to the Presidency. Mr. CHANDLER 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARTAH CHANDLER. 39 
 
 took his seat for the first time ill this body on the day of Mr. 
 Buchanan s inauguration. It was the first public station he 
 had ever held except the mayoralty of Detroit for a single 
 term, and the first for which he had ever been a candidate, 
 except when in 1852 ho consented to lead the forlorn hope of 
 the wliigs in the contest for governor of Michigan. When he 
 entered the Senate the democratic party bore undisputed sway 
 in this Chamber, having more than two-thirds of the entire 
 body. The party was led by resolute, aggressive, able, uncom 
 promising men, who played for a high stake and who played 
 the bold game of those who were willing to cast all upon the 
 hazard of the die. The party in opposition, to which Mr. 
 CHANDLER belonged, was weak in numbers but strong in 
 character, intellect, and influence. Seward, with his philoso 
 phy of optimism, his deep study into the working of political 
 forces, and his affluence of rhetoric, was its accepted leader. 
 He was upheld and sustained by Sumner, with his wealth of 
 learning and his burning zeal for the right; by Fessenden, 
 less philosophic than Seward, less learned than Sumner, but 
 more logical and skilled o fence than either ; by Wade, who 
 in mettle and make-up was a Cromwellian, who, had he lived 
 in the days of the Commonwealth, would have fearlessly fol 
 lowed the Protector in the expulsion of an illegal Parliament, 
 or drawn the sword of the Lord and Gideon to smite hip and 
 thigh the Amalekites who appeared anew in the persons of 
 the cavaliers; by Collamer, wise and learned, pure and digni 
 fied, a conscript father in look and in fact; by John P. Hale, 
 who never faltered in his devotion to the anti-slavery cause, 
 and who had earlier than any of his associates broken his alli 
 ance with the old parties and given his eloquent voice to the 
 cause of the despised Nazarenes; by Trumbull, acute, able, 
 untiring, the first republican Senator from that great State 
 
40 ADDRESS OF MR. ELAINE ON THE 
 
 which has since added so much to the grandeur and glory of 
 our history ; by Hamlin, with long training, with devoted fidel 
 ity, with undaunted courage, who came anew to the conflict of 
 ideas with a State behind him, with its faith and its force, and 
 who alone of all the illustrious Senate of 1857 is with us to 
 day; by Cameron, with wide and varied experience in affairs, 
 with consummate tact in the government of parties, whose 
 active political life began in the days of Monroe, and who, 
 after a prolonged and stormy career, still survives by reason of 
 strength at fourscore, with the strong attachment of his friends, 
 the respect of his opponents, the hearty good wishes of all. 
 
 Into association with these men Mr. CHANDLER entered 
 when in his forty-fourth year. His influence was felt, and felt 
 powerfully, from the first day. A writer at the time said that 
 the effect of CHANDLER S coming was like the addition of a 
 fresh division of troops to an army engaged in a hand-to-hand 
 conflict with an outnumbering foe. He encouraged, upheld, in 
 spired, coerced others to do things which he could not do him 
 self, but which others could not have done without him. His 
 first four years in the Senate were passed in a hopeless minor 
 ity, where a sense of common danger had banished rivalry, 
 checked jealousy, toned down ambition, and produced that 
 effective harmony and splendid discipline which won the most 
 signal and far-reaching of all our political victories in the elec 
 tion of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency. Changed by this 
 triumph and the startling events which followed into a major 
 ity party in the Senate, the republicans found many of their 
 oldest and ablest leaders trained only to the duties of the 
 minority, and not fitted to assume with grace and efficiency 
 the task of administrative leadership. They had been so long- 
 studying the science of attack that they were awkward when 
 they felt the need and assumed the responsibility of defense. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 41 
 
 They were like* some of the British regiments in the campaign 
 of Namur, of whom William of Orange said there was no for 
 tress of the French that could resist them, and none that was 
 safe in their hands. 
 
 It was from this period that Mr. CHANDLER became more 
 widely known to the whole country achieving almost at a 
 single bound what we term a national reputation. His defiant 
 attitude in the presence of the impending and overwhelming 
 danger of war; his superb courage under all the doubts and 
 reverses of that terrible struggle between brethren of the same 
 blood; his readiness to do all things, to dare all things, to 
 endure all things for the sake of victory to the Union; his 
 ardent support of Mr. Lincoln s administration in every war 
 measure which was proposed ; his quickness to take issue with 
 the administration when he thought a great campaign was 
 about to be ruined by what was termed the Fabian policy ; his 
 inspiring presence, his burning zeal, his sleepless vigilance, his 
 broad sympathies, his prompt decision, his eager patriotism, 
 his crowning faith in the final result, all combined to give to 
 Mr. CHANDLEK a front rank among those honorable and de 
 voted men who in our war history are entitled to stand next to 
 those who led the mighty conflict on the field of battle. 
 
 To portray Mr. CHANDLER S career for the ten consecutive 
 years after the war closed would involve too close a reference 
 to exciting questions still in some sense at issue. But in that 
 long period of service, and in the shorter one that immediately 
 preceded his death, those who knew him well could observe a 
 constant intellectual growth. He was fuller and stronger and 
 abler in conference and in debate the last year of his life than 
 ever before. He entered the Senate originally without any 
 practice in parliamentary discussion. He left it one of the 
 most forcible and most fearless antagonists that could be en- 
 
 G c 
 
42 ADDRESS OF MB. ELAINE ON THE 
 
 countered in this Chamber. His methods were" learned here. 
 He was plain and yet eloquent; aggressive and yet careful; 
 fearless without showing bravado. What he knew, he knew 
 with precision; the powers he possessed were always at his 
 command, and he never declined a challenge to the lists. 
 "Here and now" was his motto, and his entire senatorial 
 career and his life indeed outside seemed guided by that spirit 
 of bravery which the greatest of American Senators exhibited, 
 in the only boast he ever made, when he quoted to Mr. Calhoun 
 the classic defiance : 
 
 Concurritur ; horse 
 Momento cita mors venit, aut victoria Iseta. 
 
 Mr. CHANDLER S fame was enlarged by his successful ad 
 ministration of an important Cabinet position. Called by 
 President Grant to the head of the Interior Department by 
 telegraphic summons, he accepted without reluctance and 
 without distrust. His eighteen years of positive and uncom 
 promising course in the Senate had borne the inevitable fruit 
 of many enmities as well as the rich reward of countless 
 friends. The appointment was severely criticised and unspar 
 ingly condemned by many who, a year later, were sufficiently 
 just and magnanimous to withdraw their harsh words and 
 bear generous testimony to his executive ability, his pains 
 taking industry, and his inflexible integrity ; to his admirable 
 talent for thorough organization, and to his prompt and grace 
 ful dispatch of public business. What his friends had before 
 known of his character and his capacity the chance of a few 
 brief months in an administrative position had revealed to the 
 entire country and had placed in history. 
 
 It would not be just even in the generous indulgence con 
 ceded to eulogy to speak of Mr. CHANDLER as a man without 
 faults. But assuredly no enemy, if there be one above his life- 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 43 
 
 less form, will ever say that he bad mean faults. They were 
 all on the generous and larger side of his nature. In amassing 
 his princely fortune he never exacted the pound of ilesh ; he 
 never ground the faces of the poor ; he was never even harsh 
 to an honest debtor unable to pay. His wealth came to him 
 through his own great ability, devoted with unremitting in 
 dustry for a third of a century to honorable trade in that 
 enlarging, ever-expanding region, whose capacities and re 
 sources he was among the earliest to foresee and to appreciate. 
 
 To his friends Mr. CHANDLER was devotedly true. Like 
 Colonel Benton, he did not use the word "friend" lightly and 
 without meaning. Nor did he ever pretend to be friendly to a 
 man whom he did not like. He never dissembled. To describe 
 him in the plain and vigorous Saxon which he spoke himself 
 he was a true friend, a hard hitter, an honest hater. 
 
 In that inner circle of home life, sacred almost from refer 
 ence, Mr. CHANDLER was chivalric in devotion, inexhaustible 
 in affection, and exceptionally happy in all his relations. What 
 ever of sternness there was in his character, whatever of rough 
 ness in his demeanor, whatever of irritability in his temper, 
 were one and all laid aside when he sat at his own hearthstone, 
 or dispensed graceful and generous hospitality to unnumbered 
 guests. There he was seen at his best, and there his friends 
 best love to recall him. As Burke said of Lord Keppel, he 
 was a wild stock of pride on which the tenderest of hearts had 
 grafted the milder virtues. 
 
 A sage whose words have comforted many generations of 
 men tells us that when death comes every one can see its de 
 plorable and grievous side only the wise can see causes for 
 reconcilement. Let us be wise to day and celebrate the mem 
 ory of a man who stood on the confines of age without once 
 feeling its weakness or realizing its decay; who passed sixty- 
 
44 ADDRESS OF MR. LOGAN ON THE 
 
 six years iu this world without losing a single day of mental 
 activity or physical strength; who had a business career of 
 great length and unbroken prosperity ; who had attained in 
 public life a fourth election to the Senate of the United States, 
 an honor enjoyed by fewer men in the Republic than even its 
 Chief Rulership, and who strengthening with his years stood 
 higher in the regard of his countrymen, stronger with his con 
 stituency, nearer to his friends, and dearer to his kindred, at 
 the close of his career than on any preceding day of his event 
 ful life. 
 
 Address of Mr. LOGAN, of Illinois. 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT: Illinois by the side of her sister State 
 (Michigan) mourns with her the loss of her honored son. No 
 language of mine will be sufficiently eloquent to portray in 
 fitting terms the loss we all feel in the death of so noble and 
 patriotic a man as was our brother Senator. 
 
 Twenty years ago, sir, in this city I made his acquaintance. 
 We then differed in our political theories, but, sir, there was 
 an indescribable something that attracted me and caused me 
 to like the man. During the great rebellion against this Gov 
 ernment we became better acquainted and better friends, and 
 from that time up to his death nothing had ever marred our 
 kindly relations. I learned to admire him more and more as I 
 knew him better. No man could know him well without hav 
 ing great respect and admiration for him. 
 
 To describe him merely as an ordinary man would be to do 
 his record and memory great injustice. To say that he was a 
 very great man, in the sense in which that term is generally 
 understood, might be considered fulsome praise; but, sir, if 
 greatness consists in the accomplishment of honest purpose, he 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER !."> 
 
 was truly great. The sixty-six years that have passed over 
 his head were to him replete with honor ami prosperity. On 
 whatever line he moved he achieved a triumph. Physically, 
 he was a model of stalwart mold; his mental structure was 
 strong and vigorous ; in energy he was not a laggard in any 
 thing in which he engaged. He was a thinker, however crude 
 he may have been in speech. He was bold in his expressions 
 and manly in his utterances ; his powers of organization and 
 combination were unsurpassed. Those who may have found 
 themselves in opposition to him on any line, political or other 
 wise, can well attest this fact. 
 
 He was not only a man of thought, but of action ; he was 
 generous, kind, true, and faithful ; his bosom welled up and 
 overflowed with the milk of human kindness ; his heart was 
 large enough to embrace within its sympathies all classes ; his 
 watchword ever was liberty and protection to all. He was a 
 patriot in the broadest sense in which that term is understood. 
 During his country s severest trials his services in her behalf 
 in giving aid and encouragement to the people of his own State 
 and in the councils of the nation by his bold and fearless 
 course were great. When the storm of secession was fiercest 
 he was boldest ; as trials came he rose with the emergency ; in 
 the darkest night he was one of the most steadfast stars. Sir, 
 he was by nature a leader and controller of men, possessing all 
 the necessary qualities that would have fitted him for a great 
 field-marshal, the energy, the boldness, the judgment, the de 
 cision, the courage, with the capacity for action and council. 
 He was the builder of his own fortunes, and the molder of his 
 own sentiments, a man, sir, true and steadfast to his friends, 
 and one who never asked or begged quarter from an enemy. 
 Yet, he was just at all times to friend and foe. His frankness 
 and freedom of expression at times gave offense, when by a 
 
46 ADDRESS OF MR. LOGAN ON THE 
 
 different course lie might have made his pathway smoother, 
 but he chose to be candid and honest. ^ By this manly course 
 (as is frequently the case) he became the subject of much crit 
 icism and vituperation from a class of people that constantly 
 revel in calumny. But, sir, he moved on in his upright course, 
 as became a man of worth, so that before his death he had 
 passed through the mist and clouds of detraction, and stood 
 out from among and above them in the full brightness of a 
 glorious vindication. 
 
 The evil that men do, lives after them ; 
 The good is oft interred with their bones. 
 
 But, sir, in the case of the deceased Senator his good deeds 
 were so vividly marked that they will live after him in imper 
 ishable glory, while the mistakes he may have made (those con 
 strued into evil) were of such insignificance that they will soon 
 be lost in the great ocean of forgetfulness. 
 
 But, sir, in paying this tribute to his memory, I do not choose 
 to speak of his different official acts. I prefer to leave that 
 duty to others, and to let the history of his country speak of 
 these, along with the ages as they pass. His official record, as 
 a whole, is a grand one, and requires no barren eulogy at my 
 hands. 
 
 Mr. President, on the last day of his life, in company with 
 one other gentleman, I came with him from Janesville, Wis 
 consin, to Chicago. He was apparently in excellent health. 
 On the way once he complained of slight indigestion. At 
 about twelve o clock I left him at the Grand Pacific Hotel. 
 About five o clock that afternoon I called at his room, and 
 found him then in exceedingly good spirits and looking in fine 
 condition. At 7.30 he went to McCormick s Hall. There I sat 
 by his side on the stage. At about eight o clock he was intro 
 duced by the president of the Young Men s Auxiliary Club 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 47 
 
 [Mr. Collier] to u grand audience composed of ladies and gen- 
 tlemeii. 
 
 He commenced slowly, but warmed up with his subject until 
 he became so eloquent and forcible in his language and illus 
 trations that the audience, in the midst of his speech, arose 
 with one accord and gave three cheers. No orator during an 
 address in the city of Chicago ever received more marked 
 attention or greater applause. He created an enthusiasm that 
 carried all along with it like the rushing force of a mighty 
 storm. This, sir, was the grandest triumph of his life, and he 
 felt it to be so. 
 
 He stood forth before that grand audience like a giant, and 
 with full-volumed voice spoke like a Webster or a Douglas. 
 His words were well chosen ; his sentences terse and complete, 
 abounding in wit, humor, and happy local hits ; his logic came 
 like hot shot in the din of battle, crashing through the oaks of 
 the forest. One of his last sentences still rings in my ears, 
 "Shut up your stores, shut up your manufactories, and go to 
 work for your country." The effect of this last speech of Sen 
 ator CHANDLER was electrical ; its influence is still felt among 
 the business men of Chicago. The meeting adjourned with 
 great demonstrations in favor of the speaker. He left the hall 
 and went directly to his room and soon retired to rest. 
 
 The next morning I was sitting with my family at breakfast, 
 in the Palmer House; a gentleman came into the dining-room 
 in great haste and spoke to me, saying, " LOGAN, your friend 
 is dead found in his room, dead." 
 
 Sir, I arose and bowed my head ; my heart was tilled with 
 grief and sorrow. I repaired at once to the room occupied by 
 the Senator in the Grand Pacific Hotel, and there, sir, he lay, 
 in the cold and icy embrace of death. 
 
 Yes, sir, dead ! He is gone from us. We will hear him no 
 
48 ADDRESS OF MR. LOGAN ON THE 
 
 more ; his voice is hushed in silence forever. In his room, no 
 one being present with him, in the lonely and solemn gloom of 
 the night, he had passed from life unto death, and in such a 
 peaceful manner that the angel of death must have whispered 
 the message so softly and gently that he knew not his coming. 
 But, sir, what a shock it was to the living. As the fall of the 
 stalwart oak causes a trembling in the surrounding forest, so 
 did the fall of Senator CHANDLER cause the tender chords of 
 the hearts of this people to vibrate with the tender touch of 
 sympathy everywhere. 
 
 Sir, the day after his death we took his remains from this 
 lonely chamber to his home in Detroit, and there, in the midst 
 of his grief-stricken family, gently laid them down. A deep, 
 mournful silence hung heavily over the old family mansion. 
 
 One unbroken gloom seemed to rest on the clustered trees, 
 where the feathered songsters in spring-time had cheered the 
 happy family with notes of sweetest music. The wintry chill 
 from the snow-blasts without was but a faint type of the deep 
 sadness which hung like a pall over every heart. Even the 
 sighing wind that swept around in its saddened wail seemed 
 to chant a requiem for the departed Senator. Well might his 
 friends weep at their own as well as their country s loss. In 
 deed, he was a man of whom all may speak in praise, and upon 
 whose bier all may drop the tear of sorrow. When earth re 
 ceived him she took to her bosom one of her manly sons, and 
 when Paradise bade his spirit come a noble one entered there. 
 
 Mr. President, time brings lessons that teach us that hope 
 does not perish when the stars of life refuse longer to give 
 light. 
 
 The death of our brother Senator and those still closely 
 following him should constantly warn us of the fact that we 
 are traveling to "the undiscovered country, from whose bourn 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER. 49 
 
 no traveler returns." Tis true the grave in its silence gives 
 forth no voice, nor whispers of the morrow, but there is a 
 voice borne upon the lips of the morning zephyrs that lets 
 fall a whisper, quickening the heart with a knowledge that 
 there is an abode beyond the tomb. Sir, our lamps are burn 
 ing now, some more brightly than others; some shed their 
 light from the mountain s top, others from the lowly vales; 
 but let us so trim them that they may all burn with equal 
 brilliancy when relighted in our mansions beyond the myste 
 rious river. 
 
 I fondly hope, sir, that there we will again meet our departed 
 , friend. 
 
 Address of Mr. MORRILL, of Vermont. 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT: The manly features which stood forth in 
 the character of our deceased associate, like those of his com 
 manding person, were so rounded and full, so distinctly pro 
 nounced, that they could not fail to give the same impression 
 to all observers, and hence our tributes to-day may wear the 
 aspect of photographs of the same figure, with merely varia 
 tions of posture. After the eloquent full-length representa 
 tions already supplied, I shall only briefly point out what I 
 have learned to consider as among the distinctive character 
 istics of that life and form which lately gave such robust 
 assurance of length of days, but which, to our sorrow, has 
 been swiftly summoned, as we all soon must be, to that world 
 of light and hope where the weary are at rest. 
 
 The late Senator CHANDLER, as all may know, was born in 
 the southeastern border of New Hampshire, a region which 
 has been wondrously fruitful of distinguished statesmen whose 
 fortune it was to be sent here and long retained as Senators 
 
 7 c 
 
50 ADDRESS OF MR. MORRILL ON THE 
 
 from other and more populous States. Among these eminent 
 men were Webster and Wilson from Massachusetts, Dix from 
 New York, Chase from Ohio, Grimes from Iowa, and Cass from 
 Michigan, who was superseded by him whose decease we now 
 lament. These men, going where they would, were sure to 
 leave their "foot-prints on the sands of time," and were never 
 less than the peers of the foremost men in this body, of which 
 Mr. CHANDLER was so recently a conspicuous member, dear to 
 us and to his own people. 
 
 As one of the pioneers of Michigan, his ambition was, 
 through sterling integrity and unflinching resolution, to grasp 
 business on a comprehensive scale, and he, with others, made, 
 Detroit, from a small town, a commercial metropolis thoroughly 
 equipped to meet the wants of trade in a great and rapidly- 
 growing State. From the start he never underrated the mag 
 nificence of western prairies or western forests, nor their pres 
 ent or prospective power, and there he found a congenial 
 home. 
 
 Upon his first entrance into this Chamber he brought with 
 him the same invincible energy that had crowned a successful 
 mercantile career. Having led a busy life, with daily oppor 
 tunities, through extensive observation, to acquire knowledge, 
 he was already a man of affairs, whose ripened judgment com 
 manded respect; and among measures he was not slow to fix 
 upon the possible best rather than the doubtful, or, among 
 men, to select the competent rather than the incompetent. 
 When he would lead, he boldly marched in front, nor sought 
 to elude the fire of adversaries. Wasting no time in the con 
 sideration of the rubbish born of ill-starred experiments, magic- 
 lantern illusions, or incomprehensible theories, he aimed with 
 fearless self-reliance at once to reach surefooted, solid-sense 
 conclusions, shirking neither work nor danger, and bringing 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAII CHANDLER. 51 
 
 both the strength and courage which he so often found to tri 
 umph over all difficulties. 
 
 For many years in the Senate he was chairman of the Com 
 mittee on Commerce no other so long and conducted its 
 business with unflagging fidelity and praiseworthy economy. 
 An instance of the latter occurred when a bill, reported by 
 him for river and harbor improvements, had been overloaded 
 here with many prodigal additions, and, rather than to bear 
 the responsibility of an overgrown expenditure, he helped to 
 kill the original offspring of his own committee, by a vote to 
 table the bill. That year no appropriation was made for such 
 objects, and, if there was any log-rolling greed, it received a 
 check. 
 
 Mr. CHANDLER was intensely loyal to the Republic not to 
 a sham, nor to such "stuff as dreams are made of" but to 
 a sovereignty under organic law, able and ready to give back 
 to its citizens something in return for all services demanded. 
 He would have been ashamed of a w^ak, spineless, and rickety 
 republic, or one on any Spanish-American pattern, having no 
 iron in its blood, and ready to break down at the first hostile 
 prommciamento; but he was proud of that which stands forth 
 great both in peace and war, and by its regard for law and 
 order, by its devotion to human rights, by its adherence to 
 every pledge of public faith, by its matchless march of free 
 dom and its progressive spirit, has also shown itself worthy to 
 rule and protect, with an imperishable vitality, the American 
 continent. 
 
 The attitude of foreign nations during the late rebellion 
 could not fail to be watched by our people, as it was by Sen 
 ator CHANDLER, with constant solicitude, not whatever that 
 attitude might have been as throwing any doubt upon the 
 final triumph of the Union arms, but as a contingency which 
 
52 ADDRESS OF MR. MORRILL ON THE 
 
 at times threatened to prolong a bloody contest and to multi 
 ply its griefs. Our Bepublic, it is not to be concealed, had a 
 few hearty friends among the monarchs and oligarchs of Eu 
 rope, but we now know that the Queen of Great Britain, in 
 spite of the sinister advice of Napoleon the Villain, was wiser 
 and less unfriendly than any of her colonies, or than some of 
 her ministers, who vainly hoped to gain untold advantages 
 by breaking up the American Government into smaller and 
 possibly less formidable proportions. Senator CHANDLER, 
 however, never lacking audacity to defend the national life at 
 all hazards, was one of those who did not believe the United 
 States were any too large, and he had an abiding faith that 
 its power would always be growing larger. His home con 
 fronted the western gateway to a large, but not invulnerable, 
 British province, and he was wont to be impatient genial as 
 was his natural temperament that the government of a great 
 and kindred people, bound to us also by paramount com 
 mercial interests, should ^u such a crisis take a hostile or even 
 a doubtful position, which he thought would have been most 
 carefully if not fraternally avoided, provided our forces by 
 land and sea had not been supposed to be fully employed 
 against those to whom "belligerent rights" had been wrong 
 fully conceded. Senator CHANDLER S repeated denunciations 
 of the primarily responsible party to the piratical raids of the 
 Alabama and Shenandoah were loud and unstinted, and he 
 insisted that, for these and other national wrongs, we held a 
 valid lien upon the Canadas to be enforced at our will and 
 pleasure. He gave utterance in the white heat of the strife 
 to some rather angry philippics, but the gentle sway of the 
 Queen saved our people from any attempt to show, as no 
 doubt many were eager to show, that there was method in the 
 Senator s madness. As chairman of the Committee on Com- 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTEE OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 53 
 
 merce, be could not look with composure upon the capture 
 of American ships nor upon their forced transfer to escape 
 capture, and he resented the foul blow by which the ancient 
 mistress of the ocean appeared to profit. 
 
 If, then, he showed some bitterness to foreigners whose 
 sympathies were openly against us during the war, we may 
 not wonder at, and should pardon, his profounder indignation 
 that any one of his own countrymen, without provocation, 
 should have been so dead to patriotism as to be willing that 
 the nation should perish, or to forget that 
 
 This is my own, my native land. 
 
 For a violent and bloody rebellion, against a government 
 wholly free and popular, any tolerance seemed to him too 
 much and any chastisement too little. But it was the rectifica 
 tion of national authority he sought not personal vengeance. 
 
 In 1875, soon after a protracted service of eighteen years in 
 the United States Senate, covering great epochs and crises in 
 our history, he was appointed, by President Grant, Secretary 
 of the Department of the Interior a Department of the Gov 
 ernment which, perhaps, through its multifarious branches, is 
 more than any other directly seen and felt by the people. The 
 Patent, Pension, Land, and Indian Bureaus to say nothing 
 of the educational and census dependencies each and all re 
 quire the perpetual and vigilant supervision of the Secretary, 
 and it may be said that no other Department is more exposed 
 to public criticism or to private suspicion; but when Mr. 
 CHANDLER entered this new and untried field of duties, he at 
 the outset exhibited his mastery by organizing every branch 
 of the service upon " business principles," and thus its vast, 
 machinery, reaching to our remotest boundaries, moved with 
 out noise and without friction. The confidence of the people 
 in the integrity and efficiency of the Department of the Inte- 
 
54 ADDRESS OF MR. MORRILL ON THE 
 
 rior became complete, and when tbe Secretary left the office 
 he had, as an executive officer, largely advanced a reputation 
 already national. 
 
 At our last session he reappeared here, returned for the 
 fourth time, in his senatorial character, but alas ! only to re 
 main long enough to show to him the unending attachment 
 of his people to us the brittleness of human life. 
 
 Along with a stalwart frame, he carried a stalwart will, and 
 was blessed with that outspoken decision of character which 
 leans not to the right nor left to obtain support. Physically 
 and mentally he was muscular, and, if he could have been vain 
 of anything, as he was not, it might have been as an athlete. 
 He never complained of overwork, whether that work was offi 
 cial, or on the stump, on the " conduct of the war," or on the 
 conduct of his model farm, which for some years had mostly 
 engaged his affections and fully justified his pride. Not un 
 mindful of the rank won and worn as a merchant, nor of the 
 honor he kept bright as a Senator, he yet at heart and at home 
 preferred to be known as a great farmer, and as such, with all 
 the rest added, he will be known and long remembered by the 
 people of the State he loved so well. 
 
 Senator CHANDLER was a partisan, never neutral, but a 
 republican of the straitest sect. By no free-trade tariff 
 would he build up foreign trade on a degraded people, nor 
 build up a gambling home trade on money intrinsically un 
 sound. He was a stanch friend of internal improvements, 
 and on such questions as the equality of man before the law, 
 land for the landless, schools for the illiterate, he might almost 
 be styled a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He believed in republi 
 can men and measures, and so believed because to him they 
 were nothing less than the custodians and sure promises of the 
 honor and prosperity of the country. His opinions, based 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 55 
 
 upon full and life-long convictions, were stoutly held, and did 
 not ebb and flow with every change of the moon. He was not 
 a frequent speaker in the Senate, and his wit never got blunted 
 by having too fine a point, but when he did speak, having some 
 thing to say, his words were so hearty and straightforward 
 that neither friend nor foe could deny their ringing force or 
 misinterpret their meaning. 
 
 Never claiming the glittering refinements or eloquence of 
 schools, nor trying to escape oblivion by rhetoric, yet his aid 
 as a campaign speaker was widely sought, and the remarkable 
 speech delivered by him on the evening destined to be his last 
 upon earth, may be cited as an example of his vigor, pungency, 
 and effectiveness as a political orator. 
 
 And thus we bid adieu to a strong man, to a true and loyal 
 spirit, to him whose impassioned devotion to his whole country 
 was only comparable to the tender love he bore in all his rela 
 tions as a sou, husband, and father. 
 
 Address of Mr. BLAIR, of New Hampshire. 
 
 Mr. PRESEDENT : The man whose obsequies are now being 
 celebrated in the august halls of the Capitol was one of the 
 extraordinary characters of American history. 
 
 His career from the hearthstone to the tomb was one of 
 singular individuality and power. It was one constant and 
 successful struggle between great native forces marshaled by 
 an heroic and aggressive soul, and every form of opposition to 
 his personal advancement and to the purposes of a patriotic 
 public life; yet he never encountered an obstacle which he did 
 not destroy. He wa over all mortal combatants conqueror, 
 until on the very summit of victory, at the close of a stern and 
 incessant warfare prolonged for nearly seventy years, with his 
 
56 ADDRESS OF MR. BLAIR ON THE 
 
 eye still burning like the eagle s, aud his arm still raised in 
 mighty action, Death killed him as with a feather, and the 
 commanding form was forever still ; the strong intellect, the 
 storm-compelling will, and imperial soul vanished from sub 
 lunary affairs. There was not even a premonitory suggestion, 
 the tinkling of a servant s bell ; not one lifted finger of friend 
 ship, not one parting tear of love. 
 
 When shall the promise of inspiration be fulfilled ? When 
 shall Death, the last enemy, be himself destroyed ? In this 
 presence God alone is great. 
 
 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER was a son of New Hampshire, and 
 the State which even in these latter days has given to the 
 country some of the greatest men of modern or of any times 
 among them Cass, and Hale, and Wilson, and Chase, and the 
 colossal genius of Webster is proud to add his name to the 
 long list of her heroes, philanthropists, and statesmen. Born 
 and nurtured among the grand and beautiful scenes of mount 
 ain, valley, lake, and stream which have given to New Hamp 
 shire the name of the Switzerland of America, Mr. CHANDLER 
 felt from childhood that his future lay in the vast possibilities 
 of the West ; that there alone was room for the energy and 
 enterprise of his unfolding powers, and that he must conse 
 crate his strong arm and his sagacious, indomitable, and free 
 dom-loving soul to the development of the great central region 
 of the Republic. At the age of nineteen years he departed from 
 Bedford, near Manchester, the home of his youth, where still 
 abound affectionate memories of his marked qualities indic 
 ative of the coming man, and planted himself on the shores of 
 the great lake which constitues the focus of our inland com 
 merce, and which has given its name to one of the happiest 
 and most powerful of American Commonwealths. There dur 
 ing forty-six years, comprising the most remarkable period of 
 

 NJ / / V 
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER//; &1 
 
 f j I 
 
 our domestic development and, I think, of our national his 
 tory, ZACHARIAH CHANDLER, more than any other of her citi 
 zens, was the State of Michigan ; and during the last twenty- 
 five years, with but few exceptions, as much as any other one 
 man, he has shaped the destinies of the United States. 
 
 While for one-fourth of a century he was a conspicuous 
 figure in public affairs, I do not deny that others may have 
 filled a larger space in the gazettes, and a few a very few- 
 may have been more important factors in the course of events. 
 Yet I know not of ten men in his generation who, in my belief, 
 have furnished so much of courage and fidelity ; of will-power 
 and aggressiveness, tempered by discretion and common sense ; 
 of stanch and granitic consecration to conviction; of deep, 
 unvarying purpose, which defied calamity and laughed at 
 vicissitude; of staying and recuperating power in adversity as 
 well as of tremendous energy in the hour of decisive action, 
 as the man to whose memory this brief hour is given. 
 
 Mr. CHANDLER was sometimes considered harsh in his feel 
 ings toward political opponents, and notably toward a section 
 of our common country whose people were specially identified 
 with political principles which he rejected, and an institution 
 which it was one of the great purposes of his life to destroy. 
 But never beat gentler heart in the breast of woman. His 
 blood coursed in molten tides of hate toward every appear 
 ance of wrong, and of love for every portion of his country 
 and for all mankind. His giant form and rugged outlines 
 were the home of one of the most magnanimous natures I ever 
 knew. His eyes were full of tears for every form of distress ; 
 his hand was full of relief. His life is a record of unobtrusive 
 and unselfish good deeds. 
 
 He was a radical, but a radical is the only true conservative./ 
 He had plowed deep, and he knew the fundamental principles 
 
 
 8 c 
 
58 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. BLAIR ON THE 
 
 of things. He knew that principles never temporize, no mat 
 ter what those may do who profess them ; that they are exact 
 ing and inexorable, and utterly regardless of the state of the 
 vote or the count, whether fair or false ; that they cannot be 
 waived or violated or suppressed or conciliated. He knew, 
 and what he knew he felt, that principles will -always have 
 their day in court, and that against us or our children God will 
 give them judgment and execution and satisfaction thereof 
 to the uttermost farthing for their every violation. He had 
 seen death and destruction, the fell officers of eternal justice, 
 abroad in the land levying upon the very life of our own gen 
 eration the tremendous damages which three centuries of out 
 raged humanity had recovered against this nation, and he 
 knew that, unless the present and future should conform abso 
 lutely to the eternal principles of right and do impartial just 
 ice to the feeblest human being within our borders, tears and 
 woe and death will pay for it to the last fraction of our treas 
 ure and the last drop of our blood. Therefore was he stalwart ; 
 therefore did he grieve over the vanities of conciliation when 
 he thought that principles elementary and sacred were sacri 
 ficed in the vain hope that peace would come from their viola 
 tion ; that God would be mocked out of his intelligence and 
 purposes, and permit the tiniest child to be robbed of the 
 smallest right with impunity. He felt that the nation and the 
 statesman who temporize and tamper with principles are play 
 ing with the hottest fire of Heaven s wrath, and that there is 
 no true conservatism which does not consist in the most radi 
 cal application of immutable justice to every race and individ 
 ual among men. 
 
 / Mr. CHANDLER was only radical against what he understood 
 to be wrong. He distinguished between the wrong and the 
 wrong-doer. While he hated the former he would rescue the 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHAUIAH CHANDLER. 59 
 
 latter, who is as often a victim as an aggressor. His war 
 was upon systems and policies, not upon individuals and 
 communities. 
 
 He was as anxious for the prosperity and happiness and as 
 jealous of the renown of the South as of the Xorth. He was 
 great and broad, and would have been beloved by Washing 
 ton and Madison and Jefferson and by the whole family of 
 patriots who worshiped the principles of the great Declara 
 tion which they promulgated, and who " trembled for their 
 country when they remembered that God was just." 
 
 It may be said of him that he was a strong partisan. This 
 is only to praise him. The man who is not a partisan is with 
 out convictions, or if he has convictions he is false to them. 
 That he was a bigot I deny. He was simply and sublimely \/ 
 true. He knew not how to prevaricate or apostatize or " keep 
 the word of promise to our ear, and break it to our hope." In 
 disaster and exigency, amid defection and demoralization, he 
 became the front because he was always in the advance, and, 
 wherever others might go, he never fell back. Xobody and 
 nothing dismayed him. He was like a living rock on the eter 
 nal battle line between right and wrong. There he stood 
 " fixed like a tower" for support in onset, for shelter and for 
 rally in repulse and despair. 
 
 He was not more ultra than others, but he was more stead 
 fast and courageously true to his cause. He only went with 
 them to the full length of their common belief and profes 
 sions but there he staid. His action was not that of mercury 
 in long-tubed thermometers, rising and falling with the weather 
 of expediency, but he found the line where he belonged and he 
 fought it out there not only if it took all summer, but all win 
 ter and all time. 
 
 And so it was that he expired in the hour of his greatest 
 
GO 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. CAMERON ON THE 
 
 usefulness, while he was once more rallying the host, and the 
 most vital political truths, as he understood them, and as the 
 fathers of the Eepublic understood them, were echoing from 
 his lips on the midnight air of the Queen City by the lakes. 
 And still 
 
 Their echoes roll from soul to soul 
 And grow forever and forever. 
 
 His career is a rare illustration of the excellence of our insti 
 tutions. It is full of hope to every struggling, brave-hearted 
 youth who feels conscious of noble purpose and inherent power. 
 
 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER was a patriot, a statesman, and an 
 honest man. He was of God s noblest work. In such case 
 
 Tis not so difficult to die. 
 
 Address of Mr. CAMERON, of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT : I desire to add my tribute to one who for a 
 much longer time than the majority of Senators was a member 
 of this body. ZACHARIAH CHANDLER was four times chosen 
 by his adopted State to represent her in the Senate. Few have 
 been honored so frequently. This alone would be sufficient to 
 say of him in pronouncing his eulogy, for no man need desire 
 higher praise than to have said of him that he spent one- third 
 of his entire life in faithful public service. That such service 
 was rendered by Mr. CHANDLER we all know. That he was 
 appreciated by his people, none can deny who witnessed the 
 evidences of sadness that were portrayed upon the counte 
 nances of thousands of his constituents as the last sad rites 
 were being paid to his memory. In all that has been said here 
 of his patriotism, nothing has been uttered that ought not to 
 have been, for nothing more can be said of him than he de- 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. (II 
 
 served. Michigan has lost a brave, faithful, honest representa 
 tive, and her people may well mourn. 
 
 I did not expect to do so, nor can I add one word to that 
 which has been spoken that would be worthy of him. I merely 
 desired to place my words, crude and simple as they are, along 
 side of those more worthy and appropriate addresses which 
 have been placed upon the records of the Senate, in memory 
 of one with whom I served both in the Cabinet and in the Sen 
 ate, and who, in all the relations of life, both public and pri 
 vate, was my friend. 
 
 Address of Mr. BALDWIN, of Michigan. 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT: It is with feelings of painful sensibility 
 that I add my tribute to what has already been uttered, and 
 these are deeply intensified when I recall the unbroken friend 
 ship which for more than forty years existed between the late 
 Senator CHANDLER and myself. 
 
 Born and reared amid the hills of a New England State that 
 has given to the country many distinguished statesmen, his 
 character largely partook of the spot of his nativity. 
 
 His educational advantages were confined to the studies of 
 the common school and the country academy of those days. 
 The wise and efficient use he made of them is abundantly 
 demonstrated in the honorable record of his life. 
 
 While yet a youth, stimulated by a laudable ambition, he 
 sought a wider, a more promising sphere than the circumscribed 
 boundaries of his home afforded. The expanding West, with 
 its great possibilities, beckoned him to its inviting fields. Bid 
 ding adieu to the home of his childhood, he removed to Detroit, 
 then but little more than a military post on the frontier of civ 
 ilized life. Before attaining his majority he established a mer- 
 
62 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. BALDWIN ON THE 
 
 cantile business, carrying into daily life those habits of industry 
 and frugality which he had been taught and which were illus 
 trated in all his subsequent career. 
 
 He had started in life with the unwavering determination to 
 make no compromise of principle. In this he was as firm as 
 the granite hills of his native State. Success was his motto ; 
 but it must be attained through industry and integrity alone. 
 From this purpose he never swerved, and during a business 
 life of many years, marked by the vicissitudes which are insep 
 arable from commercial pursuits, his reputation was spotless. 
 
 Under the principles which Mr. CHANDLER brought to his 
 daily avocations he reaped his reward, not alone in abundant 
 wealth, but in the well-earned confidence which the people of 
 Michigan placed in his high capability and character. 
 
 Coupled with an earnest devotion to the demands of a busi 
 ness steadily enlarging, he took a deep interest in the political 
 and other questions of the day. From his boyhood he had dis 
 played that quickness of comprehension and sterling common 
 sense, that intuitive knowledge of men and things, which were 
 of so great service to him in those after years when, called from 
 the pursuits of a mercantile life, he was invested with duties 
 and responsibilities grave and national in their character. 
 
 At an early day, and at a time .when the political party with 
 which he was identified was in a minority, he had been chosen 
 mayor of Detroit. In this his first official position he dis 
 played executive abilities and those qualifications needful in 
 the exalted stations he afterward so ably filled. 
 
 Nominated in 1852 as the candidate of the whig party for 
 governor, he made his first appearance as a political speaker in 
 a vigorous canvass of the State, but failed of an election. 
 
 An anti-slavery whig from principle, opposed to oppression 
 in every form, he took a prominent and efficient part in the 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 63 
 
 organization of the republican party in 1854, devoting the best 
 energies of his after life in promoting its success. 
 
 In 1857 he was chosen by the Legislature to represent Mich 
 igan in this body. His immediate predecessor was that distin 
 guished Senator, Cabinet minister, diplomat, and scholar, Gen 
 eral Lewis Cass. Called as Mr. CHANDLER was from an active 
 commercial life without previous training, to take the place of 
 this eminent man, whose long life had been spent in the public 
 service, there were those Vho doubted his success, but those 
 doubts were speedily dispelled. In the Senate Chamber, as 
 in every station he was called upon to fill, he never failed 
 to prove himself equal to the duties which devolved upon 
 him. 
 
 It is not needful for me to speak particularly of his career in 
 the Senate, of the conspicuous position he occupied, and the 
 inlluence he exerted in this body. That has already been done 
 by his associates who so well knew and appreciated the excel 
 lence of his judgment and the earnestness with which his duties 
 were discharged. But I may say that the eighteen years of 
 his continuous service was the most eventful period in the his 
 tory of the country. The stability of the Constitution and the 
 very existence of the Government were put to their severest 
 test. An irrepressible conflict existed in the national Legisla 
 ture and throughout the land ; the sovereignty of the Union 
 was threatened. During the dark years of civil war which fol 
 lowed, the unceasing earnestness with which all his powers 
 were devoted to sustain the administration in its efforts for the 
 preservation of the Eepublic are too well known, too deeplj 
 engraved in the hearts of the people, to need more than a pass 
 ing notice. In all these hours of gloom and sorrow, in all the 
 vicissitudes of victory and defeat, in all the demands that were 
 made on the blood, the treasure, and the patriotism of the peo- 
 
64 ADDEESS OF MR. BALDWIN ON THE 
 
 pie, he never faltered in his convictions of duty, or of the tri 
 umph of the flag, and the full restoration of the power and 
 unity of the Government. 
 
 There is one thing in the senatorial career of Mr. CHANDLER 
 to which I may refer. While he was identified with all the 
 leading measures of Congress, he was untiring in his devotion 
 to the interests of Michigan and the great Northwest. His 
 promptness in aiding the citizens of his State without distinc 
 tion of creed or party was proverbial. His zeal and fidelity in 
 this particular were as broad as the Commonwealth that had 
 so gladly honored him. It was this which added so largely to 
 his popularity at home ; and his warmest friends were found 
 alike in all parties. 
 
 Called by President Grant to the Secretaryship of the Inte 
 rior, he assumed the duties of this perplexing bureau, display 
 ing a tact, an energy, and an executive ability that surprised 
 even those who knew him best. With clear head and stout 
 heart, prevailing evils were stamped out with unfaltering cour 
 age. With an unswerving purpose he brought order out of 
 confusion, infusing new life into the various branches of the 
 Department, and clearly demonstrated that the public service 
 can be successfully accomplished by bringing to its aid unflinch 
 ing integrity and vigorous common sense. 
 
 At the close of the administration of President Grant, Mr. 
 CHANDLER returned to his home and to private life. Popular 
 fallacies upon the subject of the currency had been widely dis 
 seminated; Michigan was not exempt from the contagion. 
 These were to be met with argument and the delusions dis 
 pelled. It was then that he relinquished his plans for recrea 
 tion and an anticipated foreign trip, and again buckling on his 
 armor with his accustomed energy, he led the van in a decisive 
 and victorious battle for honest money. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACIIAH1A1I CHANDLER. 05 
 
 There are but few leaders of men; Mr. CHANDLER was 
 clearly one of the few. For more than a quarter of a century 
 he had been a faithful servant of the people. In 1878 he was 
 again returned to the Senate, and he brought with him the 
 same unceasing devotion to hid State and his country that had 
 ever characterized his public life. His voice again heard in 
 the Senate Chamber had no uncertain sound, and was echoed 
 to the ends of the laud. 
 
 During the autumnal months of the year which has just 
 closed, Mr. CHANDLER was almost constantly occupied in ad 
 dressing large assemblies of the people, in various sections of 
 the country, on the political topics of the day. In arousing 
 
 4 
 
 and retaining the interest of an audience, few men possess his 
 magnetic power. Jn these his later efforts he seemed to dis 
 play new energy and power, achieving a remarkable reputation 
 
 as a most effective public speaker, llis fame and his popu 
 
 v 
 larity were at their zenith. Had his life been spared, it is more 
 
 than probable that the representatives from the State he had 
 so long and so faithfully served would, with one voice, have 
 presented his name as their first choice for the most exalted 
 position in the gift of the people. 
 
 On the evening of the last day of October he addressed the 
 people of Chicago. And never had he spoken more acceptably. 
 Making his arrangements to return to his home the next day, 
 he retired to his room, and, after pleasant converse with friends, 
 at the midnight hour he lay down to rest. It was that peace 
 ful rest which shall remain unbroken until the archangel s 
 trump shall be heard at the great day. 
 
 I need not speak particularly of Mr. CHANDLER S domestic 
 life, or of his warm attachment to those who made up his home 
 circle. We have to speak of him as a friend, a citizen, a public 
 man. Strong in his convictions, stalwart in his opinions, and 
 
 9 c 
 
66 ADDRESS OF MB. BALDWIN. 
 
 fearless in their avowal, there was no bitterness in his nature : 
 all his tendencies were to the genial side of life. 
 
 Friend of my youth, companion of my manhood and of my 
 maturer years, farewell ! Strong in the defense of right, true 
 in friendship, and uu sullied in integrity, may we who yet lin 
 ger be imitators of those traits which ennobled your life and 
 have engraved your name upon the imperishable pages of your 
 country s history. 
 
 Mr. President, I move the adoption of the pending reso 
 lutions. 
 
 The VIOE-PEESIDENT. The question is on agreeing to 
 the resolutions. 
 
 The resolutions were agreed to unanimously ; and (at two 
 o clock and forty-six minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned. 
 
ADDRESSES 
 
 ON THB 
 
 DEATH OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER, 
 
 A SENATOR FROM MICHIGAN. 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 
 WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, I860. 
 
 A message from the Senate, by Mr. BuRon, its Secretary, 
 communicated the resolutions of that body upon the announce 
 ment of the death of Hon. ZACHARIAH CHANDLER, late a Sen 
 ator of the United States from the State of Michigan ; which 
 were read, as follows : 
 
 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 January 28, 1880. 
 
 Resolved, That the Senate received with profound sorrow the announce 
 ment of the death of ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER, late a Senator of the United 
 States from the State of Michigan, and for nearly nineteen years a member 
 of this body. 
 
 Resolved, That, to express some estimate held of his eminent services in a 
 long public career, rendered conspicuous by fearless, patriotic devotion, the 
 business of the Senate be now suspended, that the associates of the departed 
 Senator may pay fitting tribute to his public and private virtues. 
 
 Resolved, That the loss of the country, sustained in the death of Mr. CHAN 
 DLER, was manifest by expressions of public sorrow through the land. 
 
 Rtsolfcd, That, as a mark of respect for the memory of the dead Senator, 
 the members of the Senate will wear crape upon the left arm for thirty days. 
 
 67 
 
68 ADDEESS OF MR. NEWBERRY ON THE 
 
 Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate communicate these resolutions 
 to the House of Representatives. 
 
 Resolved, That, as an additional mark of respect for the memory of the 
 deceased, the Senate do now adjourn. 
 
 Mr. CONGER. I offer the resolutions which I send to the 
 desk. 
 The Clerk read as follows : 
 
 Resolved, That the House of Representatives has received with profound 
 sorrow the announcement of the death of Hon. ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER, 
 late a United States Senator from the State of Michigan. 
 
 Resolved, That business be now suspended to allow fitting tributes to be 
 paid to his public and private virtues ; and that, as a further mark of re- 
 spect to the memory of the deceased, the House at the close of such remarks 
 shall adjourn. 
 
 Address of Mr. NEWBERRY, of Michigan. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER : For over twenty years the name of ZACH- 
 ARIAH CHANDLER has been a household word in the State of 
 Michigan. His business, social, private, public, and political 
 life belongs solely to and is a part of the history of that State. 
 He was born December 10, 1813, in New Hampshire, in sight 
 of the granite hills of New England and came to Michigan in 
 1833, before he became of age. Soon after his arrival in Mich 
 igan he engaged in mercantile business, and laid the founda 
 tion of his great fortune, showing the same careful, untiring 
 energy, foresight and straightforward integrity and honesty 
 that followed him through life. While thus engaged in active 
 business, with quiet, persistent and unflagging assiduity, he 
 acquired that knowledge of men and books that became in his 
 after life a surprise even to his best friends. Constantly em 
 ployed by day in the busy marts of trade and commerce, clear 
 headed and keen, he attended to his constantly increasing 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER. GO 
 
 business. Busy hours over, the book and the library gave 
 him their richest treasures. 
 
 Blessed with a home and fireside where one of the best and 
 noblest of women was ever ready to welcome him and brighten 
 his life, whose domestic charm of manner was only surpassed 
 by the winning grace always shown in receiving the welcome 
 friends of her husband, his life in early manhood was passed 
 without a thought, as I believe, of a public career. 
 
 My own first and earliest recollections of him were when, as 
 a boy, I was placed in his class in the Sabbath school of the 
 First Presbyterian church of the city of Detroit. He was then 
 one of the active young men of that church, earnestly engaged 
 in all church-work. 
 
 He took no active part in political life until 1851, when he 
 was elected mayor of Detroit. In 1857 he was elected Senator 
 in place of General Lewis Cass, re-elected in 1863, and again 
 in 1869. He was Senator continuously from 1857 to 1875, 
 eighteen years. He was appointed Secretary of the Interior 
 in October, 1875, and again elected to the Senate in 1879. 
 During his senatorial terms occurred some of the most memo 
 rable events in the history of this nation. 
 
 Looking back now, it is easy to see how, step by step, the 
 United States was gradually drawing nearer and nearer to the 
 most tremendous struggle of ancient or modern times, to that 
 crime of crimes, a civil war. In all the events that go to 
 make up the history of those years, Mr. CHANDLER was one 
 of the living, energetic actors. 
 
 The gradual extension of slave territory in the United States 
 was arousing the attention, the crimes perpetrated under the 
 code of slavery were raising to the pitch of horror the religious 
 and moral sentiment, not only of the people of the United 
 States, but of the world. The Kansas civil war was swelling 
 
 
70 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. NEWBERRY ON THE 
 
 and raising its portentous head on the western frontier. Old 
 John Brown and his hardy sharpshooters in Kansas were 
 educating themselves and the nation to a hatred of slavery 
 and the extension of slave territory. Free speech, free terri 
 tory, and free men was being raised as the war-cry of a great 
 political uprising. After events showed that Mr. CHANDLER 
 had given these matters close attention. 
 
 There was filibustering in Cuba and in Nicaragua by the 
 South in hopes of making slave States to offset the rapid 
 growth of the free States of the Northwest. Threats of resist 
 ance and secession were openly made by the South. The 
 crack of the slave- whip was heard even in Congress over the 
 heads of independent men from the North. The doctrine that 
 any citizen with his slaves had a right to enter upon any ter 
 ritory of the United States and retain his slaves, called squat 
 ter sovereignty, was convulsing the land. The atrocious 
 Lecompton act was passed. The fugitive-slave law, with all 
 its attendant horrors, was being enforced, and Northern States 
 passed acts to protect the liberty of their colored citizens. 
 
 Like a flash of lightning from a clear sky came the attack of 
 John Brown and his army of ten or fifteen men on Harper s 
 Ferry, in Virginia ; and the whole South was thrown into a 
 paroxysm of terror through fear of a servile war. 
 
 Upon all these subjects Mr. CHANDLER had given his views 
 to the nation in the Senate. 
 
 The democratic convention at Charleston followed in May, 
 1860. The war of factions the South against the North was 
 the fatal wedge that then and there disrupted the old demo 
 cratic party. Substantially the opening gun of the rebellion 
 was fired by that convention, and its echoes have never ceased 
 to reverberate to this day in the democratic party. From that 
 fatal day in Charleston events rapidly hastened to war, actual 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OP ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 71 
 
 war. Abraham Lincoln was elected President, and traitorous 
 hands were busy, traitorous hearts were plotting, to betray, 
 break down, and destroy this Government. 
 
 A Secretary of the Treasury utterly uprooted the credit of 
 the Government and substantially made it a bankrupt. A Sec 
 retary of War sold its cannon and guns and shipped them to 
 southern arsenals, and sent its effective Army to out-of-the- 
 way places on the distant frontier. A Secretary of the Navy 
 sold our ships and naval stores and ammunition, sent loyal 
 officers to sea in rotten, unseaworthy hulks, and scattered the 
 serviceable ships and vessels to our most distant stations. An 
 Attorney-General advised the President that he could not use 
 force against a State. A Chief Justice refused to issue war 
 rants to arrest traitors. Every Department was demoralized 
 or in traitorous hands. 
 
 Lincoln was inaugurated, and then came the first gun of 
 actual war at Sumter. 
 
 Through all these stormy scenes CHANDLER was ever and 
 always watchful, ready, alert, brave, and outspoken. 
 
 In the debates and stormy scenes of the Senate he took his 
 full share both of responsibility and debate. Long before his 
 "blood-letting letter" he had warned the southern Senators 
 that their actions meant, for them, revolution or a halter. He 
 denounced the Lecompton act, the fugitive-slave bill, and the 
 prosecutions under it. His painting of the Kansas horrors, 
 burnings, whippings, and tortures of men and women who 
 dared advocate free speech and free Territories for freemen, 
 will stand with the tremendous philippics of the old Greek 
 and Roman orators and statesmen. But time will fail me to 
 enumerate all his labors. 
 
 During the civil war and the years of reconstruction follow 
 ing, his great business experience, his grand executive ability, 
 
72 ADDRESS OF MB. NEWBERRY ON THE 
 
 his almost prophetic foresight, his extraordinary sagacity and 
 wisdom in the conduct of affairs brought him to the front. 
 
 His judgment in regard to one of the noted generals in com 
 mand of the Army of the Potomac showed his wonderful 
 sagacity and decision of character, and the strong reliance he 
 had upon the great under-curreuts of popular opinion and 
 wisdom to justify his action. He denounced this general, and 
 in the most positive manner charged him with failure as a mili 
 tary commander and as utterly incompetent to conduct suc 
 cessfully a great campaign. This charge, made and substan 
 tially proved in the Senate and before the country, resulted in 
 a change of commanders of the Union Army, and, as a further 
 result, final victory. It was sought subsequently to reverse 
 this decision by an appeal to the people of the country in a 
 presidential campaign, but the result showed that CHANDLER 
 was right, and his action, as proper and patriotic, was triumph 
 antly vindicated by the nation, and the removed general be 
 came the defeated presidential candidate. 
 
 With the close of the war came another class of legislation, 
 and here, as everywhere else, CHANDLER S clear-headed busi 
 ness experience and ready facility of grasping details and 
 / grouping principles and reaching successfully the end came 
 
 into play. There were reconstruction acts and financial acts 
 of stupendous magnitude to be considered, revenues in un 
 heard-of amounts to be collected, taxation to be adjusted, and 
 amounts to be raised that staggered the most sanguine; 
 a nation of freed men to be raised to the standard of citi 
 zens, a race of slaves to be educated to understand the 
 rights and duties and obligations of freemen; banking and 
 loan acts, legal-tender and currency acts; treaties to be re 
 newed ; new relations with foreign nations to be entered into, 
 old relations to be strengthened ; international and constitu- 
 
, r 
 
 ,/ /: . 
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAII CHANDLER. tfV 
 
 ^ j 
 
 tional questions, new and old, arising out of a war unheard oft . 
 
 / 
 
 in its magnitude and astounding as to its results, to be settled; 
 
 wounded soldiers to be eared for; an army to be disbanded; 
 the Southern States to be rehabilitated; amendments of the 
 Constitution to be adjusted to the changed condition of the 
 people ; in a word, the autonomy of the nation was to be re 
 established. All these and a thousand other subjects had to 
 be and were considered by him apparently with equal ease, 
 and the proceedings of the Senate will show his participation 
 from day to day in them all. 
 
 The great men whose names are linked with the history of 
 the civil war and the rehabilitation of the nation are fast pass 
 ing away. Lincoln, Seward, Chase, Stanton, Greeley, Wilson, 
 Simmer, Morton, and now ZACHARIAH CHANDLER, have van 
 ished from the scenes, and in all the records of history and 
 the memories of those still remaining must rest their glorious 
 fame. 
 
 From Senator CHANDLER S first entrance into public life 
 he was always the vigorous, rapid, sledge-hammer dealer of 
 telling blows no fears or quaking as to results. When the 
 
 blow was delivered it was straight from the shoulder, vigorous 
 
 
 and effective, delivered because he believed it necessary, and 
 
 without thinking of the tremendous effect of the stroke. 
 
 To the looker-on often the effect was not immediately ap 
 parent ; it did not seem much of a blow ; but the next day, 
 the next week, the next month the effect would be manifest. 
 Men would be talking of his power ; and a little speech of ten 
 minutes would be printed in every newspaper, talked of on 
 every corner, read at every fireside, in the city, in the country, 
 on the mountain, in the valley, on the plain, in the palace, 
 down among the miners, up among the woodmen, in the draw 
 ing-room of the swift-rolling express train, in the forecastle of 
 
 10 c 
 
74 ADDRESS OF MR. NEWBERRY ON THE 
 
 the fast-speeding ocean steamer, in the pulpit, in the pew, on 
 the rostrum, on the stage, rousing the laggard, encouraging 
 the timid, emboldening the brave, nerving the patriotic, strik 
 ing terror to the traitor. 
 
 One element of his power was in his use of clear Anglo- 
 Saxon words, meaning exactly what he said and saying exactly 
 what he meant, and doing it so clearly that each hearer knew 
 he was but crystallizing into thought and expression the ex 
 act floating idea in his own mind in the words that ought to 
 be used. 
 
 He had a masterly way of using plain words for plain peo 
 ple, with plain meaning. He used no tricks of rhetoric, no 
 flowers of speech, no studied expression, no graceful gesture. 
 They would have been utterly out of place with him. But his 
 facts would be true and telling his speech rough-hewed but 
 strong, his gestures ungainly but powerful. He was listened 
 to by his friends because of their love ; listened to by his ene 
 mies because his power compelled their attention. Warm, 
 positive, and magnetic to his friends, he was stern, unyielding, 
 aggressive in the presence of his enemies ; always, however, 
 battling for the right as he believed it. Firm and steadfast 
 in his convictions, with him the contest must go on until he 
 was victorious. 
 
 As he was always ready to give blows, so he could receive 
 them. 
 
 The story is told of him, that amid the exciting scenes pre 
 ceding the withdrawal of senatorial traitors in 1861, when some 
 of them, goaded to madness by his merciless accusation of 
 traitors, turned, and with fiery southern eloquence hurled sting 
 ing epithets and bloody threats and words of frenzied fury at 
 him, he sat with a smile of scorn and derision, looking them 
 steadily in the face, as though he heard them not but pitied 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 75 
 
 their agonized emotions. Afterward, on being asked why he 
 did not reply, he said, "Let ine tell you a story." Holding his 
 hands in front of him with his two thumbs together, he said, 
 "Do you see, one of my thumbs is shorter than the other, 
 twisted and broken. Well, once driving a yoke of oxen in my 
 younger days, I got very mad at one of them, and raved and 
 tore around considerably, and finally as the ox did not seem 
 to care much about it, in my rage I struck him as hard as pos 
 sible with my fist, thinking to break a rib at least. The sturdy 
 old ox shifted his cud from one side to the other, looked around 
 at me very quietly, whisked his tail gently, as though a fly was 
 tickling him while I was just howling with a broken thumb. 
 So," the Senator concluded, " it often happens that the man 
 who supposes he is giving some one else a stunning blow finds 
 he has only broken his own thumb." 
 
 When Mr. CHANDLER first appeared in the national poli 
 tical arena in 1856 he announced himself as a candidate for 
 Senator. General Cass, whose term was about to expire, 
 looked at the audacious young man with undisguised disdain, 
 and was not slow to express his contempt for the " young man 
 who," he said, " might know how to measure calico and tape, 
 sell needles and thread, buj was not fit to take his place in the 
 council of the nation," and added, "we will remit him to his 
 counter." One can imagine the expression of countenance 
 with which, in language more strong than polite, young CHAN 
 DLER replied, "General Cass will find that he spelled his own 
 name without a C when he made that remark." From that 
 moment there was, on the part of the coming Senator, con 
 stant, steady, hard work to one end, and when the Legisla 
 ture assembled Mr. CHANDLER was elected and General Cass 
 relegated to private life. 
 
 In character and in person Mr. CHANDLER was like a granite 
 
76 ADDRESS OF MR. NEWBERRY ON THE 
 
 block struck from the rugged mountains of his native State ; 
 rough-hewn, with jagged corners here and there, but solid, 
 strong. His power of resistance to wrong or injustice, when 
 ever or whence it might come, his capability of sus aining any 
 load, his power to carry and readiness to assume any responsi 
 bility made necessary by his position, was that of the granite 
 rock always. His public life contains no instance of failure. 
 Friends and patriots could unhesitatingly rely upon his help, 
 assistance, and counsels to sustain the nation and its defend 
 ers. Enemies and traitors to his last day could rest assured 
 that he was watchful and ready to interfere between them and 
 injury or insult to the nation or the soldiers of the Union. To 
 him traitors were a concrete, ever-present reality, not an ab 
 stract, far-away entity. The definition of treason in the Con 
 stitution of his country had a personal, pointed application to 
 individuals. Its clear-cut definition, "Treason against the 
 United States shall consist only in levying war against them 
 or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort," 
 his mind instantly applied personally, and a citizen of the 
 United States who made war against his own country was a 
 traitor, not an "erring brother," or one who had only been en 
 gaged in " some unpleasantness." An unrepentant rebel was 
 a traitor ever and always. 
 
 Yet, no one was more ready than he to receive heartily any 
 one desirous of returning to his allegiance to his flag and his 
 country. 
 
 The great leader of the rebellion, who, with the oath of alle 
 giance almost warm upon his lips, went out from the Senate of 
 the United States, where he had given his pledge of loyalty 
 to the Government, ay, his own Government, freely and volun 
 tarily, with hand upraised to heaven, and calling God to wit 
 ness his truth, to levy war against the United States, which 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER. 77 
 
 act the Constitution had declared treason, was to him a trai 
 tor, whose name should never be enrolled on the roll of 
 honor the pension- roll of the patriotic, loyal, maimed, and 
 wounded soldiers of the Union Army. CHANDLER S last 
 speech in the Senate went to the hearts of his countrymen, 
 and will live with those of the distinguished orators and patriots 
 of the early days of the Republic. 
 
 That there was one man, at least, in the Senate of the United 
 States who dared to lift an indignant voice for patriots and 
 patriotism, and against traitors and treason, gladdened the 
 hearts and strengthened the hands of millions of citizens. The 
 distinction between right and wrong, between loyal citizens 
 and rebels, between patriots and traitors, seemed to be fast 
 dying out, till a few burning words, in a midnight session, 
 forced out of his inmost heart by insulting wrong, went like a 
 zigzag stroke of lightning through the wordy sophisms, and 
 revealed to an indignant people the insult that was being at 
 tempted to laud, country, flag, and all the patriotic impulses 
 of the nation. 
 
 It is said that the eagle, when the storm arises, the light 
 nings flash, and thunders roll, and heavy winds and black por 
 tentous clouds are rushing through the heavens, spreads his 
 broad wings and soars above the storm. Thus it was with our 
 dead friend. When peril threatened the country, when disas 
 ter spread ruin and desolation, when men s hearts failed from 
 fear, CHANDLER rose above the storm, scanned the ruin, the 
 disaster, the peril and dismay, grasped the situation, mastered 
 it in all its details, and calmly and quietly led the way to safety. 
 
 lie was a born commander and leader of men a power that 
 would and could and did overcome all obstacles. In the calm 
 or in the storm, in the whirlwind or in the tempest, always and 
 ever self-poised, cool, daring, positive, ready for action. lie 
 
78 ADDRESS OP MR. NEWBERRY ON THE 
 
 was not the light-house to show others the way ; he was the dar 
 ing navigator who, when the light went out and rocks on either 
 hand, could seize the helm and convey the ship safely into port. 
 
 Earely has this country been so thoroughly shocked as it 
 was on the morning of November 1, 1879, when the lightning 
 flashed through the land 
 
 Senator CHANDLER was found dead in his bed this morning. 
 The air had been full of his utterances; the papers loaded 
 with the closing speeches of this honest-hearted, earnest- 
 minded old man in the campaign then ending. His last 
 speech but one was made, and the flash, " he is dead," came 
 with the stunning effect of a blow. 
 
 Never so well known, never so earnest, never so admired 
 and loved and appreciated by his friends ; never so powerful 
 against, hated, and feared by his enemies ; but with harness on, 
 his steady, manly voice ringing in the ears of his countrymen, 
 he went down as the warrior in the shock of battle; ay, and at 
 the very moment of anticipated victory, although the shout of 
 actual victory he was never again to hear in this world. 
 
 Farewell to thee ! illustrious statesman, with a lion s heart ! 
 Farewell to thee! uncompromising patriot, with a true soul! 
 Farewell to thee ! indefatigable worker, with an iron frame J 
 Farewell to thee ! undaunted friend, with a faithful breast ! 
 Farewell to" thee ! loyal citizen, with patriotic impulses ! 
 Farewell to thee ! stalwart politician, intrepid counselor, 
 
 Fearless adviser, genial companion ! 
 We mourn for thee! A Senator without reproach; 
 
 A man without stain ; 
 
 A soul above suspicion. 
 
 " The air is thick with death. His flying shafts 
 Strike down to-day the bravest in the land ; 
 And here and there, how suddenly he wafts 
 His fatal arrows ! Nor can long withstand 
 The mailed warrior, or the statesman manned, 
 Against him. But why should he hasten on 
 
 * * * * to strike one down 
 
 Just in the zenith of his strength and glory of renown T 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER. 
 
 79 
 
 " CHANDLER! above thy grave wo bow in tears! 
 
 The generous friend, the unrelenting foe, 
 In halls of state who stood for many years, 
 Like fableil knight, thy visage all aglow! 
 
 Receiving, giving sternly, blow for blow ! 
 
 * 
 
 " Champion of right! But from eternity s far shore 
 Thy spirit will return to join the strife no more. 
 Rest, statesman, rest! Thy troubled life is o er." 
 
 Address of Mr. WILLIAMS, of Wisconsin. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER : The largest tree in the forest sometimes 
 breaks the stillness of the day by the suddenness of its fall : 
 so ZACHARIAH CHANDLER startled a continent when he went 
 down to death ! Thirty-six hours before he died he was the 
 guest of my own city. He spoke there, both in the afternoon 
 and evening, each time to a large concourse of people. He 
 retired at twelve o clock, and rested well through the night. 
 
 Many of our citizens bade him good-bye at the early train for 
 Chicago ; and little did they think as the cars rolled out into 
 the light of that beautiful morning that it was the last he was 
 ever to behold on earth ! Yet so it was, for within twenty- 
 one hours thereafter he was dead. 
 
 I think only those who saw him during these last hours of 
 his life could realize the suddenness of his death. Though the 
 grim messenger walked beside him, no shadow fell upon his 
 pathway. His thoughts were all of life; he could scarcely 
 have been thinking of the possibilities of death ; his every act 
 and energy was devoted to the work before him ; he talked of 
 nothing else, and apparently he thought of nothing else. 
 
 He was the avant courier of republicanism. His voice had 
 rung out from Maine to Wisconsin. He had moved the people 
 by the potency of his presence and the earnestness of his ap- 
 
80 ADDRESS OF MR. WILLIAMS ON THE 
 
 peals. He believed that national destiny itself trembled in 
 the balance, and he imparted this belief to the masses where- 
 ever he went, for they knew that his heart was in his work 
 and his convictions were in his words. 
 
 Amid scenes like these it could hardly have been possible 
 that he had a thought of what was to come. He could scarcely 
 have dreamed that while yet the plaudits of thousands were 
 ringing in his ears he was to meet, in the heart of that great 
 city, in the dead hour of the night, in the silent loneliness of 
 his room, that dread messenger, who gave no warning and 
 accepted no delay ; yet so it was, for he awoke only from the 
 sleep of life to sink back again in the sleep of death. 
 
 No, Mr. Speaker, none but those who remember the earnest 
 manner and pathetic voice with which he besought the chair 
 man of each successive meeting to telegraph him at Detroit on 
 the night of the election the result of the contest can realize 
 the overmastering interest which had taken possession of him. 
 The news he so longed to hear did indeed flash along the wires, 
 but whether it died out in the darkness of that shoreless sea, 
 or whether it penetrated the mystic regions of the great be 
 yond, no word ever comes back to tell us. 
 
 We who speak of ZACHARIAH CHANDLER here to-day must 
 speak of him as he was, for he never feared to speak for him 
 self. And his words will be cherished and remembered when 
 ours are lost and forgotten. No flowers of rhetoric, no high- 
 wrought historic parallels, no half-drawn apologies for what he 
 was or what he did, will do for him. 
 
 He was a plain, blunt man. He was combative, he was aggress 
 ive, and in what he believed to be right he was relentless. He 
 was a man of the people, he was a friend of the poor, he loved 
 liberty, he hated oppression, he abhorred treason, and he detested 
 hypocrisy. He was a partisan, he was a patriot, he was a hero ! 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAII CHANDLER. 81 
 
 Like tbe oak he resembled, he was reared iii storms and 
 rocked in tempests. Strong and massive in body, he was 
 stronger in will ; firm in principles, he was formidable in argu 
 ment ; quick to see the salient points of a question, he brought 
 his broad common sense to bear upon it, and not infrequently 
 by a single sally ho broke through and demolished a whole 
 battle-line of sophistry. Who can ever forget the expression 
 of that face, or the instantaneous effect produced upon thou 
 sands, when from the rostrum he put that one question : 
 
 If this is not a government, what did the rebels surrender to at Appo- 
 mattoxT I tell you, my friends, they surrendered to the Government of the 
 United States of America! 
 
 Or when, on that memorable night, in the Senate of the 
 United States he made that terrific onslaught which startled 
 both sides of the Chamber and roused the whole country, 
 what member even of the opposition who did not feel the 
 force of what he said? In the language of Mr. Webster, it 
 was one of those outbursts of passion and power which, if 
 they come at all, come "like the outbreaking of a fountain 
 from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires, with 
 spontaneous, original, native force ! " 
 
 This was the secret of Mr. CHANDLER S power. His methods 
 were clear and practical, his reasoning synthetic, and his at 
 tacks spontaneous and irresistible. While others were exam 
 ining the bricks and mortar in the structure, and carefully 
 calculating the resistance to be overcome, he selected his 
 point of attack, and with a crowbar and sledge breached the 
 walls, and carried the citadel by storm. 
 
 Savants and philosophers may style these methods crude 
 and Western, but while the names of Douglas, Morton, and 
 CHANDLER live the people will believe them to possess an innate 
 force which all the learning of the schools cannot give. 
 
 11 o 
 
82 ADDRESS OF ME. WILLIAMS ON THE 
 
 The opinion is often expressed that certain very good and 
 competent men are holding back a political millennium by 
 their persistent refusal to accept office and enter upon public 
 life. Somebody has ungraciously said of such, that they were 
 made up of two parts of selfishness and two of timidity. I 
 know not how the fact may be, but if it be true, ZACHARIAH 
 CHANDLER did not belong to this class. He never took 
 counsel either of his selfishness or his fears. He was not 
 possessed of that happy temperament which enabled him 
 to stand quietly by while aggressive wrong was crushing 
 out defenseless right. 
 
 By the very nature of his make-up, he was forced to enter 
 the arena. And thus he met all the malignity, denunciation, 
 and abuse which ever come to the earnest, the faithful, and 
 the true. Yet nothing could dissuade him. The critical might 
 carp, the mediocre patronize, and the malign scoff and deride, 
 but all the pigmies of earth and sky could not stay the daunt 
 less old hero in the work he had marked out for himself. To 
 such a man the holding of civil office was the merest incident 
 in the world ; for whether in public or private life he was 
 the natural defender of the people. 
 
 That Mr. CHANDLER was intense and bitter, that he some 
 times wrongly suspicioned the motives and acts of others, is 
 only to say that he belonged to the class of positive men ; but 
 that under it all there was a broad and generous sincerity and 
 a heart as tender as a child s none who knew him need to be 
 told. He was, indeed, in earnest; but if any supposed his 
 earnestness took on only the cold malignity of hate, they 
 studied his character to but little purpose. I could only 
 claim to know him as we all knew him here, yet I do not care 
 to be told that he was moved by other than the loftiest and 
 purest motives. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 83 
 
 Only the night but one before he died, in my own house, in 
 common with others, I saw that firm lip quiver and those stern 
 eyes moisten as he recounted the measureless wrongs which 
 had been visited upon the poor freedmen of the South ; and I 
 believe mortal man was never actuated by higher or holier mo 
 tives than he when he swore by the God that made him that 
 he would never bate one jot nor tittle of effort until these mon 
 strous wrongs should be righted. 
 
 I allude to these things here in no partisan spirit, for that 
 should be banished from these halls to-day; but I speak of 
 them only to bo just to him in his grave, as he was just and 
 fearless before all the world. And I feel sure that could he 
 have left any injunction behind, it would have been : " If you 
 speak of me at all, in the language of sacred song, speak of 
 
 me 
 Just as I am." 
 
 Burke I think it was who said that true sentiment was the 
 logic of common sense. Such, I think, was the sentiment of 
 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. It was plain, practical, and direct. 
 
 No more touching provisions can be found in the wills 
 of public men than in those of Thaddeus Stevens and Mr. 
 CHANDLER. While the former made no provision for the 
 care of his own grave, he set aside a sum of money and di 
 rected that the " sexton keep his mother s grave in good order, 
 and plant roses and other cheerful flowers at its four corners 
 every spring." 
 
 So Mr. CHANDLER, with just words enough to express his 
 meaning, said, in effect, to his wife and daughter, " You are 
 my only heirs ; as you have loved and trusted me, so I love 
 and confide in you. I lay my fortune at your feet, and that 
 you may be unfettered in its enjoyment and use, I relieve it 
 from any word coming back from the grave." 
 
84 ADDRESS OF MR. HUBBELL ON THE 
 
 Could affection be more tender? Could confidence be more 
 complete? Where shall the well-springs of the human heart 
 be better studied than in the wills of these two remarkable 
 men? 
 
 Impartial history will assign Mr. CHANDLER his proper 
 place in the ranks of America s public men. We cannot do 
 that here to-day. It may, however, be safely said that if Sew- 
 ard, Chase, and Sumner might draft the plans for the fabric 
 of freedom, Wade, Stevens, and CHANDLER might lay its foun 
 dations and lift its walls to completion. Noble trio! How 
 fiercely they wrought; how well they triumphed. 
 
 The last of them now sleeps on the banks of the river he 
 loved so fondly. And to-day Wisconsin comes with her fos 
 ter-mother, Michigan, to lay a garland upon his grave. He 
 loved to tell us that the boundaries of his own county of 
 Wayne once embraced both our States. Eepresentatives of 
 Michigan, your loss is our loss ; and over our common calamity 
 a nation grieves to-day. We come to mingle our tears with 
 yours, and to utter the fervent prayer that he who sleeps 
 so near your metropolis may rest in peace so long as that city 
 shall stand yea, so long as the waters that roll by it flow out 
 ward to the sea. 
 
 Address of Mr. HUBBELL, of Michigan. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER : It is said that "death loves a shining mark, 
 a signal blow." Than in ZACHARIAH CHANDLER, whose death 
 to-day we mourn in common with the whole patriotic people 
 of the nation, the "fell sergeant" has had few more brilliant 
 marks, has struck few nobler lives, and the Eepublic has had 
 to mourn no more useful citizen, no more upright or purer 
 patriot. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 85 
 
 Mr. CHANDLER was a native of New England. He was 
 born at Bedford, in the State of New Hampshire, December 
 10, 1813; in the State which gave birth to and molded the 
 character of Daniel Webster; in the land of strong convic 
 tions, of sterling integrity, of uncompromising patriotism, and 
 inflexible devotion to freedom. Here in his native State, 
 building up a vigorous frame and robust health among its 
 granite hills here amid its noble associations and grand in 
 stitutions of learning ; amid a people rejoicing in their revo 
 lutionary history in its perils and privations and its glories 
 and triumphs loving freedom and hating oppression, ZACH- 
 ARIAH CHANDLER imbibed those rigid principles of justice, 
 that invincible love of freedom and of country, that incor 
 ruptible integrity which he transplanted in his new home in 
 the then "far West," and which distinguished every act of 
 his public life, and in support of which he died literally in 
 harness. 
 
 In his home in Michigan, the State of his adoption, these 
 sterling qualities were combined with and regulated by an 
 intelligence and sagacity so rarely at fault as to enable him 
 to amass an ample fortune, place him at the head of the busi 
 ness men of the State, and soon point him out as a man of 
 mark, as a man of rare and genuine merit, of great force of 
 character, of intrepid courage and sterling worth, and won 
 for him the respect, confidence, and enduring love of its people. 
 
 No man was ever trusted in public or private life as was 
 ZACHARIAH CHANDLER by the people of Michigan, and no 
 man ever ended a public career against whose integrity less 
 could be said. 
 
 No position in their gift, however high or responsible, no 
 honor, however great, was too high for his merits or too great 
 for their love. Thus in 1851 he was mayor of Detroit; in 
 
86 ADDRESS OP ME. HUBBELL ON THE 
 
 1852 the whig candidate for governor ; in 1857, a Senator of 
 the United States; in 1863, re-elected as Senator; in 1869, 
 again re-elected; and again in 1879. In 1875 he was given 
 by President Grant the portfolio of the Interior. In every 
 trust he acquitted .himself honorably, fearlessly, ably, and re 
 turned it impressed with the marks of his genius. 
 
 In nothing, indeed, was Mr. CHANDLER an ordinary man. 
 As a husband and a father and a friend, ever faithful, trust 
 ing, and true, his great, manly heart delighted in exhibitions 
 of the tenderest devotion. He never abandoned a friend, and 
 was ever truest and most devoted to him in the hour of his 
 misfortune or trials. He was not a place-seeker nor a time- 
 server ; but he was a lover of his country and a hater of its 
 enemies, and always filled to the measure the place he occu 
 pied; and being a man of strong convictions and dauntless 
 courage the enemies of his country always felt his presence, 
 and were never spared his bitterest invectives. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I knew Mr. CHANDLER intimately. He was 
 to me a "friend, philosopher, and guide," and I should be 
 unjust to his memory did I not speak of him as he was a man 
 who always acted his honest convictions without regard to or 
 fear of the consequences. 
 
 As a Cabinet minister, with the portfolio of the most com 
 plicated and troublesome Department of the Government, 
 noted for its intrigues and scandals, the Interior, with its im 
 portant divisions and the intricate and delicate character of 
 many of their important duties very difficult to comprehend 
 and to intelligently manage, and rendered doubly so by out 
 side combinations for the promotion of private advantage and 
 fraud in that responsible and difficult trust, his masterly 
 executive ability, his great common sense, his disciplined busi 
 ness habits, his integrity, his wonderful industry, his intuitive 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACIIARIAII CHANDLKR. 87 
 
 knowledge of men and their motives, and his great courage 
 and nerve rendered his administration such a marked success 
 that his able and accomplished successor publicly admitted 
 that his ambition was to leave the Department in as good 
 shape as he received it. He never parleyed with men whom 
 he believed to be dishonest. To illustrate his blunt and direct 
 methods, pardon an anecdote : Soon after he took charge of 
 the Interior Department, I met him here in Washington and 
 the usual salutations had hardly passed between us when he 
 said: "I have been reforming in the Interior Department to 
 day." And in reply to my query as to what he had done he 
 replied: " I have emptied one large room and left it in charge 
 of a colored porter, who has the key, who cannot read or write, 
 and who is instructed to allow no one to enter it without my 
 orders, and I am under the impression that the public inter 
 ests are safe so far as that room and its business are concerned 
 until I can find some honest men to put into it." A further 
 conversation developed the fact that by plain business meth 
 ods he had collected his proofs, and thus armed he could only 
 deal a deadly blow. Thus early he mastered all the intricate 
 and difficult details of the service; early he clearly compre 
 hended its needs and vigorously and laboriously applied him 
 self to their practical accomplishment. In short, he estab 
 lished order where chaos previously ruled, reorganized details, 
 secured efficiency, and effected a due responsibility in all the 
 branches of the service. 
 
 Honest himself, he tolerated no doubtful practices, no im 
 proper relations in the Department. Fraud vanished at his 
 touch. Incoinpetency and imbecility met their reward, and 
 he transmitted the portfolio to his successor with the Depart 
 ment purged of many injurious scandals, and the service, in 
 all its details, greatly simplified and improved. 
 
88 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. HU33BELL ON THE 
 
 As a Senator, Borne, in the days of her highest virtue and 
 greatest strength, had none nobler, purer, or more fearless. 
 Entering the Senate during the stormy debates and violent 
 struggles of the sections on the question of slavery, Mr. CHAN 
 DLER stepped at once to the front as a recognized and trusted 
 leader on the side of freedom. The times were full of peril, 
 and terribly tested all the metal in men s souls. But during 
 that struggle, in debate, from 1857 until 1860, carried on on 
 the one side by patriotic, liberty-loving men, who hated slav 
 ery and antagonized it because they dreaded its extension, 
 and on the other by men who worshiped slavery, were bound 
 to extend and perpetuate it or destroy the common govern 
 ment inherited from the fathers, who recognized the code, and 
 under its bloody rules tried to intimidate the representatives 
 of the people from the Northern States in the discharge of 
 their duties, no man ever did or will say that ZACHARIAH 
 CHANDLER ever faltered in the discharge of his duty as he 
 saw it. He abhorred the code, condemned alike by the laws 
 of man and of God, yet while in the discharge of his public 
 trusts it had no terrors for him, and never caused him for a 
 moment to falter in the full and complete performance of his 
 duties. 
 
 It is not my purpose here to enter into that memorable de 
 bate upon the question of slavery and the rights of the States 
 which preceded and culminated in the war of the rebellion, 
 more than to say that Mr. CHANDLER S sagacity readily pen 
 etrated the designs of the southern leaders, readily saw that 
 slavery was only a means to the consummation of their pur 
 pose the disruption of the Union. Indignantly and vehe 
 mently he raised his voice in exposure of this traitorous plot. 
 He was " no orator as Brutus " was. He apparently despised 
 all mere ornaments of speech, but in his vigorous, terse En- 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER. 89 
 
 glish he left no doubt as to his meaning and purpose. And 
 thus he fearlessly labored everywhere and on all occasions to 
 arouse the country to a sense of the impending danger, and to 
 prepare it for a conflict of arms in support of the Union. He 
 had no faith in compromise, but felt that the inevitable and 
 deadly conflict must come, and tried to prepare his countrymen 
 for it. The events which rapidly followed demonstrated the 
 wisdom as they did the justice of his conclusions and his 
 course. The rebellion came upon us with its appalling sacri 
 fices and sufferings and uwfully vindicated his sagacity and 
 the justice of his charges against the southern leaders. 
 
 Great names and great men, so called, unless distinguished 
 by worth and patriotic motives and corresponding actions, 
 received from him no homage. His country to him was all in 
 all. Every patriotic man he claimed as a friend, and to every 
 patriot, to all patriots, of every grade or character, if their 
 sincerity were demonstrated by works, he yielded his whole 
 support, all his weight and influence. 
 
 But the man who laid himself down in the pathway of his 
 country s honor and glory, the man who, whether from imbe 
 cility or design, obstructed or impeded his country s triumph 
 ant march to victory, to perfect and permanent peace, to that 
 man ZACHARIAH CHANDLER was an inflexible foe, and to him 
 he fearlessly proclaimed his hostility. 
 
 As a member of the Committee on the Conduct of the War 
 he was active, terribly in earnest, and untiring in industry, 
 and rendered to the nation the most important services. No 
 name, however high, baffled his inquiries or escaped his judg 
 ment. 
 
 Notwithstanding he had regarded McClellan s appointment 
 as wise and judicious, yet, for reasons already made a part of 
 our country s history, he boldly arraigned him in the face of 
 
 12 c 
 
90 ADDRESS OF MR. HUBBELL ON THE 
 
 the country, in the teeth of his great popularity and the great 
 power he wielded in command of the armies, as utterly incom 
 petent for the weighty duties of his high position, and de 
 manded his removal, as justified by the highest reasons of ex 
 pediency and the loftiest motives of patriotism. 
 
 Believing that Pope, at second Bull Bun, was sacrificed by 
 Fitz-John Porter, and that our loss of life and disaster at that 
 battle was caused by Porter s insubordination, he boldly de 
 nounced him as a traitor to his country and demanded his trial 
 and punishment. 
 
 Against all men whom he believed to be untrue to his 
 country in her hour of peril, his great patriotic heart instinct 
 ively rebelled, and they were made the victims of his terrible 
 denunciations. 
 
 The war of the rebellion ended, Mr. CHANDLER took a 
 prominent part in that legislation which reconstructed the 
 States in rebellion and gave them representation in the halls 
 of Congress, and here as elsewhere his career was marked by 
 the same distinguishing traits of character. 
 
 Coming into the Senate again in 1878, he immediately 
 stepped to the front and the country knew that plain, honest 
 old ZACH. CHANDLER, as they loved to call him, was again in 
 his seat, and the democratic party, which he never loved, was 
 made painfully aware of his presence. Stripping the guise of 
 flimsy pretexts from off the reasons actuating the men who 
 forced the extra session, he sounded the key-note of alarm 
 the bugle-call of the campaign of 1879, in which he labored 
 day and night, closing his great work in one of the ablest 
 and grandest speeches of his life in the Garden City of 
 America, where, ere the dawn of day succeeded his great 
 effort, he died. The life of a great, earnest, honest, and broad- 
 souled man went silently out with the watches of the night, 
 

 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. ^ , 91 
 
 % 
 
 and in his death the Republic mourns an upright and useful 
 citizen, a noble Senator, a peerless patriot, and humanity an 
 abiding friend. Apparently in robust health, in the vigorous 
 exercise of all his great faculties, peacefully and serenely, 
 without a struggle and free from pain, his noble spirit sank 
 into the "blind cave of eternal night," passed triumphantly 
 from the active scenes and duties of worldly life to the judg 
 ment-seat of his God. 
 
 Thus yields the cedar to the ax s edge, 
 Whose arms gave shelter to the princely eagle ; 
 Under whose shade the ramping liou slept; 
 Whoso top-branch overpeer d Jove s spreading tree, 
 And kept low shrubs from winter s powerful wind. 
 
 But, though dead, he is not forgotten. In every patriot s 
 home, in the home of every friend of humanity, of every 
 friend of freedom and free institutions, his name will long be 
 cherished with endearing pride, and history in recording his 
 actions, in reviewing his services to his country and to man 
 kind, and in its judgment of hie character, will as surely rank 
 him high among the good and great men of his times. 
 
 Peace to his ashes. 
 
 Address of Mr. CRAPO, of Massachusetts. 
 
 Mr. SPEAEER: The life of ZACHARIAH CHANDLER is a 
 marked illustration of that character which is developed by 
 our American institutions and which is distinctly American. 
 In no other country and under no other system of society and 
 laws do we look for the manifestation of such individual 
 growth and power. Starting from the humble surroundings 
 of a New England farm, with the limited advantages of a 
 plain and simple country home, with the training of the un- 
 
92 ADDRESS OF MR. CRAPO ON THE 
 
 pretending fireside and village school, he emerges into self- 
 reliant manhood. Then follow the struggles of life amid the 
 activities and hardships of a western settlement; the compe 
 titions of business, bringing substantial rewards; the contests 
 for higher position, while holding securely the advances made; 
 the reaching out for wider influence and greater mastery over 
 the thoughts and acts of men; and, finally, the control and 
 power which made him a recognized leader and a mighty force 
 in the land. With no external advantages to aid him, he 
 overcame obstacles and conquered opposition and secured for 
 himself commanding position and influence. He was con 
 scious of his own inherent strength ; he knew that he lived in 
 a country full of opportunities to the earnest and faithful man ; 
 and he realized that in this free land men have equal right to 
 place and wealth and power if they have will and strength to* 
 win them. He asked no odds and he accepted no gifts. What 
 he was and what he possessed came as the result and reward 
 of his own personal efforts. He did not drift into high posi 
 tions, but earned them by sheer exertion and force of char 
 acter. His history is the record of a successful man, and we 
 can find few more impressive examples, even in this country 
 which is so full of personal achievements. 
 
 In private life Mr. CHANDLER was bluff", hearty, and sincere. 
 He was outspoken with the candor of positive truth. He did 
 not conceal his admiration of one whom he liked, and he was 
 equally open in the expression of disapprobation of one he dis 
 liked. He was frank and generous in his approval, and he 
 was equally free and severe in his condemnation. There was 
 an integrity in his friendship and an earnestness in his recog 
 nition of friends which endeared him to those who knew him 
 intimately. 
 
 The personal qualities which marked his private intercourse 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 93 
 
 were still more conspicuous in bis public life. There was 
 always the same positiveness of manner and speech. His 
 large frame, his vigorous health, and commanding presence 
 were not more remarkable than the robustness of his mind, 
 his stout heart, his stalwart courage, and resistless energy. 
 
 His political opinions were formed during the controversies 
 of the Missouri compromise and the attempt to establish 
 slavery in Kansas. He entered public life just as the strug 
 gle for national supremacy was culminating into war. He re 
 garded it as a question of liberty or slavery, of national unity 
 or its dismemberment. He saw with clear vision the terrible 
 magnitude of the issue, and this made him a partisan. It was 
 impossible for him with his consciousness and convictions to 
 be otherwise than a partisan. He was intensely in earnest. 
 He feared southern aggression, and unceasingly fought it; he 
 detested disloyalty, and was bold in his discoveries of it; he 
 abhorred the rebellion with intolerant hatred, and labored for 
 its destruction. He would grant no concession where he be 
 lieved the principle was vital, and, however hot or bitter, or 
 uncertain the fight, he neither gave nor asked for quarter. 
 During the dark days of war his heart never faltered and his 
 voice never trembled. He exacted the utmost fidelity and dili 
 gence from those who supported the Union cause, and had little 
 respect or charity for those who brought failure to its arms. His 
 watchfulness and aggressiveness did not cease with the war. 
 When conciliation seemed to have failed, and the old strife, which 
 it was supposed had been buried on the battle-field, was revived 
 in Congress, Mr. CHANDLER naturally came to the front, and 
 with the same defiant courage of opinion which gave him master 
 influence during the war, he proclaimed in the Senate, and before 
 the people, the dangers which threatened the peace and good or 
 der of the nation, in language which could not be misunderstood. 
 
94 ADDRESS OF MR. CRAPO ON THE 
 
 Perhaps in a less turbulent period of our history Mr. 
 CHANDLER would not have occupied so prominent a place. 
 He was not a great statesman, but he was needed in an 
 exigency, and most nobly did he meet the requirement. No 
 man better understood the patriotic impulses of the people, 
 and no man had greater power in expressing and arousing 
 popular sentiment. He was in sympathy with the masses; 
 he had an intense sense of justice between man and man; he 
 estimated men according to their true worth; he never stood 
 upon his dignity, nor by word or manner indicated any per 
 sonal superiority. The coarse dress and rough manner did 
 not repel him, but every man, however plain or humble, was 
 at ease in his presence. He stood nearer to the people and 
 had a stronger hold upon them than any other Senator. 
 
 The secret of his success and his control of the popular 
 mind may be found in his sincerity, his intensity, his con 
 stancy, and his directness. There was no deceit in his nature. 
 You were never left in doubt about his views, and, what is 
 more, he was never in doubt himself. You always knew where 
 v to find him. He used vigorous Saxon. His utterances were 
 
 plain and terse. His illustrations, although sometimes extrav 
 agant, were full of rugged meaning, and what they lacked in 
 elegance was made up in force. Whatever he said he meant 
 should be understood just as he said it. 
 
 There was nothing negative about him. His policy was 
 never timid nor vacillating. However great the responsi 
 bility, he never hesitated to assume it, but he always went to 
 the front. It was this positive, aggressive, uncompromising 
 spirit which gave him leadership and enabled him to infuse 
 courage into men of less boldness. He was impatient of oppo 
 sition, and as ready to condemn his own party associates as 
 his opponents when their policy was at variance with his own. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 95 
 
 Mr. CHANDLER was not free from faults, and he never at 
 tempted their concealment. Every one knew what manner of 
 man he was. He made no claim to greatness, nor to any 
 special merit. The men who denounced him as a bitter par 
 tisan, and who threw stones of hate and ridicule against him, 
 even now, before the period of passionate strife in which he 
 was an actor has entirely passed away, have acknowledged 
 his virtues. 
 
 His personal integrity, his resistless energy, his burning 
 patriotism, his rugged frankness, and his fearless devotion to 
 duty, made him conspicuous in the legislation of the country 
 and in the councils of his party. 
 
 He died with the harness on, in the mid day of his fame and 
 usefulness, actively participating with all the fervor of his 
 nature in the struggle which he believed of vital consequence 
 to his countrymen. 
 
 We cannot but admire the character of a man who "was the 
 architect of his own fortune," and who, under a beneficent and 
 free governim nt, which gives equal advantages to all, relying 
 upon his own brave heart and strong arm and indomitable 
 will, won a name and wielded a power which will continue far 
 beyond the generation iii which he lived. 
 
 Address of Mr. BREWER, of Michigan. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER : On the 1st day of November last the sad an 
 nouncement was made that Senator CHANDLER was dead; 
 that his lifeless remains were found hi bed at the Pacific 
 Hotel, in the city of Chicago. The report was doubted at first 
 by the friends of the deceased Senator, but all doubt was soon 
 removed, and the city and State of his adoption arrayed them 
 selves in the habiliments of mourning. Senator CHANDLER 
 
96 ADDRESS OF MB. BREWER ON THE 
 
 was known to more of the people of Michigan than any other 
 of her citizens. The name of ZACHARIAH CHANDLER, or " Old 
 Zach," as he was more commonly called, was familiar in every 
 household, and was spoken with the utmost freedom by old 
 and young alike; but to-day, to them, his voice is stilled in 
 death; to-day his name is spoken with sadness and sorrow 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific, at least in every Northern 
 State. Mr. CHANDLER S life in many respects was an eventful 
 one. Born in the town of Bedford, amid the rugged hills of a 
 New Hampshire home, he soon began to exhibit those traits 
 of character which in after life made him so prominent. In 
 1833, when but twenty years of age, he became satisfied that 
 his native State was no field in which to develop his busi 
 ness powers, and he sought a home in the then undevel 
 oped great Northwest, and found it in the city of Detroit. 
 What a broad field was then opened to the view of the ener 
 getic young New Englander! Nearly all our country west 
 of Buffalo at that time was but an uninhabited wilderness; 
 Michigan was but a Territory, with a few thousand inhabit 
 ants, and contained within its territorial government what is 
 now known as the State of Wisconsin. The city of Detroit 
 was but a small town, its inhabitants being largely engaged 
 in trade with the natives of the forest. But the city of De 
 troit to-day is one of the great cities of the Northwest, while 
 Michigan has a population of a million and a half of people, 
 and Wisconsin nearly an equal number, and both of these 
 great States are teeming with all the enterprise and industry 
 of the age. Such result was obtained during the years of Mr. 
 CHANDLER S residence in Michigan, and was largely due to 
 his fostering care while in official life. Wonder not, then, that 
 the city of Detroit and the State of Michigan mourn the loss of 
 her honored dead, for he was always a watchful guardian of 
 
LIFE AND ( HARACTER OF ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER. 97 
 
 their interests. The plain result of his watchful care for his 
 State and his desire to advance her prosperity while in public 
 life is visible along all the great chain of lakes and rivers which 
 encompass her borders. No one has done more to advance 
 and build up the interests of the Northwest than the late Sen 
 ator. 
 
 When Mr. CHANDLER arrived in Detroit, like thousands of 
 other young men who then sought a home in the West, his 
 greatest wealth was his robust constitution, and his chief capi 
 tal to start with in the great battle of life was his habits of 
 industry, his self-will, pluck, and integrity. Soon after his 
 arrival he entered into a business partnership in the drj^-goods 
 trade with one Franklin Moore, a brother-in-law. This part 
 nership continued but for a few years, when Mr. Moore retired 
 from the firm, Mr. CHANDLER continuing in the business until 
 he accumulated a fortune and became the most prosperous 
 merchant in the State. Mr. CHANDLER S political life com 
 menced in 1851, when he was nominated by the whigs of De 
 troit and elected mayor of said city. His extensive business 
 had made him acquaintances and friends all over the State, 
 and in the fall of 1852 he was nominated as the whig candi 
 date for governor, but, while running largely ahead of his 
 ticket, he was defeated by Hon. Robert McClelland, his demo 
 cratic opponent. He made his first political speeches in his 
 canvass for the governorship, and soon became- the recognized 
 leader of the whigs of his State. He took an active part in 
 the formation of the republican party at Jackson in 1854, and 
 a leading part in the campaigns of 1854 and 1856, speaking in 
 every part of the State, and his plain logic, clear and forcible 
 language gained him friends wherever he went. When the 
 republicans obtained control of the Legislature in 1856 the 
 party and people with great unanimity demanded the election 
 
98 ADDRESS OF ME. BREWER ON THE 
 
 of Mr. CHANDLER to succeed General Lewis Cass in the Sen 
 ate of the United States. He took his seat in the Senate on 
 the 4th of March, 1857, and was twice re-elected, and served 
 continuously for eighteen years. The venerable HANNIBAL 
 HAMLIN is the only one of his first associates in the Senate 
 who is serving in a like capacity to-day, and, I believe, the 
 only one now in public life. Nearly all others sleep the last 
 sleep. At the time Mr. CHANDLER entered the Senate excite 
 ment ran high over the repeal of the once famous Missouri 
 compromise, and the great contest relating to slavery in the 
 Territories was soon fought out between the friends of free 
 dom and oppression. 
 
 In this conflict Mr. CHANDLER stood boldly up for the fun 
 damental rights of man, and was a fit representative of his 
 great liberty-loving constituency. The continuous eighteen 
 years of Mr. CHANDLER S senatorial career were years fraught 
 with momentous events, and were the most eventful years in 
 American history. It was during these years that the bond 
 men were made free, that the nation was saved, the Union re 
 stored, and liberty preserved to the American people. It was 
 during these years that the rights of man were more firmly 
 guaranteed by amendments to the fundamental law of the 
 land. It was during the later years of Mr. CHANDLER S life 
 that the financial credit and the integrity and honor of the 
 nation were at stake ; when demagogues sought to build up a 
 political organization upon their country s shame. In the set 
 tlement of all these great questions, the vote and voice of the 
 late Senator truly represented the patriotic sentiment of the 
 people of his State. In October, 1875, Mr. CHANDLER was 
 chosen by President Grant as one of his constitutional ad 
 visers, and placed at the head of the Interior Department, 
 where he remained until March 4, 1877. His appointment, at 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 99 
 
 first, did riot meet with the commendation of the self assumed 
 high-toned theoretical politicians of his party; but when he 
 passed over the Interior Department to his successor, the peo 
 ple and press of all parties vied with each other in commending 
 the manner in which he had conducted the duties of his office. 
 He demonstrated by practical experience that he was the best 
 reformer of the civil service who chose his assistants and em 
 ploye s because of their practical knowledge of the duties they 
 were selected to perform, rather than he who selected them 
 because they succeeded in answering questions relating to mat 
 ters which in no manner pertained to their official duties. As 
 Secretary of the Interior he purified that Department of the 
 Government, and showed an executive talent surpassed by no 
 one who had filled the position. 
 
 Upon the resignation of Senator Christiancy in the spring of 
 1879, Mr. CHANDLER, as is well known, was chosen by the 
 Legislature of Michigan to fill the vacancy caused by such 
 resignation. In his long official life his great executive and 
 business ability, his industry and strict integrity, have met 
 the highest commendation of the press and people of all par 
 ties. No one has ever been bold enough to charge ZACHA 
 RIAH CHANDLER with corruption or peculation in office. Sen 
 ator CHANDLER was in many respects truly a great man. He 
 was not great in his style of oratory ; he was not great in his 
 classical learning or in his knowledge of the sciences, but he 
 was great, powerfully great, in his knowledge of men. He 
 was one who could mold public opinion and assimilate the 
 judgment of men, and such a man is truly great. He was 
 a leader of men ; he drew about him in his political councils 
 not only the aged, but the young, the vigorous, and active; he 
 was a man of the people and from the people, and herein lay 
 his strength. In his notions he was practical. His language 
 
 V 
 
100 ADDRESS OF MR. BREWER ON THE 
 
 was plain, and his ideas were clear and always forcibly ex 
 pressed. There never could be any misapprehension as to 
 which side of a business or political question he was on. Mr. 
 CHANDLER was a partisan, but he was first of all a patriot. 
 While he held his country above party, yet he firmly believed 
 that the stability of the nation and the political equality and 
 welfare of our people depended upon the success of the party 
 he so faithfully labored for and loved so well. He was bold, 
 fearless, and aggressive in his language and demeanor; he 
 was uncompromising in his utterances, and never shrank from 
 characterizing offenses in their true light. Had he been less 
 fearless he might at times have excused his language by utter 
 ing words spoken by another: 
 
 Judge me not ungentle, 
 Of manners rude, and violent of speech, 
 If when the public safety is in question 
 My zeal flows warm and eager from my tongue. 
 
 But he made no apologies. He preferred to leave his coun 
 trymen to judge his words and motives from his patriotic acts. 
 Mr. CHANDLER was a positive man. He threw the whole 
 power of his intellect against that which he believed to be 
 wrong, and he never wavered in his struggle to promote right 
 and advance truth and justice. He was possessed of great 
 energy and great mental and physical powers, and he never 
 doubted his ability to accomplish that which he set out to per 
 form. He adopted the motto of another: "Attempt the end 
 and never stand to doubt." If we look back over the pages 
 of the world s history we will find that the men of the mold 
 of Mr. CHANDLER, men that were positive, aggressive, bold 
 and fearless in the right, were the men who came to the front 
 in advancing the great principles of political and religious 
 liberty. Mr. CHANDLER above all was an honest man, in ofli- 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 101 
 
 cial as well as private life. He was plain in his dress and sim 
 ple in his habits. He was generous with his means and the 
 friend of the needy and unfortunate, and thousands of such 
 in his adopted city dropped a tear over his bier as they viewed 
 his manly form in death. He was a firm believer in the integ 
 rity of the American people, and during the political cam 
 paign of 1878 he took the strongest ground in favor of main 
 taining our national credit. He asserted that after mature 
 reflection the American people would no more think of repu 
 diating the nation s obligations than they would think of sub 
 mitting to a dissolution of the Union itself, and he gave this 
 fact as an illustration of the integrity of our people. He said, 
 during the late war, while he was in Washington, that he 
 loaned to our soldiers several thousands of dollars, in small 
 sums of from two to ten dollars to each, but that the whole 
 amount was repaid to him with the exception of about $10, 
 and he was satisfied that the poor men who owed him that 
 small amount had given their lives for their country: 
 
 Mr. Speaker, during the three short years that I have had 
 the honor of a seat in this body, very many of our desks have 
 been draped in mourning. Our legislative associates have 
 fallen all around us. Not only the small in stature and the 
 physically weak, but those who seemed to stand like mighty 
 oaks in the forest, have been stricken down by the icy hand of 
 death. Surely " God moves in a mysterious way." 
 
 When we separated and went to our homes last summer no 
 one seemed more likely to return in the vigor of health and 
 strength than he for whom we mourn to-day; but as a great 
 political contest in which he had taken an active part was 
 about to close, he slept. His popularity was never so great as 
 on the day of his death. He had become a recognized leader 
 of his party, and his words gave strength and wisdom to an 
 
102 ADDRESS OF MR. ROBESON ON THE 
 
 aggressive host. It will be hard to fill his place in the councils 
 of the nation or in the leadership of his party. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I first became acquainted with Mr. CHANDLER 
 in 1856, and he was then known by the familiar name of " Old 
 Zach," yet he was under forty-three years of age. For the last 
 twelve years of his life I knew him intimately, personally, and 
 politically, and our relations were very friendly. 
 
 Sir, I feel that the nation has lost a patriotic statesman, his 
 State its most illustrious citizen, and he who speaks to you a 
 noble friend. But ZAOHARIAH CHANDLER is gone. In the 
 beautiful "Elmwood," on the banks of a mighty river, his 
 friends laid him to rest, where his ashes will mingle with the 
 dust of other illustrious dead. 
 
 In common with the people of the State he served so well, 
 and which honored him so greatly, and of the Nation whose 
 rights, honor, and power he was such an uncompromising de 
 fender, and of the thousands of personal friends who loved 
 him, we cast upon his bier the faithful tribute of affection and 
 high regard, and so bid him a last farewell. 
 
 Address of Mr. ROBESON, of New Jersey. 
 
 From rock-bound coast and rugged mountain-side, from 
 quiet farms and busy villages, and from her thronging cen 
 ters of culture and of trade, New England pours her eager sons 
 along the path of every progress. From the elevating influ 
 ence of her noble social system, from her clustering churches, 
 from her teeming school-houses, from her free town-meetings, 
 they carry the impress of their New England origin, education, 
 and character into every field which human ambition dares to in 
 vade or human energy avails to conquer. What manner of men 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHAR1AII CHANDLER. 103 
 
 they are, who, borii of Puritan stock and inheriting the energies 
 and capactiies of Puritan character, develop them in the free 
 air and under the boundless horizon of the prairies, and amid 
 the activity and vitality of pioneer and frontier life, we know 
 and the world is beginning to realize. Carrying with them 
 everywhere the mental and moral qualities of their New Eng 
 land origin, they develop them in scenes of more intense vitality 
 and amid the struggles of larger elements of natural force. 
 Thus is produced a race uniting in themselves almost every 
 condition of physical, intellectual, and political development ; 
 a race which makes a new and mighty element of power, chal 
 lenging the attention and commanding the respect of the 
 world. 
 
 These reflections are suggested by a picture as remarkable 
 as any in the history of our country, and which would not be 
 possible in any other land or under different conditions of gov 
 ernment and political progress. Amid the crowd of emigrants 
 who in the earlier years of the present century turned their 
 backs upon home and birthplace in New England to seek their 
 fortunes in the growing West were two young men, born in the 
 little State of New Hampshire, who both finally settled in the 
 beautiful city of Detroit, which, sitting like a queen on the 
 banks of its great highway, has for so many years commanded 
 the trade and traffic of the Northwest. Their stern New Eng 
 land mother had thrown off each hi turn as the northern eagle 
 soaring from her eyrie shakes in mid-air her frightened fledg 
 lings from her back to try for themselves their new-grown pin 
 ions in the upward flight and dare alone the splendor and the 
 danger of the sky. The elder of the two was among the ear 
 lier settlers of the northern region, a soldier in its defense, and 
 a pioneer in its development. Reaching at an early period con 
 spicuous oflQcial position, his strong character and great abili- 
 
104 
 
 ADDRESS OF MB. ROBESON ON THE 
 
 ties swayed to his own views the principles and the actions of 
 the people among whom he lived. Bepresenting in the Senate 
 of the United States the great State of Michigan, he was for 
 many years the political champion and leader of opinion in the 
 Northwest. 
 
 The other, whose recent death is the occasion of these cere 
 monies, leaving at a later period the scenes of his youth, car 
 ried with him to his adopted State the same inborn qualities of 
 energy and strength of character, enriched by the same intense 
 love of his country, but molded in a different school of political 
 faith, developing into different ideas of political policy, govern 
 ment, and progress. The one was the veteran champion and 
 representative of the older democracy; the other soon became 
 a leader of the new republicanism. In the struggle of parties 
 which often convulsed the State they were ever representative 
 antagonists, and as one of the early fruits of the great political 
 revolution which swept the Northwest, the younger was elected 
 to the seat of the elder in the Senate of the United Slates, a 
 position which he held until a very recent period, keeping in 
 the hands of these two sons of New Hampshire, almost unbro 
 ken from the time of its organization, the senatorial power 
 and influence of the great State of Michigan. 
 
 For many years antagonists in political strife, rivals for po 
 litical office, and representatives of different political policy, 
 the great peril which threatened their common country brought 
 them at last together, and, uniting them in a common endeavor 
 for its rescue and safety, engendered a personal friendship 
 which was broken only by the death of the elder; and to-day 
 Lewis Cass and ZACHARIAH CHANDLER sleep almost side by 
 side beneath the soil of the great Commonwealth which they 
 both loved so well, which was the scene of their political 
 rivalry, and which honored each in his turn with its confidence 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 105 
 
 and highest trust. Their graves, like those in the old ceme 
 tery at Portland, where lie face to face the commanders of the 
 Enterprise and the Boxer, cover indeed the remains of rival 
 champions, but represent now quiet after strife, equality after 
 rivalry, and the utter subjection of all human power to His 
 will " whose mercy endureth forever." 
 
 The Senate of which Mr. CHANDLER became a member was 
 as remarkable as any which has been known in the history of 
 our country. The principles involved in its contests were those 
 upon which depended the future character and direction of our 
 Government and its influence for all time ; and the men to 
 whom, in the providence of God, their illustration was com 
 mitted were worthy of their high trust. 
 
 The political party to which he belonged was at that time 
 greatly in the minority in the Senate, and many of its members 
 had, like himself, been chosen for the qualities which mark the 
 courage of high convictions rather than for official or govern 
 mental experience, but like him they brought to the contest 
 energy, activity, and constancy, noble impulses of duty, the 
 courage of lofty purposes, clear conception of the ends to be 
 finally reached, and a fixed determination to dare, to do, and 
 to suffer all that might be necessary for their accomplishment. 
 
 It would not become the occasion to recount the many strug 
 gles, trials, and triumphs of that great contest ; it is sufficient 
 now to say that Mr. CHANDLER brought to the side of his 
 party the most valuable and decisive qualities of mind and 
 heart. Vigorous and energetic, yet thoughtful and astute; 
 of large views, yet with clear conceptions ; of liberal ideas, 
 yet with fixed principles; of high aspirations, yet with con 
 centrated purposes these were qualities born on New Eng 
 land soil indeed, but developed on broader fields and amid the 
 struggle of more elemental forces. A heart open as day to 
 
 14 c 
 
106 ADDRESS OF MB. ROBESON ON THE 
 
 every manly sympathy; a steadfastness which did not yield, 
 and a faith which never faltered ; a simplicity which told of 
 honor, and a courage which was born of freedom these were 
 qualities of heart which belonged to the man himself, which 
 enshrined him in the love of friends, and took hold on the 
 affections of the people. 
 
 During the whole period of our acquaintance, my own asso 
 ciation with Mr. CHANDLER was intimate, close, and confiden 
 tial. Of his senatorial career I need not speak further; his 
 record is written on the pages of his country s history. But of 
 the closer and more confidential relations of Cabinet life and 
 duty in which we were associated together I may bear special 
 testimony. There, as everywhere, he exhibited the highest 
 qualities of character and of heart ; he was at once liberal to 
 every person, just to every interest, and constant to every 
 duty ; his every action was honor and all his endeavors were 
 for the right ; and each day he grew more and more in the love 
 and in the respect of his chief and of his associates. 
 
 In the fullness of his strength, in the plenitude of his influ 
 ence, in the richest development of his faculties, clad with the 
 regalia of a nation s confidence, and covered with love as with 
 a garment, he has fallen in the night, and the scenes which 
 once knew him so well will know him no more forever. The 
 successes to which he contributed will endure for others, 
 but the mind enriched and developed, the enlightened heart, 
 and the elevated spirit which achieved them are lost to his 
 country and his friends just as, equipped and trained for 
 severer struggles, the veteran turned to new conquests. Here 
 we must pause ; we can go no further. This is the " be-all and 
 the end-all here"; beyond is "the undiscovered country, from 
 whose bourn no traveler returns"; but here is the moral and 
 a lesson : Life is far too short to realize to man more than the 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OP ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 107 
 
 merest possibilities of his nature. The heart is full of aspira 
 tions, and the iniiid of possibilities which are not, which can 
 not be, realized in this world. At each step which we take for 
 ward we see nearer and clearer the far-off goals, toward which 
 the spirit aspires, but which human ambition may never reach, 
 but, like the stars which shine down the long avenues of 
 heaven, their endless line of lights on lights beyond" tells 
 like prophecy the immortal destiny of man. 
 
 Address of Mr. BURROWS, of Michigan. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER : Conscious as I am of the exalted place Sen 
 ator CHANDLER held in the hearts of the people whom I have 
 the honor in part to represent, I should feel that I had disre 
 garded the wishes of my immedate constituents should I per 
 mit this occasion to pass without attempting to give expression 
 to their high appreciation of his character and their profound 
 sense of irreparable loss. 
 
 I am not apprehensive, sir, that I shall expose myself to the 
 imputation of fulsome eulogy of the dead, or unjust detraction 
 from the merits of the living, by declaring that no citizen of 
 Michigan stood higher in the public regard, or could by his 
 death have so disturbed the public repose, as the distinguished 
 Senator whose sudden demise has given occasion for this solemn 
 observance. That he occupied a foremost place in the State s 
 esteem is evidenced by the prolonged and illustrious service to 
 which her partiality repeatedly called him ; that he is sincerely 
 lamented is attested by the manifestations of public and pri 
 vate grief attending his imposing obsequies. 
 
 The qualities of head and heart which thus endeared him to 
 the people of Michigan were so conspicuous that they readily 
 
108 ADDRESS OF MR. BURROWS ON THE 
 
 suggest themselves to every one familiar with his public 
 career, for the prominent and distinguished features of his 
 character were so pronounced that they could be neither dis 
 guised nor misunderstood. 
 
 Chiefest among these was his unchallenged honesty. Hold 
 ing, for a quarter of a century, some of the most responsible 
 positions in the gift of his State and the nation, whether par 
 ticipating in the legislation of the country or in the adminis 
 tration of its laws, his course was ever marked by the same 
 unswerving integrity. Provoking, as he did, by his pro 
 nounced partisanship the fiercest assaults of his political an 
 tagonists, yet no adversary was ever bold enough to attack 
 his official integrity or impugn his personal honor. 
 
 Nor would he brook dishonesty in others. It is said that, 
 when Secretary of the Interior, becoming satisfied that a cer 
 tain bureau in that department needed thorough renovation, 
 he sent for the head of the division and directed the immedi 
 ate dismissal of twelve of bis most prominent subordinates. 
 The chief of the bureau expostulated with the Secretary and 
 finally declared that it would be impossible to transact the 
 business of his department without their assistance. " Very 
 well, sir," replied the Secretary, "then the business of your 
 department will be suspended j for unless you make these 
 removals by four o clock this afternoon, that branch of the 
 public service will be closed." It is needless to add that 
 the orders of the Secretary were immediately executed and 
 the subordinates discharged. 
 
 If it be true that " an honest man is the noblest work of 
 God," then ZACHARIAH CHANDLER was one of nature s mas 
 ter-pieces. 
 
 " He never sold the right to serve the hour," 
 Or paltered with eternal truth for power. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHAR1AII CIIANDLKU. 10!) 
 
 Then, again, he was a man of matchless courage. Positive 
 in his convictions, he was bold in their advocacy. His course 
 of action once determined upon, supported by an approving 
 conscience, no fear of popular disfavor or personal discomfiture 
 could swerve him from his fixed purpose. No matter what the 
 emergency, he was always equal to it. Where others doubted, 
 he was confident ; where others faltered, he was immovable ; 
 where others queried, he affirmed. Whether engaged in pre 
 serving the nation s life or sustaining the national credit, 
 whether in the Senate or in the Cabinet, he was the same fear 
 less, intrepid leader. There was no error, however popular, he 
 would not assail no truth, however despised, he would not 
 champion. As illustrative of his indomitable courage in great 
 emergencies, it is related of him that immediately after the 
 battle of Bull Run, when the Republic seemed tottering to its 
 downfall, he called upon the President to advise with him in 
 relation to the exigencies of the hour. Mr. Lincoln was in 
 despair, and met Mr. CHANDLER with the exclamation : " The 
 country is lost! what shall we do?" "Do!" responded the 
 stalwart Senator, " call immediately for three hundred thou 
 sand volunteers." " But will the people respond F questioned 
 the Executive. " Yes, sir, if you were to make it a million." 
 And it is said that he never quit the executive chamber until 
 he bore the order from Mr. Lincoln to Secretary Stanton direct 
 ing the summons. He was one of the few public men who, in 
 the consideration of great questions, not only had positive con 
 victions, but the moral courage to avow them, regardless alike 
 of public opinion or personal consequences. It mattered not 
 how popular a measure might be, or how much its advocacy 
 might enhance the chances of party success, Senator CHANDLER 
 never yielded his convictions for a momentary advantage. It 
 mattered not how exalted any man might be in the public re- 
 
110 
 
 ADDEESS OF MR. HAWLEY ON THE 
 
 gard, if Senator CHANDLER believed him unworthy of the ad 
 vancement he would not hesitate to assail him. And he never 
 resorted to temporary expedients to achieve temporary suc 
 cess or allay popular clamor. 
 
 Unpracticed he to fawn or seek for power 
 By doctrines fashioned to the varying hour. 
 
 And, finally, he was faithful to every public duty and true 
 to his friends. Treachery found.no place in his character. He 
 never betrayed a public trust or a personal friend. 
 
 Fortunate will we be if it can be said of us when we are 
 gone, as it can be truthfully declared of him : He was an hon 
 est public servant, a fearless champion of the right, and a 
 faithful friend. 
 
 Address of Mr. HAWLEY, of Connecticut. 
 
 I gladly take a few moments to manifest my sorrow for 
 the death of Mr. CHANDLEE, and my high respect for the 
 many pronounced and praiseworthy elements of his charac 
 ter. It was a frank, brave, manly, strong nature. Whatever 
 he loved he loved indeed} when he hated at all he blazed. 
 When he enlisted for a cause he gave it his soul and mind and 
 body. He furnishes an eminent example among a multitude 
 of men stalwart in all things physical, mental, and moral 
 who have swarmed westward for a century and built up an 
 empire. He carried with him the traditions of his New En 
 gland home. His force and good judgment bore him upward 
 in business ; his honesty secured him abundant trust and con 
 fidence ; his public spirit compelled him to enter public life. 
 He rejoiced in the inspirations of conflict, and had a righteous 
 contempt for neutrals. ll Some say there is a God ; some say 
 there is no God." Mr. CHANDLER would never have said, 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHAHIAH CHANDLER. Ill 
 
 "the truth lies between the two extremes." A mail once 
 prominent in American letters and politics, who failed to 
 secure the success in public life to which his intellectual abili 
 ties apparently entitled him, described, as lessening his avail 
 ability for political leadership, his irresistible tendency to see 
 in the strongest light the arguments and sentiments of his op 
 ponents, and to permit his vigor of action to be modified ac 
 cordingly. Mr. CHANDLER never suffered through any such 
 weakness. He was never in danger of being turned into a 
 pillar of salt. 
 
 Willing enough to concede that his opponents might be sin 
 cere, he would rejoice in that sincerity as giving promise of a 
 finer battle. It would never have occurred to him that it 
 ought to save them from defeat. 
 
 His roughness and readiness provoked criticism. Men more 
 scholarly, judicial, deliberate, and many-sided, and by reason 
 thereof often less valuable in times of stormy action, were apt 
 to undervalue Mr. CHANDLER. But his advice and judgment 
 were sound in the startling crisis of war, and, while it was not 
 a surprise to those who really knew him, it was a great satis 
 faction to see him become in time of peace a Secretary of the 
 Interior, pointed to as a model of integrity and vigor. 
 
 His opponents made a common mistake in deeming the 
 sledge-hammer combatant lacking in the graces of friendship. 
 He hated many things; I do not think he hated any man. 
 He had lived through enough of rude conflict in private and 
 public to know that we may judge opinions and principles 
 by the light we have, but should estimate men by the light 
 they have. 
 
 All the time he lived he was indeed a live man. And 
 though he be dead, the magnetism of his nature is here to 
 day, and will be felt for generations. 
 
112 ADDRESS OF ME. DUNNELL ON THE 
 
 Address of Mr. DUNNELL, of Minnesota. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER : The late Senator CHANDLER attained polit 
 ical eminence and secured the admiration of the American 
 people because he had and exhibited in action some of the best 
 traits of an attractive human character. He had integrity, 
 honesty, patriotism, boldness, and moral bravery. These qual 
 ities were the pillars upon which; in a large degree, rested Ms 
 national fame. They gave him success in each great theater 
 of his life. 
 
 When his remains awaited burial in the city of Detroit, his 
 fellow-citizens, in large numbers and irrespective of party, in 
 their unanimously adopted resolutions, made conspicuous these 
 shining characteristics. His honesty, his uprightness, his un- 
 corruptedness in the transactions of life were in daily play, and 
 came to be the universally conceded qualities of the man. 
 
 This animating and controlling principle greatly augmented, 
 without doubt, the force of those other traits to which refer 
 ence has been, made. He did not yield to the temptations 
 which come to men willing to acquire gain and place by the 
 use of deceptive and otherwise unworthy methods. As he 
 hated fraud, he demanded a clean record, a full exposure of 
 all the motives which shaped and impelled the actions of men. 
 His denunciations of men who in action were not what their 
 professions would make them, were signally severe. For such 
 men, he had no excuses. If he was intolerant, his honesty 
 made him so. There was no sham in this great distinguishing 
 element in his character. It was firmly rooted and unceas 
 ingly operative. It did not leave him when he passed from 
 private into public life. During his eighteen years of service 
 in the Senate of the United States, much of it opening paths 
 to personal profit, which touched and hurt other men, he made 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER. 113 
 
 such a record for honesty, in its largest signification, that it 
 left in the background and to be forgotten forever whatever of 
 faults, if any, may have touched his personal character. 
 
 After a short retirement from the Senate, he became the Sec 
 retary of the Interior. He was exempt from assaults at no 
 period in his political career. They were renewed when he 
 returned to Washington to assume the duties of an executive 
 officer and take his place in the Cabinet of President Grant. 
 These attacks, however, never reached his integrity. If they 
 had been made with that view, he could have used the words 
 of Shakespeare and said : 
 
 There is no terror in your threats : 
 For I am arm cl so strong in honesty, 
 That they pass by me as the idle wind, 
 Which I respect not. 
 
 If the history of the lamented Senator be written, no pages in 
 it will be brighter or more illustrative of the man than those 
 which shall set forth the thorough and needed reforms which 
 he wrought in the Department of the Government over which 
 he presided. Civil service with him had an honest meaning. 
 It must have its illustration in the full labor of men loyal to 
 the Government and competent to do the work assigned them. 
 He hated civil service rules, because in their practical opera 
 tion they were too often a cheat. Not long had he served in 
 this new capacity before there came from every quarter the 
 free and hearty acknowledgment that he possessed executive 
 and administrative abilities of a high order. 
 
 The congressional legislation of 1854 brought the subject of 
 our eulogies from his comparative obscurity and led the way to 
 his long and eventful public career. The republican party 
 was born of that legislation. In the formation of the party he 
 took an early and conspicuous part. In after years, and indeed 
 
 15 
 
114 ADDRESS OF MR. DUNNELL ON THE 
 
 till his death, he was in it a wise and sagacious adviser and 
 supporter. His consummate ability in party organization kept 
 him for many years at the head of the national republican 
 committee. 
 
 The repeal of the Missouri compromise he regarded as a 
 blow aimed at the life of the nation. This act aroused into 
 the intensest activity his sublime love of the Union. From 
 this hour his voice was heard. The directness and severity 
 with which he spoke of measures which he deemed hostile to 
 the public good may be charged to his ardent love of country. 
 He was an extreme partisan because he sincerely believed his 
 party alone could save and best serve the Eepublic. He did 
 not think it possible to save it by any other political organiza 
 tion or agency. His uncompromising devotion to the Union 
 would not suffer him to consider for an hour any terms of 
 compromise or conciliation. The sincerity and honesty of his 
 motives were never questioned by those who knew him. His 
 vast labors for the Government during the war, and the sol 
 diers who were standing against its enemies, were inspired 
 by a deep and generous patriotism. No man will do him jus 
 tice who does not credit to it all he did and sacrificed for it 
 when its life was in peril. His words were indeed barbed, but 
 his nature would not suffer the coinage of any other. 
 
 I have said, Mr. Speaker, that one of the marked traits in 
 the Senator s character was his boldness. His honesty made 
 it impossible for him to evade or conceal. He did not hesitate 
 at any time or in any place to utter his convictions or use 
 right names. He spoke as he felt. Words with him were put 
 to their legitimate use. Frankness marked the man and was 
 the offspring of his honesty. He said what he thought the 
 occasion required. It would not have been possible for him 
 to do less and be himself. He was rugged in conviction and 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER. 115 
 
 in utterance. His speeches in the Senate during the extra 
 session of last year were charged with the severest denuncia 
 tions, for they came of the views which he had entertained 
 concerning the war and its chief actors. He could not have 
 made them otherwise. 
 
 It may be said that the Senator, though sincere, was ex 
 treme and daring, yet such a man is safer in the councils of a 
 nation than a timid man, for the latter is quite certain to sur 
 render his whole cause WHEN some crisis is reached and ichen 
 the highest order of courage is the stern necessity of the hour. 
 The brave man will never deceive either friend or foe. 
 
 The last speeches of Senator CHANDLER in the Senate 
 brought him invitations to address the people in many States 
 of the Union. He spoke many times in Ohio, Maine, Massa 
 chusetts New York, Wisconsin, and Illinois during the months 
 of August, September, and October. Vast crowds greeted 
 him wherever he spoke. The masses loved his directness of 
 speech. They honored him for what he was and what he said. 
 Faneuil Hall resounded with the loud and long applause 
 which followed his words. His reception in every place was 
 an ovation. 
 
 Turning his face homeward, he reached the city of Chicago 
 on the 31st of October. Here, when the echoes of his last 
 eloquent appeal to the thousands who here so enthusiastic 
 ally heard him, had scarcely died away, the spirit of the bold 
 Senator, the incorruptible statesman and the earnest patriot, 
 took its flight. Here ended a life grandly useful and heroic. 
 This generation cannot forget its greatness, and coming gen 
 erations will admire its singular devotion to the Republic. 
 
116 ADDRESS OF MR. STONE ON THE 
 
 Address of Mr. STONE, of Michigan. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER: In the death of ZACHARIAH CHANDLER a 
 great political party has lost one of its recognized leaders, 
 and the nation one of her most distinguished sons. His life 
 and acts have been interwoven with the history and progress 
 of the State of Michigan and of this nation during the last 
 twenty-five years. 
 
 The life of Senator CHANDLER adds another name to that 
 long list of men in this country who, by dint of persevering 
 application and energy, have raised themselves from the 
 lower ranks of industry to eminent positions of usefulness 
 and influence in the nation. The presidential chair and the 
 Halls of Congress have contained many such self-raised 
 m en fitting representatives of the industrial character of 
 the American people and it is to the credit of our institu 
 tions that such men have received due recognition and honor 
 at the hands of the people. 
 
 Mr. CHANDLER S education was limited to that of the com 
 mon schools and an academy of his native State, New Hamp 
 shire. 
 
 In 1833, at the age of twenty years, he removed to the city 
 of Detroit, and soon after engaged in the mercantile business, 
 in which he was very successful. 
 
 His public life began by his election to the oflice of mayor 
 of his adopted city in the year 1851. He was in 1852 brought 
 prominently before the people of Michigan as the whig candi 
 date for governor. Although the contest was a hopeless one 
 he made a spirited and energetic canvass, and established a 
 prestige in the State which he ever afterward enjoyed. From 
 this time to the day of his death Mr. CHANDLER took an 
 active interest in the politics of his adopted State and the 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACIIARIAH CHANDLER. 117 
 
 nation. In the winter of 1856- 57 he was elected to the 
 United States Senate, to succeed Lewis Cass, being the first 
 republican Senator from Michigan. 
 
 In the Senate he took hold of his work with the same 
 energy and directness that had characterized him as a suc 
 cessful merchant and business man. He saw the coming 
 greatness of the Northwest and devoted himself chiefly to 
 the commerce and industries of the lake region, becoming so 
 thoroughly acquainted with the subject that he was soon con 
 sidered an authority on all questions touching the interests or 
 development of that part of the country. 
 
 He especially demanded for the Northwest a place on the 
 Committee on Commerce in the Senate, a committee of which 
 he was afterward chairman for so many years. It is said that 
 the first bill he ever presented was one to improve the Saint 
 Clair Flats by deepening the channel over them. This bill, 
 and his next to deepen Saint Mary s Kiver, he pushed with 
 that untiring energy which marked his course afterward in 
 such matters. During the debate in the Senate on the Saint 
 Clair bill Mr. CHANDLER said, " I want to see who is friendly 
 to the great Northwest and who is not, for we are about 
 making our last prayer here. The time is not far distant 
 when, instead of coming here and begging for our rights, we 
 shall extend our hands and take the blessing. After 1860 we 
 shall not be here as beggars." 
 
 Time will not permit us on this occasion to follow him 
 minutely in his successful career in the Senate. Long iden 
 tified with the interests and prosperity of Michigan, no man 
 has accomplished more for her material interests than Mr. 
 CHANDLER. Outside of political and party lines he has been 
 of great service to the State, and his death is there considered 
 a great calamity. He will fill an honorable page in the history 
 
118 ADDRESS OF MR. STONE ON THE 
 
 of his country s struggles and triumph over human slavery. 
 He hated oppression wherever he found it, and counted no 
 consequence in denouncing the oppressor. 
 
 Senator CHANDLER was a man of decided convictions and 
 utterances. His boldness and frankness of speech often led 
 to a misconception of his character, and made the impression 
 that he was tyrannical and vindictive. His nature was emi 
 nently genial, tender, and sympathetic. He felt keenly the 
 wrongs of others, and was never more outspoken than when 
 defending the cause of the weak and oppressed. 
 
 Pending the rebellion, he was loyal, hopeful, helpful, and a 
 military division in himself, to help Lincoln, Grant, and Stan- 
 ton. He was devoted to the Union in its hour of peril. His 
 earnest, persevering labors amid the darkest days of its trial 
 and difficulty, his courage and steadfastness in the pursuit of 
 his noble aims and purposes in the interest of the nation, were 
 no less heroic of their kind than the bravery and devotion of 
 the soldier whose duty and whose pride it was heroically to 
 defend it upon the battle-field. No human being can accu 
 rately say how much of our final victory during war and re 
 construction was vitally and indisputably ministered by ZACH- 
 ARIAH CHANDLER. He was absolutely invincible and fearless. 
 I wish to pay a brief tribute to the fearless independence of his 
 character, to h.is integrity, his honest adherence to the principles 
 which he believed to be right, to the rugged force of his talents, 
 all of which made him an important element in the affairs of 
 the nation during the last quarter of a century. Few men in 
 this country ever wielded a stronger political influence than 
 Senator CHANDLER. He was a man of firm convictions, and, 
 though an ardent partisan, was just. His character was unim 
 peachable. Throughout his course of public life not even his 
 bitterest opponents ever had aught to say against his honesty. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 119 
 
 Few men have taken such a firm, deep hold on the confi 
 dence and regard of the country. His sturdy patriotism and 
 his uncompromising loyalty carried and captivated the popu 
 lar heart. He had something in his composition that com 
 pelled respect and confidence from the people. One of Napo 
 leon s favorite maxims was, "The truest wisdom is a resolute 
 determination. 77 If it is a blessing to be possessed of a stout 
 heart, then Senator CHANDLER was eminently blessed. The 
 people of Michigan, and all who knew him, had unbounded 
 confidence in the will-power and energy of " Old Zach," as he 
 was familiarly called at home. I believe it is true that it is 
 not the men of genius who move the world, and take the lead 
 in it, but men of steadfastness and invincible determination. 
 
 Mr. CHANDLER was strong with the people because he was 
 conspicuously one of the people, moved by their honest im 
 pulses, filled with their strong sense, and sharing their earnest 
 convictions. There was no pretense or false show about him. 
 He was brave, true, manly, square, and direct, and was never 
 afraid to call things by their right names. He made no claim 
 to polish or the art of rhetoric. He was a strong man, rather 
 than a scholarly one; a man of great common sense; a prac 
 tical rather than a brilliant statesman. His practical sagac 
 ity, his resolute will, and great courage made him a greater 
 force than many of finer polish and larger acquirements. He 
 was a natural leader, and no man in our history as a State 
 ever had a more faithful following. He leaves a gap which it 
 will be difficult to fill. Upon the nation which honored him, 
 and the State which loved him, the news of his death fell with 
 great suddenness and the force of an awful shock. But he 
 could not have chosen a better time to die had he been given 
 the power of choice, for he went in the zenith of his fame and 
 usefulness in the midst of activity and labor, and with the 
 
120 ADDRESS OF MR. KEIFER ON THE 
 
 harness on. His last public utterances were for an honest 
 government and an undivided nation. 
 
 A widespread and public sorrow on the announcement of 
 his death attested the profound sense of the loss which the 
 State of Michigan and the whole country sustained. Former 
 political animosities were forgotten, and all, without distinc 
 tion of politics, creed, or nativity, seemed to feel that the State 
 and nation had lost a strong pillar. 
 
 Let us imitate his virtues and cherish his memory. 
 
 Address of Mr. KEIFER, of Ohio. 
 
 Mr. SPTCATTRR: If we were to call the roll of the dead who 
 have fallen from the ranks of those who have mustered in this 
 our country s Capitol, we should hear the names of many 
 historic souls familiar to the ears of the people of all lands, 
 and not among the least of those would be found the name 
 of him on whose account we meet here to-day to pay a last 
 tribute of respect. 
 
 My personal relations with the late Senator ZACHARIAH 
 CHANDLER were limited to occasional and incidental meetings 
 during the last two years of his life. To those who knew him 
 well and intimately during the many years of his long, event 
 ful, and useful life it must be left to speak of him in his social 
 and family relations. But his public life and acts belong to 
 the whole country; and in so far as he was the instrument 
 of good to mankind ; in so far as his life was exemplary and 
 worthy of imitation ; in so far as he was a type of American 
 manhood and an honor to his country and race, he belongs to 
 history. 
 
 While his life and public services may not have been sin- 
 

 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAII CHANDLER. 121 
 
 gularly grand, they were transcendeutly great. It has often 
 been said, with a view of detracting from individual greatness, 
 that men only become great because they have lived and been 
 called on to grapple with great events. It is not to be denied 
 that great occasions develop great intellects and great men. 
 It is also true that men who have high and responsible public 
 duties cast on them, as a rule meet and discharge them, often 
 to the surprise of their friends, with singular faithfulness and 
 ability. But in the long and eventful period in our country s 
 history through which the lamented Senator lived many strong 
 men faltered, hesitated, and fell. 
 
 The differences in men are rarely to be measured by their 
 difference in natural and purely intellectual endowments; 
 they consist more commonly in the differences in zeal, energy 
 physical energy perseverance, devotion to duty, to friends 
 and country, pride of success, love of honor, self-respect, high 
 resolve, dauntless spirit, and, above all, a desire to do good. 
 Senator CHANDLER possessed most if not all of these endow 
 ments, and more largely than most of the great and good men 
 of the world. 
 
 If I were compelled to name the one leading characteristic 
 which he was endowed with in a higher degree than another, 
 and which ruled him in private and public affairs throughout 
 his useful life, I should say it was heroism. Though not a 
 warrior in the period of war, his whole life was a heroic one. 
 Heroes are not found alone in the fiery furnace of war ; they 
 are common to the paths of peace. He possessed true heroism, 
 "the self-devotion of genius manifesting itself in action." His 
 was not only of that kind of heroism denoting fearlessness of 
 danger, passive courage, ability to bear up under trials amid 
 dangers and sufferings ; nor was it only that fortitude, brav 
 ery, and valor which is essential to those who go forth to con- 
 
 1G c 
 
122 ADDRESS OF MR. KEIFER ON THE 
 
 flicts with living opponents in personal mortal combat as 
 duelists or in battle ; it was made up of that intrepidity and 
 courage which shrinks not in the presence of appalling dan 
 gers. Senator CHANDLER was unpretentious, and as a hus 
 band, father, and friend was kind, patronizing, and gentle ; 
 but when stormy times came his brow seemed to darken, and 
 that great body of his, which appeared to the beholder to be 
 one of the motive forces of creation, strode fearlessly to the 
 front, and there by common consent held sway until all danger 
 was passed. 
 
 Many courageous men, not truly heroic, falter and fail to 
 enter the lists when a conflict is imminent. Not so the de 
 ceased Senator. He was a leader when the times or occasions 
 demanded true valor. It is in the lead where men fall or are 
 sacrificed. The leaders in charging a foe are the most con 
 spicuous marks, and they are the first to receive the manly 
 fire of bold enemies and often the cowardly arrows of hiding 
 foes in the rear, not uofrequently springing from the bow of 
 envy or jealousy. 
 
 He escaped in a singular degree, and died in old age with 
 his armor on. In a successful civil as in a successful military 
 life and in the eyes of an often undiscriminating public suc 
 cess in either is the only test of true greatness it is easier to 
 be led to scenes where honor and glory are won than to be one 
 of the few who lead there. 
 
 In the bloody conflicts of war the percentage of those who 
 cannot, if well commanded, meet the actual conflict of battle 
 with a good show of courage is very small indeed, yet the 
 large mass of men are physical cowards. Mr. CHANDLER had 
 no element of cowardice in him. He was always a natural 
 leader. 
 
 As a business man he sought out a comparatively new State 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 123 
 
 and attained success by foresight, energy, and enterprise. 
 He left a large fortune. This same foresight, energy, and 
 enterprise he carried with him throughout his public life. He 
 was devoted to his friends and magnanimous to his foes, but 
 not to the latter until he was sure they were conquered. 
 
 As a political leader he was known to be a violent partisan. 
 This came from his having no half-way convictions of duty 
 and right. When he had work to do he struck heavy blows. 
 He did not lightly tap a nail on the head to start it on its 
 course, but drove it home at a single blow. He was said to 
 be uncompromising in his character. This was unjust to him, 
 save in all matters where his country or principle was involved. 
 He was honest, and integrity in private and public affairs was 
 a pole-star for his guidance. He may have erred, and doubt 
 less did, in many things. It is only human to err. His impet 
 uous and fiery nature may have sometimes caused him to go 
 astray, but he was willing to make amends for any wrong 
 he had done to another when in his power. 
 
 Like all positive men who come prominently upon the stage 
 of life, he had not friends alone, but violent enemies. But 
 like a giant oak that withstands the tornadoes as well as the 
 gentler winds for a century, and grows stronger and firmer in 
 its fiber, Senator CHANDLER grew in mental and moral stature 
 by reason of the violence of his foes. He, like the oak, could 
 not have flourished alone in the sunshine of life. He needed, 
 if he did not deserve, its stormy days to prepare him for his 
 high destiny. It has been said by another who had to bear 
 more than seemed to be his share of violent opposition, " that 
 he could as little afford to spare his enemies as his friends." 
 They fitted and qualified him for better and nobler duties. 
 Mr. CHANDLER S body and mind were alike of the rugged, not 
 to say rough, cast. 
 
124 ADDRESS OF MR. KEIFER ON THE 
 
 His light, though not such as would be called in high lit 
 erary circles brilliant, yet it burned fiercely, reaching on occa 
 sions a white heat, in the presence of which his opponents 
 withered. In debate he was fearlessly outspoken. He could 
 take as well as give herculean blows. Better men may have 
 lived than plain old ZACHARIAH CHANDLER, but none ex 
 celled him in love of country or of his fellow-men. For sub 
 terfuge and dodging he had a brave man s scorn. He always 
 spoke his mind and acted boldly up to his convictions. He 
 was for war when peace no longer seemed possible. As early 
 as 1860 he gave it as his opinion that " a little blood-letting 
 would be good for the body politic." He was then for war, 
 and in the national halls of legislation he gave his voice and 
 votes for its rigorous prosecution. 
 
 He believed in the fiat of the emancipation which made 
 plain Abe Lincoln s name immortal. It has been said that he 
 was indiscreet, boisterous, and headstrong. So far as this 
 may have been true it was because he had in great affairs 
 absolutely no nonsense about him. As a political enemy of 
 his has said, " He went straight for the thing in sight, and 
 generally came off with it." 
 
 His warm and generous nature would not allow him to be 
 tray a friend or thrust an enemy in the back. If throughout 
 his whole career his life was not one in all respects to be imi 
 tated by the young men of the country, it cannot be said that 
 he corrupted them. 
 
 It was my fortune to meet him for a day near the close of 
 his life. He was then on duty for a cause in which his heart 
 and soul were enlisted, and in that cause he died. He had 
 then entered upon his last campaign. It was bounded by no 
 State lines. He addressed the people in Ohio on the political 
 issues which he deemed vital to them ; he flew from place to 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 125 
 
 place rapidly, and was gone, and the " talking lightning " told 
 us he was in the distant State of Massachusetts, and thunder 
 ing his plain but convincing speech in Faneuil Hall to the 
 learned men of Boston. We heard of him elsewhere in that 
 State and in the State of New York; then came the news that 
 he was in the far Northwest the State of Wisconsin pouring 
 livid, convincing arguments out to our people. The morning 
 papers announced that he was to address the assembled multi 
 tudes in that magic, wondrous city of Chicago on the night of 
 October 31, 1879. 
 
 The early papers on the next day gave us his speech, but 
 with it came the startling announcement ZACH. CHANDLER 
 is dead ! Strong men and women mourned. His friends and 
 foes stood dazed in the presence of the sad tidings. They did 
 not know how to contemplate him from the stand-point of 
 death. He died as a hero might wish to die like a plumed 
 knight " booted and spurred." It is fitting that here in these 
 halls that knew him so long we should pay him a last tribute 
 and shed copious tears to his memory. As we contemplate 
 him dead in his final chamber of repose in the poet s lan 
 guage we may truthfully say : 
 
 Here lurks no treason, here no envy swells, 
 
 Here grow no damned grudges ; here are no storms, 
 
 No noise ; but silence and eternal sleep. 
 
 Address of Mr. CONGER, of Michigan. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER: The name and fame of ZACHARIAH CHAN 
 DLER, of Michigan, needs no heralding in this House, in this 
 Congress, in this nation. None is more familiar to the Ameri 
 can people ; none ever more honored by the citizens of his own 
 State. 
 
126 ADDRESS DF MR. CONGER ON THE 
 
 Those of us who speak of him to-day bring our loving 
 though mournful tribute to his memory as we pay the last 
 official honors to one who served so long and so well in the 
 Congress of the nation. 
 
 I may not here recall the long years of my personal friend 
 ship and regard, nor shall I venture to give expression to the 
 emotions which crowd upon me as I remember the obligations 
 of friendship, of kindness and encouragement which have as 
 sisted my public labors and been so pleasant in my private 
 life. 
 
 Nor do I design to give even a sketch of the private or 
 public life of the distinguished statesman and patriot whose 
 untimely death we deplore. 
 
 Others, here and elsewhere, will better perform that sacred 
 duty, and gather together the abundant material furnished by 
 three-score years of an eventful life to instruct, enlighten, and 
 gratify the people whom he served so long and so well. 
 
 If I am permitted to refer to some scenes and events of his 
 life, not so likely to be mentioned by others to allude to some 
 remembrances of circumstances which he himself in private 
 conversation has spoken of as influencing his life and forming 
 his character, I shall perhaps furnish some little aid to those 
 who desire to know the peculiarities of his life and analyze 
 the motives of his action. 
 
 CHANDLER was born December 10, 1813, in the time of our 
 second national struggle, and the earliest impression of his 
 childhood and the first lessons around the New England fire 
 side were colored by the intense patriotism which frontier life 
 and border warfare had imparted to those who had been alike 
 ready to fight the other States in behalf of the Hampshire 
 grants, and the rest of the world in behalf of the rights of the 
 nation. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 127 
 
 At the age of twenty he left the granite hills and the beau 
 tiful valleys of his native State to find a field of labor and the 
 chances of fortune in the then far West. He brought little 
 with him but energy, resolution, and that Puritan integrity 
 natural to his race and unsullied through his life. 
 
 In the first flush of youth, hopeful, ambitious, undisciplined, 
 he left the land of steady habits, settled customs, and a homo 
 geneous people, to dwell in a region and among a people as 
 unlike his own as could be found on the continent. 
 
 Michigan from 1612 to 1760 had been a part of New France, 
 ruled, under French laws, by French governors, and in all re 
 spects a French people; from 1760 till 1787 under English 
 governors and English laws ; and till 1835 under various ter 
 ritorial governments. 
 
 In 1833 the whole population, French, English, and Ameri 
 can, was about sixty thousand, and Detroit, the chief city and 
 capital, less than ten thousand. To such a territory and city 
 in 1833, at the age of twenty years, came ZACHARIAH CHAN 
 DLER to dwell among that mixed people thenceforward while 
 he should live on earth. 
 
 I should love to linger over this transition period of his life, 
 among the scenes and incidents and personages and events 
 that molded and fashioned that tall, awkward, wondering, res 
 olute White Mountain boy then and before and afterward and 
 always called Zach into the merchant prince, the rich capi 
 talist, the shrewd politician, the successful statesman, the un 
 swerving patriot, and, better and nobler than all, the fearless 
 advocate and bold defender of all the free institutions of his 
 native land and of the rights and liberties of all the dwellers 
 therein. 
 
 I would be gratified if I might embody in this grateful trib 
 ute to the memory of a friend with whom I have been familiar 
 
128 ADDRESS OF MR. CONGER ON THE 
 
 for more than a third of a century some record of his hopes 
 and ambitions, his thoughts and reflections, his plans and 
 struggles, from the hour when he stood a stranger in the old- 
 fashioned City of the Straits till that evening when, amid the 
 shouts and applause of many thousand citizens of a wonderful 
 city beyond the lakes, unnamed and unknown in those days 
 of his early manhood, he retired weary and secretly stricken 
 to his chamber, and when, alone 
 
 Nor wife, nor child, 
 Nor one of all his myriad friends, 
 To bid his parting soul farewell, 
 
 his great spirit quit the familiar scenes of earth, and through 
 the upper air, still vibrating with the applause of those who 
 had just listened to his last thrilling words, sought rest in the 
 unknown realms of immortal life ! 
 
 Mr. Speaker, we have all an inward consciousness that 
 "time and place and circumstance" are but the common names 
 of those mysterious powers and influences and agencies that 
 rule within and around us, to mold and fashion our mortal 
 life; that, under the Divine economy, our nature, ever strug 
 gling with powers and principalities, with things seen and 
 unseen, with right and wrong, with truth and error, with jus 
 tice and oppression, is constantly and imperceptibly changed 
 and fashioned and molded by all our earthly associations. 
 
 There s a divinity that shapes our ends, 
 Rough-hew them how we will. 
 
 In 1833, when this youthful wanderer made his home in 
 Detroit, all was strange, and new, and wonderful. The quaint 
 old city the French kabitans, gay, vivacious, exclusive; the 
 old English families, proud, phlegmatic, reserved, not yet 
 reconciled to their lost dominion; the remnants of Indian 
 tribes whose fathers, if they did not themselves, remembered 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAU CHANDLER. 129 
 
 Pontiac, and Bloody Run, and Brownstown, and Tecumseh, 
 and Hull s surrender, and the Thames, and who traversed the 
 trails and portages, and floated on the waters, and traveled 
 over land once all their own, and who lingered continually 
 about their favorite old home on the straits; hunters and trap 
 pers and fishermen gathered there ; voyageurs who knew every 
 coast and every portage to "far-off Athabasca" crowded the 
 shores and loitered around in sad indolence as they heard the 
 rushing sound of steam and saw the mysterious vessels that, 
 without sail or paddle, usurped their dominion and occupa 
 tion; sailors were there who had fought with Perry on the 
 waters below; fur-traders who had brought thither their treas 
 ures from unknown mountains and plains ; immigrants gath 
 ering from all the world ; merchants from the interior and far- 
 off West. But time would fail to give more than a passing 
 glance at the scenes and associations into which our advent 
 urer was plunged, and amidst which his character was to be 
 formed, his energy to be tested, his triumph to be gained. 
 
 Amid such scenes he must, of course, be earnest, resolute, 
 almost aggressive. He must be inquiring, thoughtful, decided. 
 He must be just and honorable in all his intercourse with this 
 varied and peculiar population. He must be fearless and un- 
 cringing with the supercilious, and haughty, affable, and cor 
 dial with his equals and friends, and bold in defense of the 
 weak, else he would long since have gone down among the for 
 gotten and unknown. 
 
 And, such, indeed were the elements of his character, pre 
 dominating over all faults and foibles, illustrating many pecu 
 liarities, offensive to his opponents and sometimes incompre 
 hensible to his friends. 
 
 I have not the time, on this occasion, to illustrate the differ 
 ent phases of his character from actual events in his life. His 
 
 17 c 
 
130 ADDRESS OF ME. CONGEE ON THE 
 
 honesty and personal integrity have never been assailed or 
 questioned. 
 
 Never in the varied transactions of mercantile or commer 
 cial life has his good name been tarnished. In the fever heat 
 of political warfare no charge of corruption has pointed to 
 him. 
 
 There was a time in the late political contest when his pride 
 and ambition and the crowning wish of his life looked to a re 
 turn to his long-honored place in the Senate, when he was told 
 secretly by an old and trusted friend that if he would give his 
 influence to aid in securing a certain political appointment to a 
 friend of one who could secure the result he could be elected. 
 With one emphatic gesture, he replied : " I have lived among 
 the people of Michigan for almost half a century an honest 
 man, and I will never secure my election even by a promise 
 which at another time I might be willing to make voluntarily." 
 
 Equally characteristic of the man was his celebrated letter 
 to the governor of his State, so much criticised, so much ap 
 proved the blood-letting letter, so called. 
 
 He saw treason spreading through the land, poisoning the 
 fountains of justice, invading the halls of legislation, threat 
 ening the free institutions of the country, selfish, unreasoning, 
 inexorable, gathering forces for the conflict, already arming 
 for the strife. 
 
 What should he, the watchman on the tower, say to his peo 
 ple? Let the Union be destroyed? Let the Constitution be 
 shattered? Surrender ignobly the inheritance to treason and 
 traitors ? No. War, if it must come, blood and life, if neces 
 sary, wealth and property and comfort and long years of strug 
 gle, but this Union must and shall be preserved. No surren 
 der to traitors! No yielding to timidity! No endurance of 
 vacillation, either in court or camp ! 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 131 
 
 He spared neither high nor low, neither the head of the 
 Army nor the subaltern in the field. He had the great cour 
 age to attack alone the management of the campaign and to 
 change commanders. The history of his labors through the 
 war will never be written. They are only partially known 
 to the country, and not fully even to his friends. 
 
 When the war was over he demanded the fruits of victory 
 submission to the Government, freedom in spirit and in fact 
 to the enfranchised ; absolute protection to the citizen in all 
 legal and political rights wherever the flag floats ; recognition 
 of the fidelity and valor of Union soldiers; confidence and 
 support to the Union men of the South; suppression of vio 
 lence and anarchy and kukluxism ; no recognition or payment 
 of rebel claims for losses in the war. 
 
 On these and like subjects he could not be silent. He was 
 not vindictive. He would not yield to injustice ; but, looking 
 upon the shattered hearth-stones, the maimed and suffering 
 soldier, and the innumerable graves of patriot citizens, he de 
 manded the results of victory, no more, no less, and that the 
 great struggle should close the contest once and forever. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, the record of his life and character will be 
 more fully made up by abler hands than mine. This time and 
 place permit but a glance at a few of the characteristics of 
 the man. I can but feebly echo the voice of ten thousand citi 
 zens of our mourning State in any expression of admiration 
 for our departed statesman of sorrow for his untimely death. 
 In Michigan a million and a half of people are mourners. No 
 party lines divide our citizens as we lay the tribute of respect 
 upon his tomb. No citizen has died more universally known ; 
 none been attended to his last resting-place with more abound 
 ing sadness. The thousands who thronged the streets on the 
 day of his funeral and endured the tempestuous winter storm 
 
132 ADDRESS OF MR. BRIGGS ON THE 
 
 for hours unmoved, as the long cortege moved "with slow 
 funereal tread " to his final resting-place, were but the repre 
 sentatives of millions throughout our land who cried as of 
 old, " Know ye not that a great man hath fallen in Israel this 
 day?" 
 
 Address of Mr. BRIGGS, of New Hampshire. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER : ZACHARIAH CHANDLER was born in the dis 
 trict I have the honor to represent. Among my constituents 
 are the friends and associates of his early life. His birth 
 place, in the beautiful valley of the Merrimac, is only a short 
 distance from my own home. There his boyhood was spent, 
 and there he came forth to fame and fortune. His boyhood 
 gave promise of the great character which his manhood ful 
 filled. From very humble beginnings, by his own energy and 
 force of character, he worked his way to the front rank of the 
 statesmen of his country. 
 
 He adds another and most honorable name to the bright list 
 of New Hampshire s illustrious sons. Proudly we bear the 
 honor of his birth, and while his adopted State may be first, 
 let New Hampshire be next at the memorial altar. 
 
 The Granite State believes 1 in men like Senator CHANDLER. 
 We believe in a statesmanship of positive ideas. Not only do 
 we honor his political principles, but for his very nature we 
 loved the man for his open, generous, philanthropic nature ; 
 always exercising his great aggressive vigor against the wrong, 
 always taking the part of the weak and oppressed. 
 
 An outline of his busy and eventful life has already been 
 given by those who have preceded me, and I purpose only to 
 offer a few suggestions on the character of the man whom we 
 have met this day to honor. Of his abilities there can be but 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 133 
 
 one opinion. All the requisites of a great executive he cer 
 tainly possessed decision, method, energy, self-reliance. He 
 was not merely a great executive ; to his capacity as such was 
 added that broader vision, that greater originality, in short, 
 that statesmanship which belongs to great administrators. 
 The executive need evolve only methods, the administrative 
 measures. Tried by any theory, or measured by his own great 
 success, Senator CHANDLER S abilities lifted him to the dignity 
 of a great administrator. This might rest alone upon his busi 
 ness success ; it might rest upon his management of the Inte 
 rior Department for the brief period he was at its head ; it 
 might rest upon his republican leadership of the last twenty 
 years, a leadership that was more and more acknowledged 
 until at his death it almost approached supremacy. This ca 
 pacity for administration was shown in all these relations, and 
 even in his legislative career it was this faculty which comes 
 oftenest to the front. He possessed the qualities of a legis 
 lator of no mean or secondary order; he was invaluable in the 
 committee, but he was not the less of consequence upon the 
 floor of the Senate. 
 
 Trace the history of this country through a long and most 
 memorable period, and constantly as you may see his hand 
 in its measures you as constantly hear his voice in its debates. 
 He was bold and aggressive ; endowed by nature with that 
 clearness of logic, that directness, intensity, and vigor of state 
 ment that rendered him no "unknown quantity" in debate. 
 Any attempted analysis of his character seems superfluous, 
 his every quality is so well known to the world. He has been 
 prominently before the nation for a quarter of a century 
 an era, measured by its great achievements, unparalleled in the 
 annals of mankind ; all the while closely identified with the 
 legislation of his country and with the leadership of a great 
 
134 
 
 ADDRESS OF MB. BEIGGS ON THE 
 
 party which has done more for human liberty than any other 
 known to history. 
 
 The one particular characteristic of the man was his 
 strength. Other men were more finished. We have many 
 finished men, but few really strong ones. He was a man 
 whose every thought was strength, and with whom to think 
 was to do. Strength of conviction, strength of purpose, 
 strength of methods, strength of statement these were his 
 in a supreme degree. History will never lose the impress of 
 his character. 
 
 He has been accused of a too zealous partisanship, but there 
 is no warrant for this charge. True he was no " half-and-half"; 
 there was no duplicity, no dissimulation in his composition. If 
 he believed at all, it was with his whole great heart ; and with 
 his intensity of conviction he may have been wont to regard 
 success as a duty ; but his enemies, if such he had, will not 
 accuse him of unworthy and dishonorable means. 
 
 His methods were bold, as they were vigorous. He struck 
 hard, but he struck openly. Indeed his whole nature precluded 
 suspicion. There were no dark or secret traits in his charac 
 ter. He did everything openly and above-board, and despised 
 treachery, cant, and hypocrisy as only he had the scorn to de 
 spise them. With all his tremendous earnestness, he was yet a 
 chivalrous and generous antagonist ; generous as he was in all 
 the relations of life. 
 
 His character was of the kind to which generosity constitu 
 tionally belonged, for his faults were only those which belong 
 to the warmest natures. 
 
 Altogether he was one of those men who make history, and 
 stamp their impress upon the age in which they live ; a man 
 whose fame is still destined to increase like that of every true 
 statesman whose work is grounded in conviction. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 135 
 
 History will rank him among the most eminent of those 
 whose names are inseparably associated with the cause of 
 human rights. 
 
 Time has already vindicated his prescient radicalism, and 
 posterity will place him with the heralds who have gone be 
 fore their fellows to proclaim a better day. 
 
 In the official career of Senator CHANDLER, from the begin 
 ning to the close of his public life, we have a realization of the 
 poet s earnest prayer when he sang : 
 
 God give us men ; a time like this demands 
 
 Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands ; 
 
 Men whom the lust of office does not kill ; 
 
 Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy ; 
 
 Men who have honor; men who will not lie; 
 
 Men who can stand before a demagogue 
 
 And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking; 
 
 Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog 
 
 In public duty and in private thinking. 
 
 Address of Mr. BARBER, of Illinois. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER : It did not occur to me that I should take part 
 in these proceedings until the resolutions of the Senate were 
 read in this Hall this afternoon. I rise now from a sense of 
 duty. I should do injustice to my own feelings, and I am sure 
 to the feelings of a very large number of the residents of the 
 city I have the honor to represent in part on this floor, should 
 I remain silent on this occasion. I come not, however, with 
 any elaborate eulogy. My acquaintance with Senator (/HAN 
 DLER was very brief. I saw him for the first time in March 
 last, at the extra session. My contact with him was but slight. 
 I cannot, therefore, speak of him either from long acquaint 
 ance or intimate relations. But it does so happen that the last 
 great speech made by the Senator was delivered in the Con- 
 
136 ADDRESS OF MR. BARBER ON THE 
 
 gressional district which I have the honor to represent. On 
 the evening of the delivery of that speech I called upon him 
 at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Chicago. I had a cordial greet 
 ing a long and a pleasant interview. As I recall his stalwart 
 form, and bluff, hearty manner, I feel like exclaiming, 
 
 And shall I see his face again, 
 And shall I hear him speak t 
 
 I went with him to the hall, I sat upon the platform, I saw 
 him face as fine a political audience as was ever assembled 
 together, and I heard him deliver one of the grandest speeches 
 ever uttered upon this continent. I shall not attempt to de 
 scribe the enthusiasm of that occasion. Mr. CHANDLER had 
 never spoken in this great city before, and he had informed 
 one of his most intimate friends who was with him that he re 
 garded it as the peculiar and crowning honor of his life that 
 he had been invited to speak in the great commercial metrop 
 olis of the Northwest. He seemed to regard it as somewhat of 
 a recognition of the position which he had at last reached in 
 the estimation of this country. No man ever had a greater 
 triumph. The great city of the lakes was never moved by an 
 orator in that manner before. The echoes of that speech rung 
 out through the Northwest like the clear, strong blast of a 
 bugle. 
 
 I saw the Senator retire from that platform amid the thun 
 ders of applause and bearing on his brow the laurels he had 
 won. He had given upon that occasion the most decisive evi 
 dence of oratorical power by the manner in which he moved 
 and controlled that vast multitude assembled to hear him. 
 
 But, sir, the scene changes. On the morrow I stand by his 
 cold and lifeless form. 
 
 The present moment is our ain, 
 The niest we never saw. 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. l. JT 
 
 Mr. Speaker, as one of the escort I went with the remains of 
 the distinguished dead to the city of Detroit. Amid the hush 
 of his awe-stricken friends we laid him down. Illinois to 
 Michigan delivered up the illustrious dead. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, among the patriotic names of this country that 
 of Senator CHANDLER is written high up, where it may be 
 read by all the ages. You cannot erase it without tearing from 
 the records one of the most important chapters in the history 
 of humanity. Glory to his memory ! Peace to his ashes ! 
 
 Address of Mr. GARFIELD, of Ohio. 
 
 Mr. CHAIRMAN: It cannot be too late, however late the 
 hour, to pay our tribute of respect and affection to the mem 
 ory of ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 
 
 There is a thought in connection with his life and the his 
 tory of his State which has been referred to by the gentleman 
 from New Jersey [Mr. KOBESON], and which may be still fur 
 ther developed. It only lacks two years of being a full cen 
 tury since Lewis Cass was born, and he and ZACHARIAH 
 CHANDLER have filled seventy-three years of that period with 
 active, prominent public service. And through all those sev 
 enty-three years there has shone like a star in both their lives 
 the influence of one great event. 
 
 In the stormy spring of 1861, when the foundations of the 
 Republic trembled under the tread of assembling armies, I 
 made a pilgrimage to the home of the venerable Lewis Cass, 
 who had just laid down his great office as chief of the State 
 Department, and for an hour I was a reverent listener to his 
 words of wisdom. And in that conversation he gave me the 
 thought which I wish to record. He said, " You remember, 
 
 18 c 
 
138 
 
 ADDRESS OF ME. GARFIELD ON THE 
 
 young man, that the Constitution did not take effect until nine 
 States had ratified it. My native State was the ninth. It 
 hung a long time in doubtful scale whether nine would agree ; 
 but when at last New Hampshire ratified the Constitution, it 
 was a day of great rejoicing. My mother held me, a little boy 
 of six years, in her arms at a window and pointed me to a 
 great man on horseback and to the bonfires that were blazing 
 in the streets of Exeter, and told me that the horseman was 
 General Washington and the people were celebrating the adop 
 tion of the Constitution." " So," said the aged statesman, " I 
 saw the Constitution born, and I fear I may see it die. " 
 
 He then traced briefly the singular story of his life. He 
 said : " I crossed the Alleghany Mountains and settled in your 
 State of Ohio one year before the beginning of this century. 
 Fifty-four years ago now, I sat in the General Assembly of 
 your State of Ohio. In 1807 I received from Thomas Jefferson 
 a commission as United States marshal which I still preserve, 
 and am probably the only man living to-day who bears a com 
 mission from Jefferson s hand." And so, running over the 
 great retrospect of his life and saddened by bloody prospect 
 that 1861 brought to his mind, said, " I have loved the Union 
 ever since the light of that bonfire and the sight of General 
 Washington greeted my eyes. I have given fifty-five years of 
 my life and my best efforts to its preservation. I fear I am 
 doomed to see it perish. " 
 
 But a better fate awaited both him and the Union. Another 
 son of New Hampshire took up the truncheon of power from 
 his failing hand, and, with the vigor of youth and liberty, 
 maintained and defended the Union through the years of its 
 supremest peril. ZACHARIAH CHANDLER, whose birthplace 
 was not more than thirty miles distant from that of Lewis 
 Cass, resumed the duty as Michigan s Senator with the vigor 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 139 
 
 of young and hopeful manhood. Aud he pushed forward that 
 great work until his last hour and died in the full glory of its 
 achievement. The State of New Hampshire may look upon 
 this day and these names we celebrate as her pride and special 
 glory. 
 
 The great Carlyle has said that the best gift God ever gave 
 to man was an eye that could really see ; and that only a few 
 men were recipients of this gift. I venture to add that an 
 equally rare and not less important gift is the courage to tell 
 just what one sees. Besides having an eye, ZACHARIAH 
 CHANDLER was endowed in an eminent degree with the cour 
 age to tell just what he saw. 
 
 If from these seats, Mr. Speaker, every Representative 
 should speak out the very inmost thought of the people he 
 represents, this Hall would be luminous with the spirit and 
 aspirations of the American people. The ruling principle of 
 Mr. CHANDLER S life was this: that what he saw in public 
 affairs he uttered ; and having said it, stood by it not with 
 malice or arrogance, but with the sturdiness of thorough con 
 viction. To a stranger he might, perhaps, appear rugged and 
 harsh even to cruelty ; yet his heart was full of gentleness 
 when he had satisfied his sense of duty. 
 
 As a political force Mr. CHANDLER may be classed among 
 the Cyclopean figures of history. The Norsemen would enroll 
 him as one of the heroes in the halls of Valhalla. They would 
 associate him with Thor and his thunder hammer. The Ro 
 mans would associate him with Vulcan and the forges of the 
 Cyclops who made the earth tremble under the weight of his 
 strokes. 
 
 What man have we known who, without specially cultivating 
 the graces of oratory, was able to condense into ten minutes a 
 more enduring speech than the one which he delivered at the 
 
140 ADDRESS OF MR. GARFIELD ON THE 
 
 session of 1879 ? Under the pressure of his intense mind 
 an hour of ordinary speech was condensed into a sentence. 
 
 He was not an orator in the ordinary sense of fine writing 
 and graceful delivery ; but in the clearness of his conceptions 
 and the courage and force with which he uttered them he was 
 a most remarkable speaker. 
 
 Somebody said long ago that "one man with a belief was a 
 greater power than ten thousand who have only interests." 
 Mr. CHANDLER was emphatically a man with a belief. 
 
 In the minds of most men the kingdom of opinion is divided 
 into three territories the territory of yes, the territory of no, 
 and a broad, unexplored middle ground of doubt. That mid 
 dle ground in the mind of Mr. CHANDLER was very narrow. 
 Nearly all his territory was occupied by positive convictions. 
 On most questions his mind was made up more completely than 
 that of any man I have known. 
 
 His was an intense nature 
 
 Dowered with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn, 
 The love of love. 
 
 It is curious to observe that, as a general rule, long service 
 in a legislative minority unfits men for the duties that devolve 
 upon a majority. The business of the one is to attack, of the 
 other to defend ; of the one to tear down, of the other to build up. 
 
 The leaders of the anti-slavery struggle in this country were 
 perhaps the most skillful in assault of any political party in 
 our history. But when, after years of service in the minority, 
 they came into power, but few of their prominent leaders were 
 fit for the constructive work of maintaining an administration. 
 Mr. CHANDLER was one of that small number who displayed 
 in constructive legislation abilities fully equal to those which 
 he exhibited as a member of the minority. His administration 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 141 
 
 of the Interior Department was au ample vindication of his 
 high qualities as an executive officer. 
 
 This Congress will miss him in its councils. His party and 
 his State will greatly miss him. I know he is sincerely mourned 
 in my own State, where within three weeks of the hour of his 
 death I had the honor to preside over the largest political 
 assemblage I have seen in many years. The name of ZACHA 
 RIAH CHANDLER called together that great multitude, who sat 
 at his feet and listened with reverence and enthusiasm. 
 
 Reviewing his life and summing up his qualities, we may 
 fitly apply to him the words which the laureate of England 
 applied to Wellington : 
 
 O iron nerve, to true occasion true, 
 
 O fallen at length, that tower of strength, 
 
 Which stood foresquare to all the winds that blew. 
 
 Address of Mr. WILLITS, of Michigan. 
 Mr. SPEAKER : ZACHARIAH CHANDLER needs no eulogy to 
 perpetuate his name in the State of Michigan; his nineteen 
 years service in the Senate of the United States is recorded in 
 the annals of that distinguished body, and nothing that we 
 can say to-day can add to or diminish his fame. His public 
 like his private life was an active one and was well known 
 and conspicuous from the first. March 4, 1857, he succeeded 
 in the Senate of the United States a statesman long honored 
 by the State of Michigan ; who had taken a leading part in its 
 early history, having been its territorial governor from 1813 to 
 1830; who had for four years been Secretary of War under An 
 drew Jackson, seven years minister to France under Jackson 
 and Van Buren, the candidate of a great party for the office of 
 Chief Executive of the nation, Senator of the United States, 
 and finally Secretary of State under James Buchanan. It was 
 
142 ADDRESS OF MR. WILLITS ON THE 
 
 such a man as this ZACHARIAH CHANDLER succeeded; a man 
 who had gathered to himself the honors of two continents, con 
 ferred dignity upon every position he had occupied, and for 
 half a century had added leaf after leaf to the well- filled chaplet 
 that had fallen so fittingly upon his brow. Lewis Cass was an 
 honored name in the State of Michigan ; it was a household 
 word in the homes of the hardy pioneers who had followed 
 him into the new State he had helped to found. Their chil 
 dren in like manner revered the man who had extinguished the 
 Indian title to the lands they now occupied and had made a 
 name historic in the annals of his country. 
 
 It was no whim that relegated Lewis Cass to private life. It 
 was no accident that brought ZACHARIAH CHANDLER to the 
 front instead. The people of the Peninsular State are not vol 
 atile or visionary, or forgetful of those who have shown them 
 selves worthy of honor. There is none of the feeling exhibited 
 by the Athenian clown, as related by Plutarch, who was tired 
 of hearing Aristides everywhere called the Just. The State of 
 Michigan was in no just sense unmindful of the great worth of 
 Lewis Cass, and would have delighted to continue him in the 
 high position he had so justly attained, if events had not con 
 spired to render it impossible. With these events he had failed 
 to keep himself fully abreast. There are times when public 
 sentiment will not endure a political laggard. Lewis Cass, with 
 all his breadth of intellect, with the experience of a statesman 
 and the amenities of the finished scholar and gentleman, was 
 not a positive man, was not an original man. Times were on 
 the threshold when both of these qualities were to be needed. 
 He was a true man at heart, loyal to his country, and so honest 
 that, when at last he saw the fallacy of his position, he resigned 
 his high place rather than compromise his fealty to the Union. 
 But he was too old to fight, and he was unable to devise a plan 
 
LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER. 143 
 
 to still the waves of the rising revolution. He bad to give way 
 to a sentiment he had been slow to perceive and utterly unable 
 to comprehend. 
 
 Among those who had been quick to perceive the logic of 
 events was the man whom we honor to-day. He was selected 
 by the people of the State of Michigan to succeed Lewis Cass; 
 not because he had had large experience in political affairs, for 
 he had had none ; not because he had culture and refinement, 
 for he had neither, as understood in the school or the drawing- 
 room ; not because he was learned in the law or skilled in the 
 arts of diplomacy, for he was wont to boast that he cared for 
 neither the abstruseness of the one nor the duplicity of the 
 other; but he was selected because he was a strong, positive 
 man who was in full sj mpathy with the revolt against the 
 political tendencies of the party in power, and with which 
 Lewis Cass had been identified for half a century; he was 
 selected because he was a hearty hater of sham, an opponent 
 of the compromises that had insidiously taken more than they 
 had purported to give, and demanded more than the people of 
 his State were disposed to yield; because, in the "irrepress 
 ible conflict" then impending, he was on the side of the lib 
 erty which the fathers had aspired to, but from which the sons 
 had apostatized. In all these characteristics he was the repre 
 sentative of his people, who had the utmost confidence in his 
 integrity, strong common sense, and positive adherence to the 
 convictions born of this common sense. 
 
 From the advent of ZACHARIAH CHANDLER in the Senate 
 of the United States to the end of his career, so unexpectedly 
 terminated, he justified the confidence reposed in him. In the 
 terrible conflict that convulsed the land he was an important 
 factor, moving and controlling events and policies by the tre 
 mendous force of his will and the dictation of a restless en- 
 
144 ADDEESS OF ME. WILLITS ON THE 
 
 ergy. Uutrammeled by the subtleties of the dialectician, he 
 held in supreme contempt the faltering hesitation of generals 
 and the doubting quibbles of lawyers in the face of an armed 
 enemy. To him war had its own laws, construed by the su 
 preme necessity of the hour and enforced by the musket ; the 
 road to essential justice was in a straight line, with no devious 
 paths leading into an ambush. Emancipation of the negro 
 race, prompt, decisive, by proclamation, presented to him no 
 legal difficulties. He would utilize the force which might be 
 let loose upon rebellion, and would for all time take from the 
 master the slave for whose thraldom he had risen in arms 
 against the Union; retributive justice should supplement un 
 warranted revolution. 
 
 He was restless over the delay of the proclamation, and 
 wheh the preliminary one had been issued in September, 1862, 
 he had none of the fears and doubts of the conservatives who 
 protested against it as unconstitutional and sought to have it 
 recalled. In the intervening months he visited Washington, 
 before the final proclamation was issued, to counteract, by his 
 presence and his positive views, the effort to have the step 
 abandoned. On his return I met him at the depot, at my own 
 home, and was informed exultingly: "Lincoln will stick." In 
 all these years he seemed to comprehend by inspiration what 
 some men never learned at all or acquired only by experience. 
 He was not swept along by the tide; he was a component part 
 of the tide itself one of the forces of the times, one of the 
 men who make history. Nevertheless, he was not much given 
 to speech-making or formulating statutes. The records of Con 
 gress do not show for him as much, measured by the square 
 foot, as for the long line of disputative spouters who have 
 gone to the same graves as the speeches they made. He 
 would never have devised the electoral commission; he could 
 
LIFE AND CIIAKAC TER OP ZACIIARIAII CHANDLER. 145 
 
 iiot have done so if be would ; but be supplemented it with 
 organized facts witbout wbicb its findings would have had 
 altogether another termination. 
 
 He was a praetieal man not given to theories; not like 
 Archimedes, who from principles elaborated in his study con 
 structed his pulleys and engines, the one of which demolished 
 the Roman fleet and played pitch and toss with the Roman 
 ships, but rather like Marcellus, who in his practical way 
 captured the unguarded tower which overlooked doomed 
 Syracuse. He was a man of affairs. By his own exertions 
 he made an independent fortune, of which he never stole a 
 cent. No man ever charged him with larceny, or hypocrisy, 
 or lukewarmness to a friend, or placability to a foe, or cow 
 ardly desertion of a conviction, or compromise of a principle. 
 He was a generous fighter, who never fired a musket with hos 
 tile intent, and yet worthily earned the title of Michigan s 
 great war Senator. Over this title no worthy soldier on the 
 shores of the great lakes of the Northwest has ever been cap 
 tious or envious. He was the soldiers friend, and he divided 
 with them the high esteem in which they held all the moving 
 spirits in the great contest in which loyal men shed so much 
 of their loyal blood. None have mourned his untimely death 
 more than the heroes of that war, and when the news of his 
 death was sent to the ends of the globe on the morning of the 
 1st day of November last, none bowed with a heartier sorrow 
 over the memory of the man they revered than the men who 
 had so faithfully in the field vindicated the policy advocated 
 by the illustrious Senator in the councils of the nation. 
 
 When the sad news reached me, I was on my journey home 
 from Chicago. 1 had parted with him the midnight before. I 
 was the last man that saw Senator CHANDLER alive. I now 
 and shall to my latest hour recall the room in the Grand 
 
 19 c 
 
146 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. WILLITS. 
 
 Pacific Hotel in which we had this last interview. The fire 
 was burning low; the hotel was as silent as the grave in 
 which he now lies ; we were as much alone as if we sat by a 
 solitary camp-fire in the pathless desert. After about twenty 
 minutes conversation I left him alone with Death stealing 
 over the threshold of his room. I did not see him there, 
 but is it my imagination that recalls footfalls as I passed 
 along the silent, dimly-lighted corridors to my own room? 
 As the recollection comes to me, it seems as though these 
 echoes may have been the footfalls of the grim destroyer who 
 so closely follows the steps of mortal man. I recollect now 
 that there was a sense of something unsaid what it was I 
 cannot recall that led me to stop and turn back as if to rap 
 at his door and speak to him again, but knowing he was 
 weary I refrained, and went my lonely way. I can hardly 
 wish now that I had followed the impulse, for it is unlikely 
 that my presence would have changed the purpose of that 
 Providence that holds the issues of life and had then marked 
 him for death; but who knows what parting word might have 
 been said? Who knows but the impulse I had may have been 
 only a response to one he himself had, and which had spoken 
 to me as spirit talketh to spirit, calling for some word of sym 
 pathy, some kind remembrance? But he is gone, and I shall 
 never know whether he called or not till we again meet face to 
 face. Till then I can only join with the multitude of mourners 
 in lamenting the great loss we all sustained in the loss of a 
 great man, and in lading this last token upon his grave. 
 
 I move the adoption of the resolutions. 
 
 The question being taken on the resolutions, they were 
 adopted unanimously, and in obedience to the second resolu 
 tion the House (at six o clock and twelve minutes p. m.) 
 adjourned. 
 
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