The following are the remarks of
Wm. C. Bives made in the
Confederate States Congress on Monday, upon the death of
Ex-President John Tyler:
‘
I should be wanting,
Mr. President, to my own feelings, if not to the memory of our departed friend, were I not to claim the privilege of an older and longer acquaintance with him; perhaps, than any other member on this floor possessed, to add a few words to what has been already so appropriately and eloquently said by my honorable colleagues.
It is now somewhat more than half a century since, a school boy in the ancient city of
Williamsburg, I first made the acquaintance of
Mr. Tyler.
then a law student of our common Alms
Mater, preparing to enter upon the career of active life.
It was thus given me to observe the whole progress to his orb in the heavens from its first appearance above the horizon, through its meridian brightness and splendor, to its final and serene a setting in the
Western sky, which we are met this day to commemorate.
As a young man, when I first saw
Mr. Tyler, he was distinguished by the same blandness and courtesy of manners the prepossessing address, and the graceful and captivating elocution, which we have all seen displayed by him in this hall.
These qualities, the sure passport in a Government like ours to popular favor and pu distinction, bore him rapidly through a succession of high public employments.
As soon as he was of age, he was e by his native county of
Charles City to the House of Delegates of
Virginia.
His first session in that body was, if I mistake not, in the memorable year of -'12, which witnessed the bold messure of the declaration of war made by the U. S. against
Great Britain; and the young legislator became, thus, closely identified with that high spirited generation of American statesmen, who, succeeding immediately to the great men of the Revolution — the conscript fathers of the
Republic-- continued, for thirty or forty years after them, to conduct the affairs of the
Union with a patrictism, ability, and suceess worthy of their noble sires.
In the different representative assemblies of which
Mr. Tyler was successively a member; he was brought into contact with the highest intellects of the age. In the Legislature of Virginia, he was a member of the House of Delegates with
Littleton Waller Tazewell,
Berjamin Watkins Leigh,
Chas. Fenton Mercer,
Robert Stanard,
Philip Doddridge,
Gen. Blackburn, and many others of the most gifted spirits of this ancient Commonwealth.
In the House of Representatives of the
United States, he was contemporary with
Henry Clay,
William Lowndes, John endolph,
Henry St. George Tucker,
John Forsyth,
Louis McLace, and a host of other distinguished men who then illustrated the national forum.
Being generally the youngest member of the body to which he belonged, and emulous of distinction, he was stimulated to the highest exertion of his powers by the living models of excellence with which he was surrounded, and his mind was thus kept in a perpetual progress of development and expansion.
Trained and formed under these anspices, he proved himself equal to all the various and arduous posts of public duty to which he was called by the favor and confidence of his countrymen.
In the highest of them all, he gave an honorable proof of the elevation and magnanimity of his character by bringing into the leading Executive Departments the most towering talents of the country, to aid him in the administration of the
Government.
The selection of such men as Web er
Calhoun,
Legare,
Upshur, and
Spencer, proved how far he was above the operation of any unworthy sentiment of jealousy, or fear of being overshadowad in the public estimation by his official advisers; while his personal management of several of the most delicate questions of his administration — I refer more particularly to his broad and comprehensive treatment of the question of the anexation of
Texas, and the firmness with which he upheld the cause of constitutional, republican government in
Rhode Island against the outbreak of an unlicensed dem--attested the large and matured statetesmanship he had himself acquired in the schools of practical instruction in which he was bred.
but this is neither the time nor the place to enter upon a discussion of the merits of
Mr. Tyler's administration of the
Federal Government, when, by a sudden and unexpected dispensation of
Providence, he was placed at the head of it. No one would more earnestly have depredated the revival of forgotten cen roversiesthan himself.
Among the qualities which most eminently and honorably distinguished him was an habitual kindliness of disposition, and a generous appreciation of others, even of those who were his political enemies and opponents.
It was about two years ago, in this city, on a public and memorable occasion he did himself the highest honor by a warm, spontaneous and manly tribute to the character of a great man and deceased patriot, who had stood towards him in the sititude of a powerful and declared opponent.
In reviewing the eventful life of
Mr. Tyler we are led almost irresistibly to apply to him a descriptive epithet by which the Romans were accustomed to express a quality that ever in spired their confidence and admiration.
By that epithet--
fdir--they did not mean to designate a person who was merely fortunate, but one who, by a happy combination of well tempered attributes, knew in a measure how to command or propitiate fortune.
This sentiment was embodied by them in a maxim, tersely expressed by their great satirist,
at sit products. Thus it was with
Mr. Tyler.
By a rare union of prudence, good sense, and good temper, set off by the natural gifts of oratory and a persuasive address, he won the hearts of the people and commanded the favors of fortune; and success waited upon him in every step of his public career.
Delegate in the Legislature of his State, representative in Congress, Governor,
Senator,
Vice President,
President — he ‘"scunded all the depths and thosls of honor;"’ and in every ust he acquitted himself to the satisfaction of his constituents.
After having filled, with honor, the highest offices of the
Government of the
Union--which sank, at length; under the degeneracy and corruption of the times — he lived to take a leading part in the establishment of a new Confederacy for the
South, which has all his affections and all his hopes; and as a member of this House, he gave his anxious labors to the great cause of securing and perpetuating the structure.
His duties as a member of this body engaged his deepest solicitude.
Unwilling to withdraw himself from them for a single day without the proper and formal sanction of the
House, he said to me the day before the termination of his disease, that, if he should be compelled to go home to recruit his health, as he should probably find it necessary to do, he wished me to apply to the house for leave of absence for him. A far higher authority.
the great
Governor of the universe, has granted him that leave of absence — not from this
Hall merely, but from all sublunary concerns hence forward forever, He now rests from his labors; but he has bequenthed to us the rich inheritance of his patriotic example and of his counsels.
This second admonition of the transitory, tennre of hursexistence, with which, after so short an interval, we have been visited in this Hall, reminds us most impressively that ‘"the ths of glory lead but to the grave."’ But still it is not permitted to us to ‘" One generation passeth away and another generation cometh; but the earth forever."’ Here, while we continue, we have our work; and as who have before us have labored and tolled, so must we in our turn, toil and labor, to carry forward the great sch of Divine Providence in the moral Government of the world, and if we do so in humble submission to the will of Hinc who ruleth the destinies of men nations, we, too, shall have our
Ward,
’
