a captain to a major-general,
speak in terms stronger than any words of mine of his courage and valor
and his qualities as a soldier and military chieftain.

As a civilian, pursuing the quiet walks of rural life and devoting
himself to agriculture, the noblest of all arts, he was honored by all
the people and drew to him his neighbors, binding them with the steely
bands of constant friendship. His word was as good as his bond, and the
dusky son of toil as well as the intelligent tenant on his wide
possessions relied upon it with absolute faith; and the most beautiful
tribute that could be paid to his memory was the deep sorrow which
manifested itself in a meeting after his death of those whose brawny
muscle had held the plow-handles and whose toil had made the corn and
the wheat grow on his rich and fertile fields.

In politics he was a Democrat, and he was as pure in the political arena
as in private life. He scorned the ways of the demagogue and the
timeserver, and believed that "men should be what they seem." In the
councils of his State and in the councils of the nation he was found at
all times in full accord with the principles and policy of his party.

As a Representative he was as true to his constituents as any subject to
his sovereign, laboring in season and out of season to serve them, and
even when his strong frame began to weaken and the germs of disease had
been planted in his system he disregarded the warning calls for rest
and continued to bend all his energies in the discharge of his trust,
and I but speak the truth when I say that he fell a martyr to duty.

But, Mr. Speaker, while he was grand as a soldier, pure as a man,
exalted as a citizen, and faithful as a Representative, it was in the
home circle, as husband and father, and not on the battlefield, in civil
life, or in the halls of legislation, that the beauty and loveliness of
his character drew a halo around him.

He loved home, and it had a charm for him which neither pleasures,
honors, nor fame could pluck from his bosom. Blessed by the
companionship of one worthy of all adoration, and who presided like a
queen over his household, entering into all his joys, sharing all his
sorrows, and encouraging all his aspirations, he loved the breezes that
kissed her cheeks, the birds that made sweet music to her ear, the
rivulets that gently murmured her name, the flowers that shed their
fragrance in her bowers, and the stately oaks under which the