MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 JOHN FRANKLIN MILLER, 
 
 (A SENATOR FROM CALIFORNIA), 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE 
 
 SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 FORTY-NINTH CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION, 
 
 MAY 28 AND JUNE 19, 1886, 
 
 WITH THE 
 
 FUNERAL SERVICES AT THE CITY OF WASHINGTON, MARCH 13, 
 AND AT SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., MARCH 21, 1886. 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
 1887. 
 
 9318 MIL
 
 CHAP. 636. An act to authorize the printing of the eulogies delivered in Congress upon 
 the late John F. Miller. 
 
 Be it ena'ted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
 States of America in Congress assembled, That there be printed of the 
 eulogies delivered in Congress upon the late John F. Miller, a Senator 
 from California, prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on 
 Public Printing, twelve thousand copies, of which four thousand shall be 
 for the use of the Senate and eight thousand for the use of the House of 
 Representatives ; and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby directed to 
 have printed a portrait of said John F. Miller, to accompany said eulo- 
 gi:s : and for engraving and printing said portrait the sum of five hun- 
 dred dollars, or so much as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated out 
 of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 
 
 Approved, July 6, 1886.
 
 JOHN FRANKLIN MILLER. 
 
 FUNERAL SERVICES AT WASHINGTON AND SAN FRANCISCO, 
 
 On Monday, the 8th day of March, 1886, General JOHN 
 FRANKLIN MILLER, a Senator of the United States from the 
 State of California, died at his residence on Connecticut 
 avenue, in the city of Washington, after a long and painful 
 illness, which he bore with heroic fortitude. The remote 
 cause of his death may unquestionably be traced back to 
 wounds he had received while fighting the battles of his 
 country during the war of the rebellion, and especially a gun- 
 shot wound received in June, 1863, while leading his brigade 
 in a charge on the enemy's entrenchments at Liberty Gap,, 
 Tennessee. This wound destroyed the sight of his left eye>. 
 the ball an Enfield rifle bullet remaining in the bones back 
 of the eye, and in contact with the brain, for over twelve 
 years, when it was extracted by the surgeons. During all this 
 time he suffered intensely and his system was racked and 
 weakened by pain, so that he fell an easy prey to disease,, 
 which found nothing to resist its ravages but an indom- 
 itable will, whose strength doubtless prolonged his life for- 
 many years. 
 
 At a regular session of the Senate held on that day, Mr. 
 LELAND STANFORD, a United States Senator from the State 
 of California, arose in his place and made the following an- 
 nouncement : 
 
 Mr. STANFORD. Mr. President, it becomes my painful duty 
 to inform you of the death of my colleague, General JOHN 
 
 3
 
 4 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 F. MILLER, who departed this life this afternoon at twenty 
 minutes past 2 o'clock, after a long and severe illness. I move 
 that the Senate, out of respect to his memory, adjourn. 
 
 Mr. GIBSON. Mr. President, I rise to second the motion. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. It is moved and seconded 
 that the Senate, in respect to the memory of our colleague 
 who has recently died, do now adjourn. 
 
 The motion was agreed to ; and (at 3 o'clock and 20 min 
 utes p. m.) the Senate adjourned. 
 
 On the same day Mr. WILLIAM W. MORROW, a Representa- 
 tive in Congress from the State of California, arose in his 
 place in the House of Representatives and announced Senator 
 MILLER'S death, in the following words : 
 
 Mr. MORROW. Mr. Speaker, the melancholy duty de- 
 volves upon me to announce the death of Senator JOHN F. 
 MILLER, of California, who died in this city after a prolonged 
 illness. Congress will undoubtedly set apart some day here- 
 after for the purpose of giving expression to the sentiment 
 entertained for the character and great public services of 
 Senator MILLER. As a mark of respect for the memory of 
 the deceased Senator, I move the adoption of the following 
 resolutions : 
 
 Resolved, That the House has received with profound sorrow the intel- 
 ligence of the death of Senator JOHN F. MILLER, of California. 
 Resolved, That out of respect to his memory this House do now adjourn. 
 
 The resolutions were unanimously adopted ; and accord- 
 ingly (at 4 o'clock and 5 minutes p. m.) the House ad- 
 journed. 
 
 On Wednesday, the llth day of March, the following pro- 
 ceedings were had in the Senate : 
 
 Mr. STANFORD. Mr. President, I ask the unanimous con- 
 sent of the Senate to offer a series of resolutions at this time.
 
 Funeral Services. 5 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The resolutions will be read. 
 The resolutions were read, as follows : 
 
 Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of the death, 
 of Hon. JOHN F. MILLER, late a Senator from California. 
 
 Resolved, That a committee of five Senators be appointed by the Presi- 
 dent pro tempore of the Senate to take order for superintending the 
 funeral of Mr. MILLER, and that, as a mark of respect entertained by the 
 Senate for his memory, his remains be removed from Washington to 
 California in charge of the Sergeant-at-Arms and attended by said com- 
 mittee, who shall have full power to carry this resolution into effect. 
 
 Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate communicate the foregoing 
 resolutions to the House of Representatives. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The question is on the adop- 
 tion of the resolutions. 
 
 The resolutions were agreed to unanimously; and Mr. 
 JONES of Nevada, Mr. FRYE, Mr. CULLOM, Mr. BUTLER, and 
 Mr. GRAY were appointed as the committee under the second 
 resolution. 
 
 Mr. FRYE submitted the following resolution ; which was 
 considered by unanimous consent, and agreed to : 
 
 Resolved, That the Secretary invite the House of Representatives to 
 attend the funeral ceremony of Hon. JOHN F. MILLER, late a Senator from 
 the State of California, in the Senate Chamber on Saturday, March 13, at 
 12 o'clock m. 
 
 Mr. FRYE submitted the following resolution; which was 
 considered by unanimous consent, and agreed to : 
 
 Resolved, That invitation be extended to the President of the United 
 States and the members of his Cabinet, the Chief-Justice and the asso- 
 ciate justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the diplo- 
 matic corps, to attend the funeral ceremony of JOHN F. MILLER, late a- 
 Senator from the State of California, in the Senate Chamber on Saturday, 
 the 13th of March, at 12 o'clock. 
 
 The foregoing having been reported to the House of Rep- 
 resentatives on the same day, the following proceedings were 
 had there :
 
 ($ Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 Mr. MORROW. Mr. Speaker, the resolution reported from 
 the Senate concerning arrangements to be made for the 
 funeral escort of Senator JOHN F. MILLER, of California, 
 contemplates that similar action be taken on the part of 
 the House, and that a committee be appointed to co-operate 
 with the Senate committee in accompanying the remains to 
 California. I therefore offer the resolution which I send 
 to the desk and ask its present consideration. 
 
 The SPEAKER. The resolution will be read. 
 
 The Clerk read as follows : 
 
 Resolved, That a special committee of seven members of the House be 
 appointed by the Speaker to accompany a similar committee appointed 
 by the Senate to escort the remains of Senator JOHN F. MILLER from Wash- 
 ington to California. 
 
 The resolution was agreed to. 
 
 On the 12th of March the Senate resolution inviting the 
 House of Representatives to attend the funeral ceremonies 
 of Senator MILLER having been presented by the Chair, the 
 following proceedings were had : 
 
 Mr. MORROW. I offer the resolution which I send to the 
 desk in relation to the subject-matter of the Senate resolu- 
 tion. 
 
 The Clerk read as follows : 
 
 Resolved, That the House accept the invitation of the Senate and attend 
 in a body the funeral services of the late Senator JOHN F. MILLER, of Cali-- 
 fornia, in the Senate Chamber on Saturday, March 13, at 12 o'clock m. 
 
 The resolution was agreed to. 
 
 During the session of the Senate the same day there was 
 received a message from the House of Representatives, by 
 Mr. T. O. TOWLES, its Chief Clerk, announcing that the 
 Speaker of the House had appointed Mr. JOSEPH McKEXXA, 
 of California; Mr. J. THOMAS SPRIGGS, of New York ; Mr.
 
 Funeral Services. 7 
 
 J. A. LOUTTIT, of California; Mr. J. B. MORGAN, of Missis- 
 sippi; Mr. WILLIAM P. HEPBURN, of IOWA; Mr. POLK LAF- 
 FOON, of Kentucky, and Mr. SETH L. MILLIKEN, of Maine, 
 the committee on the part of the House to accompany a sim- 
 ilar committee on the part of the Senate to escort the remains 
 of the late Senator JOHN F. MILLER from Washington to 
 California. 
 
 On the morning of Saturday, March 13, after a brief 
 prayer by the Rev. Dr. LEONARD at the house, in the pres- 
 ence only of the family and a few of the immediate friends of 
 the deceased, the casket containing his remains was escorted 
 from his late home on Connecticut avenue to the Capitol 
 by an imposing cortege, headed by the Marine Band, playing 
 dirges, and marshaled by the Commandery of the Loyal 
 Legion for the District of Columbia. The route of the pro- 
 cession lay south on Connecticut avenue to K street ; east 
 on K street to Massachusetts avenue ; along Massachusetts 
 avenue to Delaware avenue ; thence south on Delaware 
 avenue to the Capitol grounds, where it halted in front of 
 the main entrance to the Capitol. Here, while the band 
 played " Nearer, my God, to Thee," the casket was borne by 
 the pall-bearers up the broad flight of steps, followed by the 
 family and friends, and escorted into the Senate Chamber, 
 where it was placed in front of the President's chair. The 
 pall-bearers were Messrs. STANFORD, BECK, HOAR, VOOR- 
 HEES, and HARRISON, on the part of the Senate ; Messrs. 
 FELTON, MORROW, RANDALL, HISCOCK, and TUCKER, on 
 the part of the House of Representatives ; and Dr. J. M. 
 BROWN, U. S. N., General ABSALOM BAIRD. U. S. A., Ad 
 miral T. A. JENKINS, U. S. N., General A. B. BIRNEY, 
 General W. S. ROSECRANS, General GREEN B. RAUM, Gen- 
 eral N. L. ANDERSON, and General R. B. MUSSEY, on the 
 part of the Loyal Legion.
 
 8 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 The casket, of solid copper, inclosing a cedar silk-and- 
 satin-lined case, was similar to that in which the remains of 
 General Grant were interred. A plate-glass top afforded a 
 view of the features of the deceased. A silver plate bore 
 simply the full name and dates of birth and death. 
 
 The funeral services were held in the Senate on Saturday, 
 March 13. 
 
 The Chaplain, Rev. E. D. HUNTLEY, D. D., offered the 
 following prayer: 
 
 " Let us pray. 
 
 "Almighty God, help us to come into Thy presence with 
 thanksgiving, and into -Thy courts with praise; for that 
 Thou art good, Thy wondrous works declare ; and Thy 
 goodness extendeth even unto us, for as individuals Thou 
 hast greatly blessed us, and as a nation Thou hast set us as a 
 city upon a hill whose light can not be hid. 
 
 "Grant, we pray Thee, that the light which is within us 
 may never become darkness, but may it be so replenished that 
 across the darkest night our institutions may flash signals of 
 encouragement and cheer to the weary, heavy laden peoples 
 of the earth. 
 
 "Again Thy servant Death has come among us and brought 
 a glad relief to a weary, patient sufferer. We thank Thee 
 that our brother was enabled through grace to triumph in 
 the presence of forces which dissolved this earthly taber- 
 nacle and hastened his moving into the building of God, that 
 house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Help 
 us to live like him, that like him we also may know, when 
 our heart and our flesh faileth, what it is to have Thee as the 
 strength of our heart and our portion forever. 
 
 " We beg the sweet ministries of grace for the afflicted 
 family. Accompany them on their sad, long, lonely journey 
 to their distant home; and in Thine own good time may they
 
 Funeral Services. 9 
 
 be permitted to rejoice again in the companionship of him 
 who has preceded them into the region of the blessed, the 
 land of the hereafter. 
 
 "We ask it in the name of Jesus Christ, our Mediator 
 and Redeemer. Amen." 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. By order of the Senate the 
 usual business will be suspended this day to enable the 
 Senate to participate in the funeral ceremonies deemed 
 appropriate on the death of Jo. N F. MILLER, late an 
 honored member of this body from the State of California. 
 
 At five minutes past 12 o'clock the members of the House 
 of Representatives, preceded by the Sergeant-at-Arms and 
 Clerk, and headed by the Speaker and Chaplain, entered the 
 Senate Chamber. The Speaker was escorted to a seat at the 
 right of the President pro tempore of the Senate; the Clerk 
 and Chaplain at the Secretary's desk; and the members of 
 the House were escorted to the seats on the floor provided 
 for them. 
 
 They were soon followed by the Chief -Justice and associate 
 justices of the Supreme Court of the United States clad in 
 their robes, the diplomatic corps attired in full court cos- 
 tumes, and the President and his Cabinet Ministers, who 
 were respectively escorted to the seats assigned them on the 
 floor of the Senate Chamber. 
 
 At half past 12 o'clock the casket containing the remains of 
 the deceased Senator was brought into the Senate Chamber, 
 preceded by Rev. WILLIAM A. LEONARD, D. D. , rector of 
 Saint John's Church, of Washington City, and escorted by 
 the committees of arrangements of the two Houses and pall- 
 bearers selected from the Loyal Legion; and followed by 
 members of the family and friends of the deceased. 
 
 The burial service of the Episcopal Church, with appro- 
 priate collects from the offices of the church, was read by 
 Rev. Dr. LEONARD.
 
 10 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 The benediction was pronounced by Rev. Dr. HUNTLEY, 
 Chaplain of the Senate. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro iempore. The funeral ceremonies 
 deemed appropriate to this occasion in the Senate Chamber 
 are now terminated. We consign all that is mortal of our 
 brother to the custody of an officer of the Senate and a com- 
 mittee of its members, to be conveyed to his home on the 
 Pacific, and there committed for burial to those who have 
 honored him and loved him so much when living. The Sen- 
 ate as a body will now attend the remains to the station. 
 
 Mr. CONGER. I move that the Senate adjourn with a view 
 to attend the funeral to the station. 
 
 The motion was agreed to ; and (at 12 o'clock and 5 min- 
 utes p. m.) the Senate adjourned. 
 
 On this occasion the Senate paid an extraordinary mark 
 of respect to the memory of their deceased colleague by fol- 
 lowing on foot his remains to the railway station, whence 
 they were to be taken to California. The only other time in 
 all its history that this action has been taken by the Senate 
 was on the occasion of the funeral of Charles Sumner, a Sena- 
 tor from Massachusetts. 
 
 The Marine Band headed the procession, which comprised, 
 besides the Senate, the Loyal Legion Com.man.dery, and 
 thousands of citizens of the several States, who thus testified 
 the respect in which they held the memory of the deceased 
 statesman. 
 
 The testimonials of respect to Senator MILLER were 
 widespread, and extended from Washington City to San 
 Francisco. Everywhere that the funeral train bearing his 
 remains halted, friends flocked to drop flowers and tears on 
 the casket and to tender words of sympathy to the family. 
 
 The demonstrations of grief and expressions of synipa-
 
 Funeral Services. H 
 
 thy were national in their character, because Senator MIL- 
 LER'S reputation was national, and because he had friends 
 in every State and Territory. 
 
 The funeral train had hardly begun the descent of the 
 western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains when the 
 people of the Pacific Slope came out with uncovered heads to 
 meet it and to place a guard of honor over the remains of 
 their beloved Senator. 
 
 At Colfax a delegation from San Francisco waited with a 
 special car to join the funeral train. In that party were 
 General DIMOND, General C. R. THOMPSON, and Colonel A. 
 G. HAWES, representing the Loyal Legion, and the general 
 committees and management of the Grand Army of the Re- 
 public and Sons of Veterans. Senator JOHN P. JONES, of 
 Nevada, on behalf of the Congressional delegation accom- 
 panying the remains, transferred their charge to the mili- 
 tary organizations with these words : 
 
 " Mr. Chairman of the Committee of George H. Thomas 
 Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and Gentlemen : Obedi- 
 ent to the commands of the Senate of the United States, we 
 have accompanied the remains of your late distinguished rep- 
 resentative to the &tate which had honored him and which 
 in turn he had honored by faithful and intelligent services. 
 It is less than six years since California commissioned him 
 to represent her in the Senate, but his career was so crowded 
 with brilliant and varied services that the time seemed longer. 
 
 " The esteem in which he was held by his associates found 
 expression in his early assignment to the chairmanship of 
 one of the most important committees of the body. This 
 is neither the time nor place to pronounce his eulogy. The 
 Senate will, in accordance with time-honored usage, set 
 apart a day upon which it will place imperishably on the 
 record its high appreciation of his character and the patri-
 
 12 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 otic services which he has rendered the country. The griev- 
 ous wounds which he received in his country's defense wore 
 heavily upon him and shortened his life's journey. While, 
 under the providence of God, he did not die amid the roar 
 of battle and the din of charging squadrons, yet he yielded 
 up his life at his post of duty in the National Capital of a 
 happy and reunited country. Our mournful mission is ended 
 by committing to the charge of his comrades of the Grand 
 Army of the Republic the mortal part of JOHN FRANKLIN 
 MILLER." 
 
 At Sacramento the funeral party was joined by another 
 large military and civic delegation. The train halted at the 
 capital city for an hour or two, and hundreds of people, 
 among whom were many old soldiers, gathered around the 
 train with uncovered heads. When the train reached San 
 Francisco a great crowd on foot and in carriages awaited it 
 and formed an escort for the party to the mortuary chapel 
 of Trinity Church, where the casket was deposited. While 
 the remains lay in state they were visited by thousands of 
 people, the whole Pacific Slope seemingly joining in the ex- 
 pressions of grief, and at the funeral, on Sunday, March 21, 
 1886, every town of importance was represented by its dele- 
 gation of citizens. 
 
 The funeral took place at Trinity Church on Sunday after- 
 noon, at 2 o'clock. It was one of the most remarkable dem- 
 onstrations of the affection of the people for a friend and 
 trusted leader ever witnessed on the Pacific Slope. The floral 
 offerings that filled the chancel of the church were numerous, 
 fitting, and superb. The dim aisles bloomed like a magnifi- 
 cent green-house, and the mild air that pulsed with the ma- 
 jestic melancholy of martial funeral dirges was as heavy 
 with sweet odors as it was with sad strains. 
 
 At 11 o'clock in the morning people began to gather about
 
 Funeral Services. 13 
 
 the church door. The crowd kept swelling until it extended 
 in quadruple lines on both sides of the roadway from the 
 portals of the church to the entrance to Laurel Hill Ceme- 
 tery, where the interment took place. 
 
 The services in the church were brief, beautiful, and im- 
 pressive. After the casket had been deposited in front of 
 the chancel, the choir sang the burial anthem of the service, 
 and afterwards "Rock of Ages " was rendered by a quartet. 
 The Rev. Dr. BEERS, pastor, spoke as follows: 
 
 ' ' I speak in compliance with a request, which in this case 
 amounts to a command. My words are as well the prompting 
 of admiring and loving friendship, but at the same time the 
 utterances of sober truth. This is one of the rare occasions 
 when truth is eulogy and the language of panegyric does not 
 outmeasure the just meed of appreciation due to high per- 
 sonal character, large and well-applied endowments, and 
 great public services. This is proved in the present case by 
 the widespread shock caused by the death of Senator MILLER 
 and the universal sorrow experienced at a loss not soon nor 
 easily repaired. If human sympathy can ever avail to alle- 
 viate the pangs of irreparable bereavement, these mourning 
 ones may remember that they are encircled with the heart- 
 felt and loving sympathy of a whole people, and that the 
 tears of a community, a State, and a nation mingle with those 
 they shed. Though called away in the meridian of life, our 
 friend lived long enough to outstep the bounds of local and 
 State recognition, and to become a conspicuous figure on the 
 stage of national activities. It will be difficult to recall a 
 parallel in modern times of a Senator almost from the first 
 day challenging recognition as a man of mark in so august 
 and able a body as the upper house of Congress, and having 
 had accorded him so responsible and honorable a position as 
 the chairmanship of Foreign Affairs. We may also recall
 
 14 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 the fact that to him is largely due the widespread attention 
 now given by statesmen and thinkers to the question of Mon- 
 golian immigration, as touching some of the deepest and most 
 vital interests of present and future generations. His 
 achievements as a soldier preceded by his career in civil life. 
 His coolness, judgment, and daring in battle brought him 
 warm commendation from his comrades and superiors. But 
 Senator MILLER manifested in various ways, official and per- 
 sonal, his fidelity and consistency in another sphere of life 
 and duty. He ' adorned the doctrine of God, our Saviour, in 
 all things,' and was a good soldier of Christ, and when words 
 were no more possible, signified by gesture that his faith did 
 not fail or falter. And so, full of honors but not of years, 
 with all earthly ministries that could make life desirable a 
 home the abode of peace and love, and troops of friends, 
 great gifts, abundance of wealth and wide influence our 
 friend has passed away, leaving those who survive the price- 
 less heritage of an example as perfect and pure as possible to 
 the frailty of man. Senator MILLER died a martyr to duty. 
 What the bullets of Stone River and Liberty Gap failed to 
 do, unmeasured application to the most difficult and delicate 
 work assigned to him accomplished. And so the stateliness 
 of earth soldier, Senator, citizen, Christian a modern Bay- 
 ard, without fear and without reproach. ' Blessed are the 
 dead who die in the Lord, for they rest from their labors and 
 their works do follow them.'" 
 
 The service closed with Dyke's hymn, "Lead, Kindly 
 Light," by the full choir, and the reading of a passage from 
 Scripture. As the casket was borne out " Nearer, my God, 
 to Thee" was sung. 
 
 The route from the church to the cemetery was several 
 miles in length, but it was lined with spectators, and sym- 
 bols of mourning were observed in all directions. Flags
 
 Funeral Services. 15 
 
 floating at half-mast, furled banners of the Grand Army 
 posts, drums covered with black cloth, and many other 
 tokens attested the reason for the immense gathering on the 
 thoroughfares. The spectacle presented by the procession 
 as it went over the swelling hills was extremely impressive. 
 All the National Guards of San Francisco and Oakland 
 marched at its head to the music of funeral dirges and the 
 beat of muffled drums. The Third and First Regiments 
 followed with reversed arms. At the head of the posts of the 
 Grand Army of the Republic, with whom marched the Con- 
 federate Veterans of California, an old negro carried the 
 banner of the Department of California. Surrounding the 
 hearse were the pall-bearers, Governor GEORGE STONEMAN, 
 ex-Governor F. F. Low, ex-Senator NEWTON BOOTH, ex- 
 Senator A. A. SARGENT, Judge LORENZO SAWYER, General 
 CHAUNCEY MCKEEVER, Commodore RUSSELL, Louis SLOSS, 
 LEWIS GERSTLE, WILLIAM KOHL, G. NIEBAUM, WILLIAM 
 ALVORD, W. T. COLEMAN, WILLIAM L, MERRY, W. W. 
 MONTAGUE, JULES CERF, IRVING M. SCOTT, WILLIAM T. 
 GARRATT, CHARLES S. SUMNER, WILLIAM T. PEABODY, 
 Chancellor HARTSON, Judge JOHN CURRY, Colonel J. P. 
 HOGE, General W. L. ELLIOTT, Colonel A. G. HAWES, 
 CHARLES E. WILSON, General W. H. DIMOND. Preceding 
 the hearse, which was followed by carriages containing the 
 family and near relatives, were four carriages in which rode 
 the Congressional delegation. The Loyal Legion and the 
 Veteran Guard of the George H. Thomas Post acted as a 
 special escort to the remains. The funeral procession was 
 something more than two miles long. 
 
 The spot selected for the interment of Senator MILLER'S 
 remains is about half way up the sloping and verdant hill 
 side that forms the larger part of Laurel Hill Cemetery, one 
 of the most beautiful burying-grounds in the country. The 
 day was perfect. The odor of springtime filled the air.
 
 16 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 The consequence was that a large throng of spectators 
 poured into the cemetery and pressed about the grave. 
 When the military companies and Grand Army of the Re- 
 public posts arrived they formed in line along the roadway 
 to the place of burial. 
 
 The services at the grave were conducted by the Thomas 
 Post. When the casket, which was draped with the flag of 
 the post and loaded with white flowers, was set over the' 
 mouth of the grave, Dr. BEERS read the Episcopal burial 
 service. 
 
 Commander WILSON, of the post, then said : 
 
 " We are assembled to pay the last sad rites to the mem- 
 ory of a soldier of the Republic. The chaplain will offer 
 prayer. " 
 
 After Chaplain MATTHEWS had done so, and the Masonic 
 Quartet had sung " The Lord is My Shepherd,'' Commander 
 WILSON spoke, saying : 
 
 " Memory carries us back to the time when shoulder to 
 shoulder we fought for the dear old flag. May the dangers 
 encountered and bravely overcome by our dead hero be an 
 encouragement to the youth of this country when called 
 upon to fight in its defense. As a soldier he was loyal, 
 patriotic, and brave ; as a statesman, he was able and vigor- 
 ous, and true to every trust reposed in him ; as a citizen, 
 he was upright, charitable, and humane; and in all the rela- 
 tions of life he was the noblest work of God, an honest man. 
 He has left behind the aroma of a worthy life. Tenderly, 
 reverently, and affectionately do we commit his body to the 
 earth." 
 
 General GOULD then said: "On behalf of the Grand 
 Army of the Republic I place this tribute on our comrade's 
 coffin as a symbol of undying love." He deposited a wreath 
 on the casket.
 
 Funeral Services. 17 
 
 "As a symbol of purity," said Comrade T. H. GOODMAN, 
 laying a white rose tied with ribbon on the coffin, " I place 
 this, here. May future generations emulate the character of 
 him whose ashes lie below." 
 
 General W. H. L. BARNES put the laurel on the coffin and 
 said in sonorous tones : "As a token of affection for our de- 
 ceased comrade in arms, I crown his remains with this em- 
 blem of victory." 
 
 Chaplain MATTHEWS read the Grand Army service, the 
 Masonic Quartet sang " Thy Will Be Done," and after the 
 prayer the casket was lowered into the vault, where it was 
 placed under the slab on which rests the remains of the 
 young son of the deceased. The three companies of the 
 National Guard, commanded by Colonel WILDER, fired three 
 volleys over the grave. 
 
 Many of the large and elaborate floral offerings which 
 had been placed in the church were set about the grave. 
 The remains of the dead Senator were literally buried in 
 flowers. 
 
 9318 MIL 2
 
 PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE, 
 
 The 27th day of May having been designated and set apart 
 by the Senate as the day upon which addresses in commem- 
 oration of the life and services of General MILLER should be 
 delivered, the following proceedings were had there : 
 
 Mr. STANFORD. Mr. President, in accordance with the 
 notice given some time ago that on this day I would move 
 certain resolutions in reference to my late colleague, JOHN 
 F. MILLER: I beg to offer resolutions. 
 
 The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The resolutions will be 
 read. 
 
 The Chief Clerk read as follows : 
 
 Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of the death 
 of JOHN F. MILLER, late a Senator from the State of California. 
 
 Resolved, That as a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased, the 
 business of the Senate be now suspended to enable his associates to pay 
 proper tribute of regard to his high character and distinguished public 
 services. 
 
 Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate communicate these resolu- 
 tions to the House of Representatives. 
 
 The resolutions were agreed to unanimously. 
 
 Address of Mr. STANFORD, of California. 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT : The Senate is asked this afternoon to sus- 
 pend its regular business in order that the last tributes to 
 the memory of Senator JOHN F. MILLER can be paid by his 
 former associates of this body.
 
 20 Life and Character of John F. 3liller. 
 
 The character and public services of the distinguished de- 
 ceased are deserving of public and official recognition. The 
 people of California have already performed this office. The 
 expressions voiced by them have been that the nation has 
 lost a worthy, faithful, and devoted servant, an exemplary 
 citizen, and an honored Senator. 
 
 On the afternoon of the 8th of March, Senator MILLER 
 passed from mortal life after a long and painful illness. We 
 had been led to believe and had hoped that he would be able 
 to attend this session of the Senate. When he came to this 
 city, in December last, from his distant home in California, 
 he had strong hopes of resuming his official duties, but it 
 was ordered otherwise. During his illness I frequently saw 
 him, and found him always hopeful for the best and extremely 
 desirous of resuming his Senatorial labors. As the winter 
 closed he thought that with the incoming of spring he would 
 gain strength enough to resist the ranges of his disease for 
 a short time, even if he did not permanently regain his full 
 health. At one time it seemed as if his will power and 
 strength would be sufficient, but his strength failed him. 
 
 He passed into the other world surrounded by those most 
 dear to him on this earth. 
 
 General MILLER was descended from two of the most re- 
 spected families of Virginia, and was of Swiss-Scotch ex- 
 traction, his progenitor on his father's side having left Switz- 
 erland to find in America what was denied him in the land 
 of his birth the freedom to worship God in accordance with 
 the dictates of his own conscience; while his paternal grand- 
 mother's family were from Scotland. In the first decade of 
 the present century his grandfather and father, who were 
 then located in Franklin County, Virginia, decided on leav- 
 ing that State, and before doing so manumitted their slaves. 
 It may be easily supposed that the strong appreciation of 
 liberty and the rights of man possessed by JOHN F. MILLER
 
 Address of Mr. Stanford, of California. 21 
 
 came to him as a natural heritage from a father and grand- 
 father whose sense of justice and liberty was so great as 1 to 
 impel them to make a voluntary sacrifice at a time when 
 slavery was by many held to be lawful and right. 
 
 Having started out from Virginia, the first halting place 
 of the Miller family was at a point in Kentucky on the Ohio 
 River, near Maysville, where, after a short stay, they built 
 flatboats upon which they floated down the Ohio to the 
 present site of Cincinnati. Subsequently the family home 
 was chosen in Union County, Indiana, near Indian Creek, 
 in the great Miami Valley. 
 
 By a coincidence, the maternal branch of JOHN F. MIL- 
 LER'S family was of the same name as the paternal. His 
 mother's father, John Miller, was a colonel commanding 
 volunteer forces in Indiana and Ohio during the war of 1812, 
 and won an extensive reputation for his successful warfare 
 against the British and their Indian allies. His father was 
 a man of great force of character, a natural leader, and ex- 
 ercised a wide and powerful influence in the State of his 
 adoption. Here, in Union County, Indiana, a few miles from 
 Cincinnati, JOHN F. MILLER was born. A short time after his 
 birth the family removed to South Bend, where his early days 
 were passed. He received an academical education at South 
 Bend, and at Chicago was fitted for college; but prefer- 
 ring to embark as soon as possible upon his life career, he 
 chose to enter at once upon the study of the law, in which 
 he graduated at the New York State Law School at the age 
 of twenty-one. He began the practice of the law at South 
 Bend in the same year, achieving early success. In the year 
 1853 he first came to California, and, locating at Napa, re- 
 sumed the practice of his profession with marked success. 
 In the winter of 1855-'56 he was summoned back to Indiana 
 by the news that his mother was dangerously ill. Happily 
 this was a mistake, and Mrs. Miller lived to see her son
 
 22 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 prosperous, happy, and highly honored. She passed away 
 last fall at the mature age of seventy-four. 
 
 Mr. MILLER, however, remained in Indiana, re-engaging 
 in the practice of law, and 1861 found him a member of the 
 senate of that State. In 1857 he had married Miss Mary 
 Chess, of Pennsylvania. Of their marriage two children 
 were born; the daughter survives her brother, who nassed 
 away in San Francisco in 1878 at the age of seven years. 
 
 Mr. MILLER was one of the first to respond in behalf of 
 the Union at the breaking out of the rebellion. Governor 
 Morton, the great war governor of Indiana, appointed him 
 colonel of the Twenty-ninth Indiana Infantry, and he re- 
 signed his seat in the legislature of the State. Few men 
 are better fitted for a soldier's career than was JOHN F. MIL- 
 LER. He had a cool head, great personal bravery, and in- 
 domitable energy, as well as the other traits that go to make 
 up a successful soldier. As the conflict progressed, deserved 
 promotion for "conspicuous bravery" was given him, and 
 the close of the war found him brigadier and brevet major 
 general. On his return to Indiana, Governor Morton pre- 
 sented him a sword which he had promised the soldier of 
 the State who distinguished himself the most and reflected 
 the greatest credit on his State and country. The details of 
 his honorable military career may well be left to his comrades 
 in arms, several of whom are members of this body. 
 
 When the sound of the conflict had passed away, General 
 MILLER was offered a commission as colonel in the regiilar 
 Army, but he declined it. He was a soldier only because 
 there was a war, and preferred to return to the more active 
 and to him more desirable competition of professional and 
 political life. He returned a second time to California, and 
 President Johnson offered him the position of collector of 
 the port of San Francisco. He accepted, and performed the 
 duties of that important office for four years with great
 
 Address of Mr. Stanford, of California. 23 
 
 credit. He surrendered the office at the end of his term, de- 
 clining a reappointment. After that he took an active in- 
 terest in the management of the Alaska Commercial Com- 
 pany ; was a candidate for presidential elector in 1872, 1876, 
 and 1880, and his election to the United States Senate fol- 
 lowed in 1881. He took his seat in this body March 4 of that 
 year. The responsible duties of this position he discharged 
 in such a manner as to satisfy his constituents and secure the 
 respect and esteem of his brother Senators. 
 
 At noon on Saturday, March 13, there were held in this 
 Chamber impressive funeral ceremonies in his honor, in 
 the presence of the President, the members of the Senate 
 and House of Representatives, the Supreme Court of the 
 United States, the diplomatic representatives of foreign 
 countries, members of the Loyal League and other organiza- 
 tions. Every available place in both Chamber and galleries 
 was filled. At the conclusion of the ceremonies the remains 
 were escorted by members of this body, accompanied by a 
 committee from the House of Representatives, to the depot, 
 whence later in the evening the committee appointed by this 
 body and the House of Representatives accompanied them 
 to San Francisco, where, on March 21, funeral ceremonies 
 again took place in the presence of an immense concourse 
 of his sorrowing fellow-citizens. 
 
 On the occasion of the funeral there, Rev. Dr. Beers, of 
 the Episcopal church, said of the deceased : "This is one 
 of those rare occasions when truth is eulogy and the lan- 
 guage of panegyric does not outmeasure the just meed of 
 appreciation due to high personal character, large and well- 
 applied endowments, and great public service. This is proved 
 in the present case by the widespread shock caused by the 
 death of Senator MILLER and the universal sorrow experi- 
 enced at a loss not soon nor easily repaired. If human sym-
 
 24 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 pathy can ever avail to alleviate the pangs of irreparable 
 bereavement, these mourning ones may remember that they 
 are encircled with the heartfelt and loving sympathy of a 
 whole people, and that the tears of a community, a State, 
 and a nation mingle with those they shed. Though called 
 away in the meridian of life, our friend lived long enough 
 to outstep the bounds of local and State recognition, and to 
 become a conspicuous figure on the stage of national activi- 
 ties. * * * His achievements as a soldier preceded his 
 career in civil life. His coolness, judgment, and daring in 
 battle brought him warm commendation from his comrades 
 and superiors. 
 
 "But Senator MILLER manifested in various ways, official 
 and personal, his fidelity and consistency in another sphere 
 of life and duty. He 'adorned the doctrine of God our 
 Saviour in all things,' and was a good soldier of Christ, and 
 when words were no more possible signified by gesture that 
 his faith did not fail or falter. And so, full of honors, but 
 not of years, with all earthly ministries that could make life 
 desirable a home the abode of peace and love, and troops 
 of friends, great gifts, abundance of wealth, and wide in- 
 fluence our friend has passed away, leaving those who 
 survive the priceless heritage of an example as perfect and 
 pure as is possible to the frailty of man. Senator MILLER 
 died a martyr to duty. What the bullets of Stone River 
 and Liberty Gap failed to do, unmeasured application to the 
 most difficult and delicate work assigned him accomplished. 
 And so the stateliness of earth soldier, Senator, citizen, 
 Christian a modern Bayard, passed away without fear and 
 without reproach. ' Blessed are the dead who die in the 
 Lord, for they rest from their labors and their works do 
 follow them.'" . 
 
 These sentiments, so beautifully expressed, find a cordial 
 indorsement from all who knew him as a private citizen, a
 
 Address of Mr. Edmunds, of Vermont. 25 
 
 legislator in Indiana, a soldier of the nation, and a Senator 
 from California. 
 
 General MILLER'S life was a success. The work he under- 
 took he did well, whether in camp, in commerce, or in Con- 
 gress. He gained commendation on every side and in every 
 path of duty in which he walked. His persuasive eloquence, 
 earnest, able, and logical reasoning, was recognized in this 
 Chamber. He took an active interest in everything that 
 looked to the welfare of his State, his party, and his country. 
 He was a progressive man and a warm friend. In politics 
 he was a Republican and a partisan, and never sought to 
 conceal it. 
 
 He believed that "he who serves his country best serves 
 his party best." He is gone. Impartial history will delight 
 to place his name, as a private and public citizen, high 
 among those who are worthy examples for their country men 
 to admire and imitate. 
 
 Address of Mr. EDMUNDS, of Vermont. 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT : I must beg permission to pay my heart- 
 felt tribute to the memory of our late associate and our 
 always friend. 
 
 I did not have the pleasure of knowing him during his most 
 honorable and conspicuous career in the Army of the United 
 States in the darkest hour of its destiny, but all that history 
 tells of it, all that his surviving comrades tell of it, all that 
 his then foes but now friends tell of it, unite in showing how 
 brave and wise and prudent a soldier he was. I have to say 
 rather what I have known of him here in this Chamber, and 
 what I have known of him as a friend and neighbor in our 
 associations during our stay in this city.
 
 26 Life and Character of John F. Millar. 
 
 It was my pleasure and privilege to be for a long time his 
 associate as a member of the Committee on Foreign Rela- 
 tions, of which he was the chairman a committee as you 
 know, Mr. President, and as all the Senators know, that 
 often has to do with questions not only of great practical 
 importance but of extreme delicacy. Senator MILLER 
 brought to that duty, coming as he did from the field of 
 business, of politics, and of war, and not from a career of 
 previous diplomatic experience or instruction, a tact, and a 
 quality of suiting things to each other, and of harmonizing 
 difficulties so far as consistent with truth and justice and 
 national honor which would have done credit to any man 
 who had spent his whole life in the training of diplomatic 
 and international intercourse. 
 
 Never excited, never astray, patient, persistent in that as 
 he was in his previous career in the Army, he contributed 
 as much certainly, if not more than any other member of 
 that committee or any other member of the Senate, to the 
 satisfactory progress and adjustment of the affairs that 
 were intrusted to that committee, which, as you know, is so 
 often and so necessarily in conference with the Executive 
 and his Secretary of State respecting a great many affairs 
 that are never even brought to the attention of the whole 
 body of the Senate. . 
 
 So I can say of him with a truth and an eulogy that is not 
 exaggerated, that in that most delicate and conspicuous 
 and responsible position he was a man equal to the respon- 
 sibilities of the place. 
 
 His career here we all know, in the public legislation and 
 operations of this body never a frequent speaker, never a 
 long speaker when he had occasion to address the Senate, 
 but always the man of thought, the man of attention, the 
 man of industry, the man of practical sagacity^ who brought
 
 Address of Mr. Edmunds, of Vermont. 27 
 
 to the solution of every question, whether legislative or ex- 
 ecutive, the patient and persistent energy and intelligence 
 that should produce for his country and for his State the 
 best results. 
 
 I think such an American citizen is a' model for us all, is 
 an inspiration to all who are to follow us here, or who are 
 to perform the equally important duties of American citi- 
 zens in their respective spheres. 
 
 But. Mr. President, outside of this Chamber and in the in- 
 tercourse of social and friendly life that intercourse which 
 gives nearly all the sweetness and happiness and hope that 
 there is in the somewhat weary ways we travel I think Mr. 
 MILLER was peculiar in the circumstance that with this 
 positiveness of character, this persistence of energy, this 
 solidity of opinion, which did not yield except for good rea- 
 son, the social and the private side of his character was as 
 sweet and gentle as that of a woman. I knew him well, 
 and with a sincere sensibility I pay this tribute to that part 
 of his life that was not seen in this Chamber. 
 
 I saw him often during the distressing hours of his last 
 days. In all the pain and misery that his mortal disease 
 gave to him there was the same steadfast calmness of per- 
 sistent patience that had exhibited itself on the active 
 side of his life. With no murmuring, no grief, no sorrow 
 except that natural one of leaving behind him those he 
 loved, he faced the door that opens to that mysterious land 
 we all hope to see, and greeted with, a happy hope, I am 
 sure, when the door at last opened, that spacious sunshine 
 far from pain to which he felt and knew he was so soon 
 to go. 
 
 I lay upon his grave the tribute of my most affectionate 
 remembrance.
 
 28 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 Address of Mr. VoORHEES, of Indiana. 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT : The distinguished soldier and civilian 
 whose death we mourn and whose memory we cherish won 
 and wore in his lifetime, and in full and abundant measure, 
 the honors of two great States, far distant from each other. 
 Fifty-five years ago in the beautiful valley of the White- 
 water, in Eastern Indiana, JOHN F. MILLER was born. He 
 grew to manhood's bright estate and equipped himself for 
 his brilliant career under the favorable and progressive 
 influences of his native State. He first appeared in connec- 
 tion with public affairs as a member of the Indiana State 
 senate from Saint Joseph County in 1860. He was then 
 twenty-nine years of age, handsome in face and person, and 
 attractive in manner. Those who saw him then could best 
 appreciate when they met him in after years the changes 
 wrought by wounds, suffering, and time. He remained but 
 a short time in the civil service of Indiana. The ill-omened 
 roar of artillery at Sumter in April, 1861, startled men from 
 the repose of peace and inflamed their blood for battle as no 
 other opening act of war ever did in the history of nations. 
 
 The people of the North and of the South instinctively 
 knew the desperate and fatal meaning of those dread echoes, 
 and they simultaneously sprang to arms for that irrepres- 
 sible conflict which in the high councils of Almighty God 
 was decreed to be settled by the sword. In that first rush to 
 the field General MILLER was among the foremost. He re- 
 signed his seat as a member of the senate in the Indiana leg- 
 islature and took command as colonel of the Twenty-ninth 
 Regiment of Indiana Volunteers. From that day until the 
 war closed he appeared at all times and under all circum- 
 stances as the highest and best type of an American soldier
 
 Address of Mr. Voorhees, of Indiana. 29 
 
 Two hundred thousand of the youth and flower of Indiana 
 took their part in the harvest of death from the Potomac to 
 the Gulf and to the ensanguined plains beyond the Missis- 
 sippi. Their record is brilliant and conspicuous for courage 
 and endurance wherever the flag was planted. 
 
 But in all the bright array of Indiana soldiers no name has 
 a prouder place or does more honor to the history of his 
 native State than that of JOHN F. MILLER. I need not de- 
 tail his military services. They are preserved in the annals 
 of his country and cherished in the hearts of his country- 
 men. He was brevetted a major-general for conspicuous 
 courage in battle, and merited and should have received a 
 major-general's commission and full rank. The future im- 
 partial historian will notice and record the fact that the 
 military officers of Indiana during the great conflict between 
 the sections did not, as a rule, receive such promotion and 
 advancement to high rank and command as their abilities 
 and services demanded. With material in the field equal to 
 any from Ohio, Illinois, or any other State, yet the just 
 claims of hard-fighting colonels and brigadiers from Indiana 
 were but sparingly recognized by promotion. This, how- 
 ever, is not the time nor the occasion to assign the reason for 
 the fact I have stated. 
 
 With the return of peace General MILLER sought the Pa- 
 cific coast and made his home in that wonderful State whose 
 discovery, development, and wealth have flashed upon the 
 world more like a bewildering romance than a stupendous 
 reality in human history. In the midst of the strong and 
 pushing people of that remarkable. Commonwealth where 
 "the survival of the fittest" is a practical daily law and not 
 a mere speculative theory, General MILLER went to the front 
 and there maintained himself. Indiana may be pardoned 
 for her interest and pride in her sons in distant States. It
 
 30 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 is a somewhat singular circumstance that when he entered 
 this body he succeeded the accomplished and eloquent Booth, 
 also a native of Indiana. 
 
 As a Senator moving here in the midst of his associates, 
 General MILLER was admired, respected, and beloved. His 
 abilities were of a high order, and he brought to the dis- 
 charge of his duties the habits and methods of a trained and 
 cultivated mind. His demeanor was full of quiet, dignified 
 courtesy toward all. He was always a gentleman. General 
 MILLER had been for many years an intense sufferer, and 
 there is no doubt that his life was shortened by the shock 
 and severity of his wounds. In the ordinary course of nature, 
 and by reason of a strong physical constitution, death should 
 long have spared him to his family, his friends, and his 
 country. But though prematurely called he met the great 
 inevitable change with the firmness and the faith of a soldier 
 and a Christian. Sir, how thick and fast come the warnings 
 to us all that this earth is not our abiding home ; that our 
 lives are as fleeting shadows a moment here on the shore- 
 less, illimitable ocean of time, then gone forever ! On every 
 hand, and keeping time with the days and almost with the 
 hours, our friends and comrades depart, recede from our 
 longing embrace, and disappear from our tearful gaze. How 
 empty and vain appear all the honors of this world at such 
 a time, and how pitiful the conflicts and asperities of human 
 ambition ! 
 
 Sir, it seems but yesterday when General MILLER walked 
 and thought and toiled in our midst, but we shall see him 
 no more amongst living men. On the far-off Pacific coast 
 all of him that was mortal will repose forever. Indiana 
 joins California as a mourner for the honored dead, and lays 
 an evergreen garland of gratitude for his services, and 
 affection for his memory on his grave.
 
 Address of Mr. Logan, of Illinois. 31 
 
 Address of Mr. LOGAN, of Illinois. 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT : In the death of JOHN F. MILLER, of 
 California, a loss to the country has been sustained the full 
 extent of which can now only be realized by those whose 
 good fortune it was to know him intimately. He had arrived 
 at that position in life when, having conquered the difficul- 
 ties Avhich confront youth at the beginning of its career, he 
 was ready to enter upon a field of broad usefulness, in which 
 he would have earned a brilliant and lasting place in the 
 national annals of his period. But he was fated to be like a 
 gallant general who, after having carried the ramparts of an 
 enemy's works, is stricken down upon the very threshold of 
 well-earned victory. In this Chamber, where he was known 
 and honored, the sentiment that his death was untimely is 
 general and deeply rooted. 
 
 The parents of the late Senator MILLER were, originally, 
 citizens of the State of Virginia, whence they emigrated to 
 Indiana at a time when the latter was considered fairly en- 
 titled to be designated as the Far West. In this new State, 
 which, in reference to its then recent admission to the Union, 
 may be said to have been still in its teens, JOHN F. MILLER 
 was born, in the year 1831. His youth was passed f.mid 
 those frontier scenes which have developed some of the 
 strongest characters of American history. At an early age 
 he evinced an unequivocal aptitude for books ; and his 
 parents, resolving to give him all of the limited advantages 
 of an education then accessible to the Western boy, sent 
 him to an academy in South Bend, where he obtained such 
 preliminary education as it was possible to furnish. At the 
 age of eighteen he began the study of law, and in the year 
 1852 graduated with much credit from the New York State
 
 32 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 Law School, to which he had gone to avail himself of its 
 course. Returning to his home in Indiana he began the 
 practice of law, but soon being seized with the California 
 fever, then fully developed, he joined the immense concourse 
 of people who were flocking to the new El Dorado. 
 
 Pursuing the practice of law for a few years on the Pacific 
 coast, he returned again to the home of his youth, resolving 
 to spend the remainder of his days among the friends who 
 loved him so well. In the year 1860 he was elected to mem- 
 bership in the Indiana State senate, but upon the inaugura- 
 tion of the rebellion, being then only thirty years of age, he 
 entered the Union Army, and was at once made colonel of 
 the Twenty-ninth Regiment of Indiana Volunteers. Evinc- 
 ing military ability of a high grade, he was soon placed in 
 command of a brigade, and served at different periods under 
 Generals Sherman, Rosecrans, and Thomas. 
 
 At the battle of Stone River General MILLER exhibited 
 this ability in a very conspicuous manner. Two days be- 
 fore this engagement he had been painfully wounded and 
 was still suffering acutely from the effects of the wound. 
 Having been ordered to the support of General Crittenden's 
 corps, at Stone River, he took position with his brigade upon 
 the left of the railroad in an open field, and near the bank 
 of the stream. About 4 o'clock in the afternoon a furious 
 attack was made by the enemy upon General Beatty's or 
 VanCleve's division, which was then across the river. The 
 latter was compelled to retreat to the other side again 
 through General MILLER'S lines. The enemy had followed 
 the retiring Unionist and were now upon the opposite bank, 
 directly facing General MILLER'S brigade. 
 
 A spirited action at once, took place between the two bod- 
 ies of troops across the stream. Under the dreadful fire of 
 General MILLER'S force the enemy began to waver and then
 
 Address of Mr. Logan, of Illinois. 33 
 
 to fall back. General MILLER perceiving his advantage, 
 determined to follow it, and gave orders for an immediate 
 advance. At this moment an order came to him from a gen- 
 eral officer, not his immediate commander, to desist from 
 the attempt to cross the river. "With the self-reliance mark- 
 ing independent natures, General MILLER dashed across the 
 river with his troops, the enemy flying before him in order 
 to gain the cover of the batteries in his rear. On went the 
 Unionists under the lead of the gallant MILLER. Nothing 
 pould withstand their intrepidity. A charge was made upon 
 a battery of four guns, with the fire of the pieces fairly blaz- 
 ing in the faces of the attacking party. A hand-to-hand 
 conflict took place ; the battery was captured, and with it 
 the colors of the regiment serving it. 
 
 The movement of General MILLER was perilous in the ex- 
 treme ; but the importance of the result obtained fully justi- 
 fied the daring attempt. The check received by the enemy 
 through General MILLER'S audacious bravery undoubtedly 
 contributed as much if not more than any other thing in 
 turning the tide in favor of our troops at this battle and pre- 
 vented the enemy from occupying the heights overlooking 
 Stone River. 
 
 He was severely wounded at Liberty Gap, and after* 
 ward commanded a large force at the battle of Nashville, 
 where he gained great distinction. 
 
 These incidents are selected from the military career of 
 General MILLER in order to illustrate the strong character 
 and ardent patriotism of the man whose loss we have so 
 recently been called upon to mourn. 
 
 With no previous military education he entered the Union 
 Army at the beginning of the war, and simply through force 
 of his marked personal characteristics, backed by the fitness 
 for arms which the life of a free-born American citizen is so 
 
 9318 MIL 3
 
 34 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 well calculated to create, lie left the Army at the termina- 
 tion of the conflict with the rank of a brevet major-general. 
 
 The military career of the lamented MILLER furnishes 
 another interesting example of the resources of the United 
 States when forced to the dread alternative of war. For- 
 tunately, the country has not often been called to accept 
 this alternative during the course of its peaceful history; 
 but old England, the most warlike of nations, and old Mex- 
 ico, the most powerful of the Hispano- American republics, 
 have alike had cause to marvel at the military strength of 
 our country, almost without an army or a military establish- 
 ment, and traditionally devoted to a career of peace. 
 
 The concealed military power of the United States, if I 
 may so express it, has been remarkable, and an unpleasant 
 development to all of the nations of the world, whose sov- 
 ereigns have been accustomed for so long a period to regard 
 a standing army as the only true measure of the power of 
 the people. Such a spectacle as the American volunteer 
 soldier has never been seen in the history of governments. 
 
 Behold a man, quietly following his peaceful avocation, 
 surrounded by family and friends, and with no thoughts 
 save those connected with the routine of an unostentatious 
 life and the faithful fulfillment of the obligations of citizen- 
 ship. Sixty million people every day, in this broad and 
 happy land, to the call of such peaceful duties and the round 
 of such an eventful life. Not a banner, nor a military trap- 
 ping, nor the beat of a drum can be seen or heard to break 
 the even tenor of industrial and domestic pursuit. But hark ! 
 The shrill note of the bugle has broken the stillness of the 
 air. Look again, and behold a marvelous transformation ! 
 The quiet man. who mayhap was clad in homespun vest- 
 ments and engaged in following the sloAV course of a plow 
 over a forbidding field, has vanished ; and there now stands
 
 Address of Mr. Logan, of Illinois. 35 
 
 in his place a grim soldier, attired in the uniform of his reg- 
 iment and examining the deadly qualities of his rifle. The 
 air is filled with martial music, and the roads and streets 
 resound to the tramp of the American volunteers as they go 
 forth to certain triumph. The ringing of the steel ; the even 
 tread of moving regiments ; the clatter of horses' feet ; the 
 rolling of artillery wheels ; the swelling strains of the bands ; 
 the waving banners ; the shouting of the masses all indi- 
 cate the irresistible moving of an army that has sprung into 
 martial completeness with the suddenness of the birth of 
 Minerva from the brain of Jove. 
 
 This is no strained figure of a patriotic imagination. An 
 actual fact is represented, which has demonstrated upon 
 more than one occasion the utter disparity between a merely 
 hired soldiery and an army of freemen, moving with all the 
 elements of successful war to the defense of their principles, 
 their homes, and their cherished institutions. 
 
 It is safe to say that no foreign power can subdue a nation 
 thus defended ; and so long as the free spirit of American 
 institutions is preserved untainted and untrammeled, so 
 long as the people continue to feel that they are the sover- 
 eigns and the directors of the Government of the United 
 States, so long will that Government continue invincible to 
 the attacks of enemies, whether they be foreign or domestic. 
 
 At the termination of the late war General MILLER found 
 himself still suffering from the effects of wounds received 
 during the course of his honorable service. One of these 
 was of such a nature as to induce the diseased action which 
 ultimately put a premature end to his useful life. 
 
 In the year 1866 General MILLER was appointed collector 
 for the port of San Francisco, and this appointment led to 
 his permanent removal to the Pacific coast. Of energetic 
 character, he believed that his field of activity would be
 
 36 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 enlarged in a section of country still needing strong arms, 
 broad minds, and courageous hearts for its permanent de- 
 velopment. From the date of his arrival General MILLER 
 became a prominent man upon our Western coast, both in 
 its industrial and political progress. His official adminis- 
 tration won for him the good- will of all parties and classes, 
 guided as he ever was by the strict principles of honor and 
 justice. 
 
 His efforts, however, were not limited to the mere per- 
 functory discharge of the duties of his Federal office. At 
 all times and at all seasons he was ready to aid with his 
 influence and his means every feasible plan for the unfolding 
 of the industrial and social interests of the Pacific Slope. 
 Firmly believing with the quaint writer, Swift, that ''who- 
 ever could make two ears of corn or two blades of grass to 
 grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before 
 would deserve better of mankind and do more essential serv- 
 ice to his country than the whole race of politicians put 
 together," he sought to call into development previously 
 unknown elements of wealth ; and when finally freed from 
 the cares and restraints of office he became the leading spirit 
 of a business enterprise that has largely added to the wealth 
 and commercial interests of our whole country. 
 
 But a man of such activity and of such large capability 
 could not remain unsought to aid in the political interests of 
 his party. In 1872, in 1876, and in 1880 he occupied a place 
 upon the California Republican electoral, ticket. In 1879 he 
 was elected by a handsome vote to be a member of the con- 
 vention to form a State constitution. In 1881 he was selected 
 by the California legislature to represent that State in this 
 body, and his service in the capacity of Senator dates from 
 the 4th of March of that year, when he took the oath of office. 
 From that time to the date of his death his colleagues here
 
 Address of Mr. Logan, of Illinois. 37 
 
 became familiar with the man whose career, though previ- 
 ously bristling with usefulness, was now about to yield its 
 fullest fruition. An active worker, a far-seeing counselor, 
 a genial friend, a magnanimous opponent one and all 
 came to respect and love him for his strong mind, his manly 
 worth, and his gentle qualities of heart. 
 
 During the five years that he held membership in this 
 body Senator MILLER was a silent sufferer from the wound 
 he had received in the defense of his country ; and it was 
 this suffering alone that prevented him from filling the 
 sphere of activity offered by his national character as fully 
 as he certainly otherwise would have done. 
 
 The progress of his malady at length began to demon- 
 strate that the career of our colleague was doomed to suffer 
 untimely abridgment, like 
 
 The bud bit with an envious worm, 
 
 Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air, 
 
 Or dedicate his beauty to the sun. 
 
 Suddenly, upon an inhospitable day, when the very ele- 
 ments seemed hung with weeds of sorrow, the frost came 
 and with ruthless touch withered a life that held within its 
 clasp probabilities extending far beyond the limits of any 
 ordinary career. 
 
 Senator MILLER was a true type of the American free- 
 man, of manly form, strong of mind, with quick perception 
 and rapidity of decision; with iron courage, and a gentle 
 nature, that melted enmity into friendship and opposition 
 into compliance, he was a marked man among his fellows. 
 He was at home among the humble, and always a peer of 
 the best. 
 
 His life was full of promise, and his sudden death was 
 rounded by melancholy disappointment. The life was in- 
 structive, and the death suggestive to his friends.
 
 38 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 We are here to-day to render a tribute of appreciation and 
 of sorrow in presence of a calamity which extends beyond 
 the limits of the family threshold and invades the circle of 
 the national interest. We are here to drop the tear of sym- 
 pathy, and to pronounce the encomium, "Well done, thou 
 good and faithful servant." In bewailing our colleague's 
 loss we cannot be unmindful of the circumstance that death 
 is the common lot of all. To play our parts well upon life's 
 great stage is worthy of. the loftiest ambition. But the time 
 comes when, standing in presence of such a catastrophe as 
 we are now contemplating, we are profoundly impressed by 
 the reminder of the immortal dramatist : 
 
 Our revels now are ended. These our actors, 
 As I foretold you, were all spirits, and 
 Are melted into air, into thin air; 
 And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, 
 The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, 
 The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
 Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, 
 And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, 
 Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff 
 As dreams are made of, and our little life 
 Is rounded with a sleep. 
 
 Departed colleague, sleep on ; thou hast earned thy rest, 
 and thy country is better that thou hast lived. The nation 
 mourns thee and thy friends bewail thee ; but having passed 
 the portals of the mysterious realm they would not call thee 
 back. Thy work belongs to thy country, and thy rest to 
 thee. To thy colleagues is left the remembrance of thy 
 gentle spirit ; but to them also is given the exquisite pain of 
 pronouncing the most terrible of all words : 
 
 Farewell! 
 
 For in that word that fatal word howe'er 
 We promise, hope, believe there breathes despair.
 
 Address of Mr. Fair, of Nevada. 39 
 
 Address of Mr. FAIR, of Nevada. 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT : In the brief time that I shall occupy the 
 attention of the Senate I will be unable to give a fitting 
 tribute to the life and services of Senator MILLER. I cannot, 
 however, allow this occasion to pass without giving expres- 
 sion to the feelings of respect and admiration I have for his 
 memory. 
 
 It was my good fortune for a number of years to know 
 Senator MILLER well, and we became warm friends. His 
 death, therefore, to me was not simply the passing away of 
 a distinguished citizen, but was a personal bereavement. 
 
 JOHN F. MILLER has passed away at the age of fifty-five 
 years. How much of effort, achievement, yea, of suffering, 
 have been crowded into that short period of time. 
 
 Mr. President, the career of this man may well be pointed 
 to as an example and incentive for the rising generation of 
 the Republic. Few men of our time have filled as he has, 
 with heaping measure, the requirements of every public and 
 private station. With the true ambition for success and 
 fame, he early fitted himself for the great intellectual strug- 
 gle of life. 
 
 Entering upon the practice of law in his native State of 
 Indiana, he soon conceived the idea of establishing himself in 
 California, whither he went and remained for a period of three 
 years. He then decided to return to Indiana, where he was 
 soon chosen to the honorable position of State senator. He 
 occupied this position at the time that the opening of our 
 great civil war startled the country. Resigning his duties 
 as a legislator he entered with patriotic enthusiasm into the 
 great struggle for the Union and led to the field a regiment 
 of infantry. 
 
 I will not descant at length upon his military career ; but
 
 40 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 it is well known that in this field of endeavor he displayed 
 those noble traits of character coolness, courage, and re- 
 sources which in time of war make heroes of men. 
 
 At the great three days' battle of Stone River it fell to his 
 lot to occupy the key of the position. With the true mili- 
 tary instinct, he took in the situation, and without orders he 
 made an assault which opened the way to victory, and in 
 this terrible struggle he received the wound from which he 
 suffered so much and which no doubt finally contributed to 
 his death. This, however, did not end his military career. 
 At Nashville he was intrusted with a larger command and 
 with conspicuous gallantry aided in the overthrow of Hood's 
 army. 
 
 Successful in war, it was left to him to be equally success- 
 ful in peace. Again becoming a citizen of California, he 
 was chosen to conspicuous and responsible positions under 
 the National and State governments, and was finally chosen 
 to represent that great State in this Chamber. Here his 
 ability received a fitting recognition when he was placed at 
 the head of one of the leading committees of the Senate. 
 
 As a man of business and of affairs he was always recog- 
 nized as possessing large ability. In the private walks of 
 life and in the social circle he made hosts of friends. In 
 fact it may be said that here was a conspicuous and distin- 
 guished man without an enemy. It would seem that the 
 life of Senator MILLER was a series of unbroken successes ; 
 this statement necessarily includes the idea that his combi- 
 nation of good qualities entitled him to succeed. 
 
 He was a man of fine intellectual endowments ; he pos- 
 sessed an admirably balanced mind, and a heart full of con- 
 sideration for his fellow-man. He was a man of patriotism, 
 of honor, and honesty, and I join with his warmest friends 
 in deploring his untimely death.
 
 Address of Mr. Harrison, of Indiana. 4.] 
 
 Address of Mr. HARRISON, of Indiana. 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT: There seemed to be an appropriateness in 
 the suggestion made to me some days ago by the senior Sen- 
 ator from California that the representatives of the State of 
 Indiana in this Chamber should take part in these memorial 
 exercises. JOHN F. MILLER was born in Union County, In- 
 diana; received his education and spent his early manhood 
 in that State. It was there that he entered public life as a 
 senator from the county of Saint Joseph, and from that 
 State, bearing the commission of its great war governor, he 
 went into the Army of the Union in August, 1861, as colonel 
 of the Twenty-ninth Regiment of Indiana Volunteer Infan- 
 try. He did much to make the name of the State illustrious 
 in that great and protracted struggle. Indiana will always 
 cherish his memory, and will write his name high upon that 
 tardy monument which she is yet to build to the memory of 
 her dead soldiers. The highest achievements of his conspic- 
 uous and useful life are associated with the history of his 
 native State. His removal very soon after the close of the 
 war to California gave to that State the high privilege of 
 crowning his service and sacrifice for the Union with the 
 highest civil honors in the gift of a State. He was worthy 
 of this high preferment, and had already in the Senate given 
 evidence that he was a leader in the field of thought and 
 statesmanship as well as in the field of arms. 
 
 When the war broke out General MILLER was a member 
 of the State senate of Indiana, and when that body was assem- 
 bled in special session to devise such measures as were nec- 
 essary to collect and equip the war quota of the State he at 
 once, though a very young man, attracted the attention of 
 his colleagues and won the confidence of Governor Morton.
 
 42 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 A defensive campaign was not compatible with his bold and 
 aggressive spirit. He was impatient with timidity and half- 
 heartedness. He defended the cause of the Union in debate 
 as he afterward defended Nashville, by going out of his in- 
 trenchments and whipping the enemy that was gathering to 
 besiege him. The debates at this session of the Indiana sen- 
 ate were sometimes characterized by great excitement and 
 acrimony, and the part taken by Senator MILLER quickly 
 gave him a reputation for ability and courage. He was, 
 while still in the senate, appointed aid to Governor Morton 
 with the rank of colonel, and gave most efficient help in 
 organizing the first troops that were sent into the field. 
 
 But his high spirit was not long content with a home serv- 
 ice. He organized the Twenty-ninth Regiment of Indiana 
 Infantry, and in August, 1861, was mustered in as its col- 
 onel. It is not my purpose to follow the military history of 
 General MILLER. A few incidents will suffice to show how 
 rapidly, almost intuitively, this young lawyer, untrained in 
 military schools, became a skillful and successful commander. 
 I do not doubt that if the severe wound received at Liberty 
 Gap, resulting in the loss of an eye, had not forced his retire- 
 ment for a time from severe military duty, he would have 
 risen to the command of an army. His personal courage 
 was of the highest order, yet no man was more free from 
 brag or bluster. He was reserved in speech, but spirited 
 and resolute in action. In the battle of Stone River he 
 received a severe and almost fatal wound in the neck, but 
 refused to leave the field. Tying a handkerchief about the 
 wound, he was seen the next instant riding in the thick of 
 the fight encouraging his men to hold the desperate situa- 
 tion confided to him. At Liberty Gap, while leading his 
 brigade, he received a bullet wound in the eye, which was 
 at first thought to be fatal. The sight of the eye was de-
 
 Address of Mr. Harrison, of Indiana. 43 
 
 stroyed, and it was not until many years after the war that 
 the bullet was found to be lodged in the eye-socket and ex- 
 tracted. 
 
 From a military sketch of General MILLER, in the second 
 volume of Indiana's Roll of Honor, I take two or three ex- 
 tracts relating to the part taken by him in the battle of Stone 
 River. 
 
 Speaking of the desperate assault made upon his line dur- 
 ing the first day's fight, the author says: 
 
 During this entire engagement and under all these terribly appalling 
 circumstances Colonel MILLER displayed the most admirable coolness and 
 bravery, setting an example of heroic daring and cool courage that has 
 seldom been equaled, never surpassed, and could not but find a response 
 in the hearts of his gallant men. Though severely wounded he persisted 
 in remaining on the field, despite the remonstrances of the surgeon; and 
 had his resistance to the enemy been less obstinate, and had they suc- 
 ceeded in forcing a passage through his lines, the whole right whig of the 
 army, which had been driven back, would thus have been cut off from 
 all support and either captured or dispersed: but they were enabled by the 
 fierce, protracted, and gallant struggle of Colonel MILLER to gain the rear 
 of the army and there reform their shattered lines. 
 
 Of the gallant and timely countercharge afterward made 
 by Colonel MILLEK'S brigade, when assaulted by an over- 
 whelming force, the same author says: 
 
 It is now generally conceded by most military men that this bold and 
 dashing bayonet charge into the very heart of the enemy's lines, which 
 was conceived, ordered, and led by Colonel MILLER, and carried into ex- 
 ecution solely upon his own responsibility, was the great event of the 
 battle, and tended, perhaps more than any other, to dishearten the 
 enemy and to crown our standards with another glorious victory. 
 
 Too much cannot be said of the skill and ability, nor the distinguished 
 bravery of the colonel in this bloody battle, nor of the gallantry of his 
 veteran troops. 
 
 These qualities were recognized and appreciated by the commander-in- 
 chief , General Rosecrans, who awarded the post of honor to the Seventh 
 Brigade in being the first to enter Murfreesborough, and telegraphed to 
 the President from th3 field of battle, recommending Colonel MILLER'S 
 promotion for " gallantry on the field."
 
 44 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 But few officers have been so fortunate in securing the love, respect, 
 and confidence of their troops as General MILLER, and history, which 
 sooner or later awards justice to all men, will wreathe around his gallant 
 deeds in this great struggle for freedom and nationality an immortal halo 
 of renown. 
 
 But the skill and dash, of General MILLER had perhaps its 
 best display in the defense of ISTashville, Tenn., where he had 
 an independent command. His sudden and successful dashes 
 upon the enemy at Gallatin, La Vergne, Neeley's Bend, and 
 other points, in all of -which he was successful, tended to 
 maintain the spirit and efficiency of the garrison and at the 
 same time to impress the enemy with a wholesome respect for 
 this isolated but plucky command. At times food and forage 
 became very scarce, so much so that the inhabitants were 
 suffering and the troops upon half -rations. The only source 
 of supply was the surrounding country, which was occupied 
 by the enemy. General MILLER was compelled many times 
 to go out with half his command as an escort to a foraging 
 train, but his movements were so skillfully concealed and 
 so quickly and boldly executed that they were always suc- 
 cessful. 
 
 The last active service rendered by him was in the great 
 battle of Nashville in December, 1864. He was given by 
 General Thomas, who thoroughly trusted him, a prominent 
 command, and throughout that severe engagement bore 
 himself with the same gallantry that characterized his early 
 service. 
 
 After the close of the war he went again to California, and 
 after exercising for some years high official trusts under the 
 Government with fidelity and credit, he was in 1880 elected 
 a Senator from that State. 
 
 Immediately upon his entrance into the Senate General 
 MILLER took a position of influence not often awarded to new 
 members of that body. Every one who was brought into
 
 Address of Mr. Harrison, of Indiana. 45 
 
 contact with, him observed his quick and fine perception and 
 his clear and logical judgment. He had evidently studied 
 with great care and research many public questions, especially 
 those affecting the commerce of the Pacific coast in its rela- 
 tions to the nations of South America and the East. He was 
 bold enough to give hospitable entertainment to the most 
 progressive ideas, and believed that the time had come when 
 the kindly but powerful influence of the United States should 
 be exerted in bringing about closer commercial and polit- 
 ical relations with the Governments of Central and South 
 America. 
 
 To him a diplomatic tradition of our younger and weaker 
 days was not a necessary rule of action for a nation of fifty 
 millions. That European influence should be dominant in 
 the near-lying American republics fretted him. That Euro- 
 pean merchants should fill with their wares the markets so 
 much needed for our own surplus, and by neighborhood so 
 clearly our own, stimulated him to seek for the cause and a 
 remedy. He was not sparing of himself, and the hours of 
 early morning often found him at his desk. He had always 
 risen in effort and achievement with every promotion in life, 
 and the demands which his onerous and dignified position as 
 chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Senate 
 made upon him were responded to with spirit and fidelity. 
 He was not a frequent or a fluent speaker, but always spoke 
 with the most careful and ample preparation and with re- 
 markable force and clearness. 
 
 In his private relations General MILLER was loved by all 
 who knew him. His heart was full of sympathy and all kind 
 impulses, and his hand was its willing and generous servant. 
 His affection for wife and child was not effusive, but it was 
 very tender, watchful , and enduring. His sense of honor was 
 high and imperative. As an adversary he was open and brave;
 
 46 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 as a friend he was true and steadfast. His love of country 
 was a passion; its unity, its honor, and its prosperity were 
 dearer than life to him. He had twice shed his blood in its 
 defense. He did this because he loved his country; and we 
 can not doubt his love for the flag, the Constitution, and the 
 Union were deepened and intensified by the sacrifices he had 
 made in their defense. Another of the great soldiers of the 
 war has departed. Wrapped in the flag he loved, and cov- 
 ered with laurel wreath and flowers, his scarred body has 
 been laid to rest by loving hands. Indiana mourns her son, 
 the nation one of its most gallant defenders, and we a friend. 
 
 Address of Mr. DOLPH, of Oregon. 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT: It is not my purpose to attempt anything 
 like a biographical sketch of our deceased brother. I shall 
 leave that to others who were more intimately associated with 
 him in social life and in the labors of this body and are better 
 qualified for the task; but I can not forbear on this occasion 
 to give expression to the deep sense of the loss I feel at the 
 death of him we mourn to-day, and to add to the eloquent 
 eulogies already pronounced my feeble tribute to his mem- 
 ory. 
 
 When the last session of Congress, during which our la- 
 mented brother had been one of the most active and useful 
 members of this body, closed, how bright his future seemed. 
 Fortune smiled upon him, and everything which could min- 
 ister to his comfort and pleasure and gratify a cultivated and 
 refined taste were his. Honored and trusted by the people 
 of his State, beloved and respected by his fellow Senators, in 
 the prime of life, his star in the ascendant, his career as a 
 Senator apparently just begun, how little we then thought
 
 Address of Mr. Dolph, of Oregon. 47 
 
 that lie would never again occupy the seat in this Chamber 
 he had so honorably filled and would never more enter this 
 Senate Hall alive. But death is no respecter of persons. The 
 strong and the brave are stricken down side by side with the 
 feeble and the timid; rich and poor, noble and base, peasant 
 and king, are subject alike to his fatal shafts and meet upon 
 the level of the tomb. Indeed, often the poetic sentiment 
 appears to be justified that, 
 
 Like other tyrants, death delights to smite 
 What, smitten, most proclaims the pride of pow'r 
 And arbitrary nod. His joy supreme, 
 To bid the wretch survive the fortunate ; 
 The feeble wrap the athletic in his shroud ; 
 And weeping fathers build their children's tomb. 
 
 As was said by one of the greatest of American statesmen: 
 One may live as a conqueror and king or a magistrate, but he must 
 die as a man. The bed of death brings every human being to his pure 
 individuality, to the intense contemplation of that deepest and most 
 solemn of all relations, the relation between the creature and his Creator. 
 Here it is that fame and renown can not assist us, that even friends' affec- 
 tion and human love and devotedness can not succor us. 
 
 For, as was said by an eminent writer: 
 
 Nature intends that at fixed periods men should succeed each other 
 by the instrumentality of death. They are allowed to keep it at bay up 
 to a certain point, but when that is past it will be of no use to make new 
 discoveries hi anatomy or to penetrate more and more into the secrets of 
 the structure of the human body ; we shall never outwit nature ; we shall 
 die as usual. 
 
 My personal acquaintance with Senator MILLER com- 
 menced in 1879, in Oregon, upon the occasion of the visit of 
 General Grant and party to that State, of which General 
 MILLER and family were members, and although casual from 
 that time until I became associated with him in the Senate, 
 it was of the most pleasant character. During the Forty- 
 eighth Congress he always manifested a warm interest in my 
 personal welfare; and in the measures presented by me to 
 adyance the interests of the State I in part represented I had 
 his hearty co-operation and valuable assistance.
 
 48 Life and Character of John F. MiUer. 
 
 When I reached this city in February, 1883, he was one of 
 the first to welcome me to and to extend to me the hospitalities 
 of his home. It was my good fortune to meet him during 
 the recess of Congress, early in July last, at Port Townsend, 
 Wash., where, while waiting for the sailing of the Alaska 
 steamer, he and his family were sojourning in the hope of 
 recruiting his already failing health. We were fellow-pas- 
 sengers upon that July trip to Alaska. During the long and 
 pleasant days spent together upon that more than delightful 
 voyage we had several conversations, embracing a wide 
 range of subjects, but more particularly relating to national 
 questions and matters appertaining to the Pacific coast. He 
 was enthusiastic concerning the future of the coast, well in- 
 formed as to its resources and wants, and thoroughly inter- 
 ested in every practical scheme for its development. I left 
 him, when our routes separated upon our return, invigorated 
 by the trip and hopeful for the future. 
 
 The improvement in his health proved to be only tempo- 
 rary. He believed his presence was required at the capital 
 of the nation, and, as the time for the opening of Congress 
 approached, he made the journey from his distant home with 
 the expectation of occupying his place in the Senate, an ex- 
 pectation never to be realized. The last enemy of the human 
 race, the insatiate archer, had already sent the fatal shaft, 
 with unerring aim, which was to pierce the citadel of his life. 
 Neither his indomitable will, the skill of physicians, nor 
 the kind offices of loving friends could do more than to post- 
 pone for a time the final catastrophe. He desired to live to 
 serve his State and to enjoy the society of his loved ones, and 
 manfully clung to hope from the first, and heroically endured 
 the pain and confinement of his illness. With great forti- 
 tude he strove against the progress of the disease, and with 
 thoughtful solicitude encouraged his wife and daughter to
 
 Address of Mr. Dolph, of Oregon. 49 
 
 hope for his recovery. But as lie neared the end, evidently 
 conscious of that fact, he is reported to have said. "It is not 
 worth the fight," and with perfect resignation yielded to the 
 last of human foes; no doubt realizing, as he reviewed the 
 incidents of his life ere his spirit winged its flight, that " every 
 man has "lived long enough who has gone through all the 
 duties of life with unblemished character," and that "that 
 life is long which answers life's great end." 
 
 Death is sad to contemplate at best. Even under the most 
 favorable circumstances "we start and fear to die." But 
 death is relieved of half its terrors when the dying, as was 
 our departed brother, are surrounded by friends and receive 
 those kindly offices which only affection can suggest and pass 
 from their presence across the boundary that separates the 
 living from the unknown beyond. 
 
 Senator MILLER achieved great distinction as a soldier. 
 When the angry clouds, which had been gathering in our po- 
 litical sky for three-quarters of a century, burst in the storm 
 of civil war and the fate of the Union hung upon the fearful 
 arbitrament of battle, and when, animated with one purpose 
 the preservation of the Union from farm and shop and fac- 
 tory and office and store the patriotic sons of the North hur- 
 ried to its defense, Senator MILLER, then a lawyer and State 
 senator in Indiana was commissioned colonel of the Twenty- 
 ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, by Governor Morton, of 
 that State, and took the field. 
 
 His personal bravery, firmness, and skill soon won for him 
 the confidence of his superior officers and the affection of his 
 men. He participated in the battles of Stone River, Liberty 
 Gap, and Nashville, and greatly distinguished himself on 
 those fields. He was wounded in the neck at the battle of 
 Stone River and severely wounded at Liberty Gap. Retir- 
 ing from the Army and removing to California, by enter- 
 9318 MIL 3
 
 50 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 prise and energy he acquired a competence and became one 
 of the foremost men of the coast, and his election to the Sen- 
 ate of the United States was a just recognition of his ability 
 and merit. It is supposed that his life was shortened by the 
 wound he received in the war. He was a man who preferred 
 to wear out rather than to rust out, and it is possible that 
 his days were cut short by overwork. There is so much 
 indolence and so many aimless and purposeless lives in the 
 world that I can hardly consider an excess of energy a fault. 
 
 Our lives are measured by deeds, not years; and how more 
 than true is it that "fame is not won on downy plumes nor 
 under canopies; the man who consumes his days without 
 obtaining it leaves such mark of himself on earth as smoke 
 in air or foam on water. " 
 
 Rather than one who is content to drift with the current 
 down the stream of life 
 
 Give me a spirit that on life's rough sea 
 Loves to have his sails filled with a lusty wind 
 Even till his sailyards tremble, his masts creak, 
 And his rapt ship runs on her side so low 
 That she drinks water and her keel plows air. 
 
 The leading characteristics of Senator MILLER were great 
 energy, a strong will, and a high sense of honor, but with 
 all an extreme modesty, which upon a casual acquaintance 
 created an impression of stiffness of manner, but which dis- 
 appeared upon better acquaintance. He was well informed 
 and possessed decided opinions upon public questions, and 
 expressed himself with fluency, freedom, and force. I have 
 been told that when he canvassed the State previous to his 
 election as United States Senator, although he made numer- 
 ous public addresses no two of them were alike. 
 
 He did not often occupy the time of this body, and when 
 he did address the Senate there was little attempt at rhetoric. 
 His speeches were the earnest expressions of well-matured
 
 Address of Mr. Dolph, of Oregon. 51 
 
 opinions and strong convictions, and, without circumlocu- 
 tion, were directed to the points involved; and if they did 
 not always carry conviction they never failed to convince 
 all who listened to them of the earnestness and sincerity of 
 the speaker. He was honest, just, faithful, direct, unosten- 
 tatious, modest, considerate, kind, and courteous; true to 
 country, his constituents, and himself. Such characters 
 always have and always will command respect and homage. 
 His was an example worthy of imitation by the youth of the 
 land. His life illustrated the possibilities which, under our 
 form of government, lie within the reach of the humblest. 
 The history of his life and of his gradual rise to fame, fort- 
 une, and position would be but a repetition of the history of 
 the lives of many of the illustrious men of this country. 
 Such experiences as his are more valuable to make men 
 suited for great emergencies, qualified to control great en- 
 terprises, and to fill responsible public positions than all the 
 aids of birth, fortune, schools, and influential friends. 
 
 These oft-recurring occasions in this body naturally awaken 
 serious reflections. We are reminded that death is the inex- 
 orable law of our being, and that as it is with our brother, 
 whose loss we to-day deplore, so will it shortly be with us. 
 The bow is already drawn and the arrow let loose which is 
 to pierce the citadel of our mortal lives. Would we escape 
 from the fatal archer, we cannot. "Death is everywhere, 
 and procured by every instrument. " In such an hour, when 
 our thoughts are withdrawn from the labor and conflict 
 which so absorb us, and directed to the end of all human 
 labor, successes, and conflicts, and we are brought face to 
 face with the "unsparing grisly king of terrors, sole univer- 
 sal monarch whose powers no prowess can resist, whose per- 
 emptory call no artifice can evade," how insignificant seem 
 the greatest human achievements, how unsatisfactory the
 
 52 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 rewards of business and political endeavor; how the prayer 
 of the Psalmist comes unbidden to mind and is breathed in 
 silent accents from the lips: "Lord, teach us to so number 
 our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." 
 
 Brave soldier, honored statesman, true friend, farewell ! 
 Peace to thy ashes ! Over their last resting-place in the beau- 
 tiful "city of the dead," at the great metropolis of the Pa- 
 cific, fanned by the breath of the tropics, may flowers bloom 
 earliest in spring and linger latest in autumn, and by the 
 people of a grateful country may thy memory, as a sweet 
 fragrance, long be cherished. Neither the din of the great 
 city nor the roar of the ocean waves that break on the shores 
 of the Golden Gate can disturb thy repose. Though the 
 body is mortal, we know the soul is immortal, and that, safe 
 in the abode of the blessed, beyond the reach of praise and 
 censure, of the mutations of time and the ills of life, thou 
 shalt enjoy a state of eternal felicity. From that bright 
 abode, if it is permitted to the spirits of the departed to be- 
 hold the affairs of earth, look down upon our sorrow, exalt 
 our minds from fond regret and unavailing grief to the con- 
 templation of thy virtues. Those we must not lament; it 
 were impiety to sully them with a tear. To cherish their 
 memory, to embalm them with our praises, and, if our frail 
 condition will permit, to emulate thy bright example will be 
 the truest mark of our respect, the best tribute we can offer. 
 
 Address of Mr. HEARST, of California. 
 
 Mr. PRESIDENT: The Senators who have preceded me have 
 spoken of Senator MILLER as a soldier and a statesman. It 
 now becomes my privilege to speak of him as a citizen, in 
 which capacity also he served his country. 
 
 He and his associates were the recipients of one of the
 
 Address of Mr. Hearst, of California. 53 
 
 most important franchises in the gift of the Government. 
 Out of this grew an enterprise which has been carried on to 
 the best interests of all parties therein concerned, in proof of 
 which the books have ever been open for the investigation 
 of any authorized agent; in fact, to my knowledge such in- 
 vestigation has always been invited. 
 
 The management not only protected the Government, but 
 a system was created which enabled the helpless and igno- 
 rant Indians engaged in the work to save such a proportion 
 of their earnings that there is to-day to their credit in the 
 banks of San Francisco $100,000, which amount might have 
 gone into the coffers of the company for the simple consid- 
 eration of five barrels of bad whisky. 
 
 This instance alone is sufficient to show the purity and 
 integrity of the man's life. Such an example should be writ- 
 ten on the mile-posts of the highway, chiseled in the cliffs 
 along the trails of the Rocky Mountains, graven on the gran- 
 ite of the Sierras, hewn on the tall pines of the Pacific slope, 
 and commemorated in the flowers in the valleys of the dead 
 Senator's adopted State. 
 
 Now, Mr. President, as an additional mark of respect to 
 the memory of the deceased, I move that the Senate adjourn. 
 
 The motion was unanimously agreed to; and (at 3 o'clock 
 and 37 minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned to Friday, May 
 28, at 12 o'clock m,
 
 PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 In the House of Representatives, the 28th of June having 
 been set aside for this purpose, the following proceedings 
 were had there : 
 
 Mr. MORROW. Mr. Speaker, in accordance with the no- 
 tice given heretofore, I now call up for consideration the res- 
 olutions of the Senate in relation to the death of Hon. JOHN 
 F. MILLER, late a Senator from California, and ask that they 
 be read. 
 
 The Senate resolutions were read, as follows : 
 
 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, May 27, 1886. 
 
 Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of the death 
 of JOHN F. MILLER, late a Senator from 'the State of California. 
 
 Resolved, That as a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased the 
 business of the Senate be now suspended to enable his associates to pay 
 proper tribute of regard to his high character and distinguished public 
 ser vices. 
 
 Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate communicate these resolu- 
 tions to the House of Representatives. 
 
 Resolved, That as an additional mark of respect to the memory of the 
 deceased the Senate do now adjourn. 
 
 Mr. MORROW. In connection with the resolutions which 
 nave just been read I desire to offer the following resolutions 
 and ask their present consideration. 
 The Clerk read as follows : 
 
 Resolved, That the House of Representatives has received with great 
 sorrow the official announcement of the death of JOHN F. MILLER, late a 
 Senator from the State of California. 
 
 Resolved, That the business of the House be now suspended, that oppor- 
 tunity may be afforded to members to give expression of the sentiments 
 
 55
 
 56 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 they entertain for the life, character, and public services of the late Sen- 
 ator MILLER, and the loss sustained by the country in the death of so able 
 and faithful a public servant. 
 
 Resolved, That at the conclusion of these tributes to his memory the 
 House stands adjourned. 
 
 Address of Mr. GROSVENOR, of Ohio. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER: I rise to advocate the adoption of the reso- 
 lutions which have just been read. At the same time I de- 
 sire to offer brief testimony of my own personal regard for 
 the memory of JOHN F. MILLER, as well as to call the at- 
 tention of the House to some of the salient characteristics of 
 that distinguished citizen as they fell under my own personal 
 observation during my acquaintance with him. 
 
 JOHN F. MILLER was born in the State of Indiana. He 
 came to manhood at a time when the great questions which 
 culminated ultimately in the civil war were agitating the 
 people of that State. In common with a large body of the 
 younger men of Indiana, he espoused heartily everywhere 
 the cause of the Union and the proposition to uphold the su- 
 premacy of the Constitution; and when the war broke out 
 the call of the Government for troops came to him as a bap- 
 tism, and he entered the Union Army imbued with the true 
 sentiments of the period in which he lived. He went into 
 the war as a Union man. 
 
 Whatever may be said now, looking backward over that 
 period of time, JOHN F. MILLER lived in the present of that 
 time and not in the prospective future; for it is within my 
 own personal knowledge that he accepted in the fullest de- 
 gree the idea of the martyred President, that the war was 
 to be waged as a war for the preservation of the Union, and 
 he adopted, without reservation in the present or prospec- 
 tive enlargement in the future, the utterance of Lincoln, ' ' I
 
 Address of Mr. G-rosvenor, of Ohio. 57 
 
 would save the Union with, slavery if I can, but if I can not 
 save the Union without destroying slavery, I will save the 
 Union." 
 
 It was under the inspiration of that sentiment, the real 
 Union sentiment of 1861, that JOHN F. MILLER joined the 
 armies of the Union. I first became a subordinate to him 
 at a time when neither of us had received or witnessed the 
 baptism of blood; and the first day that i ever reported to 
 him for duty was at a time when he had received an order, 
 during the memorable eight weeks of what we have termed 
 the blockade of Nashville in the fall of 1862, to proceed with 
 his command, by night march, to attack an outpost of the 
 enemy at Lavergne. I speak of Jjavergne because I have 
 treasured it always in my memory. It was at Lavergne, or 
 on our way to it, that I heard the first whistle of a bullet 
 fired by an enemy of the flag of my country, and I know 
 that the same deep impression was made upon him as upon 
 me, for when I visited California I learned that the beautiful 
 home which he had reared for himself in the magnificently 
 beautiful valley of Napa was called Lavergne, indicating 
 that the impressions were upon him as they had been upon 
 me, and were most lasting in their duration. 
 
 I remember very well the circumstances of that march. I 
 remember very well the early daylight attack upon the 
 enemy. With a vastly superior force we surprised the 
 small force there, and captured the most of them and stam- 
 peded the rest. It was an insignificant battle as compared 
 with the great battles which followed; it was insignificant in 
 the numbers engaged; it was insignificant in the blood which 
 was shed, and insignificant in its results; but yet it gave 
 to the Army of the Cumberland, or that portion of it which 
 was engaged, an opportunity to mark the first step in the 
 direction of actual war on the part of the men who were
 
 58 Life anil Clifirarfcr of John F. Miller. 
 
 afterward to become famous during that struggle. I re- 
 member the plaudits of the Army of the Cumberland that 
 were showered upon JOHN F. MILLER after his distinguished 
 career at Stone River. It was an early exhibition on the 
 part of a mere colonel of infantry, of a spirit which im- 
 bued the Army of the Cumberland later when, without the 
 orders of the commander, and even against the suggestion of 
 General Grant himself, they passed the rifle-pits at the foot 
 of Missionary Ridge, charged to its top, and won a victory 
 a victory won by the private soldiers of the Army in obedi- 
 ence to orders which no general officer of the Army has been 
 able to find a record of and no officer claims to have given. 
 The orders were the sound of the enemy's guns the orders 
 which carried gallant old JIM STEEDMAN to the glory he won 
 at Chickarnauga. 
 
 At Stone River JOHN F. MILLER made a demonstration 
 
 i 
 
 of the same character, and crowned his career in that battle 
 with a result grandly significant and valuable to the Union 
 Army. He was wounded. It was supposed that he was per- 
 manently disabled. But six months afterward, when the 
 great army under Rosecrans refitted and reorganized, and 
 in magnificent battle array, on the 24th day of June, 1863, 
 poured out from their camps at Murfreesborough and moved 
 by divers lines of communication in the direction of the Ten- 
 nessee River, JOHN F. MILLER rode out at the head of his 
 brigade, the incarnation of war in the person of a volunteer 
 officer, and with a bright view ahead of him. His career up 
 to that time had given a promise that nobody doubted the 
 fulfillment of. But in an insignificant engagement incident 
 to the long march to Tullahoma and Manchester he fell 
 again, terribly wounded, in the affair at Liberty Gap. I re- 
 member well when he was being carried back to the rear 
 with a wound that ultimately terminated his life. I re- 
 member the look that was on his face, and I remember a
 
 Address of Mr. Grosvenor, of Ohio. 59 
 
 single utterance. Hopeful words were being spoken to him 
 as to his recovery, and consolation was being administered 
 to him by his comrades around him, and he said just this : 
 " I estimate no importance so far as my own personal future 
 is concerned, as compared with the disappointment that I 
 shall not participate to the end in this great campaign. " 
 
 A career that would have been second to that of no volun- 
 teer officer in the Union Army, in my judgment, was by 
 that bullet, that fatal bullet, turned aside, and General MIL- 
 LER was assigned to a duty which took him out of the active 
 command of active troops in the front. Very few men 
 would have remained in the service under such circum- 
 stances. Patriotism inspired him to hold on. A high sense 
 of duty, a high sense, as he termed it, of gratitude to his 
 State and to his country that had conferred the honors upon 
 him, induced him to stay and do what he might do to still 
 further promote the interests of the Union Army. 
 
 He was assigned to the very important and delicate posi- 
 tion of Nashville. Nashville at that time contained more 
 property belonging to the Government than any other place 
 south of the Ohio River. The population was a mixed one. 
 It was made up of citizens of strong rebel tendencies and 
 citizens with strong Union tendencies, and there were bitter 
 antagonisms. Out from Nashville radiated the power of the 
 Union, and out of Nashville also radiated the influence of 
 our enemy. The friends of many a fighting Confederate re- 
 mained there, and property rights and confusion of all kinds 
 pressed upon the commander of the post. 
 
 Conflicting interests arose everywhere, and General MIL- 
 LER became a sort of civil or quasi-civil commander. No 
 man ever did his duty better; no man ever more justly 
 won the high esteem and confidence of the people of a city 
 or of his commanders in the army or of his whole people 
 than did JOHN F. MILLER. He was- unflinching in the dis-
 
 60 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 charge of duty and yet always considerate of the rights of 
 men; and to-day his memory is green among the men who 
 loved the Union in Nashville, and he is held in high regard 
 among the people who at that time were the enemies of the 
 Union. 
 
 He was there with the Army of the Cumberland under 
 Thomas when it won its grandest victory. He contributed 
 by the organization of the forces in the city and the sur- 
 rounding positions greatly to the efficiency of the army 
 which on the loth and 16th of December, 1864, encountered 
 the army under Hood in the last great struggle for suprem- 
 acy in Tennessee. And from the top of Overton Hill, 
 JOHN F. MILLER, disfigured and almost destroyed by the 
 bullets of the enemy, looked out upon the broken masses of 
 Hood's army as they retreated shattered and disorganized 
 toward Brentwood, and understood, as we all understood, 
 that his career in the Army had ended. Well had he done 
 his work, and well had gained rank, fame, and the gratitude 
 of his country. 
 
 I did not rise to speak at any length of JOHN F. MILLER as 
 a citizen. Others will do that who knew him better. Others 
 will speak of his career since the war. I came here simply 
 to testify to his character and attainments as a soldier and 
 to give them my meed of praise. He was strictly a volun- 
 teer soldier. He had no training in arms; and yet within a 
 year and a half after he joined his regiment his military 
 attitude, his military bearing, his military character was 
 formed, and he showed to the world that he had in him the 
 stuff, the elements that make a great military commander. 
 
 Since that time his career has been that of a civilian. He 
 achieved success everywhere, rapid success, which crowned 
 his efforts on behalf of the Union, crowned his efforts on be- 
 half of his country. Afterward he carried from his native 
 State and handed over to the Golden State of California an
 
 Address of Mr. Grosvenor, of Ohio. 61 
 
 allegiance that never faltered, and he became identified with 
 and an advocate of her interests with the same zeal, the same 
 courage, the same high purpose that he had brought to the 
 discharge of every duty that he had ever attempted the per- 
 formance of. 
 
 I testify from my own knowledge of him that he was a 
 patriotic citizen, that he was a successful soldier, that he 
 made the highest sacrifice that any man could make for his 
 country, that in civil life he was clear-headed and patriotic, 
 always standing by the right, never flinching, never compro- 
 mising, never yielding his convictions of duty and justice. 
 
 In social life among his friends and in his family he was a 
 gentle, kind, good man. Out upon the shore of the Pacific, 
 in the soil of the State that he loved, and to which, as I have 
 said, he carried his ripest allegiance, he lies to-day, his career 
 ended. Over his grave the tears of affection will be shed. 
 Upon his grave will be heaped the laurels of affection for 
 many a year to come. May the time never come when his 
 example shall not be to the people of this country a bright, 
 a burning, a shining light. 
 
 Address of Mr. HOLMAN, of Indiana. 
 
 Mr. CHAIRMAN: JOHN F. MILLER, late a Senator of the 
 United States, was a native of Indiana, and it seems proper 
 that the voice of that State should be heard in this public 
 expression of sorrow for his death. Mr. MILLER was of Vir- 
 ginia descent. His ancestors were Virginians. His father 
 emigrated from that venerable Commonwealth to the then 
 new State of Indiana, where JOHN F. MILLER was born and 
 educated, enjoying, as I have been informed, such educa- 
 tional advantages as are common to the young men in a
 
 62 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 comparatively new settlement. His father and mother were 
 eager to furnish him every opportunity that their circum- 
 stances would permit. He studied law under favorable con- 
 ditions, entering upon the practice of that profession at an 
 early age. In 1860, for the first time, so far as I am in- 
 formed, he became prominent in tne politics of the State, 
 but before that time had visited California and practiced his 
 profession in that State. No political contest in the history 
 of Indiana was ever of more interest than that of 1860. 
 
 An unusually large number of young men came to the 
 front who identified themselves with the fortunes of the Re- 
 publican party, then in its early vigor. The great question 
 soon to involve the nation in war was arresting the attention 
 of all men, and gave unusual animation, anxiety, and ear- 
 nestness to that contest throughout the whole Union, but in 
 no State more than in Indiana. Mr. MILLER was elected to 
 the senate, I think, from the county of Saint Joseph, at that 
 time one of the strong young counties of Indiana. I was 
 then a member of this House, and residing remote from his 
 section of the State my knowledge of Mr. MILLER was slight; 
 I only knew him as one of the promising young men who 
 had just entered public life. He occupied in the Senate a 
 position with a number of young men of unusual ability, 
 some to become known in arms and civil affairs. 
 
 He was not specially active or prominent in the current 
 business of that body, for, from the time the senate to which 
 he was elected assembled, the hurrying, remorseless events 
 which were soon to involve the land in the misfortunes of 
 civil war were arresting the attention and filling the minds 
 of all men. When the tocsin of war was sounded he resigned 
 his position in the senate and hastened into the Army of the 
 Union without a moment's hesitation. Enough was known 
 of Mr. MILLER 'at that time to' warrant the belief that, if life
 
 Address of J/r. Holman, of Indiana. 63 
 
 were spared him, lie was entering upon a brilliant career. 
 The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. GBOSVENOR] has rehearsed 
 in eloquent terms his honorable and heroic record in the 
 Army. I will not dwell upon that record. The gentleman 
 from Ohio, his comrade in arms, has well and ably pre- 
 sented the leading events of that honorable record, but I can 
 testify that the hopes of his friends were fully realized in his 
 honorable career in the Army. 
 
 Entering the Army as colonel of the Twenty-ninth Regi- 
 ment of Indiana Volunteers, with the manly and gallant 
 deportment and those qualities and sentiments of honor, 
 courage, and prudence which secure respect, confidence, rep- 
 utation and distinction alike in civil and military life, Mr. 
 MILLER rapidly rose to the rank of brigadier-general and 
 a higher grade by brevet for heroic deportment in battle. 
 He attained that high position not by any favoritism, but by 
 the force of character and qualification and capacity for mil- 
 itary affairs. After the war was over Mr. MILLER, having 
 previously resided for a short time in California, returned 
 to that State. I think the last time I saw him in the city of 
 Indianapolis was shortly before he left Indiana for Califor- 
 nia. I then saw that the man of 1860 had grown in every 
 respect. Possessed of very fine social qualities and marked 
 energy of character, he was then displaying that broad ca- 
 pacity, especially for business affairs, which afterward, even 
 more than his career in politics, seems to have distinguished 
 his life. 
 
 About the year 1870 Mr. MILLER came to this capital in 
 connection with legislative matters affecting the State of his 
 adoption enterprises on the Pacific the State which then 
 seemed even more dear to him than the great State from 
 which he had emigrated. While in Washington I saw him 
 frequently. He called on me as an Indianian. He fre-
 
 64 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 quently appeared before one of the committees of the House 
 of which I had the honor to be a member, and I was still 
 further impressed with the scope and breadth of the views 
 which he entertained and expressed touching the great inter- 
 ests of the Pacific coast. He saw clearly the magnitude of 
 the resources to be developed there in the then early future; 
 he comprehended the situation thoroughly, and seemed pre- 
 pared and qualified to enter into all the great enterprises of 
 the Pacific coast with the energy, hopefulness, and confi- 
 dence which had marked his character in earlier life; so that, 
 from the observations I made of Mr. MILLER at that time, 
 I was not at all surprised when, soon afterward, he became 
 prominently identified with the political as well as business 
 affairs of the State of California. 
 
 His election to the Senate of the United States seems to 
 have been the result of the confidence inspired by his intelli- 
 gence, force of character, capacity, and patriotism. His 
 career in the Senate is known to the country. He died in 
 comparatively early life, at the period, perhaps, when most 
 public men have but fairly entered upon the real usefulness 
 of a public career. The death of an eminent and useful citi- 
 zen connected with public affairs at such a period in life, be- 
 fore the weight of age has rested heavily upon him, is always 
 a melancholy event, to be deplored not alone in the home 
 circle or the State of his residence but by his whole country. 
 It would have been strange if the career of Mr. MILLER 
 had not been a marked one. His abilities were of a very 
 superior order. From my earlier acquaintance with him I 
 should not have thought that he would be as eminent in 
 statesmanship as in the field of business and affairs. He 
 seemed to me to possess the capacity of comprehending in 
 their widest extent, as well as in their minutest details, the 
 great affairs of business, the enterprises that make and open
 
 I 
 
 Address of Mr. Holman, of Indiana. 65 
 
 opportunities, that create great industries, that develop a 
 great and prosperous community. 
 
 His capacity and powers as seen by me were of that char- 
 acter, rather than such as give men prominence in politics 
 or statesmanship. He did not teem to me to be a man who 
 would engage earnestly in political contests and rise to emi- 
 nence by devotion to the principles and fortunes of a politi- 
 cal party, but one who would achieve reputation and distinc- 
 tion in business enterprises and commercial affairs. He 
 entered the Army, as I inferred from what I knew of his 
 views, not so much by any special antagonism to the insti- 
 tution of slavery, the cause of that fearful contest, as by 
 devoted attachment to the Union, a sentiment that filled the 
 hearts of the young men of Indiana. 
 
 The men who migrated to Indiana from Virginia and 
 others of the older States were in many instances strongly 
 anti-slavery in their sentiments, but the great mass cf the 
 young men of that section of the country who rushed for- 
 ward to support the tottering fabric of the Union were influ- 
 enced more by a living sentiment of devotion to the Union 
 of the States than by any settled convictions as to whether 
 slavery should be abolished or not The preservation of the 
 Union of the States inspired them. The motive seemed 
 then sufficient to inspire the grandest heroism, but how 
 much grander now than even then ! 
 
 In later years, however, as I inferred from a brief conver- 
 sation with him on the Pacific coast last summer, his views 
 had become much more confirmed and positive upon politi- 
 cal subjects, and he seemed to cordially and heartily indorse 
 the principles of the great party with which he had been 
 associated from early life. And yet he seemed to me more a 
 man of business and affairs than a politician or statesman. 
 
 I can only add, Mr. Speaker, that the death of a man of 
 9318 MIL 5
 
 66 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 his broad views, his capacity for affairs, his devotion to 
 country, is a great misfortune to the whole Union, and that 
 in no one of the great sisterhood of States will the expres- 
 sion that will be made by this House, and has been in the 
 Senate (so appropriate to the loss of so great a citizen), of 
 appreciation of the qualities which made JOHN F. MILLER 
 eminent, honored, and distinguished alike in war and in 
 peace, find a larger body of earnest sympathizers than in 
 the State which I have the honor in part here to represent. 
 
 Address of Mr. CUTCHEON, of Michigan. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER : A leader has fallen. A man is gone! We 
 pause to-day for a little while in the midst of our public 
 duties to contemplate a life and a lesson which, if given due 
 consideration, may tend quite as much to the welfare and 
 honor of the Republic as if the hour were given to the ordi- 
 nary tasks of legislation. 
 
 We stand to-day in the presence of that most impressive 
 phenomenon, a finished life a completed life-work ; in the 
 presence of that greatest mystery of all our being, the disso- 
 lution of that subtle tie which binds the soul to the mortal 
 frame, and which being unbound the form which has been 
 a thing of power and beauty lapses to corruption, and the 
 masterful spirit, unchained from its fetters of flesh, flies 
 whither all sense fails to discern and faith alone can follow. 
 
 That noblest work of God, an honest man, as an actual 
 presence, has ceased from among men. 
 
 Except as a memory and an influence his life is ended, his 
 
 work is complete to our limited perceptions. The eye that 
 
 flashed with intelligence is dark ; the voice that quivered 
 
 with emotion or inspired like the summons of a trumpet in 
 
 the crash of battle is silent ; the hand of might is nerveless;
 
 Address of Mr. Outcheon, of Michigan. 67 
 
 the presence which was familiar in court and camp and 
 council is seen no more among men. A power that moved 
 men, that wielded communities, that shaped destinies, has 
 ceased to manifest itself. In brief, a man is gone ! And 
 yet it is because he is not wholly gone that we pause to cel- 
 ebrate this memorial to-day. 
 
 The fountains which he touched still flow ; the trains of 
 events which he set in motion still operate ; lives which he 
 molded and directed still multiply and extend his influence; 
 blows that he struck still resound throughout the land; 
 winged words that he uttered still fly from lip to lip, over- 
 leaping the narrow boundaries of mortal life. 
 
 The present century has been full of great thoughts and 
 great words, and among the greatest has been the thought 
 and the word " evolution." And there is no grander field 
 for study than the evolution of a life of life from life. 
 
 I do not mean this in the narrow sense of the evolution of 
 natural or animal life, the mere relighting of a torch from 
 the embers of a dying fire. I mean rather the study of the 
 development of character from the action and interaction 
 of all the forces and agencies that impinge upon and pene- 
 trate life. 
 
 It is because the deceased Senator had become a factor in. 
 this process of evolution of national life that the business of 
 the House is suspended, that we may dwell upon the event 
 and study the character of him whom we commemorate. 
 
 Here we contemplate him stripped of all adventitious sur- 
 roundings. He was a Senator. He is a Senator no more. 
 He was a military leader. He is a general no longer. He 
 commanded great enterprises. He commands them not now. 
 Whatever he may have been by virtue of rank or office or 
 station, he is now simply a man, a character. As such let 
 us speak of him.
 
 68 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 The late Senator MILLER was not personally known to me 
 except as a public man. I knew him only as we all know 
 men who touch the multitudes, the masses of men ; as we 
 know the men who by strong powers are lifted up into 
 sight of the many. 
 
 Let us measure this man, if we can, and ascertain what it 
 was in his life that made him what he was ; that gave him power 
 to command and gained him the confidence and love of a great 
 Commonwealth, whose commission he bore. 
 
 First let us glance at the outside of his life. 
 
 He was born in 1831, in Southern Indiana, of parents who 
 had removed, first from Virginia, then from Kentucky, and 
 who were of Scotch and Swiss descent two strong and lib- 
 erty-loving races. 
 
 He was nurtured in the school of independence and self- 
 support. He was well cultured in youth and trained to a 
 knowledge of the law. 
 
 When he had scarcely more than attained his majority he 
 cut .oose from home and old friends and struck out into the 
 romantic, the almost mythical, the golden West the modern 
 El Dorado. 
 
 In the broad, free, and somewhat unpolished spirit of that 
 rough, new laud he grew into the firm mold of a strong, 
 self-reliant, and adventurous manhood. 
 
 Recalled by the demands of filial duty, to which he was 
 ever responsive, he returned to his former home and to the 
 practice of his exacting profession. 
 
 It was at a time when ancient parties were breaking up 
 and going to pieces in the fierce throes of a mighty moral 
 upheaval. 
 
 In the heat of this smithy of the gods, where thunderbolts 
 were forging, the character, well modeled by heredity, 
 shaped by education, strengthened and broadened by travel
 
 Address of Mr. Cutcheon, of Michigan. 69 
 
 and experience of rude frontier life, was tempered and hard- 
 ened into enduring texture. 
 
 The cry of the oppressed, of the millions deprived of the 
 common rights and privileges of humanity, came up to him 
 with an irresistible appeal that smote upon his conscience 
 and his volition as the voice of God. 
 
 Then the divine ichor that had been distilled into ancestral 
 blood within sight of the majestic vision of Mont Blanc, or 
 the awful heights of the Jungfrau, or that had hardened the 
 sinews of some progenitor at Bannockburn, stirred within 
 his veins, and ths august summons of Liberty to do battle 
 in her cause found in young MILLER a ready and obedient 
 votary. 
 
 So we find him in 1860, at the age of twenty-nine, a member 
 of the senate of his native State, as a representative of that 
 young and burning and puissant party which demanded that 
 no more virgin Territories should be laid in the arms of the 
 unholy Moloch of slavery. We shall never forget that 
 year. It was the Lincoln year. It was a year when men 
 seemed to break away from all the traditions of their lives 
 and surrender themselves to the control of one overpowering 
 sentiment, that now or never was the time to stay the further 
 spread of human slavery in this land. 
 
 Men may reason as they please as to the origin and the 
 causes of this wonderful wave of enthusiasm which swept 
 over the country, and which bore us with a resistless im- 
 pulse, first to a political revolution, and then into the dread- 
 ful throes of war, from which we emerged bloody and chast- 
 ened, but freed from the "body of death" of slavery; but 
 as for me, I can only believe that the time had come in the 
 eternal counsels of God when the consummation of His 
 divine purpose for the good of the race required that slavery 
 should perish from this land, and He raised such instru- 
 mentalities as He could to execute His purpose.
 
 70 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 As was so eloquently said not long sinco in this House by 
 the gentleman from West Virginia [Mr. WILSON], "As I 
 look back to that dread panorama after the r lapse of twenty 
 years I see, or I seem to see, the stately stoppings of that 
 Providence which was using the wrath of man to work out 
 His own comprehensive and beneficent purpose." 
 
 Into the resistless sweep and swirl of impulses and events 
 of that great crisis young MILLER was drawn unresisting. 
 He recognized at once the part and the place to which he 
 was called, and accepted it. While serving in the senate of 
 his State the war came. He had not reached his thirtieth 
 year. He recognized the fact that in a popular government 
 the will of the majority must be supreme. He recognized 
 the further fact that the responsibility of the ballot in peace 
 implies the responsibility of the bayonet in time of war. 
 
 The very institution of popular government implies that 
 minorities will be submissive to the will of the majority 
 and seek the rectification of supposed grievances only at 
 the ballot-box. But suppose that minorities do not submit, 
 but resort to armed combinations too formidable to be re- 
 pressed by the civil power, what then ? There remains but 
 one alternative the conflict of arms or the death of popular 
 institutions. 
 
 In common with the manhood of the North, Mr. MILLER 
 felt that this Union and these institutions were a sacred and 
 solemn trust for unpeopled States and for unborn centu- 
 ries a trust which it would be base to betray and cowardly 
 to surrender. 
 
 I shall never forget how, in the spring of 1862, 1 one morn- 
 ing heard an Italian organ-grinder upon the streets of a 
 Michigan city plying his vocation. Even his organ had 
 ' been set to the popular impulse and was wailing forth the
 
 Address of Mr. Cutcheon, of Michigan. 71 
 
 strains of The Star-Spangled Banner, and as again and again 
 
 the familiar refrain 
 
 Oh, say does the Star-Spangled banner yet wave 
 O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ? 
 
 floated out with plaintive and apprehensive cadence upon 
 the morning air I fancied that in it I heard the voice of all 
 the oppressed peoples of all climes and all ages beseeching us 
 that the great Republic, the great experiment of "govern- 
 ment of the people, by the people, and for the people," might 
 not perish from the earth. We can not doubt that our 
 friend heard that same voice and answered that same im- 
 pulse. 
 
 Thus in the evolution of this life the strong, well-nurtured, 
 well-cultured, self-reliant, and tempered young citizen and 
 statesmen became a soldier. 
 
 Military command was foreign to his life and habit, yet 
 he had all the elements of a commander. I venture to say 
 that when he threw himself into the ranks of war the ques- 
 tion of command or rank scarcely occurred to him. He 
 simply took the place to which he seemed to be called, the 
 place to which he was fitted. 
 
 So from the Senate he stepped to the head of a regiment, 
 the Twenty-ninth Indiana, and soon found himself com- 
 mander of a brigade. It was not that he was ambi- 
 tious not that he was self-seeking. It was the outwork- 
 ing of his formed character, of his natural powers. 
 
 I stood, a few days ago, in the midst of that silent city of 
 the dead, on the prest where the waves of war broke in fire 
 and blood along the hills of the Antietam, and gazed in admi- 
 ration upon the colossal statue in granite of the private sol- 
 dier of the Union. There, chiseled upon the enduring rock, 
 is the sentiment which mustered armies, which won bat- 
 tles, which restored the Union, "Not for ourselves, but for 
 our country." Oh, glorious sentiment of patriotism, which
 
 72 Life and Character of John' F. Miller. 
 
 forgets self, which puts aside pleasure and profit and peace 
 to battle and suffer and die for the coming millions ! 
 
 Senator MILLER became General MILLER. It is not my 
 purpose to follow him in his military career, for I am study- 
 ing character rather than annals. A single instance will 
 suffice. At the battle of Stone River, December, 1862, there 
 came a time when it seemed to him that the result hung 
 trembling in the balance. Van Cleve's division, impetuously 
 assailed, had yielded and fallen back, until the weight of 
 the attack came upon MILLER'S line. The enemy showed a 
 disposition to break through and divide our army in twain. 
 MILLER had the river in his front. Most men would have 
 awaited the attack with such defensive preparations as they 
 could make. But that was not Colonel MILLER'S way. Au- 
 dacity and daring were the characteristics of the man. 
 
 Without orders from any superior officer he dashed across 
 the stream, attacked and drove the enemy's infantry, rushed 
 upon and captured his guns and colors, restored the center, 
 and saved the right wing of the army from disaster. 
 
 He assumed a very grave responsibility. Had the move- 
 ment failed he might have been court-martialed. But it 
 succeeded, and a grateful commander, recognizing how much 
 he owed to this gallant and self-reliant officer, telegraphed 
 the President from the field of battle recommending his pro- 
 motion "for gallantry on the field." 
 
 In this action, though severely and dangerously wounded, 
 Colonel MILLER refused to leave the field, seeing that as he 
 had taken the responsibility and made the venture he should 
 stay by his brigade until the victory was assured. This 
 courage, or, as the speech of the plain people has named it, 
 "pluck," was characteristic of his whole career as a soldier. 
 
 A wound, which well nigh proved fatal, received while 
 leading his brigade at Liberty Gap, deprived him of the
 
 Address of Mr. Cutcheon, of Michigan. 73 
 
 sight of an eye, and for a time retired him from his com- 
 mand. With many this would have excused them from 
 further service in the field; but not so with MILLER. With 
 the leaden bullet still lodged in the eye-socket he returned 
 to the field and to command, to share with the gallant and 
 sturdy Thomas in the complete overthrow of Hood at Nash- 
 ville, which was the definite beginning of the end the col- 
 lapse of the armed resistance of the Confederacy. 
 
 At the close of the war he was offered a high commission* 
 in the regular Army. But he was not a soldier by profes- 
 sion or by choice. War with him was only the road to peace. 
 To him the performance of military duty was only discharg- 
 ing one of the great obligations of citizenship. He declined 
 the appointment. Through the years of excitement pre- 
 ceding the war, and throughout the grim and trying experi- 
 ences of the war itself, he had never forgotten the dream of 
 his youth of a home on the sunset side of the continent. 
 Civilization marches with the sun. Its cradle was in the 
 Orient, and with a stately tidal sweep it has rolled around 
 the planet until it has touched and filled the Occident. 
 
 By some occult impulse in all ages men have been im- 
 pelled to "go west." General MILLER was under this spell. 
 Whether it was the charm of the climate, or music and 
 balm of " the Pacific Sea," or the love of being a factor in a 
 new and rising empire that attracted him, I know not. 
 Perhaps all these. Something impelled him in the path of 
 empire, and beyond the Sierras was to be his home, to build, 
 to work, to die. There the President of the United States 
 made him the chief fiscal agent of the Government upon 
 the Pacific coast. Here he proved himself as efficient and 
 faithful in peace as he had been brave and patriotic in war. 
 He held the position of collector of customs for San Fran- 
 cisco for four years and declined reappointment.
 
 74 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 In this, as in every other trust confided to him, another 
 trait of his character was prominently illustrated his strict 
 integrity. But he did not confine himself to the simple dis- 
 charge of his official duty. The "breadth, energy, and pro- 
 gressiveness of his mind impelled him to take an active part 
 in all the great social, political, and industrial movements 
 of his State and section. 
 
 Three times he was elected by his party to represent it 
 upon the electoral ticket, and in 1879 he became a member 
 of the constitutional convention to relay the foundations of 
 the State. 
 
 But he was pre-eminently a man of affairs. With the 
 commercial and industrial development of the Pacific coast 
 he was closely identified. He was among the first to appre- 
 hend the resources of our Alaskan possessions and seek their 
 intelligent development. Everywhere he exhibited the 
 traits which made him which he had grown to be courage, 
 firmness, persistence, self-reliance, patriotism, and integrity. 
 
 In 1880 he was summoned by his adopted State to take his 
 place in the nation's highest council. With that capacity for 
 growth and adaptation which was characteristic of him in 
 every position to which he was called he stepted quietly and 
 easily into the new sphere and turned all the acquirements 
 of his previous life as student, lawyer, Senator, soldier, 
 and man of affairs to account in the discharge of his new 
 studies. What he lacked he set himself with industry and 
 persistence to acquire, and discharged the delicate duties of 
 chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations with credit 
 to himself and honor to his country. 
 
 But the zenith had been reached. 
 
 The shock which his constitution had received from the 
 wounds and exposures of war had left their ineffaceable 
 mark, their inevitable weakness.
 
 Address of Mr. Cutcheon, of Michigan. 75 
 
 He had risen with strong and steady step through the gra- 
 dations of honor and usefulness only at the summit to feel 
 the world sink under him. 
 
 He had achieved all that heart could wish of earthly 
 good. Wealth, honor, fame, friendship, and the love of 
 friends. 
 
 In the midst of all, the final summons came. 
 
 Leaves have their time to fall, 
 And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath, 
 
 And stars to set; but all, 
 Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death! 
 
 "It is given unto all men once to die." Whatever else 
 we may be doing, whithersoever else our feet may be tend- 
 ing, one thing is absolutely sure, that every day and every 
 hour we come nearer to 
 
 The undiscovered country from whose bourn 
 No traveler returns. 
 
 It is but a question of a few years, a few days, a few hours. 
 And when they are past years dwindle to the span of hours. 
 
 The main question is not when or where, but how. No 
 time, no place, no circumstance is inapt for dying when man 
 dies for humanity; and when, in March last, JOHN F. MIL- 
 LER, in this city of Washington, gave up his life, he but 
 completed the offering which he made to his country in 1861. 
 
 This, then, is the character which we have disclosed, and 
 which has entered into and become a part of the nation's 
 life. 
 
 A boy born with the sturdy independence and love of lib- 
 erty of his Swiss and Scotch ancestry mingled with staunch 
 and staying qualities of the Anglo-Saxon race. 
 
 A youth well nurtured and molded for manly effort and 
 achievement by the blessed necessity which has been upon 
 our American boys of making their own way in the world. 
 
 A young manhood adventurous and courageous, firm-knit
 
 76 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 and fibrous, reaching out into new fields for work and con- 
 quest. 
 
 A manhood strong, masterful, dutiful, patriotic, holding 
 not his life dear for his country's sake, audacious at need, 
 puissant among men, subduing obstacles to his will, in the 
 fight to stay until the dawn of victory and peace should 
 come with its cooling dews and tender sunshine to soothe 
 and heal the wounds of war. A man of affairs without 
 stain and without reproach. A statesman of broad views, 
 possessed of the confidence of his people and the respect of 
 his colleagues. Truly this is an American character of the 
 best type, an evolution of government by the people. 
 
 Though he has fallen when, in the ordinary course of 
 events, years of honorable and useful life should have lain 
 before him, we can not say that it is an unfinished life. 
 
 Virtue, not rolling suns, the mind matures ; 
 That life is long which answers life's great end. 
 
 The future of this Republic shall be better, safer, grander 
 for the life of JOHN F. MILLER. In that rising empire by 
 the Pacific which now hymns his requiem, may many a 
 young man arise who shall emulate his manly virtues and 
 repeat his life. 
 
 Address of Mr. TUCKER, of Virginia. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER : The death of Hon. JOHN F. MILLER, Sen- 
 ator of the State of California, severs the tie of a pleasant 
 friendship, not intimate, but real, between him and myself. 
 At the request of his colleagues in this House, I have a 
 melancholy satisfaction in saying a few words to testify my 
 respect for the citizen, soldier, and Senator whose loss the 
 country and his native and adopted States sincerely deplore. 
 
 His paternal stock was Virginia, a fact which creates a
 
 Address of Mr. Tucker, of Virginia. 77 
 
 kinship no Virginian can ignore. From Franklin County, 
 one of the most southern of those in Piedmont Virginia, his 
 father emigrated to Southern Indiana, where Mr. MILLER 
 was born in 1831. 
 
 His robust nature was nurtured to a hardy manhood in 
 the schools of his native State, and he received his legal 
 training at a law school in the city of New York, whence 
 he emigrated to the then new Commonwealth of the Pacific, 
 in whose service in the United States Senate he died. 
 
 In the meantime he had returned to Indiana and taken 
 honorable position in her legislature ; and at the breaking 
 out of the civil war he accepted the commission of colonel 
 in one of her regiments. During the four years of war he 
 performed his part in that dread drama with unsurpassed 
 heroism, and, bearing on his person the scars of honorable 
 wounds won in many battles, he retired at the close of the 
 struggle with the distinctions of numerous brevets for 
 courage and good conduct, and the well-earned rank of a 
 major-general. 
 
 He returned ,to civil life in California, and was in 1881 
 sent by that State to the Senate of the United States as suc- 
 cessor to Mr. Booth. 
 
 It was here that I first knew him, and our relations were 
 cordial and close during the period of the debates on the 
 Chinese question, in which he took prominent position in 
 the Senate and I took the same side on this floor. 
 
 In the maturity of his powers and prime of his life, he 
 yielded as a Christian hero to the summons of death, and 
 closed, as I humbly trust, a well-spent life in the hope of a 
 blessed immortality, inspired by the faith in a Divine Author 
 of our Christian religion. 
 
 In his origin, nativity, and life his experience took in the 
 extremes and the great middle valley of the continent.
 
 78 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 From the ancestral home in an Atlantic State to that of his 
 birth in the Mississippi Valley, and, finally, to that on the 
 Pacific shore, he was an American citizen of the truest 
 type. His destiny was, by origin, birth, and life, with the 
 American Union. 
 
 As a Representative of Virginia in this House and as a 
 citizen of Virginia during the period of civil convulsion, 
 when his attitude was in antagonism to all my opinions, I 
 find no difficulty in paying unstinting tribute to his merits 
 as a soldier and a statesman. Differences of opinion breed 
 diverse convictions as to duty, but when the one are honestly 
 formed and the other are conscientiously maintained the 
 natural outgrowth of a chivalrous magnanimity is a sin- 
 cere and genuine mutual respect and esteem. The man who 
 is sincere and devout even in the maintenance of error is a 
 nobler being than the man who is insincere and false in his 
 advocacy of truth. Infallibility is not given to man. " To 
 err is human," biit sincerity, the love of truth, and a con- 
 science void of offense toward God and man are admirable 
 and noble though they be allied to error. 
 
 On this high plane once enemies, now friends, once 
 aliens, now allies and fellow-citizens of this great Union of 
 republican Commonwealths we can, we must, let us vow 
 on the altar of a common country we will, forget and for- 
 give the past, will cease criminations and recriminations, 
 and will with hearty respect for honest differences of opinion 
 and convictions henceforth unite in an honorable emulation 
 to make the reunion of the States more glorious than the 
 old Union, in conserving the liberties of the people, and in 
 promoting the welfare and progress of our whole country in 
 the great future of its destiny. 
 
 I believe that such were the feelings of the Senator whose 
 memory we this day honor. His character and his abilities 
 were broad and large enough to embrace the whole Union.
 
 Address of Mr. Butterworth, of Ohio. 79 
 
 His courage, as a personal quality, was unquestionable. 
 It Avas of the aggressive type. He felt the gaudium certa- 
 minis when war raged. To him danger was delight, his ex- 
 posure to it an exhilaration. When prudence prompted 
 hesitancy in others his undaunted spirit impelled him to 
 audacity to achieve what doubt deemed impossible. The 
 story of his military career is replete with all that makes 
 the history of a dashing cavalier and a knightly hero. 
 
 But when war closed and peace came his combative spirit 
 rested beneath the shadow of its wings. The arm uplifted 
 in battle embraced his former foe in the grasp of a restored 
 brotherhood. He gave the solid talents and the heroic char- 
 acter he had devoted to his country on the battlefield to the 
 healing of the wounds of war and to the culture of the arts 
 of peace. 
 
 May we not hope that those who survive him may follow this 
 noble example. Let us exorcise from our debates the demon 
 of hate and bitter memories and link the earnest efforts of 
 the living to the patriotism and magnanimity of the lamented 
 dead, in preserving the Union for which he fought, with all 
 the rights of the States and the people under the Constitution, 
 for which we should all contend, as the heritage of his and 
 our posterity to the remotest generations! 
 
 Address of Mr. BUTTERWORTH, of Ohio. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER: General JOHN F. MILLER, late United States 
 Senator from California, was the son of a pioneer in the great 
 West. He was a farmer's boy and learned stability at the 
 plow. His father, and he with him, encountered early in life 
 those vicissitudes which develop and strengthen character 
 and fit men for important duties in life. At the hearthstone
 
 80 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 at which General MILLER was nurtured there were none but 
 healthful influences. His father belonged to the yeomanry 
 of the land, that sterling class that gives to our country its 
 strength in peace and its valor in war. There came to his 
 home neither the poverty that pinches nor the wealth that be- 
 comes a burden. Through industry and frugality the elder 
 Miller was enabled to dispense charity, which he did without 
 ostentation. 
 
 Senator MILLER'S mother was a woman who possessed 
 splendid native ability, and realized, of a truth, that those 
 who hold the guiding-strings above the children at the hearth- 
 stone exercise a mightier influence in the Republic than those 
 who make its laws. She knew, as did her husband, that at 
 the hearthstones of America the sure and lasting foundations 
 of our free government are laid. She realized as well that 
 the country could not safely trust the man whose palate had 
 a quicker sensation than his heart, and that in our country 
 pure hearts are mightier for the defense of freedom than 
 strong arms. She, with her husband, appreciated the advan- 
 tages of liberal education; and hence, though opportunities 
 for schooling were not ample as now, yet the children of that 
 household went forth with minds well trained and stored 
 with useful knowledge. They did not bear with them wealth 
 which is estimated in shekels, but had for their portion a bet- 
 ter heritage, rich mental furnishing, hearts devoted to duty, 
 untiring industry, all supplemented and upheld by a rugged 
 honesty that does not wear away by use. 
 
 With such surroundings, it is not strange that the children 
 who went forth from the Miller homestead after having 
 grown to manhood should each have become a blessing to the 
 community in the midst of which he cast his lot. Blessed 
 with great physical strength and a sound mind, and with a 
 quickened sense of duty to God and his fellow-men, General 
 MILLER began his career in life. I will not trace that career;
 
 'Address of Mr. Butter 'worth, of Ohio. 81 
 
 others have; and others will bear evidence that it was in many 
 things brilliant, in all things worthy. I was not intimate 
 with him, but our families were so related through marriage 
 that I had opportunity to learn something of the character- 
 istics of the family and the stern virtues which marked the 
 character of the general. 
 
 An intimate acquaintance with General MILLER was not 
 essential to learn that he was a man of mark. I do not mean 
 to say that he was brilliant. His intellect shone rather with 
 a sure and steady light. His mind was well balanced, and 
 of him I think it can be as truly said as of any man in public 
 life that in deciding upon a course of action duty was supreme. 
 Our country does not find its greatest security in the fact that 
 there are men among us who are transcendently brilliant; 
 whose exploits in the field and in the forum challenge the at- 
 tention and admiration of the world. They come but to per- 
 form a service which requires possibly but a day or a year, 
 or at most a half a score of years a service that involves but 
 one controlling thought; and not unfrequently the heart is not 
 co-laborer with the hand, and the voice too frequently but 
 echoes sentiments that are the obvious outgrowth of existing 
 conditions, and which are not coined from the crucible of se- 
 rious thought and reflection, nor come of inspiration which 
 sometimes springs from a life devoted to duty. 
 
 The greater security is found in the development of those 
 moral and intellectual conditions which are born of the influ- 
 ences which surrounded and pervaded the home of General 
 MILLER'S childhood. He had been taught to listen to the 
 "still small voice" that comes in the hush of the night and 
 teaches as never man taught. He had learned to lean upon 
 that stronger arm, and as into the valley and shadow he walked 
 that voice comforted him and that arm sustained him even 
 
 to the end. He has passed away from among us. That MIL- 
 9318 5
 
 82 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 LER lived and that lie died we know; but what that death 
 portends, what it is, except that under its strange influences 
 the heart ceases to beat, the lips become dumb, the eyes sight- 
 less, and the ears stopped up, and the flesh grows cold and 
 crumbles into dust, we do not know. That we, too, must die 
 we also know. That it is better to live well seems clear even 
 according to the world's philosophy, that which is most ma- 
 terialistic; for whether death ends all or is but the beginning 
 of another life, the experience of mankind would seem to 
 leave no doubt that things are so ordered that our chief joy 
 will be found in the faithful discharge of duty. 
 
 This I know to have been the abiding faith of General 
 MILLER. It was his struggle to walk in the light and to bear 
 testimony in his life (not pretending to be free from frailties) 
 to the truth that was great within him. The calm resigna- 
 tion he manifested on his approaching dissolution, the perfect 
 confidence he had that this life is but the germ of immortality, 
 enabled the believer to say, "It is well with him." As I 
 stood beside the dead, I found myself repeating the words of 
 Cato: 
 
 It must be r o, Plato, thou reasonest well ! 
 
 Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, 
 
 This longing after immortality? 
 
 Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror, 
 
 Of falling into naught? Why shrinks the soul 
 
 Back on herself, and startles at destruction ? 
 
 "Tis the divinity that stirs within us ; 
 
 Tis heaven itself that points out an hereafter, 
 
 And intimates eternity to man. 
 
 Whether in the field where sin is atoned by the shedding 
 of blood, whether in the Senate or in the quiet walks of life, 
 JOHN F. MILLER was guided and upheld by an unwavering 
 belief in the precepts and example of the Nazarene. Sup- 
 ported by that Christian faith, he placed his own in the 
 mighty but unseen hand of the Eternal Father, and with
 
 Address of Mr. McKenna. of California. 83 
 
 unfaltering step and cheering hope he walked through the 
 shadows into that land from which, though separated from 
 us by a thin veil which a straw might rend, no echoes come. 
 General MILLER won fame on the field of battle. He won 
 distinction and honor in the Senate. He won riches in the 
 field of business enterprise. His fame may not outlast this 
 generation, the honor he won be forgot, his riches must per- 
 ish, but the sublime faith I have mentioned abides with him 
 still. It is immortal as the spirit it leavens. His last wit- 
 ness was that compared to this faith the honors he had won 
 were dross were nothing. It is a pleasure to do honor to 
 the memory of such a man as General MILLER, whose private 
 and public life was full of usefulness and without reproach. 
 Such lives are too few, the influence of such examples too 
 little heeded. 
 
 Address of Mr. McKENNA, of California. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER : Theodore Parker said, " It is no merit in a 
 man to die." Grief will not pause to dispute it. The de- 
 ceased is not concerned. "Nor praise, nor blame, nor love, 
 nor hate, nothing can touch him further." But death may 
 instruct the living. To most of us life is the greatest bless- 
 ing ; whatever of happiness we enjoy is in it. Whatever is 
 tangible in hope or expectation can only be realized through 
 it, and even the Christian gentleman, whose faith assures 
 him of eternal bliss, shrinks shuddering from that which he 
 yet deems the portal of paradise. 
 
 It is a wise provision that death, though as "common as 
 the most vulgar thing to sense," and always to be expected, 
 yet is always sudden. In its suddenness is the emphasis of 
 its lesson. It admonishes by shock mortality of immortality. 
 It points from time to eternity, and its victim must have
 
 84 Life and Character of John F. Miller. ' 
 
 indeed passed a barren existence if he leave not precept to 
 assist to endure earth or deserve heaven. 
 
 In Senator MILLER'S life there were sweet lessons for both. 
 In every place and office he was adequate ; in every relation 
 exact and dutiful. His ability was animated and urged by 
 good intention. He disdained showing effect ; he dreamed no 
 dreams; he sought results and accomplished them. Whether 
 we depict him as citizen or soldier or Senator or husband or 
 father, in private station or public place, praise swells to 
 eulogy and a nation applauds. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I have been summoned at the latest minute 
 to take another's place. I could not refuse. I dislike to 
 refer to it. I dare not apologize. Had I longer time to pre- 
 pare and greater ability I should have been anticipated and 
 excelled by the eloquent gentlemen who have preceded me 
 in tribute to the dead Senator, and every mark of respect- 
 California is eager to show her departed representative will 
 be satisfied by my colleague who succeeds me. Mine is a 
 suitable but subordinate part. Others have the gracious 
 office of eulogy : mine is to describe the performance of a 
 trust. 
 
 I was deputed with others, the country's proxy, to convey 
 the remains of Senator MILLER to the Pacific coast. We 
 executed the trust. Starting from the nation's capital, where 
 his life was rounded and completed, yet ended, we speeded 
 to the Mississippi and over it, to the Missouri and over it, 
 across the plains and over the mountains, through snow- 
 sheds and tunnels ; on, on, at the rising of the sun, under his 
 meridian beams, and at his setting ; on, on, under the solemn 
 stars ; on, along the path of empire to its limits at the ocean, 
 compassing a continent in a deed of tributary love. 
 
 At Colfax, on the western slope of the Sierras, midst the 
 snow silently falling, we fulfilled the nation's denotation by
 
 Address of J/r. Morrow, of California. 85 
 
 delivering our charge to the soldier comrades of the departed 
 general, prefigured the resurrection, and consoled wife and 
 daughter and friends with the blessed hope of reunion in 
 heaven. Loving hands bore him to the grave. Loving 
 hands placed him in it ; and there he peacefully reposes in 
 the State he loved and served, overlooking its fair city and 
 to ocean view while its waters as they beat against the coast 
 sound everlasting earthly farewells, everlasting earthly fare- 
 wells. 
 
 Address of Mr. MORROW, of California. 
 
 Mr. SPEAKER : The tribute of respect already paid to the 
 memory of the late Senator MILLER by those who were im- 
 mediately associated with him in public affairs testifies how 
 worthily he had discharged the public duties he had assumed 
 to perform in one of the most important and honorable sta- 
 tions in the Republic. His career was an active and an 
 eventful one, and the distinction he attained among his 
 fellow-men was the result of honest, laborious, and well- 
 directed efforts in public service. 
 
 The leading incidents of his life may be briefly told. 
 
 Born in Union County, Indiana, in the year 1831, he passed 
 his youth and school days in the midst of scenes and adven- 
 tures always associated with the occupation and development 
 of a new country. 
 
 He was perhaps spared some of the privations encountered 
 by many young men in the West by reason of the fact that 
 his parents were able to give him the advantages of a good 
 education before he took his start in life ; but even under the 
 most favorable circumstances no young man could grow to 
 manhood in the West at that time without having his mettle 
 tested in many ways. That young MILLER went through
 
 86 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 the usual ordeal with credit to himself is shown by the self- 
 command and perfect confidence in himself he displayed in 
 after years when confronted with new and unexpected emer- 
 gencies. 
 
 He began the study of law at an early age, and graduated 
 with distinction in 1852 from the New York State Law School. 
 The next year we find him in California, practicing his pro- 
 fession with success at a bar noted for the ability of its law- 
 yers and the wide range of its litigation. 
 
 In 1855 he returned to Indiana in consequence of the sup- 
 posed serious illness of his mother, to whom he was greatly 
 devoted. Her early recovery gave him the opportunity of 
 resuming his professional and business relations in California, 
 but the attractions of his family home and the inducements 
 there offered him were sufficient to prevent his immediate 
 return to the Golden State. 
 
 At the breaking out of the rebellion Mr. MILLER was a sen- 
 ator in the Indiana State legislature, where he had achieved 
 an enviable reputation for close attention to official duties 
 and had demonstrated his capacity as a man of affairs. 
 
 He thus early in life won public confidence without any of 
 the meretricious devices of the politician, and gained respect 
 and esteem without any compromise with his dignity or self- 
 respect. 
 
 His valor and patriotism drew him into the Army in 1861. 
 Like many of our heroes of that period, he exchanged the 
 duties of civil life for the dangers of the field without hesita- 
 tion. The transition was easy and in accord with his active 
 disposition, his undaunted courage, and his faith in the 
 integrity and perpetuity of the Union. 
 
 His military career was one of honorable distinction from 
 first to last. Entering the Army as colonel of the Twenty- 
 ninth Indiana Volunteers, he attained the rank of brevet
 
 Address of Mr. Morrow, of California. 87 
 
 major-general, rendering gallant services in every rank and 
 station to which he was assigned. At Stone River, Liberty 
 Gap, and Nashville he was particularly conspicuous as a brave 
 and skillful commander. It will not be necessary for me to 
 repeat the incidents of his splendid military service. They 
 have been outlined in military orders, preserved in the rec- 
 ords of his regiment, brigade, and division, and have become 
 a part of the brilliant and enduring history of this great 
 country. 
 
 At the close of the war General MILLER declined further 
 employment in the Army, and, although suffering from 
 severe wounds, he proceeded to California to engage in the 
 active duties of his profession. It was at this period that I 
 first met him, and the acquaintance then formed soon ripened 
 into a friendship that continued down to the day of his death. 
 
 Soon after General MILLER arrived in California he was 
 appointed by President Johnson collector of the port of San 
 Francisco. He held the office for four years, discharging its 
 duties with great efficiency and good judgment, and gaining 
 the entire confidence of the business community. 
 
 For ten years he was a leading officer of the Alaska Com- 
 mercial Company, a well-known corporation on the Pacific 
 coast. The character and policy of this corporation has often 
 been commended, officially and otherwise, for its just and 
 honorable dealings with the Government and its wise and 
 generous treatment of employe's. General MILLER'S associa- 
 tion with an enterprise of this reputation shows that in pri- 
 vate business as well as in public service he earned the grati- 
 tude of good people by furnishing an example worthy of 
 imitation. 
 
 It is also worthy of mention that General MILLER never 
 neglected his duties as a citizen. In all his business relations 
 he was public spirited and generous. He was an ardent 
 Republican, and always ready to labor for the success of his
 
 88 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 party, believing in its principles and having faith in the 
 ability of the people to reach reform in the administration 
 of Government affairs through party organization. 
 
 In 1879 he was elected a member of the constitutional con- 
 vention of California and participated in the formation of 
 our present constitution. In 1881 he was elected a United 
 States Senator by the legislature of California for the term 
 of six years. As a Senator his services were characterized 
 by great attention to the detail of Congressional business in 
 which the people of his State were interested. He was in the 
 habit of responding promptly and pleasantly to every de- 
 mand made upon him for a proper service. But with all his 
 kindness of disposition he did not permit himself to be occu- 
 pied with trifling matters to the exclusion of more important 
 business. 
 
 He was deeply interested in the welfare of his State and 
 looked forward with great anxiety to the time when Con- 
 gressional legislation or other action on the part of the Gen- 
 eral Government would solve some of the difficulties per- 
 taining to our peculiar position on the Pacific coast. He was 
 eminently a statesman of enlarged views, and, being well in- 
 formed on all the leading questions of the day, was able to 
 render to the nation most important service. 
 
 His fame as a soldier and a statesman was not the gift of 
 fortune or the chance of reckless adventure, but the hard- 
 earned reward for faithful devotion to the welfare and glory 
 of his country. He grew to commanding position with an 
 adaptability of capacity which always marks the vigor of 
 well-equipped manhood where the social forces are active 
 and aggressive. 
 
 He was perhaps known to but few members of this House, 
 but the place he occupied in the affairs of the country was 
 distinctly marked and his influence everywhere felt. This 
 House, therefore, performs its solemn duty on this occasion
 
 Address of Mr. Morrow, of California. 89 
 
 with the full knowledge that a page in its history is being 
 given to one who achieved renown as the just distinction 
 accorded to heroic and patriotic public service. 
 
 Mr. Emerson, in one of his admirable essays, discourses 
 on the fact that many men of great figure are known to his- 
 tory by deeds which do not appear to justify their fame. 
 " We cannot," he says, "find the smallest part of the personal 
 weight of Washington in the narrative of his exploits," and 
 he mentions Philip Sidney, the Earl of Essex, Sir Walter 
 Raleigh, and others, as men of distinction who accomplished 
 but few deeds worthy of historical mention. It is a fact that 
 the character of a man cannot be determined by the mere in- 
 cidents of his life, no more than can the mass of the mount- 
 ain be ascertained by measuring the altitude of its promi- 
 nent peaks. In human nature, as elsewhere, the magnitude 
 of force and power is not always disclosed by what is seen. 
 Back of the visible action there may be a mental and moral 
 combination, moving with certainty and winning success 
 with apparent ease in grave emergencies. A man thus or- 
 ganized has character, and he may have genius. "He con- 
 quers because his arrival alters the face of affairs." 
 
 Senator MILLER possessed this latent power in a remark- 
 able degree, and always commanded respect and confidence, 
 not so much because of what he said or did, but because it 
 was apparent that he could say and do much more if it were 
 necessary. 
 
 The career of Senator MILLER was incomplete. The full 
 measure of his capacity had not been attained. He had plans 
 for the future, and had his life been spared his mature judg- 
 ment and large experience would have been of untold value 
 in the councils of the nation. He felt that he could be of 
 service to his country, and even when his malady had become 
 dangerous he refused to lay aside his work for needed rest. 
 With the restless spirit of the wounded but gallant soldier
 
 90 Life and Character of John F. Miller. 
 
 who hears a summons in the notes of preparation for the 
 coming battle, Senator MILLER came from his distant home 
 at the commencement of the present session of Congress to 
 engage in the active duties of legislation. 
 
 He knew the Angel of Death had come very near to him 
 before 
 
 And wondered why he stayed his dart, 
 Yet quailed not, but could meet him so, 
 As any lesser friend or foe. 
 
 Such serene courage might again dismiss the unwelcome 
 messenger. He could not weakly surrender even to the in- 
 evitable, but the struggle was all in vain. The energies of 
 his scared and overtaxed frame had broken from their natural 
 channels and no human skill could restrain their wasting 
 current. 
 
 The end came, and the spirit of a brave man found rest. 
 
 Fair life to pulseless silence wed. 
 
 We all remember the solemn ceremony in this Capitol in 
 memory of the deceased Senator, and the mournful pageant 
 escorting his remains to their final sepulcher at Lone Mount- 
 ain, by the restless sea. It was a fitting and deserved tribute 
 to one whose life and character are worthy of all praise. 
 Kind father, devoted husband, faithful friend, patriotic citi- 
 zen and statesman, farewell ! California has had other sons 
 fall on the field of duty, but the waves of the Pacific have 
 chanted no sadder requiem than they do to-day over the 
 remains of JOHN FRANKLIN MILLER. 
 
 The question being taken on the resolutions, they were 
 unanimously adopted. 
 
 And then, in accordance with the concluding resolution, the 
 House (at 4 o'clock and 35 minutes p. m.) adjourned. 
 
 O
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 Santa Barbara 
 
 THIS BOOK IS OLE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW. 
 
 100M 1 1/86 Series 9482
 
 3 1205010890844 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 AA 000923276 o