Qass. L(oGp 
 Book. 
 
 OBnciAL DONATION. 
 
/ 
 
 ^34 
 
 56th Congress, \ 
 ^'(l Si'Ksion. / 
 
 SENATE. 
 
 f Document 
 \ No. 236. 
 
 MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 
 
 LIFE AND' CHARACTER 
 
 U 
 
 OHN HENRY GEAR 
 
 (Late a Senator from Iowa), 
 
 DELIVERED IN" THE 
 
 SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 FIFTY-SIXTH CONGRESS, 
 Second Session. 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 
 GO\KKNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
 I9OI. 
 
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K]io)33.ttil(DffilK! M^llSASSo 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Proceedings in the Senate 5 
 
 Address of Mr. Allison, of Iowa 8 
 
 Address of Mr. Piatt, of Connecticut 20 
 
 Address of Mr. Cockrell, of Missouri 25 
 
 Address of Mr. Nelson, of Minnesota 29 
 
 Address of Mr. Spooner, of \Vi,sconsin 37 
 
 Address of Mr. Morgan, of .'Alabama 42 
 
 Address of Mr. Burrows, of Michigan 49 
 
 Address of Mr. Mason, of Illinois 52 
 
 Address of Mr. Cla}', of Georgia 55 
 
 Address of Mr. Dolliver, of Iowa 60 
 
 Funeral oration of Hon. Thomas Hedge 69 
 
 Proceedings in the House of Representatives 73 
 
 Address of Mr. Hedge, of Iowa 76 
 
 Address of Mr. Lanham, of Texas Si 
 
 Address of Mr. Lacy, of Iowa 85 
 
 Address of Mr. Grosvenor, of Ohio go 
 
 Address of Mr. Dalzell, of Pennsylvania 93 
 
 Address of Mr. Richardson, of Tennessee 97 
 
 Address of Mr. Steele, of Indiana 100 
 
 Address of Mr. Hull, of Iowa 102 
 
Death of Hon, John Henry Gear, 
 
 Proceedings in the Senate. 
 
 December 3, 1900. 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 Rev. W. H. Milburn, D. D., Chaplain to the Senate, offered 
 
 the following prayer: 
 
 O Eternal God, rejoicing with gratitude to Thee that so many 
 members of this body are in their places, strong in health and 
 resolve for the responsible and onerous duties of their places, yet 
 as the psalm of our thanksgiving rises, the heavy hand of sorrow 
 is laid upoti us as we remember the irreparable loss which this 
 body and the country at large has sustained in the departure from 
 earth of some of our notable members. 
 
 We recall the venerable figure of a late member of the Senate, 
 who, looking back upon nearly fifty years of public service, had 
 ingratiated himself into the regard, affection, and veneration of 
 his brethren and of a large portion of the people of the country. 
 We recall the form and presence of the junior Senator from 
 Iowa, taken from us and leaving a gap in his State, as well as in 
 
 this body. , 
 
 And now we stand with unspeakable grief by the new-made 
 grave in the capital of Minnesota, which within the last two days 
 has received all that was mortal of the brilliant, attractive, and 
 serviceable senior Senator from that State. By his genius, his 
 Kbor his devotion to the interests not only of his own State but 
 of the whole country . and by his attractive and winsome qualities 
 he drew the love and fixed regard of his colleagues. O Lord, 
 the sense of our sorrow and loss is unspeakable. 
 
6 Proceedings in the Senate. 
 
 Let Thy consolation come to the members of these families; 
 let it come to the venerable father and mother as well as the wife 
 of the Minnesota Senator. 
 
 Grant, O Lord, that the sense of our mortality may rest with 
 becoming gravity upon the hearts and consciences of all here, 
 and may we gird up our loins and walk reverently and humbly 
 before Thee. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. 
 
 Mr. Allison. Mr. President, it is with deep regret and pro- 
 found sorrow that I announce to the Senate the death of my late 
 colleague, Hon. John Henry Ge.a.r, which occurred in this city 
 on the 14th day of July last. At some future time, of which I 
 shall give due notice, I desire to afford the Senate an opportunity 
 of paying tribute to the memorA' of Senator Gear and his long 
 and distinguished services to his State and his country. At this 
 time I beg leave to offer the resolutions which I send to the 
 desk, and for which I ask immediate consideration. 
 
 The President pro tempore. The resolutions submitted by 
 the Senator from Iowa will be read. 
 
 The Secretarj- read the resolutions, as follows: 
 
 Resolirtt, That the Senate has heard with deep regret and profound 
 sorrow of the deatli of the Hon. John Henry Ge.\R, late a Senator from 
 the State of Iowa. 
 
 Resolved, That the Secretary communicate a copy of these resolutions 
 to the House of Representatives. 
 
 The resolutions were considered Ijy inianimous consent and 
 unanimou.sh' agreed to. 
 
 Mr. Allison. Mr. President, I offer an additional resolution, 
 which I ask to have read and considered at this time. 
 
 The President pro tempore. The resolution submitted by 
 the vSenator from Iowa will be read. 
 
 The Secretary read the resolution, as follows: 
 
 Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of the 
 <leceased, Hon. John Henry Ge.\r and Hon. Cushman Kellogg Davis, 
 the Senate do now adjourn. 
 
Proceedings in the Senate. 7 
 
 The resolution was unanimously agreed to; and (at 3 o'clock 
 and 46 minutes p. m. ) the Senate adjourned until to-morrow, 
 Tuesday, December 4, 1900, at 12 o'clock meridian. 
 
 December 4, 1900. 
 
 A message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. W. J. 
 Browning, its Chief Clerk, transmitted to the Senate resolutions 
 on the death of Hon. Cushman K. Davis, late a Senator from the 
 State of Minnesota; Hon. John H. Gear, late a Senator from 
 theStateof Iowa; Hon. John H. Hoffecker, late a Representative 
 from the State of Delaware, and Hon. William D. Daly, late a 
 Representative from the State of New Jersey. 
 
 Janu.\ry 10, igoi. 
 
 Mr. Allison. Mr. President, I desire to give notice that on 
 Saturday, the 19th of January, after the routine morning busi- 
 ness, I shall submit resolutions commemorative of the life and 
 services of the Hon. John Henry CxEAR, late a Senator from the 
 
 State of Iowa. 
 
 January 19, 1901. 
 
 Mr. Allison. Mr. President, I submit the resolutions which 
 I send to the desk, and ask that they may be read. 
 
 The President pro tempore. The resolutions will be read. 
 
 The Secretary read the re.solutions, as follows: 
 
 Resolved That it is with deep regret and profound sorrow that the Senate 
 
 hears the announcement of the death of Hon. John Henry Gear, late a 
 
 Senator from the State of Iowa. ., , ,, , „f tt,. 
 
 Resolved, That the Senate extends to his family and to the people of the 
 
 State of Iowa sincere condolence in their bereavement. 
 
 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 fit- 
 tin<r tribute to his high character and distinguished services. 
 
 liesolved That the Secretary transmit to the family of the deceased and 
 to the governor of the State of Iowa a copy of these resolutions, with the 
 action of the Senate thereon. 
 
 Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these resolutions to the House 
 
 of Representatives. , ■ c 
 
 Resolved, That, as an additional mark of respect, at the conclusion of 
 these e.-cercises the Senate do adjourn. 
 
Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR, ALLISON, OF lOWA. 
 
 Mr. President: The late John Henry Gear, whose life 
 and services we now commemorate, was first elected to the 
 Senate by the general assembh- of Iowa on the 23d of January-, 
 1894, and took his seat March 4, 1S95. He died in this city 
 at 4 o'clock on the morning of July 14, 1900, in his seventy- 
 sixth year. 
 
 The ancestors of Senator Gear came from England to 
 Connecticut in 1647, and settled near what was afterwards 
 known as Middletown three years before that town was 
 founded and eleven years after the first settlement of that 
 colony from Massachusetts. They were of that class of sturdy, 
 God-fearing people who laid so well the foundations of this 
 Republic, and there on the banks of the Connecticut they 
 and their posteritj- resided, sharing in the privations, diffi- 
 culties, and dangers of that colony during the intervening 
 period, alternately building their log cabins, clearing their 
 fields, planting and harvesting their crops, and waging war- 
 fare with the native tribes until after the close of the war of 
 the Revolution, when Senator Gear's grandfather, Hezekiah 
 Gear, after his marriage with Sarah Gilbert, moved to the 
 neighborhood of Pittsfield, Mass. , where Ezekiel Gilbert Gear, 
 father of Senator Gear, was born in 1791. He was educated 
 for the ministry, and was ordained as a clergyman of the 
 Church of England by the Right Rev. Bishop Hobart, of 
 New York, in 18 15. A A-ear later he was sent as a mission- 
 ary to the Indian tribes in western New York, and there, on 
 April 7, 1825, his son, John Henry Gear, was born in what 
 is now Ithaca, amidst the rigorous conditions surrounding life 
 
Address of Mr. Allison, of /ou>a. 9 
 
 in a frontier village, which at that time was nothing more 
 than an Indian trading post. 
 
 The boy was born in the wilderness, surrounded by prime- 
 val forests, where the Onondaga chief of the Five Nations 
 still dwelt — our enemies in the war of the Revolution, though 
 then at peace with us. The dwellings were log cabins, and 
 the mothers were in constant fear of wild animals, and wild 
 Indians as well. Having lost his mother, he was taken, at 2 
 years of age, to Pittsfield, Mass., where he was nurtured by 
 his grandmother until after his father's second marriage. 
 
 In 1831 he returned to his father, and removed with him 
 to the West five years later. The missionary and his little 
 family went to Galena, 111. I do not know how this journey 
 was made, but have no doubt thej- sailed down the Ohio to 
 its junction with the Mississippi, and then followed that 
 mighty river upward to Galena, then a mining town or vil- 
 lage with a small population. The Black Hawk war of 1832 
 had resulted, two years before, in the purchase by treaty of 
 all the lands on the east bank of the Mississippi, and there 
 was a belief that the country would attract to it emigrants 
 from the Ea.st. Chicago was then a struggling village with- 
 out even a charter for a municipal organization, and contained 
 less than 2,000 souls, and between it and Galena was a 
 wilderness of prairie. 
 
 Two years later the father was appointed a chaplain in the 
 United States Army and assigned to Fort Snelling, a frontier 
 military post in what is now the State of Minnesota, a few 
 miles below the Falls of St. Anthony, so named by La Salle, 
 but then not even a village. This whole region was then 
 a wilderness, inhabited only by wild tribes, and the solitude 
 of nature was disturbed (jnly h\ the great falls of the Missis- 
 sippi, known as St. Anthony, and the smaller one known as 
 
lO Life and Cliaractcr of John Henry Gear. 
 
 Minnehaha. It was amid these scenes and surroundings that 
 the boy grew up, enduring the hardships and privations of the 
 frontier, and without means of education other than those pro- 
 vided by an educated and pious father, which I have no doubt 
 was of great vahie to him in after years. These surroundings 
 and this teaching doubtless instilled into his mind that sturdy 
 independence and push and integrity of dealing and character 
 which followed him through life. It was the heritage of a 
 poor man's son: 
 
 Stout muscles and a sinewy heart, 
 A hardy frame and a hardier spirit; 
 King of his two hands, he does his part 
 In every useful toil and art. 
 
 The father remained a chaplain at Fort Snelling until 1868, 
 esteemed and revered by the soldiers at the post and by all 
 with whom he came in contact. Retiring in that year, he 
 removed to Minneapolis, a flourishing city, as was also St. 
 Paul, a few miles below — both unknown when he entered 
 upon his missionary work in 1838. He died in 1873, at the 
 age of 82 3'ears, respected and honored by all who knew him. 
 
 In the fall of 1843 young Gear, at the age of 19, left his 
 father's family and made his way down the Mississippi, arriv- 
 ing on the 25th of September at Burlington, Iowa, where his 
 maternal aunt then resided, she being the wife of Hon. Charles 
 Mason, chief justice of the Territory of Iowa, a distinguished 
 lawyer and well known by the older lawyers of this city as 
 Commis.sioner of Patents for several years. 
 
 Here began the successful career afterwards achieved by him 
 as citizen and public servant. He promptly went to work o.n a 
 farm near the village, but soon after found employment in the 
 store of Bridgeman Brothers, in Burlington, at a compensation 
 of $50 per year and board. In those days the young man could 
 
Address of Mr. Allison, of Iowa. ii 
 
 not hope for an immediate increase of salary. After working 
 with this firm for about a year he removed to Keosauqua — an 
 Iowa village 50 miles distant — with the younger Bridgeman, 
 who established a store there, and his wages were increased to 
 $100 per j-ear and board. In the spring of 1845 he returned to 
 Burlington and entered, in a subordinate capacity, the employ 
 of W. F. Coolbaugh, then a leading merchant of that town. 
 He worked so faithfully and intelligently that at the end of 
 five years he was taken into the business, and the firm was 
 changed to W. F. Coolbaugh & Co. At the end of another 
 five years he became .sole proprietor of the business, Mr. Cool- 
 baugh retiring to enter the banking business, in which he 
 achieved great success. The business was continued success- 
 fully b}' Mr. Gear, with various associates, until September, 
 1879, when he retired from active business as a merchant. 
 
 He was married in 1852 to Miss Harriet S. Foote, youngest 
 daughter of Ju.stus L. and Harriet Foote, of Middlebury, Vt., 
 where Mrs. Gear was born. They had four children, of whom 
 two survive, namely, Margaret, wdfe of J. W. Blythe, a suc- 
 cessful attorney of Burlington, and Ruth, wife of Horace S. 
 Rand, a successful business man of Burlington. Mrs. Gear is 
 a woman of extraordinary qualities and ability, and still sur- 
 vives her husband. During the period of their married life 
 she was an untiring and able helpmate of her husband and 
 greatly aided him in all his work and ambitions, finding her 
 reward in the honors which from time to time came to him. 
 The domestic life of Senator and Mrs. Gear was ideal, and 
 their devotion to each other gave their home life a charm 
 which delighted their friends everywhere. 
 
 He always took an active interest in the political affairs of 
 the period, first as a Whig and afterwards as a Republican. 
 He held no office, except that of alderman from one of the 
 
12 Life and Characky of John Henry Gear. 
 
 wards of the city, until 1863, when he was elected mayor of 
 Burlington, in which capacity he rendered great service to the 
 Union soldiers going to and coming from the front, Burling- 
 ton being a rendezvous. He was nominated by the Republi- 
 cans in 1868 for representative in the Iowa general assembly, 
 but declined the nomination; but in 1S71, being again nomi- 
 nated, he accepted and was elected a member of the Fourteenth 
 general assembly, although the covuity in which he lived was 
 Democratic. In 1873 he was renominated and elected to the 
 Fifteenth general assembly. When this legislature met he was 
 selected as the Republican candidate for speaker of the house 
 and was elected on the one hundred and fortj'-fourth ballot 
 after a deadlock of two weeks, a situation brought about hy 
 the fact that neither the Republican nor the Democratic party 
 had a majority of the members. 
 
 During this term as speaker he demonstrated his remarkable 
 tact and ability to satisfactorily control a difficult situation, 
 and the spirit of turbulence manifested at the opening of the 
 session gradualh- changed to one of general commendation 
 because of his fairness and impartiality in the administration 
 of the office. The qualities then displayed resulted in his 
 reelection as speaker in the succeeding general a.s.sembly, and 
 I believe he is the only man but one who has held this office 
 in Iowa twice in succession. 
 
 At the end of his four years as .speaker his integrity and 
 abilitN- were so fully recognized throughout the State that in 
 1877 he was nominated as the Republican candidate for gov- 
 ernor and was elected. He was renominated by acclamation 
 in 1879 and again elected. When he entered the office of 
 governor, the supervision of the various charitable and bene\-o- 
 lent institutions of the State was within the special care of 
 the governor, and during his service he gave personal and 
 
Address of Mr. Allison, of Iowa. 13 
 
 constant attention to all the details of the ofBce, including 
 this supen'ision, and introduced many reforms in the admin- 
 istration of those institutions. This personal supervision led 
 him strongly to recommend in his messages the creation of a 
 permanent board of control, which should have special control 
 of all educational, charitable, and penal institutions of the State. 
 The importance of this was recognized, but not adopted until 
 a few years ago, since which time it has proved successful 
 not only in Iowa, but in other States. 
 
 Although Iowa has had the good fortune to have many men 
 of eminence as governors of the State, it will always be said 
 of Mr. Gear that he was one of the best. So strong was he 
 in the affections of the people of the State at that time that 
 many of his friends presented him for United States Senator 
 in 188 1, but withdrew his name, and the late Senator \\'il.son 
 was elected. Upon retiring from the office of governor in 
 January, 1882, he was occupied for the next four years with 
 his private affairs. 
 
 The Congressional district in which he resided was a closely 
 contested one between the two political parties, and it was 
 believed by the Republicans that Mr. Gear's nomination 
 would insure the success of the party in the district. There- 
 fore when the convention met in 1886 he was nominated by 
 acclamation and elected to the Fiftieth Congress. Two years 
 later he was renominated and again elected. 
 
 During his second term, as a member of the Committee on 
 Ways and Means, he took an active part in the preparation of 
 the McKinley tariff bill, being one of those especially assigned 
 by Chairman McKinley- to the preparation of that portion of 
 the bill which levied duties upon agricultural products. He 
 had given much attention to the subject of the production 
 of beet sugar, and believed it could be produced in our own 
 
14 Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 country as cheaply as elsewhere if the industry were fairly 
 started. As the best means of accomplishing this end he 
 favored, in lieu of an import duty, a domestic bounty on sugar 
 production, not only from sugar cane, but from beets as well, 
 and he was largelj' iustrumetUal in securing the bounty pro- 
 vision in the act of 1890. 
 
 In 1890 he was again nominated by acclamation, but was 
 defeated by a small majority, sharing the fate of many of his 
 Republican associates in the House who lived in closely con- 
 tested districts. He was again nominated in 1892 and was 
 elected. After his election, in November, he was appointed 
 by President Harrison Assi.stant Secretary of the Treasury, and 
 served in that capacity until the beginning of the Fifty-third 
 Congress, to which he had been elected a member. 
 
 He became an active candidate for the Senate in the sunmier 
 of 1893, preceding the election of the general assembl)' in the 
 fall of that year. Other prominent men in Iowa were also 
 candidates, but when the legislature met he was selected as 
 the caucus candidate of the Republican part}- and elected for 
 the six-year term beginning March 4, 1895, serving in the 
 House until the commencement of his term in the Senate. He 
 was reelected to the Senate in January, 1900, for the six-year 
 term beginning March 4 next. 
 
 His service in the Senate was relatively brief. Though he 
 did not often participate in the debates of the Senate, he was 
 active and useful in its work, and gave intelligent e.xamiuation 
 to all matters assigned to him. His most conspicuous service 
 was as chairman of the Committee on Pacific Railroads, which 
 had charge of the readjustment and settlement of the Gov- 
 ernment debt against those railroads. During this serv'ice a 
 final settlement was made with the leading subsidized roads, 
 wherebv the Government received in full the amount loaned 
 
Address of Mr. Allison, of lo'wa. 15 
 
 to them by the legislation of 1862-1864, with interest to the 
 date of settlement, 
 
 Senator Gear was a delegate at large to the national con- 
 vention held at Minneapolis in 1892, which nominated Presi- 
 dent Harrison, and also in the convention of 1896, which 
 nominated President McKinley. 
 
 A little more than two years before his death Senator Gear 
 was seized with a severe malady which confined him to his 
 home for two months. From this attack he never fully recov- 
 ered, and it finally resulted in his death, in this city, on the 14th 
 of July last. Though it was known in Iowa that he was in 
 iniirni health, yet he did not know, nor did his friends believe, 
 that his condition was so critical, and so his death came to his 
 family and friends and to the people of Iowa as a great shock. 
 His death was deplored by the people of the State generally. 
 In recognition of his long and valuable public service to the 
 State, the governor issued a public proclamation reciting such 
 service and closing the public offices on the day of the funeral; 
 and leading citizens from all parts of the State, the governor 
 and State ofiScers, and his associates from Iowa in Congress 
 attended the obsequies, as did practically all the people of 
 Burlington, the schools and business houses of the city being 
 clo.sed during the services. 
 
 Senator Ge.\r filled a large place in the history of Iowa for 
 more than half a century, fir.st as a prominent and successful 
 business man in one of its most prosperous cities, enlarging 
 his business and extending his acquaintance into a constantly 
 widening field, holding the friends alreadj- made and making 
 new ones jear by year. He possessed a remarkable memorj' 
 for names and faces, events and incidents, and thereby had the 
 quality which enabled him on all occasions to summon to his 
 support an army of friends. And thus it was at the time of 
 
1 6 Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 his death and for man}- years before. He probabh' had more 
 personal friends and followers than any man in the State 
 during the generation of his political life. These friendships 
 were not found alone in the political party with which he 
 affiliated, but extended to those of opposing political opinions 
 as well. 
 
 He had a strong as well as a pleasing personality. His kind 
 and genial disposition and manner made him many friends and 
 firmly attached them to him when made. In all matters of 
 large or small importance he was alwaj^s ready to aid those 
 who sought his help. This characteristic made all with whom 
 he came in contact feel that they could approach him at any 
 time for anj' proper service. This valuable trait made him 
 strong with all classes of people in Iowa with whom he rame 
 in contact as its chief executive, and after he entered the 
 public service at Washington made him a favorite with all 
 lowans who had business needing attention. 
 
 Through his entire term of public .service, dating from his 
 election as mayor of Burlington in the spring of 1863 until his 
 death in 1900 — nearly forty years in which he had at different 
 times held offices of varied distinction and trust — Mr. Gear 
 showed himself worthy of the highest tril:)Ute of public confi- 
 dence and praise. The sterling worth, the high integrity, the 
 courageous convictions that descended to him from his fore- 
 fathers made him of the same bone and sinew as the pioneers 
 of our country. The hardships and privations of his early life, 
 the courage that faced the perils of the wilderness, the fierce 
 enmity of savage men, were fit preparations for his independent 
 and simple character. He belonged to that race of sturdy- men 
 who are passing away from us one by one, who fought their 
 wa)^ through trial and difficulty from the Atlantic coast to the 
 mightv West. 
 
Address of Mr. Allison, of Iowa. 17 
 
 His good deeds in private life and his faithful public service 
 in every place assigned to him will long be remembered with 
 gVatitude bj' the people of his State. His death was a great 
 personal loss to me. It was my fortune to make his acquaint- 
 ance in 1863. Although he lived in a part of the State distant 
 from my home, I met him often, and during all the period 
 from our first acquaintance until his death our frieudl}^ rela- 
 tions were constant and uninterrupted, and for the last twenty 
 years our associations were intimate and always agreeable to 
 me, and I entertained for him a high personal regard. His 
 death is deplored as a personal loss b}- those who shared with 
 him public responsibility in Iowa, and \>y those who served 
 with him from Iowa in the two Houses of Congress, but none 
 deplore his loss more than do his friends and neighbors in the 
 city of his adoption, where he resided nearly fifty-seven years, 
 all of whom respected and esteemed him as an eminent citizen. 
 
 I can not more fittingly close this imperfect tribute to his 
 memory than h\ placing in what we hope may be an imperi.sh- 
 able record of his private life and public service an extract 
 from the remarks made on the day of his funeral hy the Rev. 
 Dr. Salter, who for half a century has ministered as pastoi 
 of the First Congregational Church of Burlington, and who 
 during half a century had known Senator Gear, and had 
 observed his conduct as husband, father, neighbor, and friend, 
 and as citizen and public servant. Dr. Salter said: 
 
 "Seventy-five years ago this was a savage wilderness, as it 
 had been for one huiadred and sixty years from its discovery, 
 when the savages gave way to civilization. Ten years after 
 the savages left this immediate region that young life appeared 
 upon the scene, coming here to reside and study law 
 with his uncle, Charles Mason, chief justice of the Territory, 
 bringing here the principles and memories of liberty and 
 S. Doc. 236 2 
 
1 8 Life and Character of Joint Henry Gear. 
 
 constitutional government, which had advanced this countn- 
 to the front in the civihzation of the world. 
 
 "Inheriting a genial nature, bred in immutable morality, 
 reverencing the sense of dut>- as the guide and safeguard of 
 life, cherishing virtue, honor, and self-respect as jewels beyond 
 silver and gold, making fidelity to whatever work fell to his 
 hands an instant care, John Henry Gear, from his youth 
 up, won the confidence, esteem, and affection of his fellow- 
 men. He knew, indeed, the liability to error that is com- 
 mon to us all — how hard it is to distinguish the shows and 
 illusions of sense from the eternal realities. He had, there- 
 fore, charitj' and consideration for others, and was not dog- 
 matic or opinionative, but candid, and listened to reason with 
 mind open to light and knowledge. To these sterling quali- 
 ties was joined an active and vigorous mind, with a love of 
 knowledge in different directions, a facility and readiness of 
 application to whatever subject called for consideration, and a 
 memory remarkably retentive and accurate. Upon questions 
 of commerce and trade, with which from earl}- life he was 
 especially conversant, and in matters pertaining to the public 
 welfare and to the government and history of the country, 
 he gained a conspicuous and honored place in the nation for 
 the sagacity and wisdom of his counsels. His name is writ- 
 ten large in the history of this Commonwealth, in the records 
 of Congress, and in the hearts of thousands of our people. 
 
 " While he died in the height of his fame, with such honors 
 clustering his brow as fall to few; secure, so far as human 
 authority and power go, in one of the high dignities of the 
 world, he bore honor and fame with the same .simplicity that 
 characterized him in everj' situation. 
 
 ' ' The city of his home bows in sorrow that we shall see 
 his benignant form in our accustomed walks and ways no 
 
A d dress of Mr. A //isoti . of lou -a. 19 
 
 more. His life will remain an undying memory in our affec- 
 tion. Hi.s dust is to mingle in the cemetery with the dust 
 of his predecessors in the Senate, Augustus C. Dodge and 
 James W. Grimes, who came still earlier to Burlington, each 
 in his halcyon youth, each conspicuous in making our history. 
 The three made here fondly cherished and sacred homes, the 
 joy and pride of their hearts, unalloyed examples of heaven's 
 best gift to man. It may be long — it may never again be — 
 before this city shall have three of its citizens come in any 
 other brief span of fifty \-ears to such honors. Naturally, the 
 honors will be divided among faithful citizens in other parts 
 of the Commonwealth. But the past is secure, and the record 
 is made up for the instruction and cheer of those who shall 
 be called to the charge of the public welfare in the coming 
 half centun- and in centuries to come." 
 
20 Life and Character of John Henry Gear, 
 
 Address of Mr. Platt, of Connecticut. 
 
 Mr. President: In tlii.s session, limited in its duration to a 
 period of three months, popularly known as the short session, 
 public business is peculiarly pressing. We have a great and 
 wonderful country, the needs of which are both important and 
 imperative. In its Congress great and weighty questions nuist 
 be considered and .settled. No wonder, then, that sometimes 
 when business of momentous importance demands our attention 
 and the end of the .session is growing nearer and nearer da}- by 
 day. the public feels and we feel that we can not spare even an 
 hour for eulogies of our missing comrades. And yet there is 
 no business more important, no hours more wisely spent than 
 those which we devote to the consideration of the services and 
 virtues of departed Senators. 
 
 I should hesitate to say e\-en a word to recall to memory the 
 life of Senator Gear as we knew it here if it were not that his 
 distinguished colleague, in .speaking of his family hi.story, has 
 disclosed the fact that his progenitors dwelt for one hundred 
 and thirty years in the State of Connecticut, and that I can 
 not but think their sojourn there was reflected in the life of 
 him whose loss we mourn. His, indeed, from our earliest his- 
 tory, was a family of pioneers. How much in our civilization, 
 our growth, and our development that word "pioneer" sig- 
 nifies. The pioneer instinct dates far back of the early settle- 
 ment of this coiuitry. It is a racial in.stinct. What developed 
 it in the centuries past none may know; but it led our race 
 westward from its original home in Asia to cross mountain 
 and river and plain, ever westward to the shores of the 
 Atlantic, ever surmounting obstacles, enduring hardships, 
 
Address of Mr. Piatt, of Conncdinit. 21 
 
 triumphing over rude environments, developing thereby all that 
 is noblest and manliest in man, until, halting for a moment, as 
 it were, in England and Holland, it set forth again across the 
 wild Atlantic to take up its pioneer work in subduing a new 
 continent and establishing a new civilization. In this new 
 movement we know that the ancestors of Senator Gear par- 
 ticipated. Of their life before the transoceanic migration we 
 can conjecture but little; of . their life in my native State we 
 can understand nuich. 
 
 Less than twenty years after the landing at Plymouth Rock, 
 Connecticut was settled on the river whose name it bears, in 
 the vicinity of Hartford, at its mouth, and at New Haven; and 
 within ten years after these first settlements we are told that 
 Senator Gear's ancestors took up their abode near Middle- 
 town. Connecticut was a wilderness then. The Indians were 
 hostile, the country was rugged and forbidding except along 
 the sparse but fertile intervale land. Nature, though beau- 
 tiful, was far from bountiful; but the spirit of manhood, lib- 
 ertj', independence, and worship was there, and in that spirit 
 those whose name Senator Gear bore wrestled with life and 
 helped to solve its most sacred and weighty problems. The 
 clear skj' above them, the beautiful river beside them, the 
 trees, and the begrudging soil alike were wrought into their 
 fiber and became a part of their life. 
 
 There is nothing more wonderful or mysterious in our pres- 
 ent life than the effect of ancestral influence upon it, and I 
 have often thought how little importance we give to environ- 
 ment in our estimate of this ancestral influence. We construct 
 our genealogical trees with interest and pride. We are proud 
 of our blood as if it were blood alone to which we are indebted, 
 often forgetting that ancestral character as transmitted to us 
 was built up little by little, slowly, steadily, but surely, by the 
 
22 Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 surrouudings amid which our ancestors wrought and fought 
 and died, so that as generation succeeded generation each took 
 on something which it derived from nature and the struggle 
 with nature. Life in Connecticut iu those early times devel- 
 oped character such as we who knew Senator Gear find that 
 he possessed. I may say of the dwellers there what the vSen- 
 ator from Massachusetts [Mr. Hoar] , in his address on the life 
 and character of Representative Ashley B. Wright, said of the 
 dwellers in Berkshire County; "They have ever been a patri- 
 otic, religious people, lovers of country, lovers of home, of 
 simple manners, of .strong sense, open-hearted, generous, hos- 
 pitable, brave." Such the ancestors of Senator Gear must 
 have been; such he was, and no higher tribute can be paid to 
 the man than in such truthful description of his character. 
 HeniCy Ward Beecher, in speaking of the New England farm- 
 ers, most truly said: "They made the farms, and the farms 
 made the men." And the manhood thus acquired was, two 
 hundred years afterwards, represented in and characterized 
 Senator Gear. 
 
 Mr. President, Connecticut is small in area, rugged in fea- 
 ture, limited in natural resources, but she has contributed 
 through those who have gone forth from her, ever seeking 
 the westward frontier, her full share toward the development 
 and upbuilding of this great country. From her early settle- 
 ment to the present time she has been sending out her children 
 into fields of new opportunity, until now the influence of Con- 
 necticut life is felt, and I hope appreciated, in every State even 
 to the .shores of the Pacific. In the.se new States, conspicu- 
 ous by their attainments in science, in jurisprudence, in learn- 
 ing, in religion, and in business affairs, her children may be 
 counted by thousands and ten thousands, and while she is 
 justly proud of her early founders and their heroic lives, she 
 
Address of Mr. Piatt, of Connecticut. 23 
 
 is equally proud of their descendants scattered throughout the 
 whole land, of their lives, and their work. Connecticut has 
 good reason to claim' the sad privilege of joining with Iowa 
 in mourning for her dead Senator. 
 
 The Senate of the United States is most truly a representa- 
 tive body, no less so in any respect than the House of Rep- 
 resentatives. All types of our people find their representatives 
 here, and it is well that it is so. Men of commanding intel- 
 lect, genius, eloquence, and "brilliancy are both needed and 
 found in these Senatorial seats, but other men equally repre- 
 senting the people, and equally useful, who do not attract 
 popular enthusiasm by reason of an>- unusual or striking gifts, 
 are quite as much needed here — men of strong good sense, men 
 of affairs, of great industr}', and unswerving devotion to the 
 principles and the interests of the Republic; men whose gen- 
 eral characteristics can best Ije described by three grand 
 words — sturdy, faithful, and true. Senator Gear was such a 
 man. Sometimes I think I would rather it should be written 
 ou my tombstone, "He was sturdy, faithful, and true," than 
 to have it written, "He was eloquent, learned, and great." 
 
 The work which such men as Senator Gear perform in the 
 Senate may not be heralded by the press, may not dazzle the 
 imaginative mind of the young, maj- not win the shouts and 
 cheers of the multitude, but it is nevertheless woven iuto the 
 history of our country and becomes a part of its fame and 
 glory. 
 
 There was no more diligent man than Senator Gear. His 
 diligence both in private and public life was proverbial and 
 won for him the confidence and support of the people of Iowa. 
 How truly the biblical pro\-erb may be quoted as applicable: 
 ' ' Seest thou a man diligent in his business ? he shall stand 
 before kings; he shall not stand before mean men." He 
 
24 Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 comprehended fully the business needs of the country' and 
 sought successfully to promote them; and though his abilities 
 found in this sphere their most natural development, he was at 
 the same time always on the right side of great questions and 
 acted upon them with rare understanding and conspicuous 
 sagacity. His work here is done. Let no man say, because 
 he did not apparentl}- .seek the plaudits of his fellow-vSenators, 
 that his work was not as useful as that of those who have 
 dazzled us by their greater brillianc}-. 
 
 I have spoken of him as faithful, as well as sturdj' and true. 
 How faithful he was those of us who saw and watched him 
 during the last .session of the Senate which he attended, and 
 who feared that he was standing and working in the .shadow 
 of death, can well understand. We recall how, day by day, in 
 failing health and growing weakness, he nevertheless came to 
 his seat and his duties. We felt with sadness that the unwel- 
 come messenger was seeking him, but we appreciated with 
 admiration the faithfulness with which he held to his work. 
 We respected him, we admired him, we loved him; and I am 
 glad to-da}' that it is my privilege to testify- to that respect, 
 admiration, and love. 
 
Address of Mr. Cockrell. of Missouri. 25 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. COCKRELL, OF MISSOURI. 
 Mr. President: It is appropriate for the Senate to la}- aside 
 its usual legislative labors and duties to-day in order to pay the 
 last tribute of respect, friendship, and honor to the memon,- and 
 distinguished character of Hon. John H. G^ar, a Senator 
 from the State of Iowa in this body from March 4, 1895, to the 
 day of his death, on July 14, 1900, in his seventy-sixth year. 
 His father, Rev. Ezekiel Gilbert Gear, was a minister of the 
 Episcopal Church and of English descent. Senator Gear was 
 born in Ithaca, N. Y., April 7, 1825. Soon after his birth his 
 mother died and he was taken b},- his grandmother, with whom 
 he remained till 1831. 
 
 Upon his father's remarriage he returned to his father's 
 family and removed with them to Galena, 111., in 1836, and 
 thence to Fort Snelling, Iowa Territory, I believe it was called, 
 in 1838, where his father, who had been appointed a chaplain 
 in the United States Army, was stationed. He received such 
 a common-school education as was then obtainable in the 
 places of his home. 
 
 On September 25, 1843, he left the paternal home and 
 entered upon his personal career by going to Burlington, Iowa, 
 where he worked for a short time on the farm of Judge Mason. 
 He then went to work for merchants in Burlington at the 
 agreed compensation of $50 per annum and board. Upon the 
 dissolution of the firm, in September, 1844, he went with one 
 member of the firm to Keosauqua, Iowa, to work for $8.33 per 
 month and board. In March, 1845, he returned to Burlington 
 and went into the store of W. F. Coolbaugh & Co. as a porter 
 and man of all work. In 1S49 he became a partner in the firm 
 
26 Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 iu conducting a general store, until the spring of 1S51, when 
 the firm confined its business to wholesale groceries, in which 
 he continued with various associates till September, 1879, when 
 he gave up the mercantile business. 
 
 In December, 1852, he was married to Miss Harriet Foote, 
 the 3'oungest daughter of Justus L,. and Harriet Foote. Of 
 this union four daughters were born, two of whom died in 
 infancy and two survived their worth}^ father. 
 
 In 1863 he was elected maj-or of the cit}- of Burlington, and 
 declined a nomination by acclamation for representative in the 
 Iowa general assembly. 
 
 In 1 87 1 he was nominated and elected a representative in the 
 fourteenth general as.sembly of Iowa, and in 1873 was renomi- 
 nated by acclamation and elected to the fifteenth general 
 assembly and was elected speaker of that general assembl}-. 
 In 1875 he was again renominated and elected to the sixteenth 
 general assembly and was reelected speaker, a marked distinc- 
 tion which no other representative ever achieved, except one. 
 In 1877, having discharged the duties of speaker of the general 
 assembly so successfully and satisfactorily, he was nominated 
 by his party for governor of his State, and was elected. He 
 discharged the duties of governor so satisfactorily that he was 
 renominated and reelected. 
 
 Retiring after two successive terms as governor with great 
 honor and credit, he engaged in mining and manufacturing 
 enterprises until 1886, when he was nominated by acclamation 
 as the Republican candidate for Representative in the Fiftieth 
 Congress, and was elected. 
 
 In 1 888 he was renominated and elected a Representative in 
 the Fifty-first Congress, was placed upon the Committee on 
 Ways and Means, and took a prominent part in the tariff dis- 
 cussions of that Congress. 
 
Address of Mr. CockrcU, of Missouri. 27 
 
 In 1890 he was again nominated by acclamation for Repre- 
 sentative in the Fifty-second Congress, and was defeated by 
 Hon. J. J. Seerly, whom he had defeated in 1888. 
 
 In 1892 he was again nominated for Representative in the 
 Fifty-third Congress, and was elected over Hon. J. J. Seerly. 
 In November, 1892, he was appointed by President Harrison 
 Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and served during the 
 remainder of his term. He then served as Representative 
 through the Fifty-third Congre.ss. 
 
 In January, 1894, he was elected by the general assembly of 
 Iowa a Senator in the Senate of the United States for the term 
 beginmng March 4, 1895- He ser^-ed his country, his State, 
 and constituents as United States Senator with such ability, 
 fideUty, and acceptabiUty that in 1900 he was again elected by 
 the general assembly of his State as his own successor in the 
 United States Senate for the term beginning March 4, 1901, 
 but died before the expiration of his first term. 
 
 At the time of his death he was chairman of the Committee 
 on Pacific Railroads, and a member of the Committees on Agri- 
 culture and Forestry, Education and Labor, Interstate Com- 
 merce, Post-Offices and Post-Roads, and Improvement of the 
 Mississippi River and its Tributaries. 
 
 He was a delegate at large from his State to the Republican 
 National Convention in 1892, at Minneapohs, which nominated 
 Hon. Benjamin Harrison for President, and also to the St. 
 Louis Republican Convention, in 1896, which nominated Hon. 
 William McKinley for President. 
 
 He stood high in the councils of his party; was an earnest, 
 consistent, and active Republican in his views and principles, 
 but not offensively partisan, conceding to others who held con- 
 trary views the same rights he claimed and exercised for him- 
 self.' In all the relations of life he was the .true gentleman, 
 
28 Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 kind, social, and pleasant. He was a true and reliable friend, 
 ever ready and willing to lend a helping hand, regardless of 
 politics. 
 
 His personal friends and admirers were not confined to his 
 political party, for all who knew him well esteemed and loved 
 him for his man}' manly and noble traits of character. His life 
 is a most remarkable one, and illustrates the achievements, the 
 honors, which are accessible to and obtainable by the laudabh- 
 ambitious young men of our great country under our beneficent 
 systems of government, State and national. With a limited 
 education and opportunities, at the age of i8 years he began 
 working in a store at $50 per 3' ear with board, and by improv- 
 ing every hour, by industry, economy, close attention to his 
 duties, whatever they were, and discharging them honestly 
 and acceptably, step by step he advanced, never retrograding, 
 and earning and receiving the respect and confidence of the 
 people in whose midst he labored. He became mayor of his 
 city, thrice a member of the general assembly of his State, 
 twice speaker, twice governor of his State. A Representative 
 in three Congresses, by popular election, was Assistant Secre- 
 tary of the Treasury, and twice elected to the Senate of the 
 United States, and twice sent as a delegate from his State at 
 large to the national conventions of his party. 
 
 His worthy and illustrious life may properly be pointed to as 
 an example of the achievements and honors obtainable by hon- 
 est, manly conduct, and devotion to duty in ever}- position, 
 however humble and obscure or high and honorable. 
 
 He has left behind him a ' ' good name better than precious 
 ointment," and a record of which his family, friends, and the 
 good people of his State may justly feel proud. 
 
Address of Mr. Nelson, of Minnesota. 29 
 
 Address of Mr. Nelson, of Minnesota. 
 
 Mr. President: I first became acquainted with Senator 
 Gear in 1887, when we were both members of the Fiftieth 
 Congress. From the very first instant of our acquaintance 
 we l)ecame attached to each other, and I found him a most 
 genial, considerate, kind, and helpful friend and associate, 
 always ready to lend a helping hand and to say a good word 
 for me. And I stood in need of his kindness in those days, 
 for I represented a large district of new country, requiring 
 much local legislation, for which, under the rigid rules of the 
 House, it was not always easy to obtain consideration. He 
 seemed to appreciate my difficulties more than many of my 
 associates, and he was always on hand to smooth over the 
 rough places and to help me out of a dilemma. Although 
 that was his first term, and though he was not a great 
 debater, yet from the very start he became an influential 
 member, whose good sense, sound judgment, and keen insight 
 were highly valued and appreciated by his associates. 
 
 His vast experience in public aftairs before he entered the 
 House of Representatives had better equipped him and made 
 him better- qualified for the important duties of a legislator 
 than most men who entered that bod>'. This was recognized 
 by all. He had been a member aud speaker of the hou.se of 
 representatives of his State legislature for several terms, and 
 had been for two terms one of the ablest and most efficient 
 governors of his State. He was known to all his associates 
 as "Governor" Gear, and the term "governor" was not, in 
 his case, used in a perfunctorj' or vain sense, but with all the 
 force and value that the term implies. His firmness and 
 
30 Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 rugged houesty and integrity were visible in his mien and 
 carriage, and were recognized and felt bj- all. When he sup- 
 ported a measure his support gave it credit, and doubts and 
 misgivings disappeared. 
 
 He was fair, just, and fearless in the performance of his 
 duties, and charitable and considerate to those who differed 
 with him. He had the happy faculty of softening and allay- 
 ing that acrimony that occasionally occurs in the House. 
 He was attentive and watchful throughout the sessions and 
 few things escaped his notice, and though not one of the 
 leaders of the House, yet he was one of the chief mainstays 
 of those who assumed to lead, and without whose assistance 
 their leadership would have been a failure. His advice and 
 opinion on all great questions were sought and valued by his 
 associates. Such, Mr. Pre.sident, were my impressions of him 
 while his colleague in the House. There was another bond, 
 too, which drew us to each other. He had been in his youth, 
 from 1838 fo 1843, a resident of Fort Snelling, in what is 
 now the State of Minnesota — then the Territory of Iowa — 
 and his father continued a resident of Fort Snelling and of 
 Minneapolis, Minn., from that time until his death, in 1873. 
 The fact that what is now Minnesota had been his boyhood 
 home and the home of his father for so many years made 
 him always take a deep interest in the State and its Repre- 
 sentatives. He often said to me, "I take almost as much 
 interest in Minnesota as I do in Iowa, my own vState." 
 
 When I parted with him at the close of the Fiftieth Con- 
 gress I little thought that we would again be associated in 
 the public service. But fate and kind constituencies brought 
 us in March, 1895, together again in this body, and here we 
 renewed our old friendship, and once more became brothers 
 in sympathy, fellowship, and labor. 
 
Address of Mr. Nelson, oj Minnesota. 31 
 
 His presence here at that time was an assurance to me, 
 and I felt that I still had my old staff to lean upon. In this 
 bod}- he became an acti\-e, industrious, and most useful mem- 
 ber, ever zealous in the performance of his duties, and ever 
 helpful in promoting the great work of the Senate. In this 
 body there are alwa3-s, more or less, a number of able 
 speakers and debaters, who render great ser\-ice to the 
 country and to their associates by elucidating, in their 
 speeches on the floor of the Senate, the intricate problems 
 involved in important measures of general legislation. But 
 such measures usually require much preliminary care, thought, 
 and preparation, both in committee and outside, before they 
 become subjects of formal debate; and the chief burden of 
 this preliminary work is, to a large extent, entailed upon 
 and assumed bj' the silent members — the members not prone 
 to much debate — of the Senate. There is also much impor- 
 tant legislation which is of a local or personal character, such 
 as pertains to claims, to river and harbor improvements, to 
 matters relating to Indian affairs, to public lands, and to 
 commerce and shipping. As a rule this class of legislation, 
 while not provoking much debate, generally requires a great 
 deal of care, study, and attention, and this usually devolves 
 upon the silent, but industrious, members of this bodj', to 
 whom the orators and debaters freely accord the task. 
 
 Then, too, it often happens that after the orator or debater 
 has made his speech he leaves the task of piloting the meas- 
 ure through to humbler coadjutors. The former has the glory 
 of debate, the latter the glory of passing the bill. The glory 
 of the former gives renown, while the glory of the latter is 
 often lost and unnoticed. In war the bugler sounds the 
 charge, but it is made and carried on to victory by a phalanx 
 of silent but determined men. So in the field of legislation. 
 
32 Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 The orator may sound the keynote, but the silent, thought- 
 ful, and painstaking members prepare, pilot, and pass the 
 measures. Senator Gear was typical, and one of the fore- 
 most members, of this class. His voice was not often heard 
 in debate, and yet he was most industrious and effective in 
 promoting general, special, and local legislation. He had 
 an effective and convincing way of arguing, not collectively, 
 but individually, with his a.ssociates, that made him one of 
 the strongest and most useful members of this body. His 
 judgment as to the merits and soundness of a measure was 
 valuable and well-nigh infalhble. With all his abihty and 
 vast experience, he was, nevertheless, as modest and unob- 
 trusive as though he had been an abecedarian, and this mod- 
 esty, coupled with his great intrinsic worth, endeared him 
 to all of us. 
 
 One of the greatest and most pronounced blessings of our 
 system of government is this: That there is an open door and 
 a free field for the humblest, in the most unfavorable environ- 
 ment, to ascend from the lowest level to the highest field of 
 usefulness and .success. The humblest youth, with a vigorous 
 mind, a .stout heart, and a clear conscience, may with confi- 
 dence aspire to the front rank in the business or political world. 
 But while such opportunities are placed within the reach of all, 
 it is only the industrious, the energetic, and the persevering 
 who succeed. The spirit of democracy is exacting and has no 
 patience with mere wealth or ancestry. Borrowed plumage is 
 of no value. Merit, real, genuine, and intrinsic merit, alone 
 prevails. And hence we are always safe in assuming that the 
 successful man has earned, merited, and deserved the promo- 
 tion and rank to which he has attained; that he has not been 
 born to it, but has grown to it through his energy and ability. 
 This fact is fuUv illustrated and clearlv verified in the case of 
 
Address of Mr. Nelson, of Minnesota. 33 
 
 Senator Gear. He began his mercantile career without means, 
 as a porter and man of all work, at nominal wages, in a store of 
 which, in the course of a few years, he became one of the pro- 
 prietors and managers. In this field he exhibited rare talents 
 of a superior order, and became one of the most prosperous and 
 successful of merchants in an enterprising and growing city of 
 
 his State. 
 
 His marked ability and energy in this field .soon attracted 
 the attention of his fellow-townsmen. They felt the need of 
 such a man in the public service. They first elected him alder- 
 man of the city council, then mayor, and after that they repeat- 
 edly sent him as their representative to the legislature. The 
 legislature soon discovered his worth and chose him their 
 speaker. As a legislator and a presiding officer he demon- 
 strated to the people of the entire State his sound judgment, 
 great wisdom, and rare executive ability. The whole State 
 Seeded the service and appreciated the talents of just such a 
 man, and hence it came to pass that the people of Iowa twice 
 placed him in the chair as their chief executive. And in this 
 high position he made a record for himself and his State of 
 which he and his people had good reason to be proud. His 
 fame as governor extended beyond the bounds of his own 
 State. I had heard of Governor Gear and his rvigged integ- 
 rity and rare executive ability long before I met him in the 
 House of Representatives. The culmination of his public 
 career was his election to the United States Senate in 1894. 
 He came here mature in years, mature in experience and wis- 
 dom, and well qualified to take an active part in the serious 
 and exacting work of the Senate, and eminently fitted to cope 
 with able associates in the varied and perplexing intricacies of 
 the legislation of a great nation. 
 
 The career of Senator Gear in the public service is a 
 
 S. Doc. 236 3 
 
34 L-ife and CJiarackr of John Hcnrv Gear. 
 
 record which the most brilHaiit of men could well be proud 
 of and rejoice in. But he was not a brilliant man in the 
 common acceptation of the term, and therefore his great 
 success as a public servant was all the more remarkable, 
 all the more creditable, and all the more worthy of com- 
 mendation. It demonstrated that he was possessed of a la- 
 tent force and energy equal to the greatest task, and that 
 as a man of action he was. equal to the most brilliant and 
 cstentatious of men. The man of deeds inspires, stimulates, 
 and guides his country quite as often and quite as much 
 as the man of words. That humble member of Parliament, 
 that serious and sincere man of few words, Oliver Crom- 
 well, was a greater man in all the substantial attributes of 
 greatness, and rendered greater services to his countrj-, both 
 at home and abroad, than that brilliant orator and word 
 painter, Edmund Burke; and the men who emptied the 
 chests of tea in Boston Harbor rendered as great a ser\-ice 
 to the cause of independence as Patrick Henry. In this 
 age of electricity, steam, and daily newspapers, and in a 
 government such as ours, where the sentiment of the masses, 
 rather than of the individual, however prominent, is con- 
 trolling, the brilliant man of words ma\- have many hearers, 
 but is apt to have less followers than the determined man 
 of action, who duly responds to the just demands of the 
 public. This fact was palpable in the ca.se of Senator Gear. 
 In public confidence and in public esteem he outran iii his 
 day man}' a man who seemed more brilliant and was more 
 eloquent. And this proves that the public demand for such 
 servants will not abate, and that the}' will always be needed 
 and will alwa^'s have a great sphere of work and useful- 
 ness that none can better fill. 
 
 The American people are possessed of a higher average of 
 
Address of Mr. N'elson. of Minnesota. 35 
 
 culture aud intelligence than any other nation, and hence 
 the trend of their progress and development is steady, pru- 
 dent, and conservative, and no room is found for the vision- 
 ary or Utopian, however brilliant and alluring it may be. 
 They choose their own leaders not so much from those 
 who want to lead or tower above them as from those who 
 are near their own level in purpose, spirit, and inspiration. 
 Practical usefulness, coupled with scrupulous integrity, is 
 what the}- look for and desire in their public .servants; in 
 other words, the\- want abo\-e all things a safe man rather 
 than an emotional and wordy man. Such a man is always 
 in touch with an American constituency; such a man is 
 always their true exponent; such a man they always have 
 use for, and .such a man was, emphatically, Senator Gear. 
 And it was because of this fact, as well as on account of 
 his energy, ability, and integrity, that his life in its entirety 
 was a great .success and proved an exalted example for our 
 American youth to emulate and follow. 
 
 When he first .settled in Burlington, Iowa was a mere 
 Territorj' on the outer verge of the great West. Since that 
 day it has grown into one of the great States of the Union. 
 In tho.se Territorial days he began life as an humble chore 
 boy in a frontier store, but he kept pace with the growth 
 and development of his State, and when he died he was 
 one of the chief political pillars of that great Commonwealth, 
 leaving a legacy not of accumulative riches, but the legacy of 
 a long and useful life in the public service. 
 
 We live in an age of mammon, in the midst of a restless 
 struggle for wealth, but how delusive it often is. Look at the 
 career of the youth who embarks in a struggle for the almighty 
 dollar. His whole life, his whole aim. is to accumulate 
 wealth — it becomes his second nature. His .spirit pines for 
 
36 Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 nothing else year in and year out, and finally he exhausts him- 
 self in the effort, succumbs, and dies, bequeathing his millions 
 to children or other heirs who scarcely thank him for it, and 
 who oftentimes are wholly unfit to make proper use of such a 
 legacy. Our public press and our orators may laud such a man, 
 but in spite of all this such a life is nothing but the vanity of 
 all vanities, barren to him who leads it, barren to his kin, and 
 barren to our common humanity. In comparison with the life 
 of such a man, how noble, grand, and inspiring is the life and 
 career of such a man as Senator Gear. Such a man is missed, 
 such a man is blessed, and the example of such a man is an 
 inspiration to all who seek to become useful and a help to 
 their age, their country, and to humanity. Dives is a dwarf 
 in comparison with such a man. This is the immutable law of 
 everlasting truth and justice, now and for all time to come. 
 Let all of us take this gospel to heart; it will assuage our grief 
 and give tis renewed hope for the future. 
 
 Dear departed friend, we have been associates in two great 
 forums on this side of the gra\-e. May we again become asso- 
 ciates in that higher and better forum, where our presiding 
 Chief will be that great Fountain of Mercy, Truth, and Light, 
 under whose benign mercy and goodness we hope to find a final 
 haven of rest. 
 
Address of Mr. Spooiter, of lVisconsi?i. 37 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. SPOONER, OF WISCONSIN. 
 Mr. President: I am compelled to speak only unstudied 
 words in tribute to the memory of our late colleague, Senator 
 Gear. I shall always esteem it a fortunate circumstance in 
 my life that I was permitted to enjoy his personal friendship. 
 Few men less need the testimony of those who survive them to 
 establish the possession of great qualities than did Senator 
 Gear. He proved the possession of such qualities beyond pos- 
 sibility of challenge by the life which he lived and by the great 
 career which he wrought out. It is impossible that one could 
 have such a career in the public service, extending over thirty 
 years, beginning in the humblest position and rising higher 
 and higher to a seat in this body, to which, all things consid- 
 ered, no other position is comparable, without great ability, 
 integrity, sound judgment, and the utmost fidelity to duty in 
 large things and in small. All these Senator Gear had. 
 
 He belonged to a class of men rapidly disappearing. He 
 was one of the pioneer statesmen of the country. His youth 
 and early manhood were spent upon the border. It was a rough 
 school, but it was a great school. It was an environment of 
 danger and hardship. It demanded a clear eye, steady nerve, 
 prompt decision, and sometimes a quick and accurate use of the 
 rifle. In it the youth of inherent manline.ss and strength of 
 moral character developed physically, mentally, and morally 
 into a strong-fibered, alert, rugged, and intrepid mau. The 
 class of public men of which he was a fair type has contributed 
 immeasurably to the ser^•ice of the country and to its imperish- 
 able renown. 
 
 The frontier has passed away, and the frontier statesman is 
 
38 Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 passing awaj-. We will, of course, have strong- fibered, able, 
 faithful men for the public service of the future, but they will 
 differ somehow from the men of whom I speak, for the environ- 
 ment in which they were educated and out of which they came 
 can not come again. 
 
 It is doubtless true that Senator Gear was an ambitious 
 man. Most men who are born leaders of men, as he was, are 
 ambitious men. To say that of him is only to say that he was a 
 natural man. Were it not for the ambition which is implanted 
 in us, and which inspires us to look upward, and to work 
 upward, the world would not move much in any department of 
 human effort. It is fortunate for the country that his ambition 
 led him to serve the public in an executive and legislative way 
 rather than to the acqtiisition of wealth. Bacon said, and it is 
 quite true, that — 
 
 Hen ill great places are thrice servants— servants of the sovereign or 
 State, servants of fame, and servants of business; so as they have no 
 freedom, neither in their persons nor in their actions nor in their time. 
 It is a strange desire to seek power over others and to lose power over a 
 man's self. 
 
 It may and does sometimes seem strange indeed, but it is 
 none the less natural, as many other things which seem strange 
 are natural, and it is fortunate that honest-minded men are 
 found with ambition to enter the public service, in which there 
 is so much of burden, of personal sacrifice, and so little of 
 reward, except in the consciousness of duty well performed and 
 in the respect of a constituency well served. Herein was the 
 inspiration, it seems to nie, of our late colleague. 
 
 He was essentially a loyal man in every waj-. He was firm in 
 his friendships. No person once admitted to his friendship e\-er 
 lost it without just cause. In the great Commonwealth which he 
 helped to found he took great pride, and to her he gave loyalty 
 without stint. He was loyal to his party and to his countr}-. 
 
Address of Mr. Spooner, of Wisconsin. 39. 
 
 His patriotism was a passion. His mind was strong and his 
 mental vision broad. His grasp upon the subjects with which he 
 had to deal was comprehensive and, while not an orator, he was 
 an effective speaker, in the House of Representatives, in the Sen- 
 ate, and on the hustings. He thought clearl}', and he had the 
 courage of his convictions. He sought earnestly the right solu- 
 tion of every problem, the sound side of every question, and his 
 conclusion he was willing to abide by. He had the courage to 
 say what he thought and the ability to find apt words in which 
 easily and plainly to convey his thought to others. 
 
 He loved popularity, but he found it easy to with.stand popular 
 clamor, hastily aroused, and to act as he thought best, confidently 
 leaving his justification to the calmer and maturer judgment of 
 his constituency. His methods were direct and manly. He left 
 no opportunity for speculation as to his position. He was frank 
 jnd open. Simple in his habits, it was quite impossible for him 
 to indulge in affectation. 
 
 Whatever change came in his fortunes, or whatever advance- 
 ment in life, it wrought no discoverable change in him or in his 
 manner. As much as any man I have ever known, he was with- 
 out moods— the same at one time as he was at another— genial, 
 kindly, and approachable. Along the whole pathway of his life, 
 Mr. President, he bore a sympathetic heart and a hand always 
 helpful, and bestowed benefactions and kindnesses, sometimes 
 in a lavish way, to all who had claim upon him and to very many 
 who had none. 
 
 It is in harmon\- with the better side of our human nature that 
 as a rule kind words only are spoken of the dead. Sometimes, 
 Mr. President, they are perfunctory. I have not at any time seen 
 in the tributes paid to a public man upon his death any more 
 obviously sincere and earnest and tender than the expressions 
 upon the death of Senator Ge.\R by the press of Iowa and among 
 
40 Life aiid Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 the people of that State. There is no false note in any one of 
 them. 
 
 There is a tendency in some States of the Union, notably, 
 perhaps, in some of the Western States, among young men 
 who are interested in political affairs, to become somewhat 
 restive and discontented over the long abiding of one man in 
 high public po.sition. It seems not to be so in Iowa. The 
 young men of that Commonwealth, in every contest which 
 came into the life of Senator Ge.\R, as a rule were found 
 around his standard, and in the contest over his last election 
 to the Senate, although his competitor was yoiuig, brilliant, 
 and genial, the young men of Iowa by the hundreds, I have 
 been told, rallied to the support of the old statesman whom 
 through the years they had learned to love and believe in. 
 This condition in Iowa is in itself a high tribute to Senator 
 Ge.\R and to his qualities, as it is to the distingui.shed Sen-* 
 ator from that State [Mr. Allison] who has just spoken so 
 tenderly, .so beautifully, and so adequately of his departed col- 
 league and friend. 
 
 The last months of Senator Gear's service here were at once 
 pathetic and characteristic. Not one of us will soon forget 
 how, obviously already stricken, he came day after day, some- 
 times with tottering step, Mr. President, to his accustomed 
 place in this Chamber, and that there came with him the 
 devoted wife, who through .so many years had been at his side, 
 his helpmeet and his friend, to take her place in the gallery 
 yonder and to watch him as he sat here or moved about the 
 Chamber in discharge of Senatorial duty, anxious lest he 
 overtax his failing strength. And during those months how 
 faithful he was, not onlj- in discharge of duty here in every 
 detail, but likewise in performing in the Departments that 
 toilsome function inseparable from this position. He was to 
 
Address of Mr. Spooner, of Wisconsin. 41 
 
 the last, as he had been all his life, in all things, trivial and 
 important, faithful. He could not be otherwise, Mr. President, 
 and no higher tribute can be paid to a public ser\'ant. 
 
 His character was in one of the resolutions adopted in Iowa 
 upon his death well de.scribed thus: 
 
 Here was a great nature, a strong and healthy mind and body, in 
 whose blood there was no rebellious envy or uncharitableness or ill will, 
 who believed in his fellow-men and sought to serve them, and who, as 
 he in large measure loved and served his fellow-men, found love and 
 service measured to him again. 
 
 It seemed to some of us for some time before he died that 
 the heavy hand of death was upon him. Whether he realized 
 that for him the little boat was waiting on the river near by, it 
 is not for us to know. Had he known the appointed moment 
 he would have performed the duty of each day, calmly look- 
 ing forward to its approach. He was in that sense a "minute 
 man," ready for any crisis when it should come. The even- 
 ing before he died he made an appointment to go at a fixed 
 hour the following morning with a con.stituent to one of the 
 Departments, there to render him a service. Before the hour 
 arrived the summons came which comes to all, and — 
 
 He gave his honors to the world again. 
 
 His blessed part to Heaven — and slept in peace. 
 
42 Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 ADDRESS OF Mr. Morgan, of Alabama. 
 
 Mr. President: In the life of Senator John H. Gear the 
 vSenate of the United States has one of its truest memorials 
 and strongest proofs that it is a body of indispensable neces- 
 sity to a government that is republican in form — which means 
 a government that is representative of the people. 
 
 The threads of life that are woven into his history are 
 attached, in his personal experiences, to the rock bottom of 
 American pioneer life, and have grown longer and stronger 
 as the years advanced, until the}- reached the highest point 
 of American aspiration without the breaking of a strand. 
 
 Mr. Gear cut loose from nothing in the past to reach that 
 something for the future that so often tempts men of genius 
 to quit solid foundations for flights into the imaginative zones 
 of ambition that are resplendent with the enticing beauties of 
 ' ' castles in the air. ' ' 
 
 He never forgot his youth in the dreams of advanced age. 
 He was in heart and soul the representative of the people — 
 the masses, as thej' are called by political economists — in 
 their personal rights and liberties, their homes, however 
 humble, their vocations and their troubles, when he became 
 the representative in the Senate of the sovereign State of 
 Iowa, as truly as he represented and cared for them when he 
 was an alderman of the .second ward of Burlington. 
 
 In the offices he held, of alderman, representative in the 
 general assembly of Iowa, speaker of the house of representa- 
 tives of that body, governor of Iowa, Representative in 
 Congress, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and a Senator 
 of the United States, and in the contests for election through 
 
Address of Mr. Morgan, of Alabama. 43 
 
 which he passed, every straud aud fiber of his life was tried 
 and tested in the crucible of public opinion, and they were 
 found to be good and steadfast. During all that long public 
 trial he was not known as a great man and did not seek for 
 such renown. 
 
 He was known as a true man and faithful, a man of toil- 
 .some diligence, a workman approved of his master — the 
 people — and of courageous faith and inflexible adherence to 
 his convictions. 
 
 He was a rugged man, who had need of all his strength 
 and fortitude to make his way from the bottom to the top of 
 the ladder, for he met strong resi.stance at every step and was 
 often checked by defeat. 
 
 It was his courage and his honest devotion to the people 
 that enabled him to retrieve his defeats and to continue the 
 course of duty, which, as it developed into higher demands 
 upon his energies and abilities, found him prepared, and 
 was followed as his guide to higher stations in his journey. 
 
 The performance of duty was his highest ambition, and 
 he neither sought nor found any rewards that he did not 
 earn. There is no glitter in the volume of his long .service 
 to attract the admiration of the passing observer, but there 
 is a repose in the strength and solidity of the structure he 
 built with his own hands, neither letters or the arts or the 
 sciences assisting him, that attracts the thoughtful American 
 to the great truth that in honest adherence to correct prin- 
 ciples and faithful service in our temple of liberties the door- 
 keeper is a greater man than the king who dwells in royal 
 palaces built by the hands of his servants. 
 
 The Senate of the United States as a body endowed with 
 great and singular powers, the political center of the national 
 powers of 45 sovereign States aud of 76,000,000 of free and 
 
44 Life aiid Charade} of John Henry Gear. 
 
 self-governing people, has no peer in its powers and influ- 
 ence elsewhere among the nations, ancient or modern. In 
 this tribunal the States are represented by Senators who are 
 chosen b>' the legislatures as the true representatives of the 
 character of their people. Recently, since I have been a mem- 
 ber of this body, and shortly before that date, a number of 
 new States have been admitted to the Ihiion from the great 
 Territories of the Northwest. 
 
 The Senators wlio come here to represent these new States 
 have constituencies scattered thinh- o\-er vast areas, with re- 
 sources of great variety and rich abundance just in the begin- 
 ning of development. 
 
 The}^ are pioneer peoples, and their Senators are, many of 
 them, pioneers in new fields of statecraft and political eco- 
 nomics; but they are strong, sturdy, brave, and skilled in leader- 
 ship, and the}' explore these new fields of legislation as they 
 travel the shoreless plains of the West and its great mountain 
 ranges in ease and security, relying upon their instinctive 
 knowledge of courses and distances for their guidance rather 
 than upon the charts prepared by others. In that strength 
 of self-confidence they thread the labyrinths of legislative pro- 
 cedure without ever missing the point to which their course 
 is directed. I ha\-e an earnest admiration of those pioneer Sen- 
 ators and of the sj'stem that welcomes and relies upon their 
 wisdom in the guidance of the Republic. 
 
 In the Senate there are not a few able men who were 
 educated in the wilds of America, where schools were not and 
 churches were scarce, and education was confined to lessons of 
 experience, and mental growth came from self-training. 
 
 Honor, duty, obedience to law, justice, and charity were 
 taught in fireside lessons and received with filial reverence by 
 these men, and were carried out on the journeys of life as the 
 
Address of Mr. Morgan, of Alaba^na. 45 
 
 preparation with which the feet of the righteous are shod. 
 Thus fortified, they do not falter, whatever the length or the 
 hardships of the journey. 
 
 There is a place here of great importance for these pioneer 
 Senators, and when any of them withdraw it is not certain 
 that their places can be safely filled with others of more mod- 
 ern training in the schools. 
 
 When any of them retire they carry with them the sincere 
 regard of the Senate. Those men who are actual pioneers, 
 born and raised on the borders of civilization, and others who 
 received their education from sailors before the mast, and yet 
 others whose boyhood was .spent in hard labor in the fields 
 and in the workshops, have brought wisdom to these councils, 
 and strength of truth to our support, and the invaluable bene- 
 fit of common sense to the direction of the Senate. Whether 
 they ascend or descend to the atmosphere of the great scholars 
 of the Senate — bred in our universities — these men are a neces- 
 sary element in the strength of the Senate, and bring to it 
 that greatest of all its influence, the confidence of the people. 
 Perhaps no man ever held a commission in this body who was 
 a more complete embodiment ot this pioneer character than the 
 late Senator from Iowa. 
 
 He had no time in his childhood to receive more than the 
 simplest form of country school education, yet he was a man of 
 learning in many important respects. 
 
 His father was a minister of the gospel and taught him the 
 truths of the divine revelations, and the morality that is en- 
 shrined in that holy faith. This was a noble opportunity for 
 his son, but it also required dihgent toil of its votaries to 
 provide daily bread. 
 
 In the simple annals of that family one of its proudest 
 achievements was the employment of the son, John Henry, as 
 
46 Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 a clerk in the store of the Bridgmau Brothers, at the com- 
 pensation of $50 a year, with board. 
 
 The mother had been called to her great reward and was 
 not present at the home of this \"icar of Wakefield in the 
 wilderness to bless this first great promotion of her boy; but 
 she has watched his progress from happier eminences, and 
 has witnessed the growth of the plant that was watered with 
 her tears and consecrated with her prayers while it was still 
 an infant nestling upon her bosom when she died. I believe 
 in the prayers of a righteous mother. 
 
 As he grew from strength to strength and rose by slow and 
 toilsome steps in his silent progress toward a very high des- 
 tiny some power attended him that impressed him with a keen 
 sense of duty and a knowledge of his intiinsic worth and 
 power upon his associates, who began early in his life to 
 assign him to lines of public duty as their repre.sentative. 
 
 In this character, both in the State and Federal tribunals, 
 Mr. Gear established his just right to their confidence. 
 Those who are educated and trained politicians may not com- 
 prehend this force of character and devotion to duty that 
 wins its wa}- to the hearts of the people, but in a free coun- 
 try and in the .suffrages of a virtuous people it is character 
 that commands confidence. 
 
 IMr. Gear had few of the gifts and arts of .speaking to 
 mas.ses of people, or in legislative assembhes, that attract atten- 
 tion by captivating periods, yet he had marked success in 
 advocating measures that he favored and opposing such as he 
 disapproved. His work on the legislation of the country is 
 distinctly written, and is an honorable testimonial to his abili- 
 ties as a statesman. 
 
 To one who knew him only as an acquaintance he was a 
 man of severe and reserved demeanor, but a nearer approach 
 
Address of Mr. Morgan, of Alabama. 47 
 
 to him in social and official life brought out the traits of a 
 generous, sensitive, and cordial nature. 
 
 His friends grew in number and depth of attachment as his 
 j-ears advanced, and none turned away from him to become his 
 enemies. This alone is a record worthy of a life of hard serv- 
 ice, and is the richest reward that any man can earn. It is 
 the judgment of his contemporaries upon his whole life, not 
 always tempered with the mere}- of divine compassion or the 
 impartialit}- of divine justice, and it is a tribute of respect 
 that lasts through long periods to gratifj- posterity. 
 
 Mr. Gear left this bequest to his family, his friends, and 
 his country. In response to his honorable labors for his coun- 
 try, the Senate and the people express for his memory their 
 respect, gratitude, and affection. 
 
 The Senate, if it deals justly with the dead, sits in judgment 
 on their official histor}^ when their obsequies are celebrated. 
 
 In that court character is the final test. It is the just man 
 that survives the' ordeal. 
 
 Daniel was a great ruling power in all departments of the 
 Hebraic government, but his administration was impeached 
 and he was called to trial for alleged delinquencies. Even his 
 fine character did not shield him from investigation, nor did 
 he plead it as a protection; but it made his triumph an eter- 
 nal record that will not fade while Holy Writ is the guide, 
 instructor, hope, and comforter of mankind. ' ' The presidents 
 and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning 
 the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; 
 forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error." 
 And this is the judgment of the Senate upon the public life of 
 Senator John Henrv Gear. 
 
 Faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, and godli- 
 ness are the elements that combine in the highest human 
 
48 Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 character, aud they are the sure moral supports of the character 
 of the Senate. 
 
 If one column can not support the great dome of the tem- 
 ple, yet there are many, each bearing its burden, and all are 
 entitled to equal honors who are equally faithful. Senator 
 Gear bore his part of this mighty burden along with many 
 who have not sought places in the friezes and panels of fame 
 that decorate this temple, but the records of the Senate will 
 always show forth his faithful work aud crown his memory 
 with honor. 
 
Address of Mr.'Burrouis, of Michigan. 49 
 
 Address of Mr. Burrows, of Michigan, 
 
 Mr. President: A somewhat extended service in the House 
 of Representatives with the Hon. John H. Gear, of Iowa, and 
 the opportunity thus afforded by daily contact to learn .some- 
 thing of his excellent qualities of head and heart, is sufficient 
 apology, it excuse were needed, for a word from me touching 
 the life and character of my friend, vSenator Gk.\k. 
 
 One can not be associated with another in a legislative body 
 for any considerable length of time, with its inevitable conflicts 
 and antagonisms, without forming .something of an estimate of 
 his temper and dominant characteristics. Senator Gear came 
 to tlie House of Representatives not an untried or unknown 
 man. He had filled many offices of honor and responsibility 
 in his State, and had a reputation extending beyond its con- 
 fines. Mayor of his adopted city, member of the legislature 
 and .speaker of the house, twice elected governor of the Com- 
 monwealth, he seemed to have such a hold on the confidence 
 and affection of his people that there was no honor within their 
 gift they were not ready and willing to confer. 
 
 Having reached the summit of State official life, it was but 
 natural that his people, appreciating his sterling qualities, 
 should confer upon him the higher honor of a membership in 
 the great American House of Commons. He was of the people, 
 and the people demanded his services in the popular branch 
 of Congress. He entered the House of Representatives and 
 became a member of that great forum in the full maturity 
 and vigor of his intellectual powers, and at once took a com- 
 manding position in the deliberations of that body — not as 
 a ready and forceful debater, for he was not that — but in the 
 S. Doc. 236 4 
 
50 Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 councils of his party associates and in the deliberations of the 
 committee room, where really all legislation is carried on and 
 perfected. His excellent judgment, his wise guidance and 
 patriotic impulses easily won for him a commanding position 
 in the confidence and esteem of his associates, a position he 
 continued to hold during his prolonged service in that body. 
 
 In the real work of legislation he was a recognized power. 
 Committee assignments in the House of Representatives are 
 determined not so nuich by length of .ser\-ice in that body as 
 by fitness and adaptability to the work in hand. Senator 
 Gear's business career had been .such as to bring him in touch 
 and familiarize him with the great industrial life of the people 
 in all its varied ramifications and mar\-elous developments, and 
 it was but natural and fitting, therefore, that he should be 
 assigned to the great business committee of the Hou.se, the 
 Committee on Ways and Means. He was specially fitted by 
 education and training for this field of labor, and was, there- 
 fore, by common consent assigned to its difficult and arduous 
 duties. He became a member of that committee at a time 
 when it was charged with the grave and responsible duty of 
 formulating the tariff measure of 1890, at the head of which 
 committee was the present Chief Executive of the nation, whose 
 illustrious name that measure bears. 
 
 It is not too much to say, and I detract nothing from the 
 just meed of praise due to others, that no member of that com- 
 mittee, barring its then learned head, contributed more to the 
 result obtained than did Mr. Gear. He brought to the con- 
 sultations of the committee room not the philosophy of the 
 schools or the dreams of the mere theorist, but rather the 
 practical experience of a business life, of infinitely more value 
 than all the .speculations of the political economist. He 
 seemed to possess upon almost everj' subject connected with 
 
Address of Mr. Biirrows, of Michigan. 51 
 
 that legislation an inexhaustible fund of information and a 
 knowledge of its infinite details, gathered from the practical 
 experiences in life, which ser\'ed at all times to illumine the 
 subject and light the wa>- to wise and safe conclusions. If 
 there was nothing else in his public life to commend his mem- 
 ory to the regard and keeping of his fellow-citizens, his labors 
 on the committee in connection with this great measure 
 would be sufiScient to commend it to enduring regard. 
 
 Unfortunately, he was not long a member of the Senate, but 
 long enough, I am sure, to gain the confidence and respect of 
 the membership of this body and make his departure a sincere 
 sorrow. He was a wise and safe counselor, an intelligent and 
 painstaking legislator, a patriotic citizen, and last, though not 
 least, a sincere friend. His life work seemed, however, to be 
 complete. He lived beyond the allotted span of human exist- 
 ence, and left an impress of his work on the statutes of his 
 countr}' which, in its beneficent influence, will be as enduring 
 as the Republic itself. 
 
Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 ■ Address of Mr. Mason, of Illinois. 
 
 Mr. President: I first heard of Governor Gear when I was 
 a boy, and I knew him when he was a member of the Iowa 
 legislature, speaker of the house of representatives. At that 
 time I was employed as committee clerk and .stenographer in 
 the old capitol. Afterwards I .served witli him in the House of 
 Representatives in the Fiftieth and Fift>-first Congresses. Van 
 Buren County, Iowa, which was a part of his Congressional 
 district, was my old home, where I had been reared, and, 
 knowing so many of his friends and constituents, we were fre- 
 quently thrown together and talked over old affairs at the old 
 home in tho.se tw^o memorable Congresses, the Fiftieth and the 
 Fifty-finst. 
 
 It was on the Ways and Means Connnittee, of which the Sen- 
 ator from Michigan [Mr. Burrows] has just .spoken, where he 
 had abundant opportunity to show his great and tirele.ss energy. 
 My recollection is that he was not on the Ways and Means Com- 
 mittee in the Fiftieth Congress, but was active in opposition to 
 what was known as the Mills bill, or the revenue measure which 
 took the name of the afterwards di.stinguished Senator from 
 Texas, Mr. Mills. After that he went upon the committee, as 
 I rememter it. In the Fifty-finst Congress it became necessary 
 to formulate what was known as the tariff act of 1890. 
 
 If I .should be asked to-day by any colleague what, in my 
 opinion, were his strong points of character, I should .say his 
 sterling and robust honesty and his never-failing industry. 
 Add to this great kindness of heart, considerate attention to the 
 wants of others, and there is no wonder why we in the Senate 
 to-day miss him and why we mourn liini. Many times and (^ft 
 
Address of Mr. Mason, of Illinois. 53 
 
 have I seen men approach him, in manj- cases in anxiety and 
 distress, and tell their story. I never knew men or women so ' 
 poor or so unimportant in the affairs of life as not to receive his 
 careful and kindly attention. I knew him thirty years, a part 
 of the time intimately, and I never knew him to speak unkindly 
 of anyone. 
 
 Senator Gear despised mean and small things, .small gossip. 
 He sat in judgment on no man. He was a good citizen, a good 
 Senator, a devoted lover of his family and his home, and a great 
 worker. I remember in the old days in the House, when his 
 mail was perhaps the largest of any that came. He was a good 
 worker, yet fond of social conversation and chats. He was 
 serious in business affairs, but yet a merry twinkle at times in 
 his eye showed a keen appreciation of a good storj-. I think 
 it was he who told me first the glory of a grandchild. He said 
 that in the glorj* of the grandchild one has all the joy and the 
 fun and none of the responsibility. 
 
 I happened to be in Alaska at the time of the Senator's 
 death. I did not hear of it for some weeks. I had just come 
 down from White Pass and boarded the steamer at Skagvva)' 
 when I met a gentleman who had arrived there that day and 
 told me the news of his death. I .sat on the deck a long time, 
 and in the rocks and in the everlasting hills I saw a type of his 
 strong character and his never-failing courage, and in the quiet 
 valleys filled with the music of running waters and singing 
 birds I saw a type of his life in the harbor of his home. 
 
 Life is indeed a book. We read it page by page and day 
 h\ day. While the page of to-day may bring the shout of 
 laughter to the lips, the page of to-morrow will be blurred with 
 tears. The road of to-day may lead into a dark, foreboding 
 to-morrow, but ere to-morrow's sun shall set we may pitch our 
 tents within sight of the spires and domes of a friendly city. 
 
54 Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 I think, Mr. President, one of the happiest times in hfe is 
 when holding a fresh, new soul within our arms, fresh from 
 the great immortality of the past, and the saddest hour is 
 when, holding some loved friend by the hand, he steps down 
 into the valley of the shadow we call death. 
 
 We turn to the earth, and it is barren; to the sky, it is 
 
 lead. The rift in the clouds only is the hope of immortality 
 
 born within us and testified to by every line of nature that 
 
 lies about us like an open book. With this light in our 
 
 eyes we turn again to the earth, and it is no longer barren; 
 
 again to the sky, and it is no longer leaden, for we read 
 
 the same voice in the storm or in the breaking wave, in the 
 
 quiet nook around the sunny bank, the same voice of faith — 
 
 be patient, God reigns, and immortality is the jewel of the 
 
 soul. 
 
 There's a wideness in God's mercy like the wideness of the sea; 
 There's a kindness in His justice that is more than charity; 
 For the love of God is broader than the measure of man's mind, 
 And the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind. 
 
Address of Mr, Gay, of Georgia. 55 
 
 ADDRESS OF Mr. Clay, of Georgia. 
 
 Mr. President: When I entered the Senate in 1897 I 
 immediately formed the acquaintance of Senator Gear. We 
 served together on the Committee on Post-Offices and Post- 
 Road.s from that time until his death, and I believe that I 
 enjoyed in a large degree his friendship and confidence. I 
 often served with him on subcommittees from the Committee 
 on Post-offices and Post-Roads to investigate charges made 
 against appointees coming before the committee. While Sen- 
 ator Gear and my.self belonged to different political parties, 
 I most cheerfully bear testimony that I found him always 
 ready and anxious to ascertain the truth and to report on the 
 merits of each case, regardless of partisan politics. It was 
 no uncommon thing, after the testimony was heard and a full 
 and complete investigation had been made, to find that both 
 of us had reached the same conclusion. 
 
 If an appointment was made in my own State aftd I chal- 
 lenged the fitness of the appointee, Senator Gear was always 
 willing to accept my statement as to the character of the 
 appointee without further statement. I believe he had con- 
 fidence in anything I said, and I found him to be a loyal and 
 faithful friend. Unquestionably he rendered valuable services 
 to the people of my State in assisting me to reject unworthy 
 and incompetent appointees, and it was through his influence 
 that two or three objectionable appointments in my State 
 were withdrawn. 
 
 I feel it just to say that had the real facts been known the 
 appointments would never have been made. Senator Gear 
 was a plain, blunt man, who never u.sed words to conceal his 
 
56 Life and Charackr of Joliii Henry Gear. 
 
 thoughts. In the discharge of his official duties he was 
 prompt, thorough, and successful. 
 
 It was my observation, in .serving on the committee with 
 him, that whatever duty was assigned him he performed it 
 promptly and cheerfully. He always kept up with his work 
 and did it well. He had the respect, confidence, and esteem 
 of his associates. He was of pleasant address and courteous 
 manners, and was a genial companion. 
 
 At an earl}- day after I entered the Senate I learned to 
 regard him with affectionate interest and to appreciate his 
 disinterested friend.ship. He was a modest man, and temper- 
 ate in all of his habits. Judging from what I knew of him, 
 he had avoided and escaped tho.se excesses which have wrecked 
 and ruined the lives of so many of our great men. 
 
 His career was a most successful one. The many exalted 
 positions to which he was chosen in his own State, filling them 
 all with credit and distinction, bear testimony to his real worth. 
 He died in his seventy-fifth year and had been a member of 
 the Iowa house of representatives; was ^eaker for two terms; 
 was twicei elected governor of his State; was a member of the 
 Fftieth, Fifty-fir.st, and Fifty-third Congresses; was elected a 
 Senator in Congress from his State for six years and had been 
 reelected a short time previous to his death; consequently at 
 the time of his death he had a full term of six years to serve 
 in the Senate. 
 
 He represented a great constituency and had the confidence 
 of the people of his great State. The high positions which 
 he held and the long public service which he so well per- 
 formed, the regard in which he was held by his a.ssociates in 
 this Senate, all attest that his life was a useful and successful 
 one. 
 
 He did not claim to be a great debater, but he alwavs 
 
. Address of Mr. Clay, of Georgia. 57 
 
 presented his coiiteutions in the committee rooms with such 
 clearness and earnestness as to carr>- conviction, and his words 
 and counsel always carried great weight. 
 
 After I thoroughly understood the man, I was not surprised 
 at the wonderful success he achieved as a public man. He was 
 one of the most amiable men I ever knew. His kindness of 
 disposition and unobtrusive manners drew men toward him 
 and made them feel easN- in his presence. He was readily 
 approachable and the very soul of gentleness in his per.sonal 
 relations with all who knew him, and I believe I can safely 
 say the better he was known the more highly he was esteemed. 
 I always observed that he had a kind word for everyone with 
 whom he came in contact. 
 
 When you study the character of Senator Gear and thor- 
 oughly understand the life of the deceased, it is not difficult 
 to understand why he achieved such wonderful success. He 
 had a profound knowledge of the people and their modes of 
 thought, the motives that influenced them, and the agencies 
 by which they are controlled. He was simple and unaffected 
 in his habits, courtly and gracious in his manners, and easily 
 won access to the hearts of his constituents. 
 
 Men, by reason of their association with him, learned to 
 like, esteem, and then to love him. His kind and obliging 
 disposition evidently gave him a strong hold upon his own 
 people. I never knew a more accommodating man. He 
 would go to any honorable extent to oblige and acconnno- 
 
 date a friend. 
 
 In the discharge of his public duties he .seemed to have an 
 aptitude for details, and he was patient and untiring to faith- 
 fully meet and discharge e^■ery official obligation resting upon 
 him. He was a constant and faithful attendant to the pub- 
 lic interest, and always commanded the respect of those who 
 
58 Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 did not agree with him in politics, as well as those who were 
 his party associates. 
 
 During my entire service with him in the Senate, which 
 lasted more than three years, he gave his best efforts to the 
 services of his State and country. He was industrious, intel- 
 ligent, simple, and unaffected, actuated by a high sense of 
 duty, and loyally devoted to the best interests of his country. 
 I have often spent hours in private conversation with the de- 
 ceased, and there was a beautiful simplicity in his private life 
 which elevated and charmed all who came in contact with him. 
 I have seen him in conference with his constituents when 
 they came to Washington, and, to my knowledge, he always 
 met his fellow-citizens with a genial familiarity that made them 
 feel he was one among them and could be approached without 
 ceremony or embarrassment. 
 
 As multitudinous as were the demands upon his time, he 
 responded promptly to every request of his constituents, and 
 took great pleasure to do what he reasonably could to have 
 their reque.sts granted. The thorough business habits of the 
 decea.sed made him a useful man in the Senate. He did much 
 valuable work in the Senate that escaped public attention and 
 for which he never received credit. He was not a man who 
 sought notoriety. His valuable services consisted largely in 
 thorough and effective committee work — just such work as 
 shapes and molds legislation, and which is seldom properly 
 appreciated by the public. Senators know and appreciate the 
 value and importance of such work. 
 
 I know full well, from sources that can not be questioned, of 
 acts of kindness and deeds of charity done by Senator Gear in 
 his lifetime which could only come from a heart touched with 
 the gentle charities of humanity. Alas ! his work is finished. 
 He lived beyond threescore years and ten. His life was a 
 
Address of Mr. Clay, of Georgia. 59 
 
 busy and useful one. He fought his own way to success aud 
 distinction. The lesson of his life is instructive to the a.spiring 
 youth of his country. 
 
 He made a career of which his family and friends may well 
 be proud. Mr. President, the one thing that has astonished 
 me more than all else since I have been a member of this Sen- 
 ate is the frequency with which death crosses the threshold of 
 this Hall. 
 
 It has been less than four years since I became a member of 
 this body, and seat after seat has been vacated, and funeral 
 after funeral has occurred in both branches of Congress. Dur- 
 ing this brief period our beloved Vice-President has passed 
 away; so have Senator Harris, of Tennessee; Senator Morrill, 
 Senator Earle, Senator Walthall, Senator George, Senator 
 Davis, and Senator Gear. "In the midst of life we are in 
 death" is true everywhere, and its warning voice should be 
 kept fresh in the memories of those of us who still survive. 
 
6o Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 Address of Mr, Dolliver, of Iowa. 
 
 Mr. President: My honored colleague [Mr. AUi.son] has 
 spoken so fully of the public record of Senator Gear that little 
 need be added to complete the biographical sketch which is 
 suited to such an occasion as this, and if it were not for the 
 love I bore him while he lived and the re\-erence which I feel 
 for his memory I would choose to remain silent, leaving to 
 others the privilege which this hour brings to his old colleagues 
 and associates. 
 
 While my acquaintance with Senator Gear began long ago 
 in Iowa, vox knowledge of the man became real and intimate 
 in the Fifty-first Congress in the mid.st of the stirring events 
 which made the first Speakership of Thomas B. Reed notable 
 and historic in the parliamentary progress of the country. 
 Governor Gear was not an old member of the House in the 
 sense of long service, but he was among the few who ha\-e 
 been able to get credit there for .services rendered in other 
 fields of activity. His peculiar preparation for the business of 
 the House put him in demand for its most difficult duties, 
 and without pushing his claims in the least he found himself, 
 almost from the beginning, conspicuous in the leadership of 
 that bodj'. 
 
 He was a child of the frontier, and he bore throughout his 
 life the marks of the rugged and arduous surroundings of 
 his youth. He was not handicapped by the inheritance of 
 wealth. It is doubtful if his good father, a missionary among 
 Indian tribes, a chaplain at remote militarj- posts, was able 
 to contribute much to the young man's support and education 
 after he went out into the world for himself ; and the fact 
 
A ddress of Mr. Dolliver, of fowa . 6 1 
 
 that we find hin> working by the month on an Iowa farm and 
 eagerly accepting the most laborious employment m a country 
 store indicates that he solved early the problem ot making 
 his own living. He had all the advantages of poverty, wUhout 
 its humiliations; for in a new country, where everybody .s 
 engaged in the same struggle, sharing the privations of a 
 common lot, social distinctions are apt to disappear altogether 
 in the almost perfect equality of honorable hardships. 
 
 But he received from his father an inheritance better than 
 riches-a strong body, a healthy mind, and that rational 
 philosophy of life from which he never afterwards deviated. 
 Nor can it be doubted that he obtained at home, under the 
 tuition of his father, a fairly good elenientar>- education, and, 
 in addition, that intellectual vision which inspired his subse- 
 quent career; for there must have been in this young rector 
 when he left behind him the comforts of a well-ordered parish 
 and turned his face toward regions where the foundations o 
 society had not vet been laid, something of an apostolic zeal 
 which raised him above the common level and anointed him 
 as a true chaplain to the wilderness. 
 
 I have frequently seen the likeness of Senator Geak s 
 father, which he always had near him, and have often been 
 impressed bv the stalwart figure of the man and by the refined 
 vigor of his countenance, a countenance reminding one of the 
 reservation of strength which lay in the features of Philbps 
 Brooks in his latter years. He was wise enough to give the 
 hov such assistance as he could and then push him out into 
 the midst of things to fight the battle of life for himself. I 
 count this an immeasurable good fortune to the youth of Sena- 
 tor GEAR, because this world, in the long run, is governed by 
 the intellectual and moral forces which it develops, and human 
 nature is so framed that, with the rarest exceptions, its highest 
 
62 Life and Character of/ofm He?iry Gear. 
 
 ranges of power are impossible except under the discipline and 
 pressure of poverty and hard work. 
 
 In considering the achievements which followed we ought not 
 to leave out of the reckoning the prairie farm where the boy 
 dug out his living as a hired hand, nor the pay roll of the 
 little store which grew into the great commercial enterprise 
 of which he became the head; for in these humbler stages of 
 his success the character was formed which made him the 
 master of every situation in which he afterwards was placed. 
 
 It is doubtful if in his earlier years he ever contemplated a 
 political career. When he was elected alderman in Burlington, 
 it was not because he was a ward politician ambitious for the 
 honors of local politics. His neighbors chose him because 
 the city needed the counsel of such a man, and when he was 
 elected mayor it was becau.se, being successful in his own 
 business, the people desired the benefit of his guidance in the 
 management of theirs. At this time he was nearlj' forty years 
 of age, and it is certain that he did not even then expect to 
 devote himself to public life, for when shortly afterwards he 
 was nominated for the legislature he refused the nomination. 
 
 He was content to be the leading citizen of his town, busy 
 with his own matters, but looking with constant interest to the 
 material growth of the conmiunity in which he lived. He was 
 first in every good word and work, promoting the building 
 of railroads, encouraging the establishment of nev.' factories, 
 leading in the improvement of the highways, and vigilant in the 
 maintenance of the schools. We may judge from all accounts 
 that it was this public spirit in the service of his own town that 
 induced him, in 187 1, to accept a commission as a member of 
 the legislature, for his first work there appears to ha\-e been 
 in connection with matters in which Burlington was chiefly 
 interested. 
 
Address of Mr. Dolliver, of Iowa. 63 
 
 His duties in the legislature widened his horizon to include 
 the whole State, and from that time until the day of his death 
 he gave to Iowa his time, his energies, and the complete 
 devotion of his heart. In a single year he had made his way 
 to the confidence and approbation of his colleagues in the house 
 and of the State at large, so that no one was surprised when, 
 in the fifteenth and sixteenth general assemblies which followed, 
 he was chosen speaker of the house. 
 
 It was while a member of the legislature — four years of the 
 time occupying the post of speaker — that he undertook an 
 elaborate studj- of the business of the State, of its school sys- 
 tem, its institutions of philanthropy, its means of transporta- 
 tion, its scheme of taxation and public expenditures. No detail 
 escaped him. He treated the business of the State as he had 
 conducted the business of his commercial house, so that when 
 he became governor of Iowa he was prepared for the work as 
 few of the distinguished men who ha\'e filled that office before 
 or since have been. It was to this period of his career, as he 
 often said to me, that he looked back with the most satisfac- 
 tion; and in the midst of subsequent honors he never asked 
 and seldom received at the hands of our people any other title 
 than that which he won by four )-ears' service in the chief 
 office of the State. 
 
 It is an interesting thing even at this day to read, 
 with a view to an estimate of his character, the messages 
 which he sent from time to time to the legislature. They 
 include an almost incalculable mass of definite information, 
 arranged in perfect order, relating to the State affairs, with 
 recommendations looking to the amendment of the laws, 
 to correct defects, to reform abuses, and to equalize the bur- 
 dens of the State. The legislature and the people alike 
 trusted him, and when his work was done, with a quaint 
 
64 Life and Character of John He7iry Gear. 
 
 mixture of pride and affection, they named him "Old Busi- 
 ness" as he retired to private Hfe, with the confidence and 
 good will of all. 
 
 Governor Gear was a politician in the ordinary sense of the 
 term; yet he was entirely without the meaner devices and 
 hypocrisies sometimes suggested by the word. The people 
 knew exactly what he was; he concealed nothing; he looked 
 the world steadfa.stly in the eye. He had the art of winning 
 the hearts of men; his approach was persua.sive, conciliatory, 
 benignant. He knew their names and where they lived — even 
 their first names, which he always preferred to use. His head- 
 quarters was always the rotunda of the hotel; and in the last 
 thirty years few Republican conventions have been held in 
 Iowa that did not give him an opportunity to .shake the hand 
 and greet in genuine fellowship the men who bear the burden 
 and heat of party politics. 
 
 In all this there was no preten.se, no affectation, no conven- 
 tion manners. He appeared to be glad to meet men, because 
 there was in him a natural good will to men. He inquired 
 about their families; asked what had become of their boys and 
 girls; and nobody ever doubted that he really cared to know, 
 for he only extended to his wider constituency the same inter- 
 est and concern which long ago, as one who knew him well has 
 said, endeared him to his neighbors as the best kind of a man 
 to live next door to. 
 
 He acquired the habit of taking an interest in others 
 possibly as much from his surroundings as from his disposition, 
 for in a new country, where all are strangers, worried by the 
 same cares and cheered by the same prospects, the kindly 
 amenities of life are slow to degenerate into counterfeit 
 presentments and vain shows, and it must be remembered 
 that while the State of Iowa is not new its older settlers were 
 
Address of Mr. Dollivcr, of Iowa. 65 
 
 all pioneers, and hardly a generation has passed since its 
 farther borders touched the wilderness. 
 
 He was not a man of eloquent speech, though he had too 
 much sagacity to underestimate the graces of culture and 
 learning He did not enjoy in his boyhood the blessing of 
 the public schools, yet the State owes to him much of the 
 enthusiasm and many of the laws which have made its system 
 of popular education a model for the world. He was deprived 
 of the advantages of a college course, yet every one of the 40 
 little colleges of Iowa numbered him among its helpful friends, 
 while under his administration the noble university of the 
 State and the agricultural college received such liberal con- 
 sideration that their foundations have been broadened and 
 their usefulness enlarged for all time to come. 
 
 He was welcomed everywhere m Iowa as an effective public 
 speaker When he rose to speak it was instantly recognized 
 that he knew what he was talking about, and with every 
 assembly which he addressed he had the invaluable advantage 
 which belongs to sincerity and truth. He attempted no flights 
 of eloquence; he put on no purple patches; he avoided figures 
 of speech except the familiar illustrations which he found m 
 the homely scenes about him ; he dealt with the thing in hand 
 with such force and simplicity of style that he was always sure 
 of approval whether he received applause or not. His popu- 
 larity on the .stump fairly illustrates the fact that it is only 
 necessary for a speaker to have something to say,_ some 
 message to deliver, some knowledge of the matter in dispute, 
 in which he passes others, in order to give him at once a 
 readv utterance and an attentive audience. 
 
 I recollect very distinctly Governor Gear's speech in the 
 House on the sugar schedule of the tariff bill of 1890. It was 
 known that he was in a large measure responsible tor the 
 S. Doc. 236 5 
 
66 Life a7id Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 provisions of that bill relating to the importation of sugar and 
 the encouragement of its production in the United States. 
 It was an obscure question, and few members of the House 
 had had either the experience or the instruction required to 
 perfectly see through it. 
 
 When Governor Gear took the floor, the whole Hou.se 
 gathered around him, and iu a speech of considerable length 
 he discussed the subject, answering all inquiries with thorough 
 information, and when he had closed the House had for the 
 first time a complete understanding of what was involved in 
 the provisions of the proposed law. In .spite of the speedy 
 misfortune which overtook the leaders in the tariff legislation 
 of that year, it was always Governor Gear's firm conviction 
 that if the policy then outlined by him had been permitted to 
 survive our people would have long since been delivered from 
 dependence on foreign nations for their supply of raw sugar 
 and from private monopoly in the manufacture of the refined 
 article at home. 
 
 After that speech no one doubted, if any had before, the 
 fitness of his appointment to the great committee of the House 
 which in these later years has become, in an important sense, 
 the dominant influence in our .scheme of Congressional gov- 
 ernment. He was chosen because, while pretending to none of 
 the studied graces of the platform, nor e-\-en to the skill of the 
 controversialist, he nevertheless possessed those resources of 
 knowledge and practical wisdom without which the orators and 
 debaters would make a sad wreck of our affairs. He was, if 
 not the forerunner, at any rate a noted example of the school 
 of statesmanship which, by its profound research into the 
 facts with which governments have to deal, has already 
 noticeably reduced the importance of speechmakers and 
 speeches in the national deliberations. 
 
Address of Mr. Dolliver, of loiva. 67 
 
 Governor Gear's whole life was a preparation for the 
 position which he reached as a man of affairs in this Capitol. 
 It may be doubted whether any set course of education, any 
 curriculum of the schools could have resulted in so adequate a 
 training as was given to this son of a pioneer clergyman in the 
 university of the world. A noted political leader of our day 
 has broadened the definition of a business man to include work- 
 ers in every field, on the farm and in the factory, as well as in 
 the bank and in the countinghouse: and while it may be a 
 maxim of private life that every man should attend to his own 
 business, the statesman of to-day in the nature of the case 
 attends to the business of all. Whoever, therefore, has mas- 
 tered the problems directly and indirectly connected with the 
 books of the national accounts has attained an intellectual rank 
 which no longer has to fear disparagement in American public 
 life. 
 
 Senator Gear had no element of radicalism in his ■views on 
 public questions. He was careful in making up his mind, 
 cautious in accepting brilliant conclusions, su.spicious of high 
 colors, distrustful of millennial discoveries. There was no hos- 
 pitality in him for morbid opinions about the state of society 
 nor for rosy dreams of impossible .social conditions. He knew 
 the world well as it is, and assessed it at its average value, 
 refusing to think that legislation had made it as bad as some 
 claim or could make it as good as some hope. He was tolerant 
 of the frailties of his fellow-men, and in all political differences 
 held to the rule of charity. The noise of fame and the glare of 
 wealth made little impression upon him, and when he was at 
 home, rich and poor, the lowly and the eminent alike, found 
 him a faithful counselor and a congenial friend. 
 
 I do not know what church he belonged to or what creed he 
 believed in, but the united witness of tho.se who knew him best 
 
68 Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 proves that in gracious service of all who needed help he 
 walked in the law of Christ; and when he was buried men and 
 women of all the churches and of every creed drew near to offer 
 the gentle benediction of their tears. 
 
 One can not read the addresses and messages of Senator 
 Gear when he occupied the office of governor, nor the reports 
 of his political speeches in later years, without finding in them 
 all one favorite note — the pride which he felt in the Common- 
 wealth of Iowa. 
 
 He alwaj-s .spoke of her in simple Saxon phrase as "our 
 loved State." He came to her borders when a mere boy, before 
 her boundaries were fixed. He watched her growth, and with 
 exultant confidence foretold her future. He measured her 
 resources and waited patienth" for their development. He 
 made him friends of her lakes and rivers and knew all the 
 secrets of her prairies. He overheard the conversation of her 
 people, sympathized with their aspirations, had respect to their 
 convictions, entered into their joys and sorrows, and showed 
 him,self at once the servant and the representative of their high 
 ideals. 
 
 And the great Commonwealth gave back his loyaltj^ with 
 perfect reciprocitj' ; for after he had pa.ssed the allotted term 
 of human life, even when he stood, brave and serene, almost 
 within the valley of the shadow, that generous people, seeing 
 the infirmities which he bore, comforted his old age with a part- 
 ing assurance of their undiminished gratitude and love. 
 
 With the leave of the Senate, I will add, as a part of my 
 remarks, an address delivered at Governor Gear's funeral 
 by my colleague in the House of Representatives, the Hon. 
 Thomas Hedge, who, on account of his long intimacy with him 
 as neighbor and townsman, was chosen to speak on that 
 mournful occasion. 
 
Address of Mr. Dollirer, of Iowa. 69 
 
 REMARKS OF HON. THOMAS HEDGE. 
 
 The boy, John Henry Gear, had already enjoyed a strange experi- 
 ence when he came here to begin his independent life. Of Puritan stock, 
 born in a quiet New York village, he had been for most of his eighteen 
 years a sojourner with his father and mother in the western frontier of 
 inhabited America, on the line between the clearings of the pioneers and 
 the hunting grounds of the red men. He had become used to the rude 
 and stalwart and eccentric sorts of his fellow-man. Hobnobbing with 
 Indians and with soldiers, he had mastered the art and mystery of the 
 hunter and the fisher. 
 
 To this schooling his scholar father had added much book learning not 
 to be found in the academic courses of to-day. He had inherited a sound 
 mind in a sound body, a healthy brain, a steady' nerve, a straight and clear 
 mental vision, strong social instincts, a craving for friendship, a faith in 
 the sense of justice and good will of his fellow-men, and a catholic and 
 charitable spirit toward them. 
 
 This was his preparation, his equipment, his competency uncounted and 
 un.suspected, but sufficient for the life and career veiled before him. This 
 was the remote Territory of Iowa. The great river was the wa}- of neces- 
 sity to the commerce of the outer world. He found his future home set 
 in a spot of rare beaut}-, a beauty made rugged and forlorn by the glaring, 
 uncouth shelters of the vanguard of civilization. 
 
 His frank address, straightforward look, his plain confidence in the 
 good-fellowship of those whom he approached gained him at once wide 
 entrance into their social order. Character was the study here then, and 
 high character was in demand. He found himself joined unto a people 
 most interesting and attractive — j-oung, of simple ways and plain purpose, 
 endowed with the physical health, the mental vigor, the courage, and 
 force of soul of the most intelligent and enterprising families of the older 
 States, who had made their toilsome progress through the vast solitude 
 and across the great river expecting to make their way, to establish 
 homes, to work out their material salvation by the exercise of the homely 
 virtues of industr)-, thrift, patience, and watchfulness. 
 
 Marked but not separated by the different customs, habits, modes of 
 thought and of expression of their respective places of nationality, by the 
 variety of their inherited beliefs, there was still among them unity in 
 essentials. While it was still a rude society, undisciplined, unorganized, 
 unconventional, willful, impatient of restraint, indulging ever in enough 
 of turbulence to try all the strength of its manhood and grace of its 
 womanhood, there was the general possession and practice of the cardinal 
 virtues, the interchange of the kindly offices of good neighborhood. In 
 that intercourse which the common interest and common necessity quickly 
 make close and intimate thej- unconsciously but sureh* corrected, mod- 
 ified, educated, enlarged, enlightened, and Americanized each other. 
 
yo Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 Their lives were earnest; through tribulation it was for them to come 
 into the kingdom; the habit to overcome difficulties became a second 
 nature and bred in them a fine and constant self-reliance. They valued 
 usefulness; it was their measure of merit and dignity. The abilitj' to 
 serve and the will to serve seemed to the reflecting the only reason and 
 excuse for being. On such vantage ground, in such spacious time, among 
 these men and women of greatest force and highest quality, pioneers, 
 explorers, promoters of commerce, farmers, law3-ers, founders of an im- 
 perial State, was it given to him to show what manner of man he was. 
 It soon was plain that he was in his own place, an equal in a noble 
 brotherhood. 
 
 Here was indeed ability to serve and the will to serve, energy of mind 
 and body ever seeking exercise, diligence in business and a sagacity to 
 secure success, an aptitude for affairs which suggested his constant leader- 
 ship, a sound sense of duty, manhood, gentleness, and unprofessed and 
 unconscious practice of the golden rule, friendliness, S3'mpathy, sincerity, 
 a bright and pleasant humor. Here too appeared a strange gift for learn- 
 ing men and a strange interest in their welfare, an ever present helpful- 
 ness, a human kindness that knitted men's souls to his as the .soul of 
 Jonathan was knitted to the soul of David. He was indifferent about 
 externals and accidents. He was concerned about character and not con- 
 dition. His eye searched the man through the disguise or ornament. He 
 was a respecter of the person and not of the place, and he desired place 
 not as a pedestal for his own conspicuousness, but as a ground and oppor- 
 tunity for the service he knew himself competent to give; and it has 
 seemed to me not unsuitable that in testifying our regard to our old 
 familiar friend we should have respect to him rather than to the high 
 places which he adorned. 
 
 We rejoice and are glad that he was legislator and governor and Repre- 
 resentative and Senator, because he filled those places worthily, as we 
 rejoice and are glad for the beneficent life he led, the fair name he won, 
 the great character that he attained unto in the town that received him 
 so long ago. We are happy, proud, and grateful that the State which he 
 helped so greatly to exalt to honor and influence and power did in his 
 old age again enrobe him with its highest dignity; that the people whom 
 he served so long and so loyally did brighten his last days with the assur- 
 ance of their unabated affection. 
 
 His life was singularly happy, not because of any peculiarit}' of material 
 condition nor good fortune of environment, but from his own nature. 
 The world to him was full of charming men and women, because all men 
 and women could present only their charming moods to him. We can 
 not respond to a shining light with shadows. He received what he had 
 given — full measure running over. 
 
 He was conscious of the constant favor of his people, that honor, love, 
 
Address of 3Ir. Dolliver, of Iowa. 71 
 
 obedience, troops of friends accompanied his old age. If life is given 
 that we may serve our fellow-men, secure their liberty, multiply their 
 opportunities, advance their learning, enlarge their life, that we may help 
 the troubled, encourage the disheartened, protect the feeble, reclaim the 
 wandering, rescue the outcast, restore the prodigal, then was his life a 
 triumph, a sacrifice acceptable. This we believe, and that it is now writ- 
 ten of him, " He served his generation according to the will of God." 
 
 Mr. Pre.sident, I respectfully ask for the adoption of the 
 resoltitions. 
 
 The Presiding Officer (Mr. Clark in the chair). The 
 question is on the adoption of the resolutions submitted by the 
 Senator from Iowa [Mr. Allison]. 
 
 The resolutions were unanimously agreed to; and (at 3 
 o'clock and 5 minutes p. m.) the Senate adjotirned until Mon- 
 day, January 21, 1901, at 12 o'clock meridian. 
 
PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE. 
 
 December 3, 1900. 
 
 Mr. Hepburn. Mr. Speaker, it is my painful duty to an- 
 nounce to the House of Representatives the death of John 
 Henry Gear, late a Senator from the State of Iowa, who 
 died in the city of Washington on the 14th day of July last. 
 
 Senator Gear's public career was long and illustrious. It 
 began with Iowa's first political organization. He was per- 
 haps more widely known and beloved than any of her public 
 servants. Regret at his suddeu death in the midst of his 
 great career and marked usefulness is everywhere felt in that 
 Commonwealth. 
 
 I submit the following resolution. 
 
 The Clerk read as follows: 
 
 Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of the death 
 of Hon. John Henry Gear, a Senator of the United States from the 
 State of Iowa. 
 
 The resolution was unanimously agreed to. 
 
 A message from the Senate, by Mr. Parkinson, one of its 
 clerks, announced that the Senate had passed the following 
 resolutions: 
 
 Resolved That the Senate has heard with deep regret and profound 
 sorrow of the death of the Hon. John Henry Ge.^R, late a Senator from 
 the State of Iowa. 
 
 Resolved, That the Secretary communicate a copy of these resolutions 
 to the House of Representatives. 
 
 Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory ot the 
 deceased the Senate do now adjourn. 
 
 73 
 
74 Proceedings in the House. 
 
 January io, 1901. 
 
 Mr. Hepburn. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
 Saturday, January 26, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, be set 
 aside to pay tributes of respect to the late Senator John H. 
 Gear, from the State of Iowa. 
 
 The Speaker. The gentleman from Iowa asks unanimous 
 consent that Saturday, January 26, at 4 o'clock p. m. , be set 
 aside for tributes of respect to the late Senator Gear, of Iowa. 
 Is there objection? [After a pause.] The Chair hears none, 
 and that order is made. 
 
 A message from the Senate, by Mr. Piatt, one of its clerks, 
 announced that the Senate had passed the following resolu- 
 tions: 
 
 Resolved, That it is with deep regret and profound sorrow that the 
 Senate hears the announcement of the death of Hon. John Henrv GE.\r, 
 late a Senator from the State of Iowa. 
 
 Resolved, That the Senate extends to his family and to the people of 
 the State of Iowa sincere condolence in their bereavement. 
 
 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 fitting tribute to his high character and distinguished services. 
 
 Resolved, That tlie Secretary transmit to the familj- of the deceased 
 and to the governor of the State of Iowa a copy of these resolutions, with 
 the action of the Senate thereon. 
 
 Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these resolutions to the 
 House of Representatives. 
 
 Resolved, That, as an additional mark of respect, at the conclusion of 
 these exercises the Senate do adjourn. 
 
MEMORIAL ADDRESSES. 
 Jani'ary 26, 1901. 
 
 Mr. Hepburn. Mr. Speaker, I call up the special order, and 
 offer the following resolutions. 
 
 The Speaker. The gentleman from Iowa calls up the spe- 
 cial order, which the Clerk will report. 
 
 The Clerk read as follows: 
 
 On motion of Mr. Hepburn, by unanimous consent, it was ordered that 
 Saturday, Januarj' 26, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, be set aside to pay 
 tributes of respect to the late Senator John H. Gear, from the State 
 of Iowa. 
 
 The Speaker. The gentleman offers the following resolu- 
 tions. 
 
 The Clerk read as follows: 
 
 Resolved, That it is with deep regret and profound sorrow that the 
 House of Representatives hears the announcement of the death of Hon. 
 John Henry Gear, late a Senator from the State of Iowa. 
 
 Resolved, That the House extends to his family and to the people of 
 the State of Iowa sincere condolence in their bereavement. 
 
 Resolved, That, as a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased, 
 the business of the House be now suspended to enable his associates to 
 pay fitting tribute to his high character and distinguished services. 
 
 Resolved, That the Clerk transmit to the family of the deceased and 
 to the governor of the State of Iowa a copy of these resolutions with the 
 action of the House thereon. 
 
 Resolved, That the Clerk comnmnicate these resolutions to the 
 Senate. 
 
 Resolved, That, as an additional mark of respect, at the conclusion of 
 these exercises, the House do adjourn. 
 
 The Speaker. The question is on agreeing to the resolti- 
 tions. 
 
 75 
 
76 Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 Address of Mr, Hedge, of Iowa. 
 
 Mr. Speaker: As only the colleagues aud companions of 
 John Henry Gear can properly and justly measure his service 
 aud fix his place in the House of Representatives, I shall, in 
 my few words, venture onlj' to mark some of his qualities as a 
 private citizen, as a neighbor, and a friend; to bear witness to 
 that attachment for his person, that confidence in his high pur- 
 pose and in his mental and moral power with which his people 
 of the First district of Iowa followed him to the end. 
 
 I do not know where to look for a truer type of the Amer- 
 ican. His birth, his breeding, and his own experience joined 
 to build him up into nothing less. His Puritan ancestors dwelt 
 in Old England, and then for five generations in New Eng- 
 land — a vigorous, god-fearing, law-abiding line. His father, 
 an Episcopal clergyman, had been sent by his church as a mis- 
 sionary to the Indians, and was dwelling among the remnants 
 of the Five Nations, where now is Ithaca, when, April 7, 1825, 
 John Henry Gear was born. His mother dying when he 
 was 2 years old, he was taken to his grandmother at Pittsfield, 
 Mass. , and it was not until he was 1 1 years old that he became 
 a conscious pioneer. 
 
 With his father the toilsome journey to the West was made 
 in 1836. They sojourned first at Galena, then at Fort Snell- 
 ing, on the western frontier of inhabited America; on the 
 border line between the clearing of the white man and the 
 hunting ground of the red man, and here the boy got all his 
 preparatorj' schooling from what Ijooks his father could force 
 upon him indoors and what he could lay hold of out of doors in 
 the craft of his Indian familiar or soldier comrade. 
 
Address of Mr. Hedge, of Iowa. 11 
 
 At 1 8 he was ready for independent life, and sailed down the 
 Mississippi River to Burlington, Iowa Territory, to begin that 
 Ufa. He was readier than he knew; admirably and exactly 
 fitted and equipped for the career that awaited him, without 
 burdens or impediments. He brought to Burlington a sound 
 body, a straight physical and mental vision, a steady nerve, a 
 stout heart, a good conscience, a tireless energy, an instinctive 
 belief in the good will and fair purpose of his fellow-men. 
 
 In Burlington he found the United States of America in its 
 original elements, a gathering in miniature of the principal 
 forces which were to perfect and strengthen the American 
 
 Union. 
 
 I mean that by some strange providence had been brought 
 there in the flower of youth representatives of all that was best 
 of the original States— three of New England, New York, 
 Pennsylvania, and Virginia— the force and virtue of Yankee 
 and Knickerbocker, of Quaker, of Presbyterian and Catholic, 
 of Puritan and Cavalier. They had come thither with the 
 provincialisms, traditions, the prejudices, the ways of life, with 
 all the peculiarities that characterized and separated their 
 respective places of nativity; but in that wilderness these marks 
 of character served only to distinguish and not to divide them. 
 They rather drew them together, quickened mutual interest, 
 and became the elements and forces of that reciprocal training 
 which soon developed them all into Americans, lovers of a 
 common country. 
 
 They were a sequestered colony whose communication with 
 their old homes was infrequent and precarious. The Mississippi 
 River was their only highway to the outer world. The rail 
 fence that marked the western border of the white man's 
 conquest was hardly one day's wagon journey from the river. 
 Thence westward stretched in idle beauty the prairie and desert. 
 
78 Life and Character of Jolm Henry Gear. 
 
 an infinite silence, an illimitable solitude. For 2,000 miles not 
 a furrow was turned, nor was ever heard the sound of the 
 hammer in building temple or human dwelling. To these 
 colonists ever}' newcomer was an object of interest and of 
 scrutiny. They had learned quickly to measure strength and 
 to discern quality. At once and for good this simple stalwart 
 from the Falls of St. Anthony, this gentle embodiment of 
 strength, this visible good will, took possession of their hearts 
 and found himself at home. 
 
 In those days there was but one social order among them; 
 they had found no time to classify themselves, except between 
 the useful and the useless. They were earning their living, 
 establishing their homes, laying the durable foundations of a 
 Com mon wealth . 
 
 John Henry Gear set at once to do what his hands found 
 to do; first as farm hand, then as clerk in a country store at 
 $50 per year and board, then in the employ of the leading 
 merchant of the town, \\Mlliam N. Coolbaugh, who was after- 
 wards a noted banker and financier in Chicago, who soon took 
 him into partnership in the establishment of which he after- 
 wards became the head, and which chiefly occupied his energies 
 until his entry into political office in 187 1. 
 
 There is no time or need to count the steps of his progress. 
 It was steady and it was always straight. 
 
 I shall not say that he was ever ' ' too good for human 
 nature's daily food." He was ever human enough to gain and 
 to hold the affection of any true man, and ever good enough 
 to win the confidence of any child. 
 
 He had "learned to labor and to wait;" was faithful to 
 "the common round, the daily task." He was sane-minded. 
 He saw no ghosts or phantasms. His feet were plauted on 
 the solid ground. He believed in the wisdom of the ages, and 
 
Address of Mr. Hedge, of Iowa. 79 
 
 held to the arithmetic, the copj- book, the Ten Commandments, 
 and the Sermon on the Mount. 
 
 He was persuaded that every man had been sent into the 
 world to serve the world, and, so believing, his every day was 
 marked not only by usefulness, but by its own beneficence. 
 
 His human kindness embraced all those who needed kind- 
 ness — not only the worth>- and deserving, but that class most 
 in need, the unworthy and unthankful. 
 
 Of the large hospitality of his delightful home I have not 
 room to .speak. 
 
 A model neighbor and citizen, he became a successful mer- 
 chant, a promoter of commerce, a builder of highways, a man 
 of affairs, the efficient helper in every enterprise which prom- 
 ised to hasten the progress or to enlarge the prosperity of his 
 town and State. 
 
 I doubt if his own political preferment had ever been a 
 subject of serious thought to him during all the years of his 
 private life. 
 
 At the age of 46 he consented to be the candidate of his 
 party for the legislature. 
 
 He was elected, and in his service manifested such aptitude 
 for public business that on his reelection he was made speaker 
 of the house, and succeeded himself as speaker on his third 
 election. Then the people of Iowa desired him for their gov- 
 ernor, and he became a famous governor, using those methods 
 which had made his private business so successful in admin- 
 istering its laws, superintending its institutions, directing its 
 affairs, and promoting its advantage. His faithfulness in few 
 and lesser things had fitted him to be ruler over many things. 
 
 I shall not follow further the story of his political life. As 
 new duties came, he seemed endowed with new power to 
 fulfill them, going from "strength to strength." In all his 
 
8o Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 advancement there was no change of character or loss of 
 identity. He remained as faithful as the hills. 
 
 His life was full of labor, of happiness, and of honor, and it 
 is perhaps his highest honor that at its end his people love and 
 reverence his memorv as that of their old familiar friend. 
 
Addnss oj Mr, LaiUiaiu, of Texas. 8i 
 
 . Address of Mr. Lanham, of Texas. 
 
 Mr. Spe.\kek: It is with somewhat peciihar emotions that 
 I join in the proceedings of this hour. I recall the changes 
 that have occurred in the personnel of the delegations from 
 Iowa and my own State since yon and I, Mr. Speaker, first 
 became members of Congress. Of >-onr delegation onh- yon 
 and your worthy colleague, Mr. Hepburn, are here. Of mine 
 I alone remain. Some of them are living and engaged in 
 other pursuits; some of them have passed away. It is appar- 
 ent to us, as it must be to others, that we have traveled over 
 the greater part of life's journey and must ere long follow those 
 who have preceded us to the silent land. This retrospect and 
 this prospect it may profit us to consider. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, obituary .service is usual with us upon the 
 death of one of our associates in Congress. It is meet that we 
 should .say .something of the dead, and suitabl}- commemorate 
 the virtues of the departed. Such service and such connnem- 
 oration .should be both solemn and sincere. Extravagant en- 
 comium should be avoided, and only just tributes should be 
 offered. While it is right and of long ob.servance to ".speak 
 well of the dead," it is not incumbent U])on any eulogist to go 
 bej'ond a faithful portrayal of the life and character of one 
 deceased as they may have been known and understood by 
 him. Indeed, such portrayal is always the more meritorious 
 when it is strictly candid and accurate, and, as .such, mu.st be 
 all the more appreciated bN' surviving friends and relatives. I 
 .shall be guided Ijy these considerations in my brief and imper- 
 fect contribution to this .serious occasion, and say nothing that 
 I do not believe to be entirely true. 
 S. Doc. 236 (1 
 
82 Life and Cliaraclcy of John IJcnry Gear. 
 
 I became acquainted with Senator Gear in the Fiftieth Con- 
 gress, when he was first a member of the House, and was at 
 once interested in him. Bringing with him as he did a con- 
 spicuous record of former prominent public service in his 
 State, a large experience in political and business affairs, and 
 entering Congress somewhat late in life, I felt more than us- 
 ually inclined to observe and study him, to learn and know 
 him. He made a strong and uimsual impression upon me. 
 He was strikinglj- natural and singularly free from any sort of 
 affectation. There was naught of veneer about him. He was 
 notably plain and practical and straightforward. There was 
 nothing in his dreas, his mannerism, his form of speech, or his 
 general conduct that did not attest his .simplicity and sincerity. 
 His mien and modus convinced any careful observer that he 
 was an earnest, solid man, and one who could be thoroughly 
 trusted in important concerns. His walk and conversation 
 invited confidence and gave assurance that he was above dis- 
 simulation. No man ever felt " ill at ease" in his presence. 
 
 I think he was one of the most artless public men I ever 
 knew. I never heard him speak a word or do a thing which 
 seemed to be spoken or done for the mere sake of form. I 
 once heard a compliment bestowed upon a worth\' man, and 
 which, though expres,sed in homely phrase, carried with it a 
 wealth of commendation that no polished diction could sur- 
 pass. It was this; " He was a good, square, everj'day man." 
 I would underscore these words and intensify their signifi- 
 cance in submitting my estimate of Senator Gear. He was the 
 same good man each succeeding day of his life, with uniform 
 upright bearing and generous demeanor. I believe that his 
 humblest constituent would have been as kiudlj' received and 
 considerately treated b\- him amid his distintinguished sur- 
 roundings at the Federal capital as at his own home in Iowa. 
 
Address of Mi'. Lanham, of Texas. 83 
 
 These traits of character and these modes of conduct are 
 unfaiHng testimonials of real greatness and exalted worth. 
 
 The fidelity and efficiency with which he filled every engage- 
 ment, the acceptability of his varied service to his people, their 
 repeated indorsements of his course, and the eminent success 
 he achieved all combined to proclaim him no ordinary man. 
 He was equal to every demand upon him and faithful to 
 every trust reposed in him. 
 
 He was possessed of a deep and comprehensive intellect, a 
 ready discernment, and strong practical judgment. When he 
 chose to express an opinion, it was direct and convincing — 
 not ornate, perhaps, but sound and logical. He seemed disin- 
 clined to participate in public discussions, unless when mani- 
 festly impelled by a sense of duty and with a view to sotne 
 substantial contribution to the subject under consideration. I 
 think he had no patience with mere pro forma or useless utter- 
 ance, and was quick to detect the animus that prompted it in 
 others. He did not ' ' stale his presence by custom ' ' in unneces- 
 sary or irrelevant debate. When he did speak, it was with 
 and to and for a purpose. Let us never underrate the quiet, 
 thoughtful, silent man; for he has about him a reserve force 
 all the more potential becau.se not constantly exposed, and 
 of him it may frequently be affirmed "Cum tacet, clamat." 
 
 A few words from such a man are oftentimes more influ- 
 ential than the habitual iterations of those given to much 
 speaking. I think it i.s natural that as men grow older they 
 become more conservative, more considerate of their speech, 
 and feel a greater sense of responsibility for the dignity and 
 weight and effect of what they may say, and at the same 
 time less disposed to volunteer their views and suggestions, 
 except when suitable results are in demand and duty calls 
 for an assertion of their judgment. It was doubtless so with 
 
84 I-il( I'lid Character of John Henry (icar. 
 
 Senator Geak. He liad passed the impetuosity of youth 
 and was impervious to the sohcitations of sensationalism and 
 ephemeral notice when he entered Congress. His ambition was 
 to be useful; his desire to be riLjht, not visionary nor meteoric. 
 I was one of the Congressional committee to attend his 
 funeral. I never witnessed a similar occasion where there- 
 was such a large attendance of what we know as ' ' country 
 people," and I never saw .stronger evidences of love and 
 respect for the dead than the>- exhibited. Plain old men 
 and women, who had doubtless known him for many years 
 and been the beneficiaries of his attention and kindness, 
 passed h\ and viewed his remains, and wept as they gave 
 the last look at the face of their dear old friend. Their 
 grief was general, and to me particularly apparent and touch- 
 ing. Their expressions of .sorrow .showed that they were 
 real mourners over his death. In their tributes I thought I 
 discovered that devotion of kind hearts which is ' ' more than 
 coronets" and the true index of the remarkable popularity 
 and distinguished career of our lamented friend, and that was 
 that he was true to and beloved by the plain people of his 
 community and State. While he challenged the admiration 
 and esteem of all who knew him, they especially trusted him, 
 and he did not forsake them. In this was his great strength, 
 and in their affectionate, abiding, and grateful memory is to 
 be found his best ultimate public reward. Greater recom- 
 pense in this world can no man receive. He died full of 
 years and honors. His long and useful life is ended. His 
 noble career is finished. He hath left enduring ' ' footprints 
 on the sands of time," which those who come after him shall 
 see and "take heart." In the last ".sleep upon which he has 
 fallen," and which must finally come to us all, may his rest 
 be undisturbed. 
 
Address of Mr. Laccy, of /mca. 85 
 
 Address of Mr. Lacey, of Iowa. 
 
 Mr. Speaker: Iowa is still a young State, and her great 
 growth has been made ^\■ithin the recollection of men now 
 livnng, and who can not yet be called very old. She has had 
 sons and daughters, by birth and by adoption, whom .she has 
 loved and delighted to honor, and whose names have become 
 household words throughout the land; but the best loved of 
 all her .sons was the man whose life and death we conunemo- 
 
 rate to-day. 
 
 Death is always a sorrowful event; but when it comes as it 
 came to Senator Ge.ar, after he had passed .six years beyond 
 the allotted limit of human life, after he had reached the 
 pinnacle of his ambition, death seems a coronation rather 
 
 than an end. 
 
 John Henry Ge.\r has long been known to the people of 
 Iowa. Nor was his fame limited by the boundaries of his 
 State. His public life was long and eventful, though he was 
 past middle life before he really entered on his career. He 
 filled, with honor to himself and to his con.stituency, many 
 responsible positions. His advancement was steady and per- 
 sistent. He began at the bottom of the ladder and .step In- 
 step made his way to the top, never losing his balance, not 
 once forgetting his friends. As alderman, mayor, member of 
 the legislature, speaker of the Iowa hou.se, governor of his 
 State, Representative in Congre,ss, Assistant Secretary of the 
 Treasury, and finally United States Senator, he was always the 
 same approachable, genial, courteous, painstaking public serv- 
 ant. He filled all of these various positions well; he worked 
 consistentlv in them all, demonstrating his fitness to go higher. 
 
86 Life and Charartcy of foliu Henry Gear. 
 
 The people of Iowa showed their appreciation of his good 
 works by electing him to a second term in the United States 
 Senate, a term of ser\'ice which would begin after he had 
 passed his seventy-sixth year. 
 
 States and districts usnally select to represent them the kind 
 of a man that will best exemplify the character and habits of 
 those who chose him. Iowa honored herself in selecting such 
 a man, for the world judges the State by those it advances to 
 high office. Commencing his life in penury, adversity only 
 .stimulated him to greater efforts. 
 
 Above all else, he honored and loved the State which was 
 his home. I have known Mr. Ge.\r for many years, and I 
 have often heard him say that he liked best of all the title 
 "Governor" — that which most intimately connected his name 
 with the name of his State. He said: 
 
 When they call me "Senator," the idea is associated with the I'liited 
 States; when they call me "Governor," it means Iowa, and I like it. 
 
 When he was a member of the Hpuse his district and the one 
 which I represent joined each other, and our relations in public 
 affairs were very close. We were accustomed to hold joint 
 meetings along the borders of the two districts in each cam- 
 paign, and it was always a delight to me to see and hear the 
 earnest welcome and applause he received from his constituents. 
 His political opponents admired and respected him as much as 
 his friends did, and the inquiry always was on the eve of an 
 election, "How much will the Governor run ahead of his 
 ticket?" for it was a matter of course that he wotild out.strip 
 all others, his geniality and kindness of heart so endeared him 
 to the people. 
 
 Nicknames do not attach to persons luiless they seem to fit. 
 Napoleon was called the "Little Corporal" by his friends; 
 Jack.son was "Old Hickorx;" Gear was "Old Bu.siness. " In 
 
Address of Mr. Laay. of fou'a. 87 
 
 one Congress our seats were side by side, and I learned to 
 know him as I had not before. I was especially struck with 
 his plain, practical good judgment. He was the genius of com- 
 mon .sense. 
 
 He never studied law, but in his long public service as well 
 as in business life he had that training which made him a good 
 judge of law. I often submitted involved legal propositions to 
 him to find out how they would strike the mind of a layman. 
 It was remarkable how correctly he would answer, giving his 
 reasons with force and clearness. It was a good illustration of 
 the fact that the law is, iu its last analysis, founded on pure 
 reason. 
 
 Senator Gear was a great worker, and by the untiring 
 nature of his efforts overcame in a great mea.sure the disadvan- 
 tages of an inadequate scholastic education. Down to the 
 very last days of his life in Washington he was seen going 
 the weary round of the Departments, neither neglecting nor 
 forgetting any call of his people upon him. He did nothing 
 for di-splay. His success in life was the crowning reward of 
 hard work. 
 
 In a long career like that of Senator Gear his public life 
 was coiniected with many important affairs, so that it is diffi- 
 cult to .select the particular events in which his influence was 
 most effectually felt. He has left a monument in the records 
 of his State and nation. In Iowa he first suggested the idea of 
 a board of control for the State institutions; and his plan was, 
 in a subsequent administration, enacted into law. The work of 
 tariff revi-sion, which he helped to frame in 1890, he saw con- 
 demned, untried by the people, but he lived not only to be re- 
 turned to Congress upon the same issue, but to see his course 
 upon this question indorsed by national popular approval. The 
 successful .settlement of the claims of the Government against 
 
88 Life and Character ot John Henrv Clear. 
 
 the Pacific railways was the crowning act of his public life, and 
 was the last great measure placed in his charge. 
 
 He was a doer of things and not a saver of them, yet as a 
 public speaker he accomplished what many professional orators 
 fail in; he convinced his hearers. His speeches were of the 
 vote-getting kind, for he always made his position both plain 
 and plausible. 
 
 No man was more free from prejudice and envy than he. 
 He was not given to .saying hard things of his political oppo- 
 nents, and he aspired to merit and win the good will of all with 
 whom he was associated. That his friendship was sometimes 
 abused did not cause him to lose faith in human nature. He 
 did not fail to trust one friend because another had proved 
 false. 
 
 In politics he was a regular, recognizing the necessity of 
 united effort in accomplishing political results. He yielded his 
 judgment in matters of detail when it was necessary to present 
 a united front to the opposition, but gave way in nothing where 
 principle was involved. In both the House and the Senate he 
 enjoyed the most hearty respect of the opposition as well as the 
 warm regard of his political friends. 
 
 In domestic life he was as fortunate as in his relations with 
 public affairs. As a father and hu.sband he gave us the best 
 example of American manhood. In his marriage relations the 
 twain were indeed one. Those who knew Senator Ge.\r best 
 alwa^'s associated him in their thoughts with the loving help 
 mate of his long and busv life, who aided him in all his plans 
 and encouraged him in all his struggles. 
 
 John Henrv Gear has gone, but "his works live after 
 him." Bj' no other standard would he be judged. He .sought 
 not fulsome praise in life, and needs no flattering encomium in 
 death. His loving heart sought only love, and this a grateful 
 
Address of Mr. I.acey, of foTca. 8g 
 
 State and nation gave him in full meed. Measured by this 
 standard of what he did. he stands forth a typical and great 
 American. 
 
 Glory of warrior, glory of orator, glory of song, 
 
 Paid with a voice fl)iiig out to be lo.st on an endless sea; 
 
 Glory of virtue to fight, to struggle, to right the wrong; 
 Nay, but she cares not for glory; no lover of glory is she; 
 Give her the glory of going on, and yet to be. 
 
 This is the glory of the long life of John H. Geak. His 
 work is done, Imt in the re.sidts of that long life his work goes 
 on and yet shall be. 
 
90 Life and C/iarailir of /o/ni Henry Gear. 
 
 Address of Mr. Grosvener, of Ohio. 
 
 Mr. Speaker: Members of Congres.s from the district or 
 vState from which a member comes have an opportunity to 
 know more of the varied characteristics of a colleague than 
 does a member from another State. He comes with the tra- 
 ditions and recollections of his association with his home 
 State; the campaigns, the contests, the struggles of political 
 parties, and the associations and friendships which have begun 
 and grown and blossomed in the State being brought here; and 
 so it is that members of Congress from the State of Iowa can 
 better speak of all the details of the character of Senator Gear 
 than can a member of the House who knew him only in the 
 official relations of the business of the House. 
 
 I came to Congress in the Fort\-ninth Congress and Mr. 
 Gear came in the Fiftieth Congress. His progress in the 
 House was very rapid. He became a member of the Com- 
 mittee on Ways and Means in the Fifty-first Congress — in his 
 second term. I speak only from casual recollection, for I have 
 no knowledge now, but I do not recollect the name of any one 
 who reached that committee so early in his career in the House. 
 He was a member of it at the time that the great contest over 
 the tariff bill was the dominating question here. He must 
 have been recognized early as a man of capacity in that line. 
 I remember that he had charge on the floor of the House and 
 el.sewhere of the interests of the agricultural departments; and 
 I remember with what detail he di.scuased every question dur- 
 ing the long ten or twelve days that the House was in Com- 
 mittee of the Whole upon that liill. I knew him here in the 
 House. I came to know him simjily by the discovery which I 
 
Address of Mr. Grosvenor, of Ohio. 91 
 
 made, that he never undertook to explain a matter that he did 
 not thoroughly understand. Accuracy of detail, accuracy of 
 knowledge, was his strong point. 
 
 It has been said of him, not only here but in the Senate, 
 that he was not an orator; but he had the power of statement. 
 He had that power which so rapidl\- communicates the thought 
 of the speaker to the auditor. He had the power to make \'ou 
 understand the argument that he was submitting, and his 
 .speeches were always arguments. I never heard him make a 
 speech — I never heard him using a .single word or .sentence — 
 that he ever intended using anywhere else than here. He 
 addressed the judgment, the sense, and the inider.standing of 
 the House of Representatives, and apparently had no thought 
 of the effect of his address outside. He was here always. He 
 was one of the most faithful attendants, and I attribute his 
 success and growth in the House in large part to his constant 
 attendance on the sessions of the House. If I were to rise here 
 in my place to deliver a lecture on the subject of the best road 
 to preferment in the House of Representatives, I .should .say 
 that that was the road traveled by Jonx Henky (iE.\r — the 
 road that finds a member li.stening to the prayer of the Chap- 
 lain and hears the echo of the gavel of the Speaker when he 
 announces the adjournment of the House. 
 
 It was my ob.servation that there was no question in the line 
 of business here that he undertook to know anything about 
 that he did not keep fully in touch with. 
 
 He was a strong party man. After I became acquainted 
 with him I had a great deal of conversation with him upon the 
 subject of party organization and party politics. While he very 
 fully appreciated the patriotism and judgment of political oppo- 
 nents, he had a nmcli higher and more exalted opinion of the 
 views and judgment of the men of the party to which he 
 
y2 Life and Character of /oliv Hcnrv dear. 
 
 belonged. He was not ashamed to saj- that he was a member 
 of his poHtical party and that he beHeved that part\- was ahvays 
 right, substantially, and that the other party was largely 
 inclined to be wrong. He challenged the good ()]iinion of the 
 Democratic part>- in that way and alwaj'S had it. 
 
 I was in Iowa once when a great gathering of the people at 
 Burlington was going on. Governor Gear met the ])arty out- 
 side of the State and went with us to the city of Burlington and 
 then westward, and I noticed that in the \-ast throng that 
 crowded around the cars and that came upon the platform 
 where speeches were going on he knew h\ name nearl>- ever\ - 
 body there. He may have missed the name of .somebody, but 
 r saw no one that he did not apparently call by .some name, and 
 usually it appeared to me that he had got the right name 
 on the right per.son. He .seemed to have that great faculty of 
 knowing everybody, and everybod>- seemed to have the ap- 
 pearance of being very fond of him. 
 
 \'ery few men in this country have grown to the distinction that 
 he did who did not enter public life at an earlier period. From 
 the start he made in his own State, when he was past middle age, 
 mitil the time of his death, when he had reached old age, he 
 made a .steady and rapid progress forward. There could be no 
 better testimonial of his standing and hold upon the people of 
 Iowa than that under all the circumstances he received the elec- 
 tion which he did to the term which he never entered upon under 
 all the conditions that surrounded him. He will always lie 
 jiointed out by the men in this House and the men of the present 
 Senate and the men who knew him in public life in Washington 
 not so much for the characteristics which his comrades can detail 
 as he will be for one of tho.se sturdy characters — honest, upright, 
 persistent — who was ahvays at the post of duty and always will- 
 ins: to .share the burdens and labors that fell to his colleagues. 
 
Address of .Ur. Dah.ll, of Pennsylvania. 1^3 
 
 Address of Mr. Dalzell, of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Mr. Speaker: I think it may safely be asserted that a 
 lengthy experience in public life finds most men at its close 
 with many acquaintances, but with only a limited ninnber 
 whom they regard with feelings of warm friendship. ' ' Gov- 
 ernor" Ge.vk, as I was always in the habit of calling him, was 
 one of the men who, so far as I am concerned, is to lie classed 
 in the latter category. 
 
 Entering the Hou.se of Representatives at the .same time — in 
 the Fiftieth Congre.ss — we were more or less intimate during 
 the remainder of his life, and the news of his death came to 
 me with a sens;; of personal lo.ss. I had noticed with regret 
 for .some time his failing health and the characteri.stic courage 
 and persistence with which, notwithstanding, he attended 
 assiduously to every duty. Cut off suddenly in the midst of 
 his public .services, he may be said literally to have died as he 
 would have wished to die — "in the harness." 
 
 His colleagues from the State of Iowa have given to us the 
 details of his long and useful life, and it is no part of my pur- 
 pose to repeat them. They furnish us the key to his character 
 and the explanation of his succe.ss. Nothing is .surer than 
 that we are all of us more or le.ss the product of our envi- 
 ronment and that the e.xi.stence of certain traits are to be 
 accoiuited for by reference thereto. Governor Ge.vr came of 
 a race of pioneers, of whom he was himself a worthy succe.s.sor. 
 
 His missionary father found a congenial sphere of usefulness 
 among the Indians and in the primeval forests of our earlier 
 history. He carried the gospel and the lessons of civilization 
 first to the red men of the Kast and later on to those of our 
 
94 Life and Character of John Henry dear. 
 
 Western wilds, not counting the rigors of climate, the harsh 
 conditions of semisavage life, and the absence of comforts as 
 in comparison with the great work to which his life had been 
 dedicated. 
 
 His steadfastness of purpose, his perseverance, his lofty con- 
 ception of duty and his loyalty thereto, were the rich inheri- 
 tance that he bequeathed to his son. To the talent to which 
 he succeeded, the son, like the faithful servant of old, added 
 yet other talents, which contributed much to the welfare of 
 his fellow-men. Governor Gear's characteristics were those 
 of the pioneer. He was a plain mau and unassuming, and 
 yet possessed the aggressiveness needed to make his career a 
 success. Commencing life apparently without any desire for 
 power or place, he exhibited the qualities which attracted 
 others to him and designated him as a fit counselor in their 
 interests. 
 
 In whatever sphere he found himself he modestly and faith- 
 fully pursued each day its duty, and each day made progress. 
 A farm hand, a store clerk, a trusted .servant, a modest store- 
 keeper, he finalh- became a prosperous merchant and a marked 
 man in his community. Not seeking office, office sought him. 
 From time to time the sphere of his usefulness broadened. He 
 became an alderman of his ward, theu mayor o& his city, then 
 assemblyman, then governor of Iowa, then a Representative in 
 Congress, and at last one of the Senators of his State. 
 
 Governor Gear was a brave man. As new responsibilities 
 came he assumed them, knowing that with burdens taken up 
 would come self-reliance. In the performance of his \arious 
 duties he acquired a wealth of knowledge, practical in its 
 character, which a wonderful memory made serviceable to 
 mankind. He became thus a resourceful man. I ha\-e never 
 known another who seemed to know more things worth 
 
Address of Mr. PixlzclL of Pennsylvania. 95 
 
 knowing h\ a legislator and who knew them with more accu- 
 racy of detail than did Governor Gear. 
 
 He was a member of the Ways and Means Committee in the 
 Fifty-first Congress, and no man on that committee was more 
 useful in the framing of legislation. It is safe to say that his 
 was a large part in the framing of the McKinley law. Not- 
 withstanding the fact that his business career was at that time 
 a thing of the long past, there still remained his accurate and 
 varied knowledge of prices, tariff rates, markets, and all the 
 details necessary to the making of a tariff bill. He was for 
 that reason one of the most efficient members of that great 
 committee. 
 
 He was as diligent as he was wise. He gave to the duties of 
 his committee continuous, unremitting attention. He was u.se- 
 ful on the floor as well as in committee. While not what the 
 public might term an orator, he was a forcible speaker, clear, 
 concise, and persuasive in the presentation of his views. It 
 may be that in his long service in House and Senate his name 
 is not particularly connected with any great measure, neverthe- 
 less there were few such measures to which he did not give 
 thought, consideration, and loyal service. 
 
 His was a pleasing personality, possessing the quaHties which 
 made and retained friends. He was even-tempered, well-bal- 
 anced, warm-hearted. He was an amiable man. No one could 
 continuously have filled the places of honor and trust that he 
 filled covering so long a period of time without having had an 
 army of warm and loyal friends. That he retained these is the 
 most conclusive proof that he was deserving of them. I.ike 
 Abou Ben Adhem, he loved his fellow-men. 
 
 But it is not because Governor Gear was a faithful and dis- 
 tinguished pubUc servant that I bring this my humble tribute 
 to him to-day. It is rather because he was my friend, and 
 
96 Life and Character of John Ileiny dear. 
 
 because I esteemed and admired him as such, and because his 
 
 death has made the number of my friends one less. I can not 
 
 think that there is anything to be bemoaned in his departure. 
 
 It was not untimely. Full of years and of honors, he leaves 
 
 the priceless heritage of an unsullied name and the record of 
 
 a u.seful life well spent in the .service of his kind. 
 
 He had so lived — 
 
 That when liis sumnions came to join 
 
 The innumerable caravan, which moves 
 
 To that mysterious reahn, wliere each shall take 
 
 His chamber in the .silent halls of death, 
 
 He went not, like the quarry-slave at night, 
 
 Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed 
 
 By an unfaltering trust, * * * 
 
 He wrapped the drapery of his couch 
 
 About him, and lay down to pleasant dreams. 
 
Address of Mr. Richardson, of Tennessee. 97 
 
 Address of Mr. Richardson, of Tennessee. 
 
 Mr. Speaker: I regret that I did not have notice earlier 
 that I might have had time to prepare with some care remarks 
 appropriate to this occasion. It was only a few moments ago 
 that I determined to saj- a word by way of eulogy of Senator 
 Gear. I remember, Mr. Speaker, very well when Senator 
 Gear became a member of this House in the Fiftieth Con- 
 gress, the session after I became a member. I was not thrown 
 intimately in connection with him during his legislative career, 
 but I came to know him very well. Senator Gear came into 
 national politics as a member of Congress late in life. 
 
 My experience has been, sir, that it is rather unusual for a 
 man to enter this House so old as was Senator Gear when he 
 came here and make so perfect a success as a legislator as is 
 true of that gentleman. He was past 60 years of age when he 
 entered Congress. As remarked by the gentleman from Ohio 
 who preceded me, he at a very early date became a member of 
 the greatest legislative committee of the House of Representa- 
 tives — the most important of any of its committees. We who 
 were members at that time will all bear witness to his faithful- 
 ness and his capacity as a member of that important committee 
 in the Fifty-first Congress. 
 
 I am reluctant to refer to myself on any occasion of this 
 kind, but I remember very well his participation in the debate 
 when the tariff question was being debated in the Fifty-third 
 Congress. Gentlemen have spoken of the tenderness and lov- 
 ing nature and disposition of Governor Gear. This was 
 clearly shown in the Fifty-third Congress. I am sure no gen- 
 tleman was better entitled to be held in the deep affection that 
 S. Doc. 236 7 
 
98 Life and Character of John Heiuy Gear. 
 
 seemed to cluster around him. It was illustrated in the case to 
 which I am about to refer by a gentleman who was a candidate 
 against him for the Senatorship in Iowa. That gentleman was 
 then and is now a member of this House and is now doing me 
 the honor to li.sten to what I am .saying. 
 
 I remember \'ery well when, as the result of the contest 
 there for the Senate, Senator Gear was succes.sful, of having 
 a conversation with this gentleman, his colleague, who was 
 then aspiring to the exalted station which Governor Ge.ar 
 had won. He said he liad a first-rate chance to win the fight, 
 indeed he believed he would win until Governor Gear 
 became a candidate and entered the field actively. He said: 
 ' ' After the old man came into the race I knew I had no 
 chance." He added that when it became known he wanted 
 the Senatorship all opposition quickly vanished. He spoke 
 of him in the mo.st kindly and tender way, which satisfied 
 me of the depth and strength of the affection which Go\ernor 
 Gear nnist have had on the people of Iowa. 
 
 I have already hinted at and was about to mention an 
 incident which occurred and came under my own obser\ation 
 when he returned to the House of Representatives as a Sena- 
 tor-elect. He had been away some time seeking the position. 
 I mention this incident to show the feeling and the respect 
 entertained for Governor Gear, not oidy by his colleagues 
 on the Republican side but by gentlemen on this .side of the 
 House at that time. After an ab.sence of several weeks spent 
 in conducting his campaign he returned. The tariff bill of 
 the Fifty-third Congress was being discus.sed. I had the 
 honor to be in the chair in Committee of the Whole when 
 the Senator-elect came upon the floor and took his seat just 
 in the rear of that side. He had been here onh- a few 
 moments when .some question on which he desired to speak 
 
Address of Mr. Richardson, of Teimessee. 99 
 
 was presented. He rose and addressed the Chair for recog- 
 nition, which was promptly accorded him. 
 
 Up to that moment his presence on the floor had not been 
 noticed. I took the liberty, because of the warm friendship 
 which I entertained for him, to recognize him, when he 
 addres.sed the Chair, as "The Senator from Iowa," which at 
 once called attention to his presence. The applause which 
 broke out on that side of the House was not surpas.sed by 
 that which followed upon this side, in recognition of his 
 popularity and the high esteem in which he was held. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, 1 shall not occupy further time in .speaking 
 of this distinguished man. I regret that there are not more 
 "Governor Gears" in the politics of this country. Iowa 
 has sent many able, accomplished, and faithful legislators to 
 this body and to the other branch of Congress; but in my 
 judgment she has never sent any man better calculated to 
 reflect honor upon a great Commonwealth, for faithfulness to 
 duty, for ability, for integrity of character, and for sincerity 
 in all his public acts, than John H. Gear. 
 
loo Life a?id Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 Address of Mr. Steele, of Indiana, 
 
 Mr. Speaker: I thank the gentleman from Iowa [Mr. Hep- 
 burn] for giving me an opportunity to say a word in apprecia- 
 tive memory of the friend.ship I enjoyed with Johx H. Gear. 
 
 Of the earlier boyhood days of Senator Gear none are left to 
 speak from personal knowledge. We are informed that from 
 1 83 1, when he was 6 j^ears of age, ten years or more were spent 
 at Fort Snelling, then on the remote frontier. There he was 
 necessarily deprived of the advantages afforded by civiliza- 
 tion. His father was dependent upon the meager salary of an 
 army chaplain. At this remote outpost even the necessaries 
 of life were secured at such cost that little was left either to 
 hu.sband for a rainj- day or to provide for the education of his 
 children. 
 
 It is not surprising, therefore, to those who knew Senator 
 Gear to read that at the age of 17 he left his old home behind 
 him and went into the world to make a new home for himself. 
 B3' the exercise of the rugged qualities which characterized him 
 to the last of life, he succeeded not onlj' in this ambition, but, 
 with a courageous spirit, a mind of native strength, and a rep- 
 utation for honesty and sincerity which grew greater as he 
 discharged the many public duties intrusted tc him, he rose 
 to a place of eminence in the councils of the nation. 
 
 I leave to others the history of his long and distinguished 
 public career, and speak of him onh- as a friend. My acquaint- 
 ance with him began in 1884, but not until 1887 did I know 
 him well. We then became associated on the Committee 
 on Military Affairs. This was during the Fiftieth Congress. 
 Of the members of that conunittee at that time but two are 
 
Address of Mr. Steele, of Indiana. loi 
 
 members of the present House, and of the membership of that 
 House there are but twenty-one in the present. 
 
 Senator Gear's domestic hfe left nothing to be desired. He 
 was devoted to his wife and children. Few men had more lo}'al 
 and devoted friends than had he, and few men derived greater 
 enjoyment from association with his friends. After the mem- 
 bers of his immediate family, lowans general!)' were naturally 
 nearest his heart, and first of the first was, doubtless, his col- 
 league, Senator Allison. Senator Gear was a man of unusual 
 ability, yet he was modest and unassuming, good of heart, hon- 
 est, truthful, and loyal to his friends. He helped make the 
 world better. 
 
I02 Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 Address of Mr. Hull, of Iowa. 
 
 Mr. Speaker: For more tliaii a quarter of a century it was 
 my privilege to have in the person of John Henry Gear a 
 friend. During that time I learned to love him. I first knew 
 him intimately during his connection with the general as.sem- 
 bly of Iowa in 1.S72. In common with the other citizens of 
 Iowa, I recognized during the first few weeks of that session 
 that a new and powerful and dominant factor had entered 
 public life. I was associated with him then and in the suc- 
 ceeding session, when the two parties in Iowa were e\enly 
 balanced in the hou.se, each liaving fifty members, his party 
 selecting Representative Gear as their candidate for speaker. 
 
 I believe I am safe in saying that every citizen of Iowa 
 recognized that there was no other man on the Republican 
 side who could have broken what was known as our "legisla- 
 tive deadlock-" and the universal feeling among all the mem- 
 bers who had .served with him in the preceding legislature 
 that he was absolutely fair and entirely honest was the only 
 thing that made it possible for liim to be elected speaker of 
 the Iowa hoi;se the first time. His course in the legislature 
 during his three terms of service was of such a character that 
 the people of Iowa without regard to party recognized him 
 as an able and honest and industrious public .servant. 
 
 When he came to be named for the higher office — the high- 
 est in the gift of his people, that of governor — he received the 
 support of his party and of many who did not belong to his 
 party at the time because of their belief in him as a man. 
 
 During his service as governor I was associated with him on 
 the executive council, being .secretary of state. In this way I 
 
Address of Mr. Hull of Iowa. 103 
 
 came to know him more intimately than I ever could have 
 known him otherwise. And I take pride in saying that everj- 
 act of his as executive of that great Sfate was inspired by a 
 desire to serve the best interests of his people, and that in every 
 crisis coming to him during his administration he met the full- 
 est expectation of the people of the entire State. 
 
 During this service, Mr. Speaker, I believe I found one of 
 the secrets of his wonderful strength among the people. One 
 element of his strength was his approachability. No divinity 
 hedged him around, but every citizen could meet and talk with 
 him and lav before him his grievance or his wants without 
 any intermediary. Every child that met him upon the street 
 received from him a kind word that made the child treasure the 
 fact that he knew Governor Gear. 
 
 An eminence upon which was situated the capitol of Iowa, 
 with a long .slope down to the river, was, in the winter days 
 when Gear was governor, the great coasting place for the 
 young lads and lassies of Des Moines ; and this man, wh.. held 
 the highest office in the State, would take pride as he went 
 from the capitol in saying to them, "Let me have a ride with 
 you," until every evening, as he left his office, there was a 
 contest among the boys and girls of the capital city as to who 
 should have the honor of taking the governor on the bobsled 
 and coasting him down the long incline. 
 
 These things, Mr. Speaker, were done at the time simply 
 from the kindness and goodness of his heart ; but as the >-ears 
 passed on and when )-ounger men were wanting to crowd lum 
 out of political position and take his place, on the ground that 
 he was too old to serve the State, these boys with whom he 
 played in their early days and had grown to manhood, these 
 young fellows who had met Governor Gear when he was 
 governor of the State and when he was active in State politics, 
 
I04 Life and Character of John Henry Gear. 
 
 rallied to his support and formed a solid phalanx and said to 
 the people of the State of Iowa : ' ' This man has performed 
 such great, such honorable service that we all think it proper 
 and right to renominate him and keep him in the Senate." 
 
 The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Grosvenor] in the course of 
 his remarks upon the life and character of Senator Gear has 
 referred to his marvelous memory-. When he was in active 
 politics, Mr. Speaker, in Iowa, there was no man amongst all 
 of our f)eople who coukl meet men from every section of the 
 State, in the convention or in the great political gatherings or 
 the meetings of the legislature, and call as many men by name, 
 locate them at their homes, speak of them as to their families 
 and their family relations, to equal vSenator Gear or even 
 approach him in that respect. His memory was something 
 marvelous. He bore all of this great multitude of people not 
 only in his brain, but in his great, generous heart. 
 
 John H. Gear, Mr. Speaker, was a type of a race of men 
 who are rapidly disappearing in this country — the pioneers. 
 Born of the sturdy stock that could conquer the wilderness and 
 could overcome most of the difficulties of life, he helped to 
 mold the policy of the great State, saw it ri.se to the highest 
 honors of a State from a Territory, helped to make statehood 
 possible to it, and aided as few other men did in the formation 
 of <• the State in the earh^ years of his political life. Mr. 
 Speaker, men like him are rapidly passing away, leaving their 
 descendants after them a very much better opportunit,v than 
 they had, with more culture than was theirs, because of the 
 hardships necessarily endured in those pioneer days ; but no 
 race of men of better fiber than those men of which Senator 
 Gear was a fitting type can be found in the annals of 
 American history-. 
 
 His loss will be mourned in Iowa while the generation now 
 
Address of Mr. Hull, of loiva. 105 
 
 living there shall rule. His memory will be torne in the affec- 
 tionate hearts of the people he served so well. We will build 
 him an enduring monument in our State, in the affections of 
 our children, and we can say to his friends that they can take 
 pride in the fact that tliex- were related in any way to this 
 splendid specimen of American manhood and American states- 
 
 mans5hip. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I only regret that I have not had an opportu- 
 nity to more effectively pay my tribute of respect and affection 
 to the memory of my friend, the late Senator John Henry 
 Gear, who was also the friend of all the people and of all the 
 interests of the great State of Iowa, as he was the friend of the 
 best interests of the people of the entire United States. He is 
 gone. We mourn him, and can say in all truth, 
 
 Go search the land of living men; 
 Where shall we find his like again? 
 
 The Speaker. The question is on the adoption of the reso- 
 lutions which have been presented. 
 
 The resolutions were unanimon.sly adopted. 
 
 The Speaker. It becomes the duty of the Chair now, in 
 pursuance of the resolutions just adopted, to declare this House 
 adjourned until 12 o'clock noon on Monday next. 
 
 Accordingly (at 5 o'clock and 5 minutes p. m. ) the House 
 adjourned. 
 
 S. Doc. 236 8 
 
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1 luoADv nr Congress