“He has with great ability, with marked tact, with perfect fairness, and with uniform courtesy, served them as their leader and served with his associates as senator. “We all honor him; yes, and he will always have our warmest love.” Meanwhile Senator James E. Watson, the Republican senator from Indiana, who was out of the chamber at the time Senator Kern made his remarks, was notified by one of his colleagues and returned immediately to the chamber and, upon being recognized, spoke on behalf of the citizenship of Indiana, regardless of party affiliations. He said: “Mr. President, I was out of the chamber when the news was brought to me that my distinguished colleague had uttered an address of farewell to the members of this body, with which he has been so long associated, and I felt that I could not let the opportunity pass without paying my tribute of respect to him as a man and as a citizen and as a neighbor. “It is indeed a characteristic of the American people, and a most fortunate one, that in the midst of a great emergency like that which confronts us at this time, and an agitation almost international that seems to be centered here for the moment, we can even temporarily lay it aside to pay a tribute of respect to one who is about to depart from our midst. This shows, Mr. President, that after all, behind all political divisions, we are one in sentiment and one in aspirations, and one in patriotic purpose. “Of the service of my colleague here I shall not speak, because you are more familiar with that than I am; and I only rise for the purpose of expressing the feeling of the people of Indiana for this distinguished Hoosier who is about to return to the body of her citizenship. As a senator, as reporter of the supreme court, as the candidate of his party twice for the governorship, as the candidate of his party for the vice-presidency, he has ever displayed those characteristics that have endeared him to the people of the state; and as you say farewell to him here, the people of Indiana bid him hail and welcome, because there he will be loved by many and admired by all.” Senator Stone followed with a tribute to Kern’s “fine qualities of mind and heart, his manliness, his courtesy, his gentleness, his wisdom,” and added that “during my service here there has been no man who has gone out of the senate more beloved or whose absence will be more sincerely regretted.” And Senator Thomas of Colorado referred to the “testimonial of affection and esteem” which had been drawn up by the Democratic senators as “an earnest although an entirely inadequate expression of their love and affection.”