President Polk issued a Proclamation announcing to the nation its bereavement, and directing the suspension of all public business for the day.  The public offices were clothed in mourning.  Orders were issued from the War and Navy Departments, directing that at every military and naval station, on the day after the order should be received, the honors customary to the illustrious dead should be paid.

At 12 o’clock on Saturday, the 26th of February, the funeral took place in the capitol.  It was a solemn, an imposing scene.  The Hall of Representatives was hung in sable habiliments.  The portraits of Washington and La Fayette, the beautiful statue of the Muse of History in the car of Time, and the vacant chair of the deceased, were wreathed in crape.  In the midst, and the most conspicuous of all, was the coffin containing the remains of the illustrious dead, covered with its velvet pall.  The President of the United States, and the Heads of Departments, the Members of both Houses of Congress, the Judges of the Supreme Court, the Foreign Ministers, Officers of the Army and Navy, Members of State Legislatures, and an immense concourse of the great, the wise, and the good, were present, to bestow honor on all that remained of the statesman, the philosopher, and the Christian.

A discourse was delivered on the occasion, by the Rev. R. R. Gurley, chaplain to the House of Representatives, from Job xi. 17, 18—­“And thine age shall be clearer than the noon-day; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning:  and thou shalt be secure, because there is hope.”  The following are extracts from the sermon:—­

“In some circumstances, on some occasions, we most naturally express our emotions in silence and in tears.  What voice of man can add to the impressiveness and solemnity of this scene?  The presence and aspect of this vast assembly, the Chief Magistrate, Counsellors, Judges, Senators, and Representatives of the nation, distinguished officers of the army and the navy, and the honored Ambassadors from foreign powers,—­these symbols and badges of a universal mourning, darkening this hall into sympathy with our sorrow, leave no place for the question, ’Know ye not that a prince and a great man is fallen in Israel?’ Near to us, indeed, has come the invisible hand of the Almighty—­that hand in which is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind; in this very hall, from yonder seat, which he so long occupied, in the midst of the representatives of the people, has it taken one full of years and honors, eminent, for more than half a century, in various departments of the public service; who adorned every station, even the highest, by his abilities and virtues; and whose influence, powerful in its beneficence, is felt in many, if not in all the States of the civilized world. * * * * *