Below is a transcript of speeches at the memorial service for U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd, held at the West Virginia State Capitol July 2, 2010. More tributes from the service will be added as they are made available.

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Gov. Joe Manchin | Senator John D. Rockefeller | Congressman Nick Rahall | Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi | Former President Bill Clinton | Vice President Joe Biden | President Barack Obama

Gov. Joe Manchin

While we mourn the loss of our son of West Virginia, today we come together to celebrate the outstanding life of a man, the likes of whom we shall never see again. In one of the five books that Senator Byrd authored he said, We must study the great figures of our history and carry them forward in our imaginations as living, breathing presences we can in effect consult on vital issues of the day.

Without question, Sen. Robert C. Byrd is a pillar in our nation's history. His leadership and influence have stretched well beyond the borders of the Mountain State.

My first memory of Sen. Byrd was as a young boy working in the back of my grandfather's grocery store in the small coal mining town Farmington, W.Va. I remember hearing scripture of the Bible being quoted from two great orators - my grandfather, Papa Joe, and Robert C Byrd.  Both held the same great occupation - grocery store butchers. They were discussing bible and business with great fervor.  I still remember it today.  My personal memory of meeting the senator is no different than so many West Virginians - meeting Sen. Robert C. Byrd in every small nook and cranny of this great state.  That is why this loss is so personal, because we are all family in West Virginia.

Sen. Byrd will be remembered for his tireless contributions to the people of West Virginia and to the United States of America. As the longest serving member of Congress - having cast more votes and held more leadership positions than any other Senator, and a historic 57 years of service in Congress - it would be impossible to stand here and recite all that our beloved senator did for you and me.

From highways and hospitals to schools and technology centers - there are more than 50 projects in West Virginia that bear his name, or that of his beloved wife.

We will remember Sen. Byrd for the strong family man that he was. The love-of-his-life, Erma, and their two daughters, six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren provided unconditional support.

We will remember Sen. Byrd for the devoted public servant that he was. He helped to create thousands of jobs. He helped to protect our veterans and provide healthcare to rural areas.

We will remember his commitment to transforming our economy. We will remember his ongoing quest to provide our youth with the opportunity to learn, work and succeed. We will remember his steadfast leadership, his wisdom, his reason, his compassion, his strong voice and enthusiasm. We will never forget his deeply-rooted spiritual conviction and his utmost respect for our founding fathers.

However, more importantly, we will remember his innate qualities: honesty, integrity, loyalty, an intense respect for democracy and his unwavering love for the people and our state. 

The senator truly epitomized the spirit of West Virginia. He wore that Mountain State spirit on his sleeve and never forgot where that journey in history began, back in Wolf Creek Hollow, in Sophia, W.Va. Nor did he forget the hard-working, salt-of-the-earth people of West Virginia, who he loved as if they were extended family.

When he launched a career in public service some 60 plus years ago, our state was a blank canvas, untouched by the colors of the modern ways of life. Sen. Byrd brought that blank canvas to life using broad intellect and optimism and a can-do spirit that resonated throughout the hills of West Virginia.

In fact, when his political career was in its beginning stages, there were only four miles of divided four-lane highway in our state, and Sen. Byrd made it his mission to transform those barren lands. He was a true champion; a man of his word, and a true patriot and guardian of the United States Constitution.

Sen. Byrd was looked up to by all of Congress and often referred to as the Conscience of the Senate. A long list of colleagues have sang his praises, here are just a few: Sen. Bob Dole said, He has set a standard as a Senator, as a legislative leader, and as a statesman that will stand among the best as long as there is a Senate. His dear friend Sen.

Ted Kennedy said that He personifies what our Founding Fathers were thinking about when they were thinking about a United States Senate. He has been called a patriot and warrior of the United States Constitution.

However, the best way that I can describe the senator is as the Architect of Appalachia. He is the most historic figure to ever call West Virginia home, and will forever live in our hearts and those of our children. No one can replace our senator. No one can fill his shoes; we must never forget his tireless dedication as we humbly follow in his footsteps.

Sen. Byrd, you've toiled and triumphed on behalf of the Mountain State, and now your time to rest has come. Your memory will live in our hearts forever. 

May God Bless You and Erma. May God Bless the State of West Virginia. May God Bless America.

Senator John D. Rockefeller

Today, as West Virginians, we mourn the incredible loss of our friend our fighter, our protector and our Senator - Robert C. Byrd.

And today, we also celebrate his remarkable life. This is not an easy balance for us.

From the southern hills to the northern panhandle, we have shed many tears at the news of his passing.

Yet we stand together as a people, with warmth in our hearts knowing that his legacy will live on, and grateful that the nation today pauses to honor him.

Senator Byrd was, in so many ways, the embodiment of what it is to be a West Virginian.

Working together with Robert C. Byrd was my greatest honor. I spent decades working in partnership with him. He made me - and all of us - so very proud to be West Virginians.

He took such a pure joy - and ferocious, unyielding pride - not just in the Senate as an institution, but in pulling the levers of power for West Virginia, for people, for education and veterans, for health care and for economic opportunity.

It was in his blood. It was his sacred cause. Robert C. Byrd reached great heights because of the purity of his purpose and the depth of his determination.

Every day, I intimately witnessed that Senator Byrd never forgot where he came from and he never let up - even when his heart was broken.

First, with the tragic death of his young grandson. And then, I know a part of him was lost forever when his beloved Erma passed on.

Watching him hurt was deeply agonizing for all who loved him. I wished so much that there was anything I could do to ease his pain.

I was so moved by Senator Byrd's continuing on so strongly as he did after losing Erma.

When Senator Byrd and I would see each other on the Senate Floor since Erma's passing, he would take my hand, ever so gently, and hold it to his cheek.

To Sharon and I - and all of us in West Virginia - Robert C. Byrd was our family.

And it was his special touch that made us all shine.

Thank you, Senator Byrd.

We will miss you.

From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you.

And always, we honor you.

Congressman Nick Rahall

Ya know I just, just never really thought he'd die. Just never really thought he would.

Although this day is not unexpected, it is unexpectedly difficult to stand here to say goodbye, to Senator Robert C. Byrd - our Senator, our Chairman, our mentor, our friend, our Big Daddy. He was so eloquent and so erudite, that it is daunting to find the words that can encompass the enormity of the man and all that he has left behind.

All around us, Senator Byrd has left his legacy to the State and the Nation that he loved. We could talk about the bricks and mortar, the records set both in West Virginia and national legislators, but Senator Byrd has quite literally paved our way to the future. He has paved a path to the future. But I believe that his most lasting legacy will come from the example he set with his own life-with his own life, full of lessons for each of us to learn from and build upon.

Senator Byrd never stopped learning and never stopped working, despite the obstacles that we all know and the setbacks that would immobilize less determined individuals. He was a great reader, a great reader of what he called the greatest book of all -- the Bible, of histories from ancient Rome to the

twentieth Century, to poetry and believe you me, from memory. I heard it often whether on his staff driving him back and forth between Washington and West Virginia or even as his Congressman driving him back and forth to West Virginia. I heard such recitations very often. And indeed they kept me awake when I was driving the car. I have always been working for Senator Byrd for over forty years on his staff and in the Senate Democratic Cloak room and now until the last few days as his Congressman.

When Senator Byrd had a problem, when he needed help on an issue he would always call his Congressman and I'd be there to help him in any way I could.

He loved beautiful words and he loved to share them. The Congressional Record and our public libraries are much richer for it.

No Bible nor dictionary went unread by Senator Byrd.

A lover of history, Senator Byrd deftly put history to work with more passion and power and promise than anyone in the Republic's history. But while he relished history, he lived for the future - the future of his great State and our great Country. He was unapologetic to critics of his efforts to bring federal programs and dollars to West Virginia. To him, it was a labor of love, and when Robert C. Byrd loved, he loved deeply and for all the days of his life.

To Senator Byrd the Constitution was not as a historical relic, but rather the living, breathing soul of the Republic. He was its greatest defender and its most impassioned promoter.

It is fitting that this lover of history, the guardian of the Constitution, this son of the Senate, is being memorialized even as the Nation celebrates Independence Day. Senator Byrd may not have been a Founding Father, but this adopted son of a West Virginia coal miner would have been right at home among them.

Yes, he could hob-knob with Kings and Queens all over the world and princes and princesses, and he could scold Presidents of the United States. But you know my friends you know as well as I know where he was most comfortable. That was either in my parents' home in Beckley, West Virginia in Raleigh West Virginia, or in my home or in your home. He was much more comfortable sitting down to a dinner of beans, and cornbread and onions, and sipping buttermilk.

He competed only against himself, to work the hardest, to do the most, to cast the greatest number of votes, to be his very best. And in doing so, he inspired generations of West Virginia.

Yes, Senator Byrd, in the words of one of his favorite poems, has now "...crossed the bar," crossed the bar. He has set sail on a journey to that farthest shore, where his beloved Erma, waits for him. I know that I speak for my colleagues today Representative Alan Mollohan and Representative Shelley Moore Capito in saying Godspeed, my dear Senator.

In his role as President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Senator Byrd represented the entire Senate at significant national events. His compatriot during those events, our Speaker of the House of Representatives, who is joined here today by our Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, but our Speaker knew Senator Byrd almost as well as we West Virginians. They traveled together; they represented both bodies of this great Country of ours, in many different forums.

The Speaker's and Senator Byrd's approaches to statecraft are as similar in that no detail is too small, every vote counts, no vote is taken for granted and every person matters. They both share a passion for people.

Ladies and Gentlemen welcome the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi

Good afternoon.  Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, Leaders Reid and McConnell, Bishop Grove, so many friends of Senator Byrd who are gathered here.  I am so pleased to join my colleagues from West Virginia-Mr. Rahall, who is a chairman and a great leader in the Congress of the United States; Congressman Alan Mollohan, he is a chairman as well; Shelley Moore Capito.  I am pleased to be with them as well as our delegation from the House of Representatives led by our Leader Steny Hoyer in the House. 

I bring, as Speaker of the House, I sadly have the privilege of bringing the condolences of the House of Representatives to Marjorie and to Mona and the entire Byrd family.  As a friend of Senator Byrd, I do so with great sadness.  

But happily, thanks to the Byrd family, some of us had the opportunity to sing Senator Byrd's praises in his presence in December, when he became the longest-serving Member of Congress in American history. 

I noted then that Senator Byrd's Congressional service began in the House of Representatives.  In those six years in the House, he demonstrated what would become the hallmarks of his commitment: his love of the people of West Virginia, his passion for history and public service, and his remarkable oratorical skills. 

And I am going to talk to you about his service in the House briefly.  In 1953, this is one of his earliest speeches, he came to the floor of the House and he said: 'I learned quite a long time before becoming a Member of this House that there is an unwritten rule in the minds of some, perhaps, which is expected to cover the conduct of new members in a legislative body to the extent that they should be often seen but seldom be heard; I have observed this rule,' he said, 'very carefully up to this time and I shall continue to do so... however...the book of Ecclesiastes...says: 'To everything there is a season... a time to keep silence and a time to speak.'  And he decided it was time for him to speak. 

He went on in that speech; it was one of his earliest speeches.  He went on in that speech to quote not only the bible but Shakespeare, Rudyard Kipling, and Daniel Webster.  And, Mr. President, this was a speech about world trade. 

Though he thrived in the House, when he moved on to the Senate, Senator Byrd remarked that he was happy to leave behind the limitations on speaking time on the House floor.   

On a personal moment, I'll never forget a dinner I hosted for him in the early 80's when he was running for reelection at that time, in California.   

After dinner, we didn't know what to expect.  We were all so nervous to be in the presence of such a great person.  And what did he do?  He pulled out his fiddle and regaled us with West Virginia tunes and told us great stories about each and every one of you.  That was an act of friendship that I will never forget.     

Later, when I came to Congress, I told Senator Byrd how my father, who had served in Congress, gave me the image of a coalminer carved in coal.  It is the only thing I have from my father's office as a Member of Congress.  It had been a gift to him from Jennings Randolph, who had represented West Virginia so well, and it sat in my father's office when he was in the House of Representatives. 

It now sits in the Speaker's office.  It is in my West Virginia corner, along with a silver tray from Senator Byrd which I love especially because it is engraved, 'With thanks, from Robert and Erma.'

In the beginning of my comments, I mentioned a speech of Senator Byrd's on the House floor.  That day, in 1953, he quoted the words of Daniel Webster.   These words, when you come to the Capitol, are etched on the wall of the chamber high above the Speaker's chair.  And these words would come to define his leadership but he voiced them in that earliest speech.  Senator Byrd said, 'Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests and see whether we also in our day and generation may not perform something worthy to be remembered.'  Daniel Webster.  

Senator Byrd's service, and his leadership, were more than worthy to be remembered for many generations to come.  And as my colleague Mr. Rahall said, it is very appropriate that we are celebrating Robert Byrd's life and putting him to rest in the week of July 4th; he was a great American patriot.  And as Governor Manchin said, we shall never see his like again.      

May he rest in peace.   Amen.

Former President Bill Clinton

Thank you. Thank you very much. Governor, all the members of Senator Byrd's family, Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, Madam Speaker, Congressman Rahall and all the House members here, Senator Reid, Senator McConnell, all the senators, thank you, Senator Rockefeller and thank you, Vicki Kennedy.

I'd also like to thank all the people here who at the time of his passing, or ever worked for Robert Byrd who helped him to succeed for the people of West Virginia. I thank them.

And, I want to thank the Martin Luther King male chorus. They gave us a needed break from all these politicians talking up here.

I want to say first that I come here to speak for two members my family. Hillary wanted to be here today and she paid her respects to Senator Byrd as he lay in state in the United States Senate before making a trip on behalf of our country to Central and Eastern Europe.

I am grateful to Bob Byrd for many things, but one thing that no one has given enough attention to in my opinion today is that while he always wanted to be the best senator, and he always wanted to be the longest-serving senator, he wanted every other senator to be the best senator that he or she could be. And he helped Hillary a lot when she came to represent the people of New York. I am forever grateful for that.

Now, everybody else has canonizing Senator Byrd. I would like to humanize him a little bit.

Because I think it makes it more interesting and makes his service all the more important much. First of all, most people had to go all the way to Washington to become awed by, you might even say intimidated by Robert Byrd.

Not me. I had advance experience before I got elected. [The first] time I ever ran for office, at the opening of campaign season in Arkansas, below the Waccamaw and Ozark mountains, which were once connected to the Appalachians, we had this big rally. And the year I started, don't you know, Robert Byrd was the speaker.

1974, April, I'll never forget it. It was a beautiful spring night.

And he gave one of those stem-winding speeches. And then he got up and he played the fiddle, and the crowd went crazy. And you know, in 1974, in a place like Arkansas or West Virginia, playing the fiddle was a whole lot better for your politics than playing the saxophone. So I am completely intimidated.

And then all the candidates get to speak. They're all limited to four or five minutes. Some went over. All the candidates for governor and every state officer. And then the members of the -- people running for the House of Representatives, there were five of us. We were dead last. And I drew the short straw. I was dead last among them.

By the time I got up to speak, it had been so long since Robert Byrd spoke, he was hungry again. And I realized, in my awed state, I couldn't do that well. So I decided the only chance I had to be remembered was to give the shortest speech. I spoke for 80 seconds. And I won the primary. And I owed it to Robert Byrd.

Now, when I was elected president, I knew that one of the things I needed to do before I took the oath of office was go to the Senate and pay my respects to Senator Byrd. In 1974, when I first met him, he had already been the leading authority on the institutional history of the Senate and the Senate rules for some years and he certainly was by the time I was about to become president. So I did that. And I got a copy of his history of the Senate, and his history of the Roman Senate. And I read them. And they're, I'm proud to say, still on my bookshelf in my office in Harlem in New York City today because I was so profoundly impressed.

Now, Robert Byrd was not without a sense of humor. For example, I was once ragging him about all the federal money he was hauling down to West Virginia. And it was bad for -- I mean, I was from Arkansas. We weren't much better off than you. We weren't any better off than you. And every friend I had in Arkansas said, he's just a senator. You're sitting in the White House. We don't get squat compared to what they get. What is the matter with you? I was getting the living daylights beat out of me about once a week.

So I said to him, early in my first term, I said, you know, senator, if you pave every single inch of West Virginia, it's going to be much harder to mine coal. And he smiled, and he said, the Constitution does not prohibit humble servants from delivering whatever they can to their constituents.

But let me say something, seriously. He knew people who were elected to represent states and regions and political philosophies. We're flesh and blood people, which means they would never be perfect. He knew they were subject to passion and anger. And when you make a decision, that's important when you're mad, there's about an 80 percent chance you'll make a mistake. And that's why he thought the rules and the institution and the Constitution were so important. And he put them before everything, even what he wanted.

I'll never forget when we were trying to pass health care reform, in 1993 and '94. Senator Byrd was a passionate supporter of the efforts we were making, just as he was of the efforts that President Obama has made. But we only had 55 votes, and we could not defeat a filibuster. And so I said, "Well, Senator, why don't you just let me stick this on the

budget, because that's the only thing you can't filibuster." That violated something called the Byrd rule.

They knew he was running the Senate. They just go ahead and named the rule for him. So ... I said, "You know, you really ought to suspend this, because the budget is going to be bankrupt if we don't quit spending so much money on health care, and we can't do it if we don't offer health care to everybody."

And he looked at me and he said, "That argument might have worked when you were a professor in law school. But you know as well as I do, it is substantively wrong." He wouldn't do it.

Then in his defense, he turned right around, and he worked his heart out to break that filibuster, and he was trying till the very end not to get me to give up the fight, because he thought if we just tried, we could find some errant Republican who would make a mistake and vote with us. He would never give it up.

The point I want to make is, he made a decision against his own interests, his own conviction, his own fight. And that's one reason I thank God that he could go in his wheelchair in his most significant vote at the end of his service in the Senate and vote for health care reform and make it real law.

Now, I will say this. If you want to get along with Senator Byrd, and you were having one of those constitutional differences, it was better for your long-term health if you lost the battle. I won the battle over the line-item veto. Oh, he hated the line-item veto. He hated the line-item veto with a passion that most people in West Virginia reserve for blood feuds, like the Hatfields and the McCoys.

You would have thought the line-item veto had been killing members of the Byrd family for 100 years. It made his blood boil. You've never been lectured by anybody, Nick Rahall said that. Till Bob Byrd has lectured you, you have never known a lecture. I regret that every new president and every new member of Congress will never have the experience

of being dressed down by Senator Robert Byrd.

And I'll be darned if he wasn't right about that, too. The Supreme Court rule for him instead of me on the line-item veto.

All right?

The point I want to make here is a serious one. He did as good a job for you as he could. As far as he was concerned, there was no such thing as too much for West Virginia. But the one thing he would not do, even for you, is violate his sense of what was required to maintain the integrity of the Constitution and the integrity of the United

States Senate, so that America could go on when we were wrong, as well as right. So we would never be dependent on always being right.

Let me just say, finally, it is commonplace to say that he was a self-made man, that he set an example of lifetime learning. He was the first, and as far as I know, maybe the only member of Congress to get a law degree while serving in the Congress. But he did more learning than that. And all you've got to do is look around this crowd today and listen

to that music to remember.

There are a lot of people who wrote these eulogies for Senator Byrd, and the newspapers, and I read a bunch of them. And they mentioned that he once had a fleeting association with the Ku Klux Klan. And what does that mean?

I'll tell what you it means. He was a country boy from the hills and hollers of West Virginia. He was trying to get elected. And maybe he did something he shouldn't have done, and he spent the rest of his life making it up. And that's what a good person does.

There are no perfect people. There are certainly no perfect politicians. And so, yes, I'm glad he got a law degree. But by the time he got a law degree, he already knew more than 99 percent of the lawyers in America, anyway. The degree he got in human nature and human wisdom, the understanding that came to him by serving you and serving in the

Senate, that's the people from the hills and hollers of West Virginia, in their patriotism, they provided a disproportionate number of the soldiers who fought for our independence from England. And they have provided a disproportionate number of the soldiers in every single solitary conflict since that time, whether they agreed or disagreed with the policy.

The family feeling, the clan loyalty, the fanatic independence. The desire for a hand up, not a hand out. The willingness to fight when put into a corner. That has often got the people from whom Senator Byrd and I sprang in trouble. Because we didn't keep learning and growing and understanding that all the African-Americans who have been left out and

left down and lived for going to church and lived to see their kids get a better deal, and have their children sign up for the military when they're needed. They're just like we are.

That all the Irish Catholics, the Scotch Irish used to fight. Everybody. The Italian immigrants, the people from Latin America who have come to our shores. The people from all over the world. Everybody who's ever been let down and left out and ignored, and abused, or who's got a terrible family story. We are all alike. That is the real education

Robert Byrd got, and he lived it every day of his life in the United States Senate to make America a better, stronger place.

So not long after, maybe right before Senator Byrd lost Erma, I said in a fleeting world of instant food and attention deficit disorder, he had proved, and so had she, that some people really do love each other till death do they part.

I've been thinking about that today, thinking maybe we ought to amend the marriage vows and say that till death to us part and till death do bring us back together.

I -- I admired Senator Byrd; I liked him; I was grateful to him. I loved our arguments, and I loved our common causes. But most of all, I loved it that he had had the wisdom to believe that America was more important than any one individual, any one president, any one senator.

That the rules, the institutions, the system had to enable us to keep forming a more perfect union through ups and downs and good times and bad.

He has left us a precious gift. He fought a good fight. He kept the faith. He has finished his course, but not ours. If we really would honor him today and every day, we must remember his lessons, and live by them. Thank you.

Vice President Joe Biden

Bishop, Reverend Clergy, Mona and Marjorie, the entire Byrd family -- if you didn't already know it, it's pretty clear the incredible esteem your father was held in.  I know you've known that your whole life.

To my fellow members of the Senate, you know, I was telling the President, when I got elected the last time and had the great honor of running with the President, I was elected Vice President and United States senator in the same day for my seventh term.  And in talking to -- and I got sworn in for that seventh term because we thought we might need a vote there in those first couple weeks.  And every time I sat with the Leader -- I never called Senator Byrd "Senator," I always called him "Leader" -- when I sat with the Leader, I could see that look in his face and he said, "Joe, you sure you're making the right decision giving up the Senate for Vice President?"  (Laughter.)  Because as the senators know, he revered the Senate.  As Danny Inouye said going into the chamber when we were going in to honor your father, yesterday we walked in together, he said, "You know, Joe, had you stayed, you'd be number two."  I'm still number two, Danny.  (Laughter.)  I'm still number two.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. President, yesterday I had the opportunity to pay my respects to Leader Byrd as he lay in repose in the Senate chamber.  I met the family then and again today.  And the last time that happened was 50 years ago; the last time that that chamber I revere served as a resting place for anyone was 50 years ago.

But although I and my colleagues behind me revere the Senate, Robert C. Byrd elevated the Senate.  Other great men and their families would have chosen for them to lay in state in the Rotunda.  But Bob Byrd and his family chose to lay in state in the Senate chamber.  And to me, this is completely appropriate, having served with him for 36 plus years.  For the Senate chamber was Robert C. Byrd's cathedral.  The Senate chamber was his cathedral, and West Virginia was his heaven.  (Applause.)

And there's not a lot of hyperbole in that.  Every person in the Senate, as my colleagues behind you can tell you, brings something special about them.  I'll never forget having privately criticized a senator when I was there the first year.  I was sitting with the previous leader, Senator Mansfield, who was an incredible guy.  And he told me that -- he said, "Why are you upset?"  And I told him about a particular senator railing against something I thought was very worthy, the Americans With Disabilities Act.  And he went on to tell me that every member of the Senate represented something in the eyes of their state that was special and represented a piece of their state.

Well, if there was ever a senator who was the embodiment of his state, if there was ever a senator who, in fact, reflected his state, it was Robert C. Byrd.

The fact of the matter is, the pick of the banjo, the sweet sound of the fiddle, ramp dinners in the spring, country fairs in the summer, the beauty of the laurels in the mountains, the rush of the rapids through the valleys -- these things not only describe West Virginia, but from an outsider's point of view who has been here many times at the invitation of Jennings Randolph and Robert C. Byrd, it seems to me they define a way of life.  It's more than just a state.

And Robert C. Byrd was the fierce -- most fierce defender of not only the state, but the way of life -- I think the most fierce defender that probably this state has ever known in its history.

You know, Robert Byrd did use the phrase, "When I die, West Virginia will be written on my heart."  And I used to kid him, I said, "You have so many Scotch-Irish down there, you don't acknowledge it was an Irish Catholic named Joyce who said that first."  (Laughter.)  Reverend, he quoted everybody else, but when he used that phrase, he'd never acknowledge that it was James Joyce who said, "When I die, Dublin will be written in my heart."  And all he would do is laugh.

The fact of the matter is, West Virginia was not only written in his heart but he wore it on his sleeve.  He took such pride in this place.  He took such pride in all of you.  I remember he asked me, one of the few races he had -- it was a race -- whether I'd come down because I was the young guy and I'd come down and demonstrate to everybody that I could not keep up with Robert C. Byrd, which happened to be true.  And I was -- I think, Nick, you were at the dinner.  We had a Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner down here, and Robert C. Byrd did something never happened before in all the dinners I've spoken at.  He stood up and he said, "We're honored to have Senator Joe Biden from Delaware here tonight, and Joe, I'd like to introduce you to West Virginia."  Then he spent, as Nick will remember, the next probably 10 minutes talking about everyone in the audience by name -- where they were from, what they had done, how they had fought through difficulty.  And then he said, kind of like Johnny Carson, "Here's Joe."  (Laughter.)

Well, I thought it was pretty impressive -- literally.  Robert C. Byrd asked me to speak, but he knew the privilege was mine, not the people to whom I was speaking.  He was devoted to all of you like few senators in the 37 years I was there, 36 plus years I was there, that I have ever, ever known.

He was fiercely devoted, as you've all heard, to his principles.  Even once he became power, he always spoke truth to power, standing up for the people he proudly was part of, and you've heard it many times today but it bears repeating again, in defense of the Constitution he revered.

I always wear a flag pin, but I was afraid he'd be looking down today because every time I'd wear the flag pin on the floor, he would grab me, take my pin, and put on a Constitution pin.  That's the pin I'm wearing.  So, Boss, I'm wearing the pin.  (Applause.)

Robert C. Byrd said many things, but he once said, "As long as there is a forum in which questions can be asked by men and women who do not stand in awe of a chief executive, and one can speak as long as one's feet will allow one to stand, the liberties of the American people will be secure."

Eleven Presidents knew Robert C. Byrd.  He served, as he pointed out, concurrently with them, not under them.  (Applause.)  And 11 Presidents -- were they all here and two are here -- can attest to the fact that he always showed respect but never deference.  And he stood in awe of none.

He had an incredible, prodigious memory that I will not take the time to regale you about.  I just remember one time sitting with the Queen of England at a formal dinner, and he recited the entire -- the entire lineage of the Tudors and every year each one had served.  And she sat there, and I thought her bonnet was going to flip off her head.  (Laughter.)  It was like, what did I just hear?  She learned about relatives she probably forgot she had.  (Laughter.)

As also noted, Robert C. Byrd was a parliamentary library, a keeper of the institution of the Senate, and he was the institution itself.  But to me and many people here today, like guys I see, Bill Bradley and Jim Sasser, who long left the Senate for greener pastures, and I hope better remuneration -- we used to kid about that, too -- but I -- for a lot of us, he was a friend, and he was a mentor and he was a guide.

Nick and I were talking a little bit earlier, because Nick -- I commuted every day for 36 years in the United States Senate 250 miles a day.  Robert C. Byrd was a stickler about when he'd set votes.  And I'd drive down from Washington, and I'd call Nick on this old big old car phone I first had -- it was about that big.  And I'd say, "Nick, I can see the dome.  Hold the vote, I can see the dome."

Finally, Nick caught on, he said, "Joe -- Senator -- how far away can you see the dome?"  (Laughter.)  Because he'd be the one to go to the Leader and say, "Can you hold the vote two more minutes for Biden?"  As long as I was behaving, he held the vote.  But when I found myself in disagreement, I'd stand there to catch a 7:00 train -- he'd set a vote for 7:00.  (Laughter.)  And I'd walk up to him and I'd say "I need seven minutes from the chamber."  And Nick knows this -- I'd walk up to him and I'd stand -- I always stood down in the well.  And he stood in the first riser, and I'd say, "Mr. Leader, I know there's no -- we got an hour."  I said, "You set the vote for 7:00.  Any possibility for setting it at 10 to 7:00 so I could get the train?"  He'd go like this -- he'd look at the clock, look at me, look at the clock and say, "No."  (Laughter.)  "No."

But that's because I misbehaved once.  I voted with George Mitchell on a matter relating to miners and that was a big mistake.  (Laughter.)  He literally took the roll call sheet -- there's these sheets, as the staff members know -- with every senator's name and how they voted.  He took the roll call sheet, had it framed, had my name circled in red, and literally -- literally -- had it screwed to the ornate doorframe in his office then as the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee.  So every single senator coming to see him would walk out, and at eye height, they'd see Biden circled in red and know darn well they better not vote against Robert C. Byrd ever.  (Laughter and applause.)  You think I'm joking.  I'm not joking.

And then I got in his good graces -- I tried to run for President, he said, "I don't want any senators running for President."  I said, "Why, Mr. Leader?"  He said, "Because you never come back and vote when I need you."  (Laughter.)  So I made a promise that no matter where I was, if he called me and said he needed my vote, I'd drop whatever I was doing and I'd come.  And I kept the commitment -- the only one I might add.  That got me back in his good graces again.

The point is that this is a man who knew exactly what he was doing.  After I was elected 1972 as a 29-year-old kid, I was number 100 out of 100 in Senate seniority.  And Leader Byrd offered up -- he was then the whip -- he offered his office to me to come down from Delaware so I could have a place to interview staff members.  It was in his office, and in the connection his secretary put through, that I received a call telling me that -- about an accident which took the life of my wife and my daughter.  And when they were buried, we held a memorial service a couple days later in Delaware where thousands of people showed up, and it was a bone-chilling slate day of rain.  And people couldn't get in the church.

And I never knew it initially, but Robert C. Byrd -- and I think you may have driven him up, Nick -- drove up on his own with Nick to that church.  He stood outside for the better part of an hour in a driving rainstorm where the temperature was below 32.  When my brother saw him and asked him to come in, he said no; he wouldn't displace anyone.  He stayed there for the entire service.  When the service was over, he got in his vehicle and he drove back, never attempting to be noticed, never seeking that to know, as my deceased wife used to say, the real measure of generosity is would you do it and no one ever knew you did it.

Well, Robert C. Byrd did that.  I was appreciative of what he did, but I quite frankly didn't understand till a couple years later I was in his office, and behind his desk was a huge boot cast in bronze.  It was Michael's boot; it was his grandson's boot.  And all of a sudden, it came so crystal clear to me who this guy was.  I'd known him, but I understood immediately what he was about.  For him it was all about family.  It was not just Erma, his beloved wife of 69 years.  It was not just his daughters, his grandchildren, great grandchildren -- all of whom are in our prayers today.  It was an awful lot of you.  I'll bet if he were here he could look out and name -- name you, and tell you what your father or mother did for him, what your grandmother or grandfather did for him, and how you made such and such of yourself.

Clearly in his own life, Robert Byrd suffered a lot of hardships.  You all know the story -- losing his mom, being raised and adopted by an aunt and uncle, growing up in a home without electricity or water, having to work at an early age.  He had an incredible, incredible determination, one that I don't think any of my colleagues have ever witnessed, would be my guess.  But, you know, this man was -- it wasn't just that, as President Clinton pointed out, that at age 47 and as a sitting congressman, he -- or 45 -- he went and got a law degree.  I don't know that you know -- you probably do, Mr. President -- he got that law degree without having a college degree.  And at age 77, he went to Marshall University and completed his work, getting his college degree.  (Applause.)

Because to him, in my view -- and I don't know, the family would tell you this -- and to him, I think he felt there was something wrong with the fact that he got the law degree without graduating.  He didn't need that undergraduate degree, but it was Bob Byrd.  To quote John Stennis, "Plow into the hedgerow and to the end of the row."

The remarkable thing about him is he traveled a hard path.  He devoted his life, though, to making that path a little easier for those who followed.  This is a guy who continued to taste and smell and feel the suffering of the people of his state.  He tasted it.  That's why it was so deeply ingrained in him.

It wasn't just a moral obligation.  This guy remembered.  And he unapologetically -- as has been pointed out -- did everything to improve the lives of the people of Delaware [sic] by stealing all the money from Delaware, Tennessee, Texas, California, that he could possibly get.  (Laughter.)

Remember, Governor, there were two campaigns ago he's getting beat up for trying to move -- was it two campaigns ago? -- to have the FBI moved down to West Virginia.  And the national press was beating him up.  And I was on the floor with him.  And he just had gotten ripped in a press conference about that.  And he -- you know how he used to grab you by the arm, walk you back -- he walked me back, he said, "Joe, I hope they keep throwing me in the briar patch."  (Laughter.)

But I tell you what, you West Virginians owe a lot of people in Delaware for a lot of money we should have gotten and you got.  (Laughter.)  I just want you to know that.  So be nice to the rest of us.  (Applause.)

And by the way, if you doubt any of it, you just drive here, you cross the Robert C. Byrd Drive, the Robert C. [Byrd] Appalachian Highway, the Robert C. [Byrd] Library and Learning Center, the Robert C. Byrd Clinic, the Robert C. [Byrd] Federal Building in Charleston and on and on and on.

But, ladies and gentlemen, of course, it's more than the name we're not going to forget.  It's his courage.  He died like he lived.  He died like he lived his life.  He never stopped fighting.  How many people would have hung on as long as he did?  How many people would have the ability to get back out of that hospital bed and get in a wheelchair and come in and vote, vote for this?  He never stopped thinking about his people and the things he cared about.

Speaking several weeks ago, this week actually, when Robert Byrd said, "Like Jefferson and Adams, I'm inspired to continue serving the land I love to the very best of my abilities, for the whole of my years.

Well, he served the land he loved.  He served the people he loved.  He served the people who were in his blood.  And because of that service, you had gained greatly.  And with his loss, you're the first who will feel that loss.

But it's not just West Virginia alone.  It's all of us.  I said to him -- I said of him when I learned of his death, I was on an errand for the President in Cleveland, and I said, "You know, to paraphrase the poet, we shall not see his like again."  Had he been there, he would have said, "Joe, that's Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene ii" -- (laughter) -- "and the actual quote is, I shall not look upon his like again."

Mr. Leader, we're not going to look upon your like again.  I'm not even going to ask God to bless you because he already had and I know where you are.  And may God bless your family.  May God bless this state and this country.  And may God protect our troops.  Thank you. 

President Barack Obama

Thank you.  To Mona and Marjorie, and to Senator Byrd's entire family, including those adorable great granddaughters that I had a chance to meet -- Michelle and I offer you our deepest sympathies.

To Senator Byrd's friends, including the Speaker of the House, the Majority Leader, the Republican Leader, President Clinton, Vice President Biden, Vicki Kennedy, Nick Rahall and all the previous speakers; Senator Rockefeller for the outstanding work that you've done for the state of West Virginia; to his larger family -- the people of West Virginia -- I want you all to know that all America shares your loss.  May we all find comfort in a verse of Scripture that reminds me of our dear friend:  "The time of my departure has come.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

It's interesting that you've heard that passage from several speakers now, because it embodies somebody who knew how to run a good and long race, and somebody who knew how to keep the faith -- with his state, with his family, with his country and his Constitution.

Years from now, when I think of the man we memorialize today, I'll remember him as he was when I came to know him, his white hair full like a mane, his gait steadied with a cane.

Determined to make the most of every last breath, the distinguished gentleman from West Virginia could be found at his desk until the very end, doing the people's business, delivering soul-stirring speeches, a hint of the Appalachians in his voice, stabbing the air with his finger, fiery as ever, years into his 10th decade.

He was a Senate icon.  He was a Party leader.  He was an elder statesman.  And he was my friend.  That's how I'll remember him.

Today we remember the path he climbed to such extraordinary peaks.  Born Cornelius Calvin Sale, Jr. -- Corny, he joked, for short -- his mother lost her life in the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918.  From the aunt and uncle who raised him, amid West Virginia's coal camps, he gained not only his Byrd name but a reverence for God Almighty, a love of learning that was nurtured at Mark Twain School.  And there he met Erma, his sweetheart for over 70 years, by whose side he will now rest for eternity.

Unable to afford college, he did what he could to get by, finding work as a gas station attendant, a produce salesman, a meat-cutter, and a welder in the shipyards of Baltimore and Tampa during World War II.  Returning home to West Virginia after the war, he ran for the state House of Delegates, using his fiddle case as a briefcase, the better to stand out on the stump.

Before long, he ran for Congress, serving in the House before jumping over to the Senate, where he was elected nine times, held almost every leadership role imaginable, and proved as capable of swaying others as standing alone, marking a row of milestones along the way.  Longest-serving member of Congress.  Nearly 19,000 votes cast.  Not a single loss at the polls -- a record that speaks to the bond that he had with you, the people of his state.

Transplanted to Washington, his heart remained here, in West Virginia, in the place that shaped him, with the people he loved.  His heart belonged to you.  Making life better here was his only agenda.  Giving you hope, he said, was his greatest achievement.  Hope in the form of new jobs and industries.  Hope in the form of black lung benefits and union protections.  Hope through roads and research centers, schools and scholarships, health clinics and industrial parks that bear his name.

His early rival and late friend, Ted Kennedy, used to joke about campaigning in West Virginia.  When his bus broke down, Ted got hold of the highway patrol, who asked where he was.  And he said, "I'm on Robert Byrd highway."  And the dispatcher said, "Which one?" 

It's a life that immeasurably improved the lives of West Virginians.  Of course, Robert Byrd was a deeply religious man, a Christian.  And so he understood that our lives are marked by sins as well as virtues, failures as well as success, weakness as well as strength.  We know there are things he said -- and things he did -- that he came to regret.  I remember talking about that the first time I visited with him.  He said, "There are things I regretted in my youth.  You may know that."  And I said, "None of us are absent some regrets, Senator.  That's why we enjoy and seek the grace of God."

And as I reflect on the full sweep of his 92 years, it seems to me that his life bent towards justice.  Like the Constitution he tucked in his pocket, like our nation itself, Robert Byrd possessed that quintessential American quality, and that is a capacity to change, a capacity to learn, a capacity to listen, a capacity to be made more perfect.

Over his nearly six decades in our Capitol, he came to be seen as the very embodiment of the Senate, chronicling its history in four volumes that he gave to me just as he gave to President Clinton.  I, too, read it.  I was scared he was going to quiz me.  (Laughter.)

But as I soon discovered, his passion for the Senate's past, his mastery of even its most arcane procedures, it wasn't an obsession with the trivial or the obscure.  It reflected a profoundly noble impulse, a recognition of a basic truth about this country that we are not a nation of men, we are a nation of laws.  Our way of life rests on our democratic institutions.  Precisely because we are fallible, it falls to each of us to safeguard these institutions, even when it's inconvenient, and pass on our republic more perfect than before.

Considering the vast learning of this self-taught Senator -- his speeches sprinkled with the likes of Cicero and Shakespeare and Jefferson -- it seems fitting to close with one of his favorite passages in literature, a passage from Moby Dick:

"And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces.  And even if he forever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than any other bird upon the plain, even though they soar."

Robert Byrd was a mountain eagle, and his lowest swoop was still higher than the other birds upon the plain. 

May God bless Robert C. Byrd.  May he be welcomed kindly by the righteous Judge.  And may his spirit soar forever like a Catskill eagle, high above the Heavens.  Thank you very much.