“On the 17th of February, Messrs. Miller, Himes, and Elder Josiah Litch, left Philadelphia for Washington city, which they reached on the 20th. On the evening of that day they held their first meeting in the Baptist house, near the Navy-yard. It became so thronged that, on the 26th, they removed to the Apollo Hall, near the President’s mansion, where they continued till the 2d of March.
“During these lectures, on the 28th of February, the ‘Peacemaker,’ on board of the ‘Princeton,’ exploded, killing Colonel Gardiner and Mr. Upshur, the United States Secretary of State, and wounding others. That event added interest and solemnity to the lectures, and caused them to be more fully attended. There were present at the lectures a goodly number of persons belonging to both houses of Congress.
“Writing from Washington on the day of that explosion, but before the occurrence, Mr. Miller said:—
“‘They throng us constantly for papers, books, and tracts, which Bro. Himes is scattering gratuitously by thousands, containing information on this subject. They send in from this vicinity and from “old Virginia” for papers and lecturers; but the one-hundredth part of their requests can never be complied with. Never have I been listened to with so deep a feeling, and with such intense interest, for hours.’
“Mr. Miller gave nineteen lectures in this place, and Messrs. Himes and Litch fifteen.
“Calls for them to extend their tour further south came up from Charleston, S. C., Savannah, Geo., Mobile, Ala., and from many other of the larger places in the Southern States. Some of these were very importunate, but previous arrangements prevented a compliance with those requests.
“They returned north, held meetings in Baltimore from the 3d to the 8th of March, and, on the 9th, returned to Philadelphia. There Mr. Miller gave two more discourses on the 10th; on the 11th he lectured in Newark, N. J., in the Free Presbyterian meeting-house; on the 12th he gave one discourse in New York; on the 13th he spoke in Brooklyn and Williamsburg, N. Y., and on the 14th he returned to Low Hampton.
“He seems to have kept no minute of his subsequent labors, but closes his note-book, at the termination of this tour, with these words: ‘Now I have given, since 1832, three thousand two hundred lectures.’