PHOENIX — Military veterans lined both sides of the Capitol Plaza here on Wednesday as a black hearse delivered the coffin carrying Senator John S. McCain to the rotunda, where constituents began saying farewell to the war veteran who became a towering political figure in this part of the West.

As Mr. McCain was lying in state, his immediate family and Arizona political leaders paid tribute to the naval aviator, who endured torture as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. They remembered him as an example of a statesman striving to unite Americans regardless of their political beliefs.

“It’s our job to show our respect,” said Robbie Campbell, 59, a statewide captain of the Patriot Guard Riders, an organization composed largely of motorcyclists who attend the funerals of United States military service members and first responders. “We don’t want anybody that serves to protect our freedoms to not know that the whole nation cares.”

Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona embraced Mr. McCain’s wife, Cindy McCain, as she arrived for a short private ceremony on the morning of what would have been her husband’s 82nd birthday.