The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-02-13

! L
[Chairman of the Banquet Committed
Chase, William H. Dugan, C.N. Trefeth-
en-, Benjamin Gribben, Thomas Payne,
! Clinton l.. Tewksbury, Horatio Clark,
Henry H unit and A. j. Cummings.
After cigars had been lighted, Presi-
dent Libby, amid frequent bursts of
appreciatiye applause, introduced the
speaking as follows:
PRESIDENT LIBBY'S SPEECH.
To our Honorary Mem bers, our Friends
and invited guests:
| To greet YOU in this banquet hall, on
this pleasant and memorial occasion,
| to extend to you most cordial welcome
in behalf of the Lincoln Club, whose
guests you are this evening, deem not
only distinguished honor but great
and delightful privilege.
| For the fifth time in the history of the
Club, we have assem- bled. with our friends
and invited guests. to pay homage to
the name and fame and to do honor to the
memory of A braham Lincoln, our be-
| loved martyr president, whose pure and
noble life we respect and adore, whose
sacred memory SO precious to every pat
riotic heart IS ours to love and cherish,
now and forevermore.
true and loyal men, scholars, orators
and statesmen, to show their apprecla-
ton for the great and valuable services
rendered to his country, and offer tribute
to the memory of that noble soul, whose
acts of mercy, charity and forgiveness
will illuminate the pages of history, re-
vealing to the world and posterity, by
the inspiring words he uttered, by the
noble deeds he performed, by the sacri-
flee of life consecrated to his country's
cause that liberty is not dream nor
truth defeated power.
Let us hope the time is fast approach
ing when we shall make this national
day, when from every city and hamlet,
from very mountain and dell, wherever
the grand and glorious old flag, the flag
of our fathers and ours, the emblem of
the free, spreads it's folds to winters
wind or summers breeze, shall arise
| from loyal hearts the grandest anthems
of praise and alteration as free and I'M
trammeled to every patriot as Gods sun
| light from the clear blue sky, to the
onor and glory of him whose memory
we consecrate this evening.
10 stay the busy hand of trade, to
pause amid the absorbing cares and
duties of active life. and on occasions
like this, with hearts aglow and tongues
afiame to proclaim to the world, the
glorious and valiant deeds of our hon
ored and heroic dead, is the grandest
right and privilege of free and enlight-
ened people.
Inspired by love of liberty. the precious
legacy of heroes and martyrs. A braham
Lincoln, the once humble child of the
backwoods, became the great and trust
ed leader of the loyal people of the most
magnificent republic in the history of
nations.
By the exalted virtues of his private
and public life, his spotless integrity,
his unselfish devotion to duty, his love
of truth, his great and tender mercy,
his charity for, his forgiveness of, and
his courtesy towards those who were
his country's enemies, he illustrated the
value and glory of our institutions, and
became forever enshrined IN the love OF
a great people. Devoutly reverent toward
Almighty God, recognizing always his
dependence upon divine authority, re-
living upon the Holy Bible for faith and
insniration and guidance IN performing
the great ard exacting duties and obliga-
lions that were daily imposed upon him;
with unfaltering courage and wisdom,
he guided this nation safely and success
fully through great andsarduous strug-
gle for freedom, and with one stroke of
the pen he gave personal liberty to four
million bondmen. ,auFyst44
AS father he was tender and affec-
tjonate: as lawyer he WAS honest and
conscientious: as statesman, he was
enlightened and profound; as President
of the United States, he was the peer of
any who has welded the sceptre of power
in Republic Empire, or Kingdom in the
history of the civilized world.
Standing tonight, it may be, in the
invisible presence of that sanity martyr;
who sealed anew with his blood the
great charter of American liberties,
seem to hear from his immortal lips
those beautiful and inspiring words SO
divinely uttered in life, with malice
towards none, with charity for all, with
firmness in the right as God gives us
to see the right, let US finish the work
we are in"
THUS by his eloquent and Christlike
words spoken upon many and different
occasions during his sublime and event.
fnI life. tue crsytal purity of his soul,
and the moral beauty of his Christian
character, became as clear, and trans
narent to the vision of the American
peonle as the lights in Heaven.
His fame will spread and grow wider
ord Greater like that of other illustrious
benefactors of mankind, and the MEM
or1y of his exalted life and character will
live in the hearts of his countrymen as
long as the Capitol where his noblest
efforts were made, shall be the pride and
oIorv of the nation he gave his life to
save
owe of liberty made Patrick Henry
eloquent
Love of liberty made oraham Lincoln
great.
In different nations and at different
times, inspired by the contemplation OF
it's divine reality, heroic men and
women have ever been ready aud willing