The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-02-15
MR. F. M. BUCKLEY'S
 LINCOLN ADDRESS
Former Bridgeporter Deliv- CTS Grafton iii .Ansonia Which Is Heard BJ Many From This City.

At the Lincoln Centenary in Ansonia Friday evening which was observed by all the civic organizations and the schools of the city, Frances M. Buck
 ley, Superintendent. of Schools of An sonia and a native of this city, his pa- rents residing in Cottage street, was the orator of the evening. MT. Buck ley delivered an eloquent address last ing oyer one hour on the Career and Character of Abraham Lincoln;" DOT traying the principal features of his career, his political life. principally the Lincoln-Douglass debates, the Presi- dency and the great act of his life, the Emancipation Proclamation. A large number of Bridgeporters were in attendance. MT. Buckley closed with the brilliant pre-Oration which follows:
 "And so in the fitness of life. when he had passed his length of days in the land of fraternal bloodshed and
 had accomplished a Titan'S work, while beset with difficulties such as no other man of the century encountered, God called him to His bosom. Not cast in any ordinary mould was he, this child of the prairie. this 'rail-splitter, this true-born king of men, Indeed, it would seem that he was raised by Providence in the time of direct need, to do a superhuman task and to leave to posterity a heritage of bright mem ory and noble inspiration. He was the most American of all our public men American in birth, American in tra- dition. American in training. Unstain- ed by urban artif1cality. or by Euro peon effeteness, Lincoln the rugged. the plain, the original typified the splen- did natural energies of the new coun- Alzs- 1o;~ %f the people. unattractive in person, un- polished in manner, untaught in the subtlety of diplomacy and the culture of the ancientS, rose to a transcen- dent place. not only in the hearts of his own countrymen but wherever the name of unselfish genius and martyred patriotism is recorded.
 "He was no Talleyrand. coolly to play with the destinies of a continent with delft and jeweled fingers; no Bismarck to trample down with blood and iron the sacred rights of his fel- lows. He never swept invincible from the Tagus to the Danube or flung his grenadiers against the combined ar mics of Europe. like Napoleon. He never held a, senate spellbound by the magic of his oratory. like Pitt or Web ster But when Talleyrand and Bis marck are unread names in dusty tonnes, the man who made freedom surcharged witI- a new and splendid significance shall be blessed by the bene6iction of uncounted hearts. When Napoleon's name has become only the synonym of a boundless ambition, the man who gave Grant his master chance shall long since have been rev. erenced for the penetration of his in tellect and the unselfishness of his soul The day may come when the fire shall have died from the words o< Chatham and when Webster's mes sage shall be a commOnplace-but as long as men shall kindle at words of loyalty and earnestness. of eternal wisdom and the love that paSseth un- derstanding-as long as heart shall speak to heart. so long the eloquence of the Gettysburg address must sure ly live. It's intense earnestness, us profound simplicity. the nobility that make it almost prayer, were the the simplicity. the nobility of Lincoln himself.
 "OratorS in glowing perlouS ndVe drawn upon their greatest powers to his virtues: historians nave placed him ill niche or glory pecu, liarly his own; essayiSts have penned some of the choicest bits Of literature around his illustrious name; poets, drawing from the treaSure-houSe or imagery, have ennobled his every act, and vet in the last analysis. each and every panegyrist. like the plain mor- taIs that read his life or hear his deeds recounted. place the true foundation of his greatness in the high morality of his character.
 That morality ennobled the man: it ennobled every deed he performed and every word that he uttered. Moral greatness. that rarest of qualities. is the secret of Lincoln. He was too clear of sight to be blind to the great problems of his time: too earnest to be content with half solutions; too patriotic to shrink from pouring out the energies of brain and body in his service. His patience never grew weary: his saving humor never failed; his love of his fellowmen. like his confidence in the all-wise Provi- dence, was as abiding as the eternal sea- Lincoln can never be a mere he must ever be warm in our imaginations and our hearts: vital in those qualities which win mems love and undying reverence. He was one of us. intensely human. buoyant. the joy as we'll as the terrlple
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