The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-03-18
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 DANIEL O'CONNELL 5
Magnificent Tribute to One of IreIand's Fore
 most Sons by Francis M. Buckley, Superin=
 tendent of Schools in AnsOnia.

s& The address of MT. Francis M. Buck ay at the Knights of St. Patrick 8 Banquet last evening on Daniel O'Con- nell follows:
 {4 To tAe person who delves deeply in- to tk9 activity of the Irish race notho meS than the roster of illustrious men bat Ireland has given to the world. sFsrom this Niobe of nations, whose his Aory is at once a paean of heroism and "a dirge of melancholy-an ocean of Snirth and a sea of sorrow-there have Issued forth some of the most notable s7characters of history. From out this vast array of Lrishmen I have selected Gor the briefest sort of treatment one rvho typiaes all that is best in the Ministers Glory. Daniel O'Connell.
 History in it's countless pages has not offered a more forcible example of Triumph over overwhelmingly adverse Circumstances. Fiction has not pre- aentAd a more striking instance of sue cessful combat with the element of discouFa cement and failure. From the 7aborious struggles of the nation which tried mems souls and harassed men Hives Daniel OConnell emerged titanic. xnajestic, triumphant. the Moses of the Irish people and the foremost repre- sentative of constitutional reform of fhe nineteenth century.
 At his formal entrance into the larger arena of national politics he found Ireland bleeding at the feet of her oppressor of five centuries. discon- zolate, deJected and scorned, the hiss 1aR and the by-word" of malefactors. He raised her from a suppliant appeal ing for justice to the nation. dctatlng terms of Justice to the conqueror. He found his fellow co-religionists depriv- ed of their inalienable- right to wor- ship their creator as they deemed best: oppressed by an iniquitous penal code which Montesquieu chara acterized as ..made only by devils and should be registered only in hell"; despoiled learning which was the boast of the IsleNo of Saints and Scholars and the anestfmab1e privilege of an education for which Irishmen at all times have struggled Under the iron heel of tyranny, the inera dicable hate of pre- judlce and the biting sting of bigotry, prostrate. o'Connen raised her to the dignity of a nation free Sfrom civil and religious disabilities. broke the power of Pitt and Peel and placed the Wings
 The history of Ireland presents Tn fullest detail the ideal epitome of the sonal liberty for it offers the unique spectacle of a race at one and the same time fighting for noble trinity Df rights-any one of which taken sep 10 it's very depths-the right of the freedom of conscience, the right of in dividual ownership of land with full Security of possession. and the right of se1f-government. From the mo- nlent that Strongbow set foot upon Irish shores to the present day Ire 
 in her determination to be satisfied with nothing but the completest rec ognition of these self evident rlgnts: It was in behalf of these rights that the brave soldiers of Ireland renowned now on almost every battlefield or the world empurp1ed with their blood the fields of Beburb, Drogheda, Limerick and Athlone; it was to secure thelr fullest success that shane ana HuSh O,Neill, Patrick SarsHeld.s Wolfe Tone Robert Emmet and countless other noble patriots sa acrihced themselves on the altar of heroism. To this funda- mental object the profoundest intelIects of the Irish race were dedicated The trenchant pleas of Dean Swift, the thought-compeI1in orations of Ed mond Burke, the. weighted arguments of Flood and the efforts of Curran de- manded of the British nothing but the merest modicun of the Justice to ] which Ireland was rightly entitled abilities the able leaders Sheridan, Plunkett and Phillips thundered against the British citadel of indiHer-' eIlce. And eloquent Grattan, the most loyal and disinterested son of Ireland, summarized the spirit and feelings or all Irishmen when he poured out these patriotic words in that memorable plea for Irish legislative independence in 17S0: ttI wish for nothing but to breathe, in this our nation, in common with my fellow subjects. the air of lo- erty have no ambition unless it be the ambition to break your chain and contemplate your glory. never will
 
 cottager in Ireland has a link of the British chain clanking to his rags-he may be naked. he shall not be in irons; and do see the time is at hand. the spirit is gone gorth, the declaration IS planted; and though great men shall apostatize yet the cause will live; and yet the immortal fire shall outlast the organ which conveyed 1t and the breath of liberty. like the word t+t of the the a,roDhet but survive him.
 Into this self-sane three-fold strug- gle for personal freedom, O'Connell, the illustrious follower of Grattan, threw himself with all the v1gor and resoluteness that characterized his en- ergetic soul, and 1mmedlately he was recognized as a power to be dealt with and never as a foe to be conciliated His superiority over his predecessors is to be measured by the enduring qualities of his victories. Despite the efforts of the master minds who pre- ceded O'Conne1l nothing that was ob- tained was of lasting value. Grat- tan's Parliament was so short. lived that he might well have said that he sat by it's cradle and followed it's hearse; and almost everything that turies was neutralized by the union of Ireland with Great Britain in 1800,-a . union that was aided by the corrup- Akion of Castlereagh and Clare and con Summated by Pitt in his false promise the Irish of Catholic Emancipation. *khe influence of O'Connell on the other land perm eateO hlS age as to Win
 kbIood1ess victory from Wellington,
 | victor of Waterloo-the perman-
 of which extends to our own day,
 to make itself felt wherever
 ngs are to be redressed and inJus-
 sits in high places. ~4 nquestionably the greatest act of
 fife was his victory for Catholic
 ancipation. fight that was carried
 under well nigh insuperable ob-
 es The struggle of OConne1l in
 If of this justice to his country
 was chara cterized by a heroism *ction and devotion to detail that
 seldonn heen equalled in the his
 of civilization. William Hartpole
 Ky has left us=a picture of O'Con-
 at this time the dominant figure
 Great Britain and Ireland almost