Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1920-02-14
COATES SPEAKS ON
LIFE OF LINCOLN
M erly Characterization of
Great Emancipator Given To
Eastern Normal Students

was observed at Eastern kentucky
State Normal by patriotic exercises
in the chapel. An address by Presi-
dent T. ]. Coates on the life of Lin
coin was decided feature of the day.
1t was a mastery presentation of the
life of the Great Emancipation, told
concisely yet covering the main points
of his career, in narrative form that
held the attention of all. Several
patriotic songs were sung. The adj
dress of President Coates on the life
of Lincoln was as follows:
Students: We are assembled here
this morning to honor ourselves in
paying tribute to the majestic memory
of Abraham Lincoln. The character
OF this great Kentuckain, this great
American needs no eulogy from me-.
"To know him is an education in it
self" said one writer; and we are turn
ing aside for short time today to
know him a little better. In these
critical times, it will pay us well to
sit at his feet and learn of him. "Lest
we forget; lest we forget"
Abraham Lincoln was born in
Larue County, Kentucky, February II
1889 of Quaker parents and
Nancy Hanks Lincoln. When seven
years old he moved with his parents
to Spencer County, Indiana, where two
years later his mother died. He was
fortunate in his stepmother who en-
couraged the boy to try to make
something of himself. l may remark
in passing that there are few of the
great men of the past who do not owe
their success to some >woman-gen-
orally the mother, sometimes the wife,
occasionally a sweetheart Or perhaps
only a friend.
For 10 years young Lincoln engaged
in the hard toll of frontier life. He
assisted his father in hewing out a
home from tha forest gaining the
name of "rail. splitter" In this humble
toll he developed great physical
strength which was a great asset while
bearing of his mighty shoulders the
burdens of great civil war.
In 1928 Observation-Disclosures
New Orleans and there witnessed the
cruelties of the slavery system which
aroused in the heart of the backwoods
young man such a hatred for slavery
as to color and direct his after life.
He. studied law alone; and, in 1882
fought in Black Hawks war advancing
to the grade of Captain. In 1884 he
made the race for the Legislature and
was defeated. l have overlooked his
removal to Illinois. He was admitted
to the bar in 1887, married in 1912 and
elected to Congress in 1876 where he
did not particularly distinguish HIM
self. He opened his fight in 1854 in
a debate with Douglas in the Legisla-
ture over the Kansas-Nebraska bill.
He was defeated for the Senate by
| Lyman Trumbull. In 1856, engaged
in the celebrated Lincoln-Dcuglas de-
bate before the electorate of Illinois
resulting in the election of Douglas
to the Senate, but later losing him
the Presidency; in 1860, he delivered
the celebrated Cooper Union speech
which stamped him as coming man;
later he was nominated for the Presi-
dency on the Republican ticket on a
vigorous anti-slavery platform de-
feating such old war horses as Seward,
Chase, Cameron and Bates. The Demo-
cratic party nominated Douglas and
i Breckenridge. Lincoln was elected
and inaugurated March 4, 1861; on
April Id, Ft. Sumter was fired upon
and the war was on. have not
/ time to detail the acts of Mr.. Lincoln
during the four long and pergatorial
years when it seemed that God was
cleaning the Nation as by fire. Could
the war have been avoided? No one
can ever know. We only know that
Iout of the bloodshed, the sorrows and
losses of those years of anguish a
mighty Nation was born-one country
one hope, one flag.
My father fought on the losing side;
but before he died, he often said to
me, "We thought we were right; but
it is best that the country was no!
divided" We shudder to think OF
what would have been the result g
little while ago when autocracy seem
ed on the point Of triunnphing if oul
country had been divided and unable
to throw its mighty weight into the
scale on the side of suffering demo
cracy. Four years to day from th'
time Ft. Ft. Sumer was fired upol
coin was murdered by a fanatica
actor in Ford's Theatre, in Washing
ton; and the South lost its best friend
Paralyzed by death was the stron,
but pitying hand, the only hand tina
could have saved the South from tn
horrors of reconstruction, the great
est tragedy since Calvary. Such il
. brief is the story of the great Eman