Judge Buckner never sought office after the celebrated
canvass of 1868, in which he was defeated bv Brutus J.
Clay. He was not an ambitious man, and could never
bring himself to adopt the ways of the politician. During
the latter part of his life he appeared to live entirely
apart from his surroundings, in conversation always
separating himself from the events that were transpiring
around him. His mind constantly reverted to those
days in which he had been such an important actor, and
when in one of those happy, reminiscent moods he was
the most delightful and captivating of men.
  He died February 17, 1900, in this city, and was the
very last one of that distinguished class of lawyers to
which he belonged. His death was the occasion of Sen-
ator Lindsay observing that if such men as he had been
in charge such conditions as have recently existed in
Kentucky would have been impossible. One who knew
him intimately and was personally very fond of him,
thus wrote of him at the time of his death:
  "In the death of Judge Richard A. Buckner, the Lex-
ington bar has lost its oldest and most distinguished
member, and Lexington one of the ablest and most con-
spicuous of her citizens, whose learning, character and
service have crowned her with honor.   He made a
great judge, he was one of the very ablest and purest
judges that ever adorned the bench of Kentucky.  
  His courage was dauntless and his self-possession
unlimited; and he presided with a dignity that has never
been surpassed. He was always a leader at the bar. He
ranked with Madison C. Johnson, Frank K. Hunt, John
B. Huston, James B. Beek, John C. Breckenridge, George
B. Kinkead, and divided with them both the rewards and
the triumphs of the forensic triumphs that made them
famous; and he was a foeman worthy of the steel of the
most expert and ablest. At times he was extremely for-
cible, with an impressive manner, a clastic diction and a
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