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To: Reily
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

I fail to see even a remote similarity. Perhaps you would be so kind to show us those similarities.

7 posted on 09/08/2019 4:56:10 PM PDT by Robert DeLong
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To: Robert DeLong; Reily

I’ll give it a shot, From Wiki:

“The speech begins by praising the custom of the public funeral for the dead, but criticizes the inclusion of the speech, arguing that the “reputations of many brave men” should “not be imperiled in the mouth of a single individual”. Pericles argues that the speaker of the oration has the impossible task of satisfying the associates of the dead, who would wish that their deeds be magnified, while everyone else might feel jealous and suspect exaggeration.”

From Lincoln’s address:

“But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.”

******************
The takeaway is that both speechwriters acknowledge that no speech can capture or describe the depth of what happened.

There may be more similarities but we can definitely see Lincoln pulling a Greek classic off the shelf and reading while pondering what could be said about such an event.


15 posted on 09/08/2019 5:36:37 PM PDT by Hostage (Article V)
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To: Robert DeLong

I suggest you Google and see all the hits on essays & arguments for its similarity. It’s not just me. You of course are free to disagree.


16 posted on 09/08/2019 5:38:56 PM PDT by Reily
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