Submitted by greenmtnfiddler t3_yzh35l in vermont

In some Vermont towns there used to be public readings. Here's the text if you want to go down to your local general store/post office/coffee shop and do some proclaiming.


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.

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Comments

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EagleRockVermont t1_iwzwhkv wrote

Thanks for the reminder. This is one of the most moving public addresses ever made.

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Otto-Korrect t1_ix011vl wrote

In the 70's I was a boyscout and was selected to recite the address from memory from the stage of the town hall on July 4th.

I remember I had one index card to prompt me on the one part I was having trouble remembering, but I ended up not needing it.

That was almost 50 years ago, and I can still recite most of it from memory.

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reverievt t1_ix0enw4 wrote

Same. Only I memorized it to get a free beer at a bar offering a freebie to anyone who could recite it.

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HillRatch t1_iwzwhwf wrote

If you care to update the speech to fit the current year, it would be "Seven score and nineteen years ago". Next year it'll just be 8 score!

EDIT: It was rightly pointed out that this is wrong! Ought to be 12 score and 6 years, per /u/the_full_effect below.

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the_full_effect t1_ix0b5ny wrote

It should be “12 score and 6 years ago” to fit the current year. The speech is referring to 1776 so you have to count from there

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HillRatch t1_ix0mjkm wrote

Yep, my mistake. I was so proud of myself for knowing how numbers work that I forgot how numbers work.

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Hank_Arrr_Hill t1_ix1c2df wrote

My ex-roommate marched in the Ohio State marching band's Gettysburg Address tribute 10 years ago. Nice show, but was probably lost on most of the audience.

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Nutmegdog1959 t1_ix35mge wrote

I fully support politicians giving short speeches!

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