Sometimes being the father of an eighth grader can lead to some new insights into familiar subjects. Case in point – the Gettysburg address. What I did not know before is that there are a number of different versions, i.e. five manuscripts with slight variations.
The version carved in stone at the Lincoln Memorial begins
‘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.
and ends with
‘… 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.
This is the so-called Bliss version which was a copy Lincoln wrote and gave to a Colonel Bliss in the year after the address was given.
Another version is the so-called Hay draft, which Lincoln gave to his secretary, John Hay (no relation) the day after the speech.
It begins
‘Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
That first comma seems to me to create a very satisfying pause. The Hay draft ends
‘…we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
The most notable difference here is the absence of “under God” – a phrase that was also once absent (until 1954) from the Pledge of Allegiance.
April 17th, 2007
by Nannie
Is that Zenas Randall Bliss? There’s nothing in his biography that implies a religeous bent. curious.