Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-02-26
Lincoln EpitapI1,

The bill which created the Gettys burg
National park provided for the erection
on the field of bronze tablet bearing
upon it a medallion likeness of President
Lincoln and the address given by him at
the dedication of the National cemetery,
November 10Th, 1868, and $1,000 was ap-
propirated for the purpose. In relation
to the version of the address 20 be adopt
ed says the Troy Telegram, the authors of
the bill left the matter to Congress. The
following is the version that Congress Sc
lected, and it will be inscribed on the
tablet, thus establishing it as the correct
and accepted text of that wonderful pro-
duction. which came from the inspira-
of the moment:
Four score and seven years ago our
fathers brought forth on this continent a
new nation, conceived in liberty and ded-
iCated 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 great
battle of that war. We have come to ded-
icate a portion of that field as final
resting place for those who here gave
their lives that that nation might live.
1t is altogether fitting and proper that
we should do this.
But, in larger sense, we cannot dedi-
cate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot
hallow this ground. The brave men, liv
ing and dead, who struggled here, have
consecrated it far above our poor power
to add or detract. The world will little
note. or long remember, what We say
here; but it can never forget what they
did here. 1t 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. 1t is rather
for lis TO be here dedicated to the great
task remaining before us; thae from
these hOnOred dead we take increased
devotion to that cause for which they
the last full measure of devotion: that
we here highly resolve that these dead
shall not have died in vain; that this ma
tiOn, under God, shall have new birth
of freedom, and that government of the +,
by the people, forithe people, shall not
perish from the earth.
The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
pronouncing this address both an epitaph
and an exhortation. says there is nothing
in all history or literature to compare
with it except perhaps ChaerOneian cpl.
taph decreed by the Athenians 33S B. c..
to the men who fell in the final struggle
against the advancing power of Philip
and recited by DemOsthenes in the
Grafton For the Crown" A free trans.
lation OF this epitaph is given as follows
These for their country stood in war array,
AID checked the fierce invader on his way;
Into the battle rush'd at glor IS call,
With firm resolve 10 conquer or to fall:
That Greeks should ne'er to tyrHnts bend the
knee,
But live, as they were born, from thraldom free.
Now in the bosom of their fatherand
These warriors rest; for such was Jove's COM
mand.
The gods in all succeed ana have their will.
But mortals must their destiny fulfill.
The circumstances of the production
of the two epitaphs were different. Lin
coin spoke on a victorious battlefield.
The victory of Philip was fatal to the
cause of Athens, and it is not known
that the epitaph was ever set up. But it
has been preserved in Demosthenes'
great Grafton and is a noble tribute to the
indispensable bravery of the men who
fell in that unfortunate action. Those of
us who cannot read the original Greek
undoubtedly miss much of It's eloquence,
fervor and pathos, but as it is given to
us in English it is not to be compared
with Lincoln's immortal production, as
the battle of Chaeroneia is not to be
compared in its consequences to the bat
tie of Gettysburg. More than 1000 years
elapsed between the two productions,
but the Gettysburg speech stands as the
greater classic. 1t is immortal.