The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1908-06-04
The Last Word.
(From an Exchange of Some Years
Ago.

Ago.
There is, and forever can be, but
one Memorial day address for us. We
may improve the occasion to apply
the inspiration of the sacrifice to our
passing needs; but the soul OF the
time, the undying sentiment of the
observance was garnered once for all
in the words so happy as to make the
utterance one OF the masterpiece OF
our noble English tongue:
-Four score and seven years ago
our fathers brought forth upon this
continent a new nation, conceived IN
liberty and dedicated TO the propo-
sition that az. men are created equal
Now we are engaged in great civil
war, testing whether this nation or
any nation so conceived and so dedi-
Gated, can long endure. We are met
on a great battlefield 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 this nation might live. 1t is alto
gether fitting and proper that. we
should do this. But in a larger sense
we can not dedicate, we can not con-
secrate, we can not hallow this
ground. The brave men living and
dead who struggled here have conse-
Grated it, far above our power tc add
or detract. The world will little note
nor 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 TO the unfinished
work, which they who fought here
have thus far so nobly advanced. 1t
is rather for us to be here dedicated
to the great task remaining before us;
that from these lonored dead we take
increased devotion to that cause ior
which they gave the last full measure
of devotion; that we here highly re-
solve that these dead shall not have
God, shall have a new birth OF free
dom; and that government OF the
people, by the people and for the peo~
pie shall not perish from the earth. >
AS soon as the sound OF that voice
ceased those who heard it knew that
they had heard deafness utterance.
The "oration" of the occasion was
delivered by Edward Everett. He
ranks with the worlds greatest ora
TOPS. He was as classic as the spirit
OF Greece Nature had given him a
presence and a voice as perfect for
It's embodiment He was indeed
faulty faultless, Jelly regular and
his performance here was al his or
NAL level. But the auditors did not
hear him. They had ears to hear,
but their hearts were full, Their minds
led captive by the utterance-2bs
words-that Lincoln had just made.
Charles Summer said that he had an
alyzed that speech TO see if any word
could better be used than was used;
that at first he thought the word ded-
icate should have been omitted here
and there. But he had tried It, and
he finally came back to feel that IT
could not be; that what was spoken
was the last word"
The speech is destined to live as
long as the language lives. 1t speaks
for all time the sentiment OF Memoir
ial day, the meaning of the great war
and the task that is LEFT US; LETT us
still-to be always with us. Never
more than now should we highly re
solve that this nation under God
shall have a new birth OF freedom
and that government OF the people
by the peopl and for the people shall
not perish from the earth