Sorry President Lincoln, but I had to try

87 years ago our ancestors built a new nation here, born in liberty and dedicated to equality. Now we fight a terrible civil war to test whether their nation or any like it can survive long. We stand on a huge battlefield of that war today to dedicate a portion of it as a graveyard for the soldiers who died here fighting for the nation's life.

We are right to do this but in truth we cannot consecrate this place at all. The courageous men, living and dead, who fought here have already rendered it sacred beyond our feeble power to enhance or diminish it. Our words are hollow; their deeds are immortal.

What we, the living, must instead do is here and now to take up the cause that these soldiers died for. We must, upon the graves of these dead men, vow personal devotion to the struggle for which they died. We must, right here and now resolve that THESE men did not die in vain, that THIS nation shall be reborn into freedom so that government without Kings, by and for the governed will not fade into history.