He had not once mentioned Gettysburg by name.

He had not once mentioned the enemy.

He hadn’t mentioned slavery, or states’ rights.

He had not mentioned any of the states by name, or even the name of the country!

Instead he talked about liberty. He talked about dying for liberty. He talked about giving the very last drop, the very last measure of devotion to the cause of liberty. He talked about continuing the struggle, because the work remained unfinished.

He had resolved that those honored dead would not have died in vain.

He had resolved that the country would be born over again.

He had resolved that the last eighty-seven years of inequality should be erased, like a mistake on the chalkboard. They would go back to the beginning again, and have a new birth of freedom.

He had resolved that democracy—government of the people, for the people, and by the people—would not die. Soldiers might die. But true democracy would not.

Abraham Lincoln hadn’t dedicated a cemetery that day. He had dedicated the whole war.