INTRODUCTION
Hello, I’m Harold Paddock an attorney, mediator, and author living in Central Ohio. When I’m not working, one of my favorite things is reading history, especially Civil War history. I have always admired President Lincoln and as I have learned more about his life and career, I’ve come to appreciate the Gettysburg Address as one of the most important political statements of all time. While I’m not worthy as an orator or author to carry Mr. Lincoln’s hat, I do think after 162 years we can still learn from the Address, but it needs a little updating. So, with the greatest respect for President Lincoln, please let me offer my 2025 edition of the Gettysburg Address:
THE ADDRESS
Twelve score and nine years ago, the Founders brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war fought in the arena of public discussion, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are constantly meeting on a great battlefield of that near war, the field of politics and public opinion. We have come to examine a portion of that public field, as the ultimate question for those who wish to live their lives with freedom and equality—whether we will be governed by the people or by the wealthy few. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should examine this question.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground upon which our nation is founded. The brave men and women, living and dead, who struggled in the past for our country, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what is said here, but it can never forget what they did here to establish and maintain our Constitution—a constitution based on the rule of law, due process, checks and balances, the power of the people to select their government in free and fair elections, an enduring system of rights and duties, and the rejection of monarchy, oligarchy, tyranny, or any system with a single ruler above the law.
It is for us, the people of the United States, rather, to be dedicated now to the unfinished work which they who struggled in the past, have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be now dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that we preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States from those who would ignore, abuse, and destroy it. From all who have voted, served in the military, fought for civil rights, justice, and our liberties, and anyone worked to make our nation a better place, we take increased devotion to that cause for which they in the past gave their full measure of devotion. Therefore, we here highly resolve that those who have preceded us shall not have struggled in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and equality, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
CLOSING
I hope you have been motivated and inspired by this humble effort. Please feel free to share this video far and wide so others might be inspired too. If you would like to read more of my thoughts about democracy and government, please get a copy of The Moderates’ Manifesto available online at www.moderatesmanifesto.com. Thanks for your time.