2019-6 Remembrances Special Edition
City of Schertz
Remembrances Special Edition Article 2019-6 Prepared by: Schertz Historical Preservation Committee (SHPC) Source: Dean Weirtz, SHPC Vice Chairman Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (Adapted)
(Given November 19, 1863)
With Your Permission Mr. Lincoln, this is an adaptation of your great
words.
Many years ago our German (and French) forefathers brought forth to this territory new communities with names like New Braunfels, Fredericksburg, Comal and Cibolo Pit. These communities were conceived in liberty, and their inhabitants dedicated to the proposition that all men can live in harmony as neighbors and prosper through self-sacrifice and hard labor.
Now we are engaged in a commemoration of their spirit and
accomplishments, knowing that this community, and all others, can not long
endure should they ignore history’s repetitive lessons offered by those who
preceded us here. We meet in the place where others before us defended
themselves against hostile Indians, tended fields of corn and cotton, buried
loved ones long before they’d aged, and unashamedly praised their creator as the source of all good fortune. It is all together fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this territory. The brave and committed men and women who
struggled before us to tame the territory have consecrated it far above our
poor power to add or subtract.
The community will little nor long remember what we say here. It is for us, rather, to be dedicated to continuing the unfinished business that our forefathers began here. Let us resolve that the sacrifices of those who came before us will not have been given in vain. Rather, let us always acknowledge that we are a community of one people, blessed to have had strong and resourceful
ancestors devoted to good government of the people, for the people, and by
the people.