Ha! Allow me ... I was there a couple of months ago and had this explained to me in semi-exhaustive detail.

Lincoln arrived at Gettysburg with a draft of the speech already written. He was, after all, dedicating the military cemetery there, and his original speech pretty much stuck to that theme.

However, when he got to Gettysburg, something - I know not what - caused him to sit down and rewrite bits of it, some of them more than once. However, the guides were emphatic that the "back-of-an-envelope" rumour was not true.

The final draft is, I believe, the one on display at Gettysburg. I didn't feel that paying $5 to see a piece of paper was worthwhile, somehow, so I didn't get to ogle it personally.


The idiot also known as Capfka ...