[Paul Schacht]

As with Darby’s comment, Grace, yours picks out a really interesting change — but reverses its order. Lincoln began with “This we may, in all propriety, do” but went to “It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.” Why? How does the sentence change when “we” gets pushed lower down in it. What is the effect of that “It” at the beginning of the sentence? How does “proper” differ from “propriety”?

[Paul Schacht]

This is an interesting change, Darby. But it seems to go in the other direction! Bliss (our base, and the final version Lincoln penned) has “here gave their lives,” whereas Nicolay, which most historians believe is the first draft, has “died here.” So looking back, and given what you said about the power of “died” (which does make sense) why now do you think Lincoln went with “gave their lives” instead?

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