158 years ago THE HASTINGS CONSERVER November 24, 1863
EDUCATIONAL By Prof. T. F. Thickstun To Our Legislative Delegation. We invite the attention of the legislative delegation of Dakota County to the subject of common schools. That our schools in Minnesota are in a lamentably low state no one will attempt to deny. That our present school law is very defective is a thing equally undeniable. That it fails to be executed even in its most worthy features is known to every man. And yet we have an abundance of children to educate. We are rapidly coming into possession of means from taxes and the sale of the school lands for the maintenance of a good system of schools. The people are beginning to feel the need of efficient schools in every neighborhood. The commercial and agricultural interests of the state are being rapidly developed. The importance of universal educational facilities cannot be overestimated. These are truths, we think, which will not be contraverted. State News. We learn that a large tract of land has been purchased in Cottage Grove township, in this county, by a German clergyman who acts as agent for a colony of Germans, who design setting up on it.—Stillwater Messenger.

December 1, 1863 The Gettysburg Consecration.
It is estimated that from 30,000 to 50,000 people were present on Thursday of last week at the consecration of the cemetery of those who fell in battle for the Union at Gettysburg in last July. The oration of Edward Everett occupied over two hours in its delivery. The President made a few remarks at the conclusion, which are reported by telegraph as follows: “Four score and seven years ago, our fathers established upon this continent a government conceived in liberty and dedicated to the fundamental principle that all mankind are created equal by a good God, [applause] and now we are engaged in a great contest. We are contesting the question whether this nation, or any nation so conceived, so dedicated, can long remain. We are met on a great battlefield of the war. We are met here to dedicate a portion of that field as the final resting place of those who have given their lives to that nation, that it might live. It is altogether fitting and property that we should do this.” But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men lying dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little heed; nor long remember, what we say here; but it will not forget what it did here. [immense applause]. It is for us rather, the living, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly carried forward. It is rather for us here to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us; for us to renew our devotion to that cause for which they gave the full measure of their devotion. Here let us resolve that what they have done shall not have been done in vain. That the nation shall, under God, have a new birth. That the government the people founded, by the people shall not perish.”