What began in the year 2023 as a lighthearted jest between myself and the woman who would soon become my wife has, in the passing of time, taken on a more earnest and enduring purpose. Bearing a natural resemblance to Abraham Lincoln, I first stepped into that likeness through photography upon the grounds of the Battle of Gettysburg, where history is not merely remembered, but felt. There, among the fields once tested by sacrifice, the image of Lincoln was not only captured but, in some small measure, carried forward. By the year 2025, what had once been an inside joke had grown into a calling, to stand before the public not only in likeness, but in voice and in spirit.

That calling found its first full expression at the inaugural Bellefonte Civil War Weekend, where I delivered, for the first time as “Keystone Lincoln,” the First Presidential Inaugural Address. It was a moment marked by a rare and fitting symmetry, the first year of a new event, my first public address in this role, and the first great speech of President Lincoln himself, all meeting in one place and time. From there, I have gone on to present both the First Inaugural Address and the Gettysburg Address to audiences, striving always to preserve not only the words but the weight and meaning they carry.

In continuing that work, I have begun offering what I call the Keystone Addresses, original compositions, written and delivered in the cadence and character of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, yet shaped for the present day and grounded in the towns and communities of Pennsylvania. These addresses seek not to imitate history, but to extend it, bridging past and present, and inviting each audience to see themselves as part of the ongoing American story.

And so it is my humble purpose to carry forward the words once spoken, that they may yet find new meaning among the people of this day.