Interpretive park ranger Caitlin Kostic gives Donald Trump a tour near the high-water mark of the Confederacy at Gettysburg National Military Park on Oct. 22, 2016, in Gettysburg, Pa. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

The notion of a Donald Trump Gettysburg address might make Abe Lincoln roll over, but the Republican presidential nominee’s speech near the Civil War cemetery is one that could have a significant effect on federal employees and the taxpayers they serve.

Saturday’s speech was a serious one, although Trump overshadowed his proposed first 100-day “Contract With the American Voter” by first threatening to sue “liars,” the many women accusing him of sexual misconduct.

A federal hiring freeze is a top item in Trump’s contract, and his call is revealing. It is the second of 28 points, but it is not listed as a budget savings strategy. Instead, it is among the first six points that are designed “to clean up the corruption and special interest collusion in Washington, D.C.” Trump apparently thinks that “a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce federal workforce through attrition (exempting military, public safety, and public health),” as the contract says, will help stop fraud.

What does that say about his views on the Civil Service, federal employees and those who hope to be? A Trump campaign statement said the workforce has “many great and committed people” and “in the long term, a smaller federal workforce will mean a more honest and effective government, in which it is harder to hide corruption.”

No details were provided about what Trump thinks is the appropriate level of the workforce or how long he thinks a freeze would last.

Republicans in Congress have long called for reducing the workforce through attrition and a number of agencies have imposed hiring freezes because of budget hits. The Republican fiscal 2012 budget proposal, prepared by House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), when he was Budget Committee chairman, called for a 10 percent cut.

“It reduces the public-sector bureaucracy, not through layoffs, but via a gradual, sensible attrition policy, permitting the federal government to hire only one new employee for every three federal workers who retire,” according to “Path to Prosperity,” the GOP’s 2012 budget resolution. It projected that the attrition would save $49 billion over 10 years.