1 Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on
2this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated
3to the proposition that all men are created equal.
4 Now we are engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether that
5nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long
6endure.
7 We are met on a great battle-field of that war.
8 We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final
9resting place for those who here gave their lives that that
10nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that
11we should do this.
12 But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate - we can not
13consecrate - we can not hallow - this ground.
14 The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have
15consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
16The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here,
17but it can never forget what they did here.
18 It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the
19unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so
20nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to
21the great task remaining before us - that from these honored
22dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they
23gave the last full measure of devotion -
24 that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have
25died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new
26birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the
27people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth.
28
29Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
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