Four score and seven
years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived
in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged
in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived,
and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met here on a great battlefield
of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place
for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether
fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense
we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow this ground.
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled, here, have consecrated it far
above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long
remember, what we say here, but can never forget what they did here. It is
for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which
they have, thus far, so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated
to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take
increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure
of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have
died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that
this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish
from the earth.
For
more information about the Gettysburg Address, including and essay, a photo
of the original document, the only surviving photo of Lincoln at Gettysburg,
and translations into approximately thirty languages, see The
Library of Congress exhibit.
