Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, given November 19, 1863 on the battlefield near Gettysburg, PA

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address,

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers

brought forth upon this continent a new nation:

conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition

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

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for

those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . . we

cannot 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 it can

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work

which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 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 gave the last full measure of devotion. . . that we here highly resolve

that these dead shall not have died in vain. . . that this nation, under

God, shall have a new birth of freedom. . . and that government of the

people. . .by the people. . .for the people. . . shall not perish from

17-Jun-2005