The Gettysburg Address
Nov. 19, 1863
"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought
forth on 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 on a great battlefield of that war. 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 fitting and proper that we should do
this. 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 never
forget what they did here. 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 the earth."
If you enjoy reading our Nations
documents then try the Declaration of Independence.
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