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 on a great battle
field of that war. We come to dedicate a portion of it,
as a final resting place for those who died here, that
the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do.
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
hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we
say here; while it can never forget what they did here.
It is rather for us, the living, we here be 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 these dead shall
not have died in vain; that the nation, 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.