"Fourscore 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 battlefield of that war. We have 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 cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot 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 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."
~Abraham Lincoln
Delivered November 19, 1863, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
♥
4 comments:
Thank you for this post. Most folks may have a familiarity with this speech but likely haven't really read it for themselves and thought about its relevance to today.
The basic concepts are still valid.
I was reading about this. Did you know there was a guy up before Abe who gave a 2 hour speech?
Ali
Please be factual. The actual Address from Lincoln was:
“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.”
Kate, THANK YOU for pointing that out. I truly appreciate it. ♥
I cut and pasted it from http://www.greatamericandocuments.com/speeches/lincoln-gettysburg.html and should have noticed that.
Thanks again. :> )
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