And there President Lincoln made one of his most beautiful
and famous speeches.
"Fourscore and seven years ago," he said, "our fathers brought
forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are 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 hollow - 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 honoured 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.
Pages:
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659