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.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war
It is for us living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far nobly advanced.
testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure
Four score and seven years ago
and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal
The brae men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty
We met on a great battlefield of that war
"But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
The word will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
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...
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, shall not perish from the earth."
A battle of this war was fought right here where we are standing.
It's up to the rest of us that are still alive to dedicate ourselves to finishing what these soldiers have started.
We can't even come close.
87 years ago
There is no way that we can ever bless this ground today more than the soldiers that died here already have.
testing whether this nation can be committed and last
based on the idea that everyone is equal
No one is going to care or remember the words we say here, but no one can ever forget what those soldiers did here.
We have come to devote part of this battlefield as a cemetery for the soldiers that died here so the nation can live.
We have to promise that the soldiers here did not die for nothing.
The Founding Fathers created a brand new (independent) country here,
Now, we are at war with ourselves,
We have to promise that this country, under God, will be free again. We have to promise that a country that is made up of the people, was created...
It is the right thing to do.
It's up to us to dedicate ourselves to saving the country, and remind ourselves that people have died for this cause.
