Chapter 33 Address at Gettysburg National Cemetery

Eighty-seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the principle 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 today 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 entirely fitting and fitting that we should do so. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow, the land.

Those brave men, living and dead, who fought here have hallowed this ground more than our poor power can add or detract.What we say here will not be noticed by the whole world, nor will it be remembered for long, but what the warriors have done here will never be forgotten by the whole world. Rather, it is we who live that should be here dedicated to that unfinished work which they of bravery have so nobly advanced; Any—we shall draw more devotion from these honored dead to the cause to which they have been utterly devoted. We must make the greatest determination here, not to let these dead sacrifice in vain.We will give this nation a new birth of freedom under the blessing of God, and we will perpetuate this government of the people, by the people, and for the people.