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President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln addressed a crowd
gathered for the dedication of a memorial cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.....

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 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 this 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 hallow 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 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 this earth.

President Lincoln's words echo beyond the boundary of time. They are the essence of the principles on which this nation was born. They are a reminder of the ultimate sacrifices made by so many in the name of freedom. May our generation be worthy of carrying forward their banner whenever liberty is threatened.

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Abraham Lincoln

Birth: Feb. 12, 1809 - Hodgenville, KY Died: Apr. 14, 1865 - Washington, DC Burial: Springfield, IL President: 1860-1865

Related Resources

[Abraham Lincoln Online.org] - The following are a few Gettysburg resource links from this excellent website: [Image of President Lincoln's handwritten message.] (www.loc.gov) [1938 audio by William V. Rathyon of his memory of witnessing the event at 9 years old.] (www.npr.org) [Gettysburg Battlefield Map] (www.loc.gov) [Gettysburg National Military Park] (www.nps.gov) [Listing of Civil War Photographs, 1861-1865.] (www.loc.gov) [Civil War Resources] - Portal to numerous resources on subject. (www.sunsite.utk.edu) [Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln] - Their detailed histories, plus Lincoln's assassination. (www.members.aol.com/RVSNorton)