Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on 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 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
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 the earth.
--ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
[Footnote: Does the style and sentiment expressed remind you of an older
literature? Illustrate. Do Lincoln's statements about war apply to the
present great European conflict? Illustrate. Point out the effectiveness
of repetition. Note the places where the prose becomes almost poetical.
Is the appeal in the speeches to reason or to feeling? Do you feel the
personality of Lincoln in these speeches? The Gettysburg speech is
commonly considered one of the greatest speeches ever made. Can you
mention any other famous speeches that are regarded as fine literature?]