OtLS

Four score 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.

Four states and now only seven miles from here, my father’s daughter came forth on this day, to a new site, conceived in history and dedicated to those who fought because all men are created equal.

Now I am engaged in a great civil exploration, touring this nation and testing how long I can endure.  I have come to a great battlefield of the Civil War, a final resting place for and dedicated to those who gave their lives that this nation might live.

But in a larger sense, I cannot dedicate my travel logs to this ground alone. Men, living and dead, have commemorated other sites far above my poor power to describe their beauty.  The world will little note, nor long remember what I say here, but I can never forget what I have done. It remains for me to be dedicated to my unfinished work which I have thus far so nobly begun.

I must complete the great task remaining before me, with increased devotion to my cause for which my readers deserve my last full measure; that I now highly resolve that my travels shall not be in vain; that this nation shall be explored and that this exploration of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from this earth without being shared occasionally with you.