  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 battle-field 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 can not dedicate - we can not
consecrate - we can not 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.

Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania