Summary
Highlights
Lincoln begins by recalling the nation's founding principles, stating that our fathers brought forth a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
He then addresses the ongoing Civil War as a test of whether a nation founded on such principles can long endure. The speech is delivered on the battlefield, where they have come to dedicate a portion as a final resting place for those who died to preserve the nation.
Lincoln avers that they cannot truly dedicate or consecrate the ground, as the brave men, living and dead, who struggled there have already consecrated it far beyond their power to add or detract.
He emphasizes that the world will remember the deeds of the soldiers, not the words spoken. It is up to the living to rededicate themselves to the unfinished work for which these soldiers fought. This involves taking increased devotion to the cause for which they gave their lives.
Lincoln concludes with a powerful resolution: that the fallen shall not have died in vain, that the nation will experience a new birth of freedom, and that a government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.