FLAT COURTNEY CAN RECITE THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS Abraham Lincoln -
November 19th 1863, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
"Fourscore 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 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 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 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 this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom;
and that government of the People by the People and for the People
shall not perish from the earth."
