Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on thiscontinent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to theproposition that all men are created equal.Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nationor any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We aremet on a great battle field of that war. We have come to dedicate aportion of that field, as a final resting place for those who heregave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogetherfitting 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 toadd or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, whatwe say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is forus the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished workwhich they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It israther for us to be here dedicated to the great task remainingbefore us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotionto that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died invain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth offreedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for thepeople, shall not perish from the earth.