Delivered on the 19th Day of November, 1863 Cemetery Hill, 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 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."
Abraham Lincoln
87年前，我们的先辈在这个大陆上创建了一个新国家。她孕育于自由之中，奉行一切人生来平等的原则。
目前，我们正在进行一场伟大的内战，以考验这个国家，或者任何一个孕育于自由和奉行上述原则的国家是否长久存在下去。我们在这场战争的一个伟大战场上聚会。我们来到这里把这战场上的一部分奉献给那些为国家生存而捐躯的人们，作为他们的最后安息之地。我们这样做是完全适合的、恰当的。
但是从更广泛的意义上来说，我们不能奉献，不能圣化，不能神化这片土地。那些曾在这里战斗过的人，活着的和死去的，已经圣化了这片土地，远非我们的微薄之力所能扬抑。世人极少会注意或长久记得我们今天在这里所说的话，但是勇士们在这里做过的事将永远不会被忘记。倒是我们，活着的人，应该把自己奉献给留在我们面前的伟大任务：从这些光荣的死者身上我们汲取更多的献身精神来完成他们精诚所至的事业。我们在这里下定决心不让死者白白死去；这个国家，在上帝的保佑下，将获得自由的新生。这个民有、民治、民享的政府将与世长存。
林肯, 葛底斯堡