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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 the earth.
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