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. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.īut, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we can not hallow - this ground. 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. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. But it was Lincoln, speaking less than five minutes, who found the words to redefine the war and explain why the suffering that Americans were enduring was necessary.įour 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.

The keynote speaker was Edward Everett, the era's most prominent orator, who spoke for two hours. 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Civil War cemetery at Gettysburg, Pa., was not supposed to be the highlight of the ceremony.

Lincoln's 272-word speech, delivered on Nov.

The text of the gettysburg address