The Gettysburg Address - Abraham Lincoln

Hello, I am Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States. Today, I bring to you the words from my Gettysburg Address, delivered on November 19, 1863, during one of the darkest chapters in our nation’s history. These words were meant not only to honor the fallen but to remind us all of the principles for which they fought and the responsibilities that still lie before us. “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.” These opening lines recall the founding ideals of this nation—liberty and equality. Our fathers built this country on the revolutionary belief that every individual has inherent worth, deserving of freedom and justice. In 1863, the Civil War threatened these very ideals, testing whether this experiment in self-governance could endure. At Gettysburg, where so many had given their lives, I sought to reaffirm our dedication to those founding principles. “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 here gave their lives that that nation might live.” The brave souls who fought and died at Gettysburg consecrated the battlefield with their sacrifice. My words could not sanctify it further. Their actions spoke louder than anything I could say. Their ultimate devotion was to a cause greater than themselves—a nation united under liberty and equality. “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.” This was a call to action for the living. The sacrifices of the fallen imposed a duty on all of us to continue the fight for freedom and equality. In 1863, this meant ending slavery and preserving the Union.