Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 235, 24 December 1943, Page 6

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

AS HE SAID IT: OUR-SCORE 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 restingplace of 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 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 here to the unfinished work they 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 honoured dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain, that that nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that the government of the people, by the _ people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth,

"AS HE WOULD HAVE SAID IT IN BASIC ENGLISH: ~ IGHTY-SEVEN years hack, our fathers gave birth on this land to a new nation, designed to be free and given to the theory that all men are to their Maker equal. Now we are in the middle of a great war among ourselves, testing if that nation, or any nation so designed and given to such a purpose, may long go on. We are come together on a’ great fighting field of that war. We are come together to put by a part of that field as a last resting place for those who here gave their blood that that nation might go on. It is very right that we do this. But in a deeper sense, it is not for us the living to give this field in their name to history. The true men, living and dead, who saw fighting here have so given it far past our power to do anything more or less.' The earth will take little note and keep not long in memory what we say here, but it will ever keep in memory what they did here. It is for us the living, though, to give ourselves up here to the uncompleted work which they have so far so highly undertaken. It is for us to be here given over to the great work still before us-that from these respected dead we may take greater belief in that cause for which they gave the last full measure of beliefthat we here make it our high purpose that these dead will not have given their all for nothing-that this nation, under God, will have a new free birth, and that government of all, by all, and for all will not come to end on earth.