It was November 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln was invited as an after thought to "share a few words" with the crowds who had come to pay tribute at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery. Just a few weeks earlier over 50,000 Ameircans had been killed or wounded in the rolling hills surrounding this serene little town. Over 7,000 gave their lives defending a nation and an idea over 3 days in July.
Lincoln spoke merely 10 sentences that lasted about 2 minutes. Althouogh most observers found his remarks to be rather unmerkable (Lincoln himself said that future generations "will little note nor long remember" what was siad there.) Instead, he wrapped 4 long years of bloodshed and over 200 years of American history and sacrifice into those 2 minutes.
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. 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 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.