The Gettysburg Address

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.

Questions to Answer

Paragraph 1

• What is a "score"?
• Who did Lincoln mean when he talked about "our fathers"?
• Where did the idea come from that it was a "nation dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal?"
• When Lincoln said "all men are created equal" he was drawing from the Declaration of Independence. Why did he refer to this document and not the U.S. Constitution?

Paragraph 2

• Lincoln states what he thinks is the purpose of the Civil War. What is it, in his opinion?

Paragraph 3

• What is Lincoln saying about the men who died in battle here?
• Did Lincoln think that his words would be remembered?
• What does Lincoln say is the responsibility of those who are still living?
• What do you think Lincoln means by the phrase, "government of the people, by the people, for the people"?