1: 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.
2: Now we are engaged in a great
Civil War, testing whether that
nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long
endure.
3: We are met on a great battle-field of that war.
4: 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.
5: It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
1: But, in a larger sense, we can
not dedicate -- we can not
consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground.
2: The brave men, living and
dead, who struggled here, have
consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
3: The world will little note,
nor long remember what we say here,
but it can never forget what they did here.
4: 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.
5: 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 -- and that government of the people, by the
people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth.
7: So it is written [Iraq, 21st Century, A.D.].
[From the Dead Tea Towels]
© 2006, Rev Bruce Ellis: brucee@chunder.com, Home.