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 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.

八十七年前，我們的父輩在這塊大陸上創建了一個新的國家。這個新的國家在自由中孕育，信奉人人生而平等的主張。現在我們正在從事偉大的國內戰爭，來考驗這個國家，或任何在自由中孕育，信奉人人生而平等的主張的國家，能否長久存在下去。我們今天相聚在這場戰爭的一個偉大的戰場上。我們相聚在這里是為了把這偉大戰場的一部分奉獻給那些為了我們國家的生存而獻出了生命的烈士們作為最后的安息地。我們這樣做完全是合情合理的。但在更廣泛的意義上來說，我們不能奉獻這塊土地，我們不能使這塊土地神圣，我們不能使這塊土地光耀。那些勇敢的人們，那些曾經在這里戰斗過的，活著和死去的人們，已經使這塊土地神圣了，遠非我們所能增加或減少。世界不大會注意，也不會永久記住我們今天在這里所說的話，但世界決不能忘記他們在這里所做過的事情。我們這些活著的人，倒是應該在這里獻身于他們長久以來如此高尚地推進的，尚未完成的工作。我們倒是應該在這里獻身于留在我們面前的偉大任務：那就是繼承這些光榮的先烈，對他們在這里作出最后全部貢獻的事業，作出我們進一步的貢獻；那就是我們在這里狠下決心，決不讓這些先烈的死成為白白的犧牲；那就是我們的國家一定要在上帝底下獲得新的自由；那就是決不讓人民的政府，人民選舉的政府，為了人民的政府從地球上消亡。