GETTYSBURG ADDRESS Abraham Lincoln Delivered on the 19th Day of November, 1863 Cemetery Hill, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania 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. 在葛底斯堡国家烈士公墓落成典礼上的演说 亚伯拉罕·林肯 1863年11月19日 八十七年之前，在这块大陆之上，我们的父辈创建了一个新国家，它孕育于自由之中，奉行人人生而平等的原则。 现在，我们正投身于一场伟大的内战，我们要用这场战争来检验，我们的国家以及任何孕育于自由并奉行平等原则的国家，是否可能长久存在下去。我们在这场战争中一处伟大战场上集会。为了国家的生存，烈士们在这里献出了自己的生命，我们来到这里，就是这战场的一部分奉献给长眠于此的烈士，作为他们的最后安息之地。这么做，既是我们的义务，也是我们的权利。 但是，于更大的意义上而言，我们无法献祭出这块土地，它并非因我们的行动而走上神坛，得以圣化。那些曾在这里浴血奋战的勇士们——有的还活着，有的已经牺牲——已经将这块土地圣化了，远非我们的绵薄之力所能增辉或贬损。我们现在站在这里所说的话，这世界不会关注，也不可能铭记；但是，那些勇士们曾在这里做过的事，却永不会为世人所遗忘。应当说，我们这些还活着的人应在此处献出自身，继续那些曾在这里战斗过的勇士们所光荣推进的事业——迄今为止尚未最终成功。我们今天在这里，应当投身于仍留在我们面前的伟大任务——我们要从这些光荣的长眠者身上汲取更多的献身精神，完成他们为之奉献出全部和所有的伟业——我们在此庄严宣告，安息于此的烈士绝不会白白牺牲——在上帝的福佑下，我们的国家将得到自由的新生——而这个民有、民治、民享的政府也将永世长存。