LAD #14 Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

At the beginning of the speech, Abe Lincoln reminds the crowd that not long ago our founding fathers developed a new nation based on liberty and freedom. He then states that the Civil War is a test to see if this nation can endure a war or not. Lincoln then says that he is dedicating a piece of the Gettysburg battlefield to act as a graveyard for those men who fought to preserve that nation. He next goes into detail, saying, "The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract". This means that the men who died serving their country have made the battlefield their own memorial by making the ultimate sacrifice. Lincoln closes the short speech by saying that the men who died will not have died in vain. That they died for a "nation, under God, (that) 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."