Full text
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.
Analysis
Memorial speeches are used to shape values by turning the memory of sacrifice into a spiritual mission for the people who are still alive. In the broader context of the US Civil War, where a significant number of soldiers died because they participated in this war, Lincoln had a clearer main idea: not only to remember that they died, but also to recognize the value and contributions they made to the liberty and peace of this nation. As he states, “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.” This tremendously supports the fact that what those who died did was far more important than what the rest of the people could do to either consecrate or hallow this ground. His intrinsic meaning was probably to give a sense that people should remember the importance of seeking peace for the nation, achieved by those people, and to inherit this mission to find further value in the Civil War, since neither of the things people do could be equivalently valuable to their death. Another excerpt, which contains another perspective promoted by Lincoln, shown in this text, “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,” was meant to ensure that their deaths were not wasted. The main purpose was to show that the price of having freedom and liberty is so great, and people in the US should not see these sacrifices as unworthy. Instead, he would like to show that the value of the soldiers’ sacrifice should be inseparable from the nation, and the spirit inspired by them should be recognized by all. However, Lincoln never defines what “a new birth of freedom” will actually look like in a real scenario, which means that he did not promise when the war would end or what the consequences of this war would be. This strategically transforms the speech into an open challenge to all the people, forcing them to be aware of what they should do. In this case, a memorial speech does not simply preserve the memory of the dead; instead, it ensures that the values worth dying for become the values that people are compelled to uphold in practice.