For Generations to Come

[Lorenzo]

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicateâ€"we can not consecrateâ€"we can not hallowâ€"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 usâ€"that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotionâ€"that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vainâ€"that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedomâ€"and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

-Abraham Lincoln,
16th President of the United States of America