ere 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 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 that they have thus far so nobly carried on. 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 the cause for which they here
gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that
the dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation shall, under God,
have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the
people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth."

There have been but four instances in history in which great deeds have
been celebrated in words as immortal as themselves: the epitaph upon the
dead Spartan band at Thermopylae; the words of Demosthenes on those who
perished at Marathon; the speech of Webster in memory of those who laid
down their lives at Bunker Hill; and these words of Lincoln on the hill
at Gettysburg. As he closed, and while his listeners were still sobbing,
he grasped the hand of Mr. Everett, and said. "I congratulate you on
your success."--"Ah," replied the orator, gracefully, "Mr. President,
how gladly would I exchange all my hundred pages to have been the author
of your twenty lines!"

I forbear to dwell longer on the events of the war. The tide had turned,
and the end was already foreseen. Notwithstanding that Mr. Lincoln had
proved the righteousness of his course, a great many people in the
North--and many even in his own party--were opposed to his nomination
for a second term. The disaffected nominated Gen. Fremont, upon the
platform of the suppression of the Rebellion, the Monroe doctrine, and
the election of President and Vice-President by the direct vote of the
people, and for one term only. The Democratic party declared the war for
the Union a failure, and very properly nominated McClellan. It required
a long time for the General to make up his mind in regard to accepting
the nomination; and, in conversations upon the subject with a friend,
Lincoln su