化作风雨

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 battlefield 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 cannot dedicate , we cannot consecrate , we cannot hallow this ground .

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 battlefield 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 cannot dedicate , we cannot consecrate , we cannot hallow this ground .