Fourscore 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 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. 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. EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN A LIST OF IMPORTANT FACTS CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED 1809 February 12. Born in a log-cabin in Hardin (now Larue) County, Kentucky. 1816 His father moves with his family into the wilderness near Gentryville, Ind. 1818 His mother (Nancy Hanks Lincoln) dies, at the age of 35. 1819 His father's second marriage, to Mrs. Sarah Johnston (Johnson), widow with three children. 1828 Makes a trip to New Orleans and back, at work on a flat-boat. 1830 February and March. Lincoln family remove to Macon (not Ma_s_on) County, Illinois; log-house, near Decatur, on the Sangamon River. Abraham of age, works independently; makes 3,000 fence rails under contract. 1831 May. Makes another flat-boat trip to New Orleans and back, on which trip he first sees negroes shackled together in chains, and forms his opinions concerning slavery. Begins work in a store at New Salem, Ill. 1832 Lincoln's first political address. Enlists in the Black Hawk War; elected a captain of volunteers. 1833 Storekeeper, Postmaster, Surveyor, at New Salem. 1834 Elected to State Legislature. 1835 Death of Lincoln's betrothed, Miss Ann (or Anne) Rutledge, at New Salem. Lincoln deeply grieved. 1836 to 1842. Reëlected to the Legislature. 1837 Studies law in Springfield and forms law partnership with John T. Stuart.