Monday, May 26, 2008

The Last Full Measure

No one says it better than Abraham Lincoln said it:

" . . . 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.


From Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
November 19, 1863

2 comments:

Picks by Pat said...

Amen to that! We can't thank them enough.

Julia Buckley said...

Nor Lincoln for writing such a beautiful tribute.