Fourscore and seven years after the nation's founding in liberty and dedication to human equality, the Civil War tested whether such a nation could endure. On a great battlefield of that war, a portion of the field was set apart as a final resting place for those who gave their lives so the nation might live. Yet the ground had already been consecrated by the brave men, living and dead, who struggled there, beyond any added honor words could give. The living were called instead to devote themselves to the unfinished work advanced by those who fought there, to draw increased devotion from the honored dead's sacrifice, to resolve that they had not died in vain, and to ensure a new birth of freedom and the survival of government of the people, by the people, for the people.