「That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.」——一個民有，民治，民享的政府會永世長存。
原文：
Four score 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 battle-field 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 nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
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.
註解：
八十七年前，我們的先輩們在這個大陸上建立了一個全新的國家，它受孕於自由的理念，並獻身於人人生而平等的理想。
如今我們正在從事一場偉大的內戰，以考驗我們或任何一個受孕於自由並獻身於上述理想的國家是否能夠長久生存下去。現在，我們聚集在戰爭中的一個重要的戰場上，我們來到這裡，是要把這個戰場土地的一部分奉獻給那些為使這個國家能夠生存下去而獻出了自己寶貴生命的烈士們作為最後安息之所。我們這樣做是完全應該而且是非常恰當的。
但是，從更廣泛的意義上來說，不是我們奉獻、聖化或神化了這塊土地，而是那些活著的或者已經死去的、曾經在這裡戰鬥過的英雄們使得這塊土地成為神聖之土，其神聖遠非我們的渺小之力可增減。世人不會注意，也不會記住我們在這裡說過什麼，但是他們永遠無法忘記那些英雄們的行為。這更要求我們這些活著的人去繼續那些英雄們所為之戰鬥的未盡事業。我們應該在這裡把自己奉獻於仍然留在我們面前的偉大任務——要從這些光榮的死者身上汲取更多的獻身精神，來完成他們已經完全徹底為之獻身的事業；我們要在這裡下定最大的決心，不讓這些死者白白犧牲——要使這個國家在上帝保佑下得到新生——一個民有，民治，民享的政府會永世長存。
