"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 that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this."

Abraham Lincoln, address at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 19 November 1863. Delivered four and a half months after the Battle of Gettysburg, in which approximately 50,000 soldiers were killed or wounded.