213,691 views
24 votes
24 votes
Text of Gettysburg Address

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 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.

What is the "unfinished work" Lincoln mentions in paragraph 3?

Reuniting the Union
Completing the cemetery
Dedicating the cemetery
Defeating Lee at Gettysburg

User Skitzafreak
by
3.3k points

1 Answer

17 votes
17 votes

Answer:

Reuniting the Union

Step-by-step explanation:

First, we have to know why Lincoln fought the Civil War: to prevent the complete secession of the Confederacy and to completely unite the Union.

For the first choice, Lincoln said "Now we are engaged in a great civil war" meaning the civil war is still happening. Along with his reason for war, this would make the first choice a plausible answer.

For the second and third choices, he only talked about the dead men who fought at the place of his speech; he never really talked about the cemetery.

For the fourth choice, this speech, the Gettysburg Address, takes place a few months after the Battle of Gettysburg. General Lee was already defeated before this speech.

User AlessandroDP
by
3.2k points