(A) “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.”
(B) “We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field”
(C) “But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate-we can not consecrate-we can not hallow-this ground.”
(D) ** “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.”
EXPLANATIONS BELOW
Concept note-1: -What statement best summarizes the central idea of the speech? The best way to honor the sacrifice of the dead Union soldiers is to continue fighting to preserve the nation and its values.
Concept note-2: -The “unfinished work” to which Lincoln refers, “the great task remaining before us, ” is to put into practice the proposition to which this nation was and is dedicated: that all men are created equal. Miraculous though it was, the Constitution had left that work unfinished.
Concept note-3: -In 1863, the task was to save the Union from a bloody and seemingly unending war. In 272 words, Lincoln gave purpose and meaning to the strife; he offered solace to a suffering nation and laid out a powerful vision of a future United States which could emerge from the conflict under a new birth of freedom.