Lincoln begins by stating that "four score and seven years ago" (87 years ago), the founding fathers of America created a new country based on the principle of liberty and the fact that all men were created equal. Now, they are engaged in a civil war that is testing whether that nation or any similar to it can last. He states that the country is now met on a great battlefield, where it is fitting and proper that they will dedicate a final resting place for those who gave their lives so that the nation could live on. This was a memorial of the people who died for the cause which was a more perfect country. However, he says, they cannot make the ground sacred as much as the men who fought and died on it did. History will not remember what was said there, but it will remember what happened there. He is basically saying that all the talk does not matter, but the actions matter a lot. Lincoln then states that it is the duty of the living that they finish the work which those who fought had so nobly began, that they give more devotion to the cause which those who died gave the last full measure of devotion; which is to preserve the nation "of the people, by the people, for the people."
This is a picture of Arlington National Cemetery. This can be synthesized to the Gettysburg Address because President Lincoln gave that speech at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Pennsylvania. Similarly, Arlington National Cemetery is an extremely famous and widely visited burial ground for soldiers that fought in many wars, including the American Civil War.
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