葛底斯堡演说

　　《葛底斯堡演说》(英文:Gettysburg Address)是亚伯拉罕·林肯最著名的演说，也是美国历史上为人引用最多之政治性演说。在1863年11月19日，正值美国内战中葛底斯堡战役结束后四个半月，林肯在宾夕法尼亚州葛底斯堡的葛底斯堡国家公墓(Gettysburg National Cemetery)揭幕式中发表是之演说，哀悼在长达5个半月的葛底斯堡之役中阵亡的将士。林肯的演讲修辞细腻周密，其后成为美国历史上最伟大的演说之一。

　　林肯的讲话是极简短、极朴素的。这往往使那些滔滔不绝的讲演家大瞧不起。葛底斯堡战役后，决定为死难烈士举行盛大葬礼。掩葬委员会发给总统一张普通的请帖，他们以为他是不会来的，但林肯答应了。既然总统来，那一定要讲演的，但他们已经请了著名演说家艾佛瑞特来做这件事，因此，他们又给林肯写了信，说在艾佛瑞特演说完毕之后，他们希望他“随便讲几句适当的话”。这是一个侮辱，但林肯平静地接受了。

　　两星期内，他在穿衣、刮脸、吃点心时也想着怎样演说。演说稿改了两三次，他仍不满意。到了葬礼的前一天晚上，还在做最后的修改，然后半夜找到他的同僚高声朗 诵。走进会场时，他骑在马上仍把头低到胸前默想着演说辞。

　　那位艾佛瑞特讲演了两个多小时，将近结束时，林肯不安地掏出旧式眼镜，又一次看他的讲稿。他的演说开始了，一位记者支上三角架准备拍摄照片，等一切就绪的时候，林肯已走下讲台。这段时间只有两分钟，而掌声却持续了10分钟。后人给以极高评价的那 份演说辞，在今天译成中文，也不过400字。

　　林肯的这篇演说是演说史上著名的篇章，其思想的深刻，行文的严谨，语言的冼练，确实是不愧彪炳青史的大手笔。

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　　GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

　　Abraham Lincoln Delivered on the 19th Day of November, 1863 Cemetery Hill,

　　Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

　　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 an...

　　Now, we are engaged in a great civil war, testingwhether that nation or any nation so conceived andso dedicated, can long endure. We are met on agreat battlefield of that war. We have come todedicate a portion of that field as a finalresting-place for those who here gave their lives thatthat nation might live. It is altogether fitting andproper 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 powerto add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it cannever forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to theunfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather forus to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us---that from these honored dead wetake 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,and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.