LAD # 15

Lincoln starts off by quoting some of the Constitution and then jumping right into the fact that this nation is in a civil war. He compares it to a test of whether or not we would persevere as a nation as a WHOLE, Lincoln could have easily let the south go but he refused so as to keep the nation as a UNION. He goes on to say that we cannot sway, must not break for the nation will make it through, and honor the dead for the sacrifices they made were not in vain. But it is for the living to finish their work and let them rest in peace once the war is over. The "government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth" There was no way Lincoln was backing down.