Question

Background Information: Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address during the Civil War. This is an excerpt from that speech in which he dedicated a national cemetery for soldiers who had lost their lives in the Battle of Gettysburg.

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.

According to Lincoln, why was the sacrifice made by the soldiers at Gettysburg worth the price they paid?

Their deaths resulted in the births of many more Americans.
Their deaths created a new type of government.
They died and their sacrifice was worth very little.
They died to protect American democracy.

Answer 1

They died to protect American democracy. Lincoln says their sacrifice secured "a new birth of freedom" so that "government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish."