President Abraham Lincoln ends the Gettysburg address with these now-famous words in an appeal to preserving the republic of the United States. It is a call to action stating that the men who died on that battlefield to save the Union should not have given their lives in vain. By repeating the word "people", Lincoln is emphasizing the nature of a republic. The implicit contrast here is that the country that the Confederacy hopes to establish is not a true republic or that its creation endangers the very existence of the United States.

Now the meaning of these words changes slightly depending on where Lincoln put the emphasis. It is unclear if he read this as "of the people, by the people, for the people," stressing the conjunctions or if he put the emphasis on the repetition of the word "people." The difference is subtle, but it is also noteworthy. The former stresses the relationship of the government to the people. The latter puts the focus on the democratic nature of the government itself. Since this speech was made in the days before audio recordings, we do not know exactly how it was first spoken by President Lincoln.

Either way, though, these famous words employ a classic rhetorical device of repetition and emphasis. They drive home the point that the Union soldiers who fell at the Battle of Gettysburg died for the noble cause of preserving democracy and that their fight remains unfinished.