Thread: The Gettysburg Address, please help

I’m taking a speech class this semester, and it’s just killing me. Back in my country, if I had problems with some course, I would just give some money to the instructor. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work in America .
Now I have to write a paper on the Gettysburg Address. The problem is that I am not a native speaker and for me this speech is just a bunch of complicated words. I understand that it is a very significant speech, yet I cannot comprehend it. I don't understand what makes it so significant. I can’t use the Internet to write the paper ‘cause than it would be plagiarism (yyyhh, such a scary word, and this is one more thing that usually worked just fine back in my country but doesn’t work here ). “If you don’t understand the speech, talk with others,” that’s what the teacher said.
If you have some ideas, be kind and share them with me, please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative ... ysburg.htm

The text with my comments and the simplified version in bold:

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.

(score here means a set of twenty. four score and seven = 87 years.)
87 years ago our ancestors created a new nation (USA) on this continent, it was born free, and it thinks that all men are 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 and proper that we should do this.

Now we are in a civil war that tests whether this nation (that is free) can survive. We meet on the battle-field. We are here to make a graveyard, yo! (without the yo part, sorry) (the graveyard will contain the soldiers who died in the war). It is normal that we do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take 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, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

but when you think about it, we can not dig this graveyard here (we can not make the place holy). Thos soldiers who died already made it holy and we can't like make it even more so! Nobody will care, nobody will remember this speech, but the ground will always rememer what they did. It is the survivers who should work harder on what those dead soldiers fought for. We survivers have to work even harder, since these men died, so that they didn't die for nothing, that this country, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom (fresh impulse) and that the government will always survive, especially against the commies (sorry, take the last 4 words out)

Anyone care to comment the substance?

-- and that government of the people,
by the people,
for the people,
shall not perish from the earth

"the people" refers to "ourselves"

-- and that our government,
which we created by ourselves
to serve us,
shall not perish from the earth

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

The text with my comments and the simplified version in bold:

but it can never forget what they did here.

The events changed the future of America forever; the product/resulting climate cannot be undone-of such magnitude to not be forgotten-always noticeable.

A little background on the event. The Battle of Getteysburg occured in early July 1863. The North (United States of America (abolitionists- anti-slavery) USA) had been at war with the South (Confederate States of America (pro-slavery) CSA) for two years (since 1861). Many of the early battles saw southern victories. Throughout the war the nation was divided with some people fighting relatives. President Lincol did not accep the CSA as being a seperate country, and did not even remove them from the flag (1 star = 1 state). The CSA saw themselves as a seperate entity. That is why Lincoln is so adimite on say keep the union together as opposed to reunify the CSA+USA to make one USA again. The Gettysburg address was rather short and given four months later in November 1863. The Battle of Getteysburg's victory for the USA was crucial to defeating the South and maintaining the Union (or reunifying the Union and Confederacy) {depending on how you see it}

He meant:
87 years ago in 1776, our founding fathers founded our nation (USA) on the ideals of freedom and equality.

Now we are engaged at war with our fellow Americans, our brothers, to determine the fate of our country. With perseverence, the union will maintain. Today, we are gathered to consecrate (make sacred) part of this battlefield where so many men died and will be burried. This is a proper gesture.

However, we can never consecrate this land, as it has already been consecrated by the man who died in battle here. Our duty is to carry on where they left off so they will not have died pointlessly. We must keep our nation united (reunite it), so the USA does not collapse.



Good Luck!
Regards,
Joe

I got my paper back. Guess what! I got an A. Thanks everybody. I appreciate your help.