Analysis of Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation,

• 27 years ago some people made a new country that brought us together

• 87 years ago some people made a new country that brought us together

• 27 years ago our relatives made a new country that brought us together

conceived in liberty,

• based on the idea of freedom

• born in a free country

• taken from a free country

and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

• and made sure the song was the same as all others

• and believed that all people are the same

• and written to make sure that everyone would get the same things

Now we are engaged in a great civil war,

• Now we are fighting a war between the states

• Now we are planning a war

• No we are politely debating

testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

• Testing if any country can survive forever

• Trying to see if we or any country who believes in that idea can continue to exist

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.

• But in the bigger picture, we cannot make this place holy because the men who died here already did.

• But in the bigger picture we cannot build here because people died here and it would be disrespectful.

• But in a larger sense, we should not honor people who fight in wars.

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

• We have to promise to make this cemetery nice and remember these men.

• We need to promise that we will work on the great job ahead of us--to remember the dead we will increase our effort to save the ideas that they died for.

that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain

• that we promise that the men who died here died for a good reason

• that we find out if the dead died terrible deaths

• that we make sure other people don’t die here

that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom

• that our country, under God’s blessing, shall have a new form of government

• that our country, under God’s blessing, shall be reborn in freedom

• that we will become a really religious country

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

• and that one government of lots of people should spread all over the earth

• and that a government of people cannot exist on this earth

• and that the idea that all the people should be involved in making their own rules and laws for themselves won’t be destroyed.