Gettysburg Address Questions and Answers 2 & 5
Gettysburg Address Questions and Answers
Q. 1. 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. -Comment with reference to the context.
Ans. The line is the opening line of the famous ‘Gettysburg Address’ delivered by Abraham Lincoln on the Occasion of the “Dedication of the National Cemetery” in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863.
Lincoln begins by saying that the United States was founded “four score and seven,” or 87, years ago. The nation’s founders dedicated the new country to the principles of liberty and equality.
Q. 2. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. Comment with reference to the context.
Ans. The line is the line of the famous ‘Gettysburg Address’ delivered
by Abraham Lincoln on the Occasion of the “Dedication of the National Cemetery” in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863.
The United States is now fighting a civil war, Lincoln states. This civil war will test if the United States survives as a nation, and whether nations dedicated to liberty and equality can survive at all.
Q. 3. 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…..
-Comment with reference to the context.
Ans. The line is the line of the famous ‘Gettysburg Address’ delivered by Abraham Lincoln on the Occasion of the “Dedication of the National Cemetery” in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863.
He says a great battle was fought at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Everyone assembled is here to dedicate part of this battlefield as a cemetery for the soldiers killed here. This, Lincoln says, is the right thing to do.
Q. 4. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate-we can not consecrate, we can not hallow-this ground. – Comment with reference to the context.
Ans. The line is the line of the famous ‘Gettysburg Address’ delivered by Abraham Lincoln on the Occasion of the “Dedication of the National Cemetery” in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863.
Lincoln continues, the people assembled can’t really consecrate this battlefield because the soldiers who fought here have already done so.
Their bravery did more to make this field sacred than anything an official could do.
Q. 5. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. -Comment with reference to the context.
Ans. The line is the line of the famous ‘Gettysburg Address’ delivered by Abraham Lincoln on the Occasion of the “Dedication of the National Cemetery” in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863.
Lincoln says that few people will remember today’s speeches and ceremonies, but they will remember the soldiers’ brave sacrifices. The people who survive must dedicate themselves to completing the work the soldiers began.
Q. 6. 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. -Comment with reference to the context.
Ans. The line is the line of the famous“Gettysburg Address’ delivered by Abraham Lincoln on the Occasion of the “Dedication of the National Cemetery” in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863.
Lincoln says that the brave dead men who died in the battle-field of Gettysburg inspire the living to greater dedication to the cause of liberty because in giving their lives they gave their complete dedication. We must all commit ourselves, Lincoln urges, to carrying on their mission so their deaths have meaning and purpose. They must commit to creating a new era of freedom for America so it-and its democratic principles and government – will survive.
Q. 7.. What is implied by Lincoln by the phrase “our fathers “?
Ans. Here, by the phrase our fathers, Lincoln refers to America’s Founding Fathers: the patriots of the Revolutionary War and the framers of the Constitution.
Marks-5
Q. 1. Give a brief introduction to the background of the famous Gettyburg Address by Abraham Lincoln.
Ans. The Gettysburg National Cemetery, originally named the Soldiers’ National Cemetery, was built and the slain Union soldiers removed from their makeshift graves in the Gettysburg Battlefield and reburied at the cemetery. About 15,000 people, including six state governors, attended the consecration ceremony in November.
President Lincoln was asked to deliver a short speech dedicating the cemetery after the main oration by the Honorary Edward Everett, a former Secretary of State and Massachusetts senator. Lincoln’s address, which is two hundred seventy-two words and about two minutes long, memorialized the soldiers who gave their lives for the Union, expressing the President’s hope that they had not died in vain and that the Union could be salvaged. Considered one of Lincoln’s most memorable and important speeches, the address exists today in five slightly different versions.
Q. 2. How does Abraham Lincoln address the gathering on the occesion of dedication of the National Cemetery in Gettysburg.
Ans. Lincoln begins the address with the sentence, “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.” Lincoln continues, saying that the outcome of the ongoing Civil War will determine whether a nation founded on the concepts of freedom and equality for all citizens can really endure and withstand the test of time.
He notes the reason for the attendees’ presence that day is to dedicate a portion of the battlefield on which that war was fought, the site of the Gettysburg battle, to those who gave their lives to ensure that the nation would survive. He says that the dedication to those who have died for the nation’s continued existence is “altogether fitting and proper.”
Q. 3. Why does Abraham Lincoln claim that nothing the attendees do or say that day would consecrate or hallow the ground of the battlefield more than the brave soldiers?
Ans. In the second paragraph of the address, Lincoln claims that nothing the attendees do or say that day would consecrate or hallow the ground of the battlefield more than the brave soldiers, both living and dead, who fought in the battle have already done. He explains that few will remember the words spoken at the ceremony that day, but many will remember the heroic battle that the Union soldiers fought.
Lincoln goes on to deliver the last and most important lines of the speech, saying that the best thing that the living citizens of the country can do to honor the illen soldiers is to dedicate themselves to finishing the “great task” that the soldiers died to advance, so that they would not have given their lives in vain.
Q. 4. What does Abraham Lincoln say about the ‘great task’ left behind by the great soldiers who died in the battle-field of Gettysburg?
Ans. Lincoln explains that few will remember the words spoken at the ceremony that day, but many will remember the heroic battle that the Union soldiers fought. Lincoln goes on to deliver the last and most important lines of the speech, saying that the best thing that the living citizens of the country can do to honor the fallen soldiers is to dedicate themselves to finishing the “great task” that the soldiers died to advance, so that they would not have given their lives in vain.
Lincoln clarifies that this “great task” is the reunification and salvation of the presently war-torn nation, ensuring that the great democratic experiment begun by the founding fathers nearly a century ago does not end in failure and that the American nation founded on “government of the people, by the people, for the people” does not “perish from the Earth.” In addition to expressing his hopes for the nation’s continued existence as the founding fathers had originally envisioned it, he also expresses the wish for a “new birth of freedom” in the reunified nation.
Q. 5. Comment on the historical importance of the great Getttysburg Address, delivered by Abraham Lincoln?
Ans. Lincoln’s address, which is two hundred seventy-two words and about two minutes long, memorialized the soldiers who gave their lives for the Union, expressing the President’s hope that they had not died in vain and that the Union could be salvaged. Considered one of Lincoln’s most memorable and important speeches, the address exists today in five slightly different versions.
The Gettysburg Address is remembered today for its historical importance, brevity, and eloquence. Although Lincoln’s speech had not been the main feature of the ceremony, many who heard it marveled at the President’s ability to summarize the importance of the Battle of Gettysburg and the larger Civil War in just ten short sentences. The rumor that Lincoln had quickly dashed off the speech on the train ride to the ceremony has since been debunked since he was known to have carefully prepared all of his speeches in advance. Although the Soldiers’ National Monument is often thought to be the location of the address, it was actually delivered on a grassy knoll in the neighboring Evergreen Cemetery.
Q. 6. What is implied by Lincoln by the phrase “Four score and seven years ago”?
Ans. “A score is twenty years”, so “four score and seven years” equates to eighty-seven years. Lincoln delivered this speech in 1863, eighty-seven years after America declared independence in 1776.
According to historian Gary Wills, whose book Lincoln at Gettysburg won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize in General Non-fiction, “The Gettysburg Address” was a singular moment in American history, whereby President Lincoln re-shaped, restructured, and re-prioritized much of the country’s popular historical selfunderstanding.
For example , though the United State’s official “date of birth” was far from agreed upon at the time of the address, Lincoln’s iconic opening line cemented 1776 as the founding date of the United States. Lincoln considered the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776) the country’s founding document – an opinion that was, according to Wills, somewhat controversial at a time when other politicians and citizens still emphasized the singular importance of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. Lincoln’s determination to popularize the Declaration of Independence is also evident in his rhetorical emphasis on equality in the Jan. 1, 1863 Emancipation Proclamation,
Q. 7. What is implied by Lincoln by the phrase “ Now we are engaged in a great civil war,”?
Ans. The American Civil War, or War Between the States, lasted from 1861 to 1865 and claimed the lives of roughly 620,000 soldiers in the Union and Confederate Armies.
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought between July 1 and July 3, 1863. Though both the Union and Confederate armies lost over 20,000 soldiers, most historians agree that the outcome of the battle was in the favor of General Meade’s Army of the Potomac, which essentially stopped General Lee’s advance into Northern territory and therefore prevented a potential battle in Washington (toward which Lee intended to advance).
Lincoln delivered his Address several months later, on November 19th.
Q: 8. What is implied by Lincoln by the phrase “whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”?
Ans. This was Lincoln’s attempt to convince his listeners that democracy was going to last – a proposition not as self-evident as you might think:
The warning Lincoln issues is his admission that the Civil war was testing whether or not democracies are inherently unstable – “whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure.” Today, many take democracy for granted as the endpoint of political development. But it did not look that way in 1863. The French Revolution, which promised to be the American Revolution’s beachhead in Europe, swiftly circled downward in the Reign of Terror and then the tyranny of Bonaparte; democratic uprisings in Spain in 1820, in Russia in 1825, in France in 1830 and across Europe in 1848 were crushed by newly renascent monarchies or subverted by Romantic philosophers, glorying in regimes built on blood, soil and nationality rather than the Rights of Man.
Lincoln’s task at Gettysburg was to persuade his offered by three days of battle, that democracy’s sun had not set after all.
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