[1] I.e., eighty-seven years ago. The Gettysburg Address was delivered
Nov. 19, 1863. Lincoln is here referring to the Declaration of
Independence.
[2] Figuratively speaking. To take "fathers" in a literal sense would,
of course, involve a physiological absurdity.
[3] The western continent, embracing North and South America.
[4] "A new nation." This is tautological, since a nation just brought
forth would necessarily be new.
[5] "Proposition," in the sense in which Euclid employs the term and not
as one might say now, "a cloak and suit proposition."
[6] See the Declaration of Independence in Albert Bushnell Hart's
"American History Told by Contemporaries" (4 vols., Boston, 1898-1901).
[7] The war between the States, 1861-65.
[8] I.e., the United States.
[9] See Elliot's Debates in the several State Conventions on the
adoption of the Federal Constitution, etc. (5 vols., Washington,
1840-45).
[10] Gettysburg; a borough and the county seat of Adams Co.,
Pennsylvania, near the Maryland border, 85 miles southwest of
Harrisburg. Pop. in 1910, 4,030.