what does Four Score and Seven Years ago mean??

Question

Can you please tell me who wrote it and what its called..It starts like this.......Four Score and Seven years ago our founding fathers...

I think, thanks

Does a score mean 100 years ? Meaning 400 years ago maybe? Thanks for helping!

Thanks so much, I apprecaite your help. I was so off...Thanks

Answer 1

A score is 20 years, so 4 score and 7 years ago would be 87 years.
It's from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address - the country was 87 years old when he spoke - from 1776 to 1863
November 19, 1863:
"Beginning with the now-iconic phrase "Four score and seven years ago," Lincoln referred to the events of the American Revolution and described the ceremony at Gettysburg as an opportunity not only to dedicate the grounds of a cemetery, but also to consecrate the living in the struggle to ensure that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

The full text:

"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.
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.
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."

Answer 2

A score is 20 so 4 score and 7 is 87

Answer 3

A score is 20 years. "Four score and seven" is a nice way of saying "eighty seven".

The quote comes from the Gettysburg Address.

In the third year of the American Civil War, Gen. Robert E. Lee took the Confederate Army north and invaded Pennsylvania... he was attempting to get behind the Union Army, come down south, and capture Washington D.C.

The Union Army met him in battle at Gettysburg Pennsylvania. In a three day battle (July 1, 2, and 3, 1863) the Union Army held the line, and Lee was forced to retreat to Virginia, where he had come from.

It was just about the first time Lee had actually lost, and one of the very few Union victories up to that point in the war.

It also resulted in more casulaties than the entire Iraq war and Afganistan War have, so far

http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/gettysburg/getty4.aspx

http://www.civilwarhome.com/Battles.htm

The government set up a cemetary to bury the dead. On November 19, 1863 President Lincoln came up from Washington D.C. to give a speach at the opening of the cemetary.

He was actually the #2 speaker on the program. The featured speaker was a professional speachmaker who went on for several hours telling all about the battle, how heroic everyone was, etc. etc. etc.

Lincoln got up and gave the Gettysburg Address.

Here it is.....

"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.

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.

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. "


It is famious because in very few words Lincoln stated what the battle was all about, what the war was all about, and what America itself was, and is, all about.

Until about 40 years ago all Ameircan Schoolchildren were required to memorize the Gettysburg Address.

Answer 4

A score is twenty years, so four score and and seven is 87 years which is when the US was founded at the time this speech was made. What do they teach in history these days???

Answer 5

A score is 20; so it means 87 years.

Answer 6

its four score and seven years ago our forefathers.... its the begining of the Gettysburgh address given By Abraham Lincol in 1863. a score is twenty years so four score is 80 years and seven = 87 years,

Answer 7

87 years

Answer 8

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
what does Four Score and Seven Years ago mean??
Can you please tell me who wrote it and what its called..It starts like this.......Four Score and Seven years ago our founding fathers...

I think, thanks

Answer 9

4 score means 20
Abraham Lincoln
Gettyburg address

Answer 10

Some have already interpreted the numerical value as 87, and have noted that Lincoln's use of it was eloquent. True.

Others have pointed out that this was a reference back to 1776 -- which is also true, and important.

In fact, there is something more significant about EACH of these points, which I'll attempt to explain below (hope it helps you appreciate better exactly what Lincoln was trying to do.)

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There are some particular REASONS for his choosing to emphasize this expression, and in this way, that may make it mean "a whole lot more" than "eighty seven".

First, note that the victory at Gettysburg AND at the same time at Vicksburg, culminated on July 4. Lincoln, who had for many years made frequent appeal to the Declaration's "all men are created equal", and who had a strong deterministic streak, saw this timing as symbolically very important. These battles were a turning point in upholding the "proposition" to which the newborn nation had then been "dedicated". (And note how he then plays on "dedicate" throughout this speech, offered at the dedication of the national cemetery at Gettysburg.)

Lincoln first observed the timing in a quickly prepared speech on July 7, just after new of the Vicksburg victory was confirmed. But in this first 'vetting' of his thoughts he was a bit less eloquent, "How long ago is it?--eighty odd years--since on this Fourth of July for the first time in the history of the world a nation. . . declared as a self-evident truth that 'all men are created equal'?"
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So how and why was this transformed into "fourscore and seven" rather than simply "eighty seven"?

Of course, it had something to do with his way with words. It certainly sounded more polished than the original expression, and this was especially valuable for an opening line. The first part even rhymed (four // score) But it wasn't just that it catches your ear, nor that it had that "archaic ring" that can make words more forceful.

It specifically helped to underscore the connection with the nation's founding -- with 1776 and the Declaration, esp. the key "self-evident truth" Lincoln placed at the very HEART of the Gettysburg Address.
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But besides all that, and often missed, is the specific SOURCE of this archaic expression. Lincoln was alluding to BIBLICAL language (as he often did in his speeches, and as indeed many of that era did).

Here are some key examples:

"Threescore" and "fourscore" were used in English Bibles from Wycliffe's translation (1388) through at least the King James Version of 1611

For example, for "fourscore", note:
Genesis 16:16 "And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram"
compare Exodus 7:7, Joshua 14:10, 2 Samuel 19:32

Especially important, and very familiar to many in his audience, who would KNOW this verse, in Psalm 90:10, which in the King James Version begins,

"The days of our years are threescore years and ten;
and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years,
yet is their strength labour and sorrow...."

A specific connection to this last verse seems even more likely since we know the Psalms were the section of Scripture Lincoln most loved and read.

By referring to the founding act of "our fathers" in conjunction with the biblical and weighty-sounding "four score...." Lincoln added weight to that event, and even suggested something of its epochal significance, as it were a foundational biblical event. (In this combination "our fathers" may even mean to make a subtle connection with the biblical patriarchs/forefathers.)

The event in this case would be that the NATION would have a "NEW BIRTH of freedom" -- paralleling the epochal 'bringing forth' --that is, bearing or giving birth-- of this NATION 'conceived in liberty' 87 years before. (Thus Lincoln's goal/hope at the very end of the speech is connected back to the opening words.)