What does the first sentence of The Gettysburg Address mean?

Answer 1

Answer 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.

... He starts out by saying that our new Country was founded 87 years ago on this continent on the principals 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. Now we are fighting a struggle to determine if a nation dedicated to these principals can edure the test of time.

Answer 2

Lincoln gave a solemn respect for those brave men who fought. It is an eloquent way of saying that their actions speak louder than Lincolnâ??s words. They were gathered to formally dedicate ground hallowed by the men, American citizens, who died there, but his speech turned the event into a dedication of the living and to preserve a nation of freedom.

Answer 3

The first sentence in Lincoln's Gettysburg Address can be broken down as follows: The initial clause recalls that, 87 ("[f]our-score and seven") years prior, the founders of the United States ("our fathers") had created a new country in North American ("this continent"). The rest of the sentence reminds the listeners that this new country was fundamentally committed to both liberty ("conceived in liberty") and equality for all ("dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal").

Answer 4

It is a paragraph that can mean many things depending on the interpreter but one of those is that the paragraph shows Lincoln's disdain for present state (of that time period) of the Civil War.

Answer 5

"Four score and seven years ago" means 87 years ago.