Which 1863 speech by Abraham Lincoln begins “Four score and seven years ago”?

Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is the 1863 speech that begins “Four score and seven years ago.”

Lincoln delivered the address on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The cemetery honored Union soldiers killed in the Battle of Gettysburg, a major Civil War engagement fought from July 1 to 3 of that year.

The speech connected the Civil War to the principles of equality and self-government associated with the nation’s founding. Lincoln described the conflict as a test of whether a nation based on those principles could survive. He concluded by calling for a “new birth of freedom” and government “of the people, by the people, for the people.”

The Gettysburg Address was brief—only about 270 words in the commonly accepted version. Lincoln was not the event’s main speaker; the featured orator was Edward Everett, who spoke for roughly two hours. Lincoln’s concise remarks later became one of the most widely remembered speeches in U.S. history.