The Patriot-News of Harrisburg

The Patriot-News of Harrisburg on Thursday retracted a critical editorial published by its Civil War-era predecessor, The Harrisburg Patriot & Union, saying it should have recognised the greatness of President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address instead of dismissing it as "silly remarks".

Lincoln's speech at a dedication for a soldiers' cemetery in the small Pennsylvania town captured in just a few words the spirit of the time and the importance of the three-day Civil War battle in upholding the ideals of a country founded 87 years before.

The brief remarks are among the most often quoted US speeches and are routinely memorised in US schools.

The retraction notes the newspaper's November 1863 coverage said the speech amounted to "silly remarks" that deserved a "veil of oblivion".

The paper now says it regrets the error of not seeing the speech's "momentous importance, timeless eloquence and lasting significance".

It dismissed the earlier editorial as coming from "the influence of partisanship, or of strong drink".
During the Civil War, the Patriot & Union was opposed to Lincoln.

Mimicking the style of the speech, the newspaper on Thursday wrote: "Seven score and ten years ago, the forefathers of this media institution brought forth to its audience a judgment so flawed, so tainted by hubris, so lacking in the perspective history would bring, that it cannot remain unaddressed in our archives."
An event for the 150th anniversary of the speech is scheduled for Tuesday in Gettysburg.