Pennsylvania Newspaper Retracts Bad Review of Gettysburg Address–From 1863

150 years later

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In what may be longest-coming newspaper retraction in American history, the Patriot News, based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has apologized for slamming President Abraham Lincoln’s address at Gettysburg a century and a half ago.

“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,” the paper wrote in an editorial Thursday.

Back in 1863, the president made a stop in nearby Gettysburg to give a little talk asking that a government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth. Unimpressed, the Harrisburg Patriot & Union, wrote in response, “We pass over the silly remarks of the President. For the credit of the nation we are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them and that they shall be no more repeated or thought of.”

Remember kids: it’s never too late to say you’re sorry.

[Patriot News]