14 DAY TRIAL // A Pennsylvania paper has issued a retraction for something written 150 years ago. While it's hard to get publications to retract anything, this is a big one – they called the Gettysburg Address “silly.”
At the time, they mocked the address as “the silly remarks of the president.” The 1863 editorial was published in the Patriot-News of central Pennsylvania, or Patriot & Union, as it was known at the time.
Lincoln delivered the address during a speech about the 8,000 men killed in the July 1863 Gettysburg battle.
The paper was a supporter of the Democratic Party, and some of its editors were put in jail for their political propaganda.
The year the article was published was critical, as it would be followed by an election year, Fox News clarified.
The article was discovered by Deputy Opinion Editor Matt Zencey, who examined it before the 150th anniversary of the address.