A newspaper in central Pennsylvania is apologizing for its 1863 editorial panning the Gettysburg Address; the relevant paragraph read: “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.”
Then comes the predictable rhetoric of devotion to the American civic religion, in the paper’s assessment in 2013:
“In the fullness of time, we have come to a different conclusion. No mere utterance, then or now, could do justice to the soaring heights of language Mr. Lincoln reached that day. By today’s words alone, we cannot exalt, we cannot hallow, we cannot venerate this sacred text, for a grateful nation long ago came to view those words with reverence….”