MEDIA MONDAY / THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

Media coverage before the speech

On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Lincoln had been invited to give a "few appropriate remarks" during a ceremony to dedicate a cemetery for Union soldiers killed at the Battle of Gettysburg. Despite its brevity and the fact that it earned little attention at the time, the Gettysburg Address is considered one of Lincoln's greatest speeches.

AUDIO TEXT.  Click here.

MEDIA MONDAY / THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Lincoln had been invited to give a "few appropriate remarks" during a ceremony to dedicate a cemetery for Union soldiers killed at the Battle of Gettysburg. Despite its brevity and the fact that it earned little attention at the time, the Gettysburg Address is considered one of Lincoln's greatest speeches.

AUDIO TEXT.  Click here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D_Q2hMs88I

MAYBE THE SPEECH WASN’T SO BAD AFTERALL

150 Years later, local Pennsylvania newspaper apologies for not seeing the greatness of the speech on November 19, 1863 and retracted its editorial slamming the speech.

 

Only photo of the speech

MEDIA: 150 YEARS LATER.

It took 150 years, but a Pennsylvania newspaper said  it should have recognized the greatness of President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address at the time it was delivered.

The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, about 35 miles northeast of Gettysburg, retracted a dismissive editorial penned by its Civil War-era predecessor, The Harrisburg Patriot & Union.

The president's speech is now considered a triumph of American oratory.

The retraction, which echoes Lincoln's now-familiar language, said the newspaper's November 1863 coverage was wrong when it described the speech as "silly remarks" that deserved a "veil of oblivion."

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

"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, without guidance from this chagrined member of the mainstream media," the paper wrote, echoing the words of the address.

Separately, the paper also recounted how it covered the dedication of the national cemetery, nearly five months after the pivotal battle in which federal forces repelled a Confederate Army advance from Virginia into Pennsylvania. More than 3,500 Union soldiers killed in the battle are buried there.

During the Civil War, the Patriot & Union was a Democratic newspaper that was staunchly opposed to Lincoln.

Allen Guelzo, author of "Gettysburg: The Last Invasion," told CBSNews.com that the Battle of Gettysburg, which ended four months before the iconic speech, gave Lincoln confidence to give his address.

"For (Lincoln), Gettysburg was like a rainbow in the sky," Guelzo said. "It promised victory and by the end of the summer, Lincoln was feeling free to say peace did not seem so distant as it once did."