LincolnFreak: The Story Inside Lincoln's Watch

Now scrolling: The Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

The Story Inside Lincoln's Watch

“Thank God we have a government.” These were the words watchmaker Jonathan Dillon secretly inscribed inside Lincoln’s gold pocket watch as he repaired it at the beginning of the Civil War.

Apparently unknown to Lincoln, these words stayed hidden until the watch was opened recently at the Smithsonian Museum to verify the story told by Dillon’s great-great grandson, Douglas Stiles.

Were the words there? Yes, they were, but Dillon had remembered them differently, embellishing the text for his progeny with a few more sentences – "The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a President who at least will try." That wasn’t in the watch at all.

So, the next time you need to repeat an important secret message, remember that even Lincoln’s jeweler got it wrong. To read the whole story, check out Lincoln' watch

Thanks to my usual great source for supplying me with this gem!