Watching Over Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln had a watch, a watch he did have he...

I'm just singin' a little ditty, to celebrate the discovery of a secret inscription within the inner shell of Lincoln's personal pocket watch!

The century-old legend was confirmed mid March, thanks to a handy watchmaker at the National Museum of American History who pried the watch face open. No pressure there!

The watch's original maker, Jonathan Dillon indeed had left an inscription. But Dillon himself, when asked by reporters in 1906, couldn't even correctly recall the words he had etched in the watch. He had told newspapers "The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a president who at least will try" could be found within the watch, and that not even Lincoln knew about the engraving.

What had he actually written? Let's just say, Dillon's gears weren't in very good working order when it came to his memory. Oooooo. Because the watch actually reads:

Jonathan Dillon April 13 - 1861
Fort Sumpter was attacked by the rebels on the above date
Thank God we have a government.

Fascinating!! This is so thrilling to learn. I picture Lincoln with this timepiece by his side as the country is inflamed in war. The stench of innocent men's lives in the air. And the tears of the wives and children on the home front creating rivulets of sorrow in his mind as he makes meticulous strides to at once bind under centralist rule, our divided country and also please the industrialist heads of the union by suppressing Southern prosperity, all dignity intact. Rough job. Not to mention the fine wire he walked between treating the slave issue with heroic sensitivity while in the political arena, and telling racist jokes behind cabinet doors to friends...hm....shame on the Lincoln not written about in the 210,00 books written about him. Really sick, dude! and Hooray to American Academia, and to all the books written by professors that induce the institutions we know as universities with the same substance known as 'safe for the average american', year after year.

Anyway, it's way past time for bed. I don't even know if this post makes any sense. Oh, and one more thing...for Dillon. Don't thank God for the government when God doesn't take sides, and government does. Also...the rebels may have 'fired the first shots', but the North had long before that been firing bullets of condemnation at any state putting them at risk of not acquiring all the agricultural 'gold' they could get their hands on. That was already marked by that state...Keep yer grubby hands to yerself. but in the end, you won. who knows how we'd be fairing now in America if we let our respective states do the talking...
but then again...where does the Native American fit into all of this. UGHHHH, what a mess.

And those poor boys of war. Regardless of the 'side' they took. Their LIFE was took.
And a sickness will permeate the blood stained dirt of this country until each and every soldier spirit is set free to rest in Peace, not angst or harm or confusion.
I don't care how long ago it was. The casualties from the Civil War exceed those lives lost in all other wars, from the Revolution through Vietnam.

Lest I misconstrue the immediacy of being close to a decade into a war, present time, here and now. Blood spilled on territory abroad...pray for the soldiers and the mission to find a stopping place.