Secret message hidden in Lincoln's pocketwatch

Watchismo has the incredible story of an apocryphal anti-slavery message that a watchmaker hid inside Abraham Lincoln's pocketwatch at the outbreak of the civil war:

Dillon, working in a D.C. watch repair shop in 1861, told family members that he -- by incredible happenstance -- had been repairing Lincoln's watch when news came that Fort Sumter had been attacked in South Carolina. It was the opening salvo of what became the Civil War.
Dillon told his children (and, half a century later, a reporter for the New York Times) that he opened the watch's inner workings and scrawled his name, the date and a message for the ages: "The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a President who at least will try."

Secret Message in Abraham Lincoln's Pocket Watch

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Katerade

Clayton, MDH, let me see if I get this: Cory’s post is quoting the watchmaker saying what he *thought* he’d engraved, as stated to the reporter in 1906. He did not, however, ACTUALLY inscribe “The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a President who at least will try.” Could we get an edit to make this clearer? I completely misread it the first time and only checked the comments when the pictured inscription clearly differed from the quote.
Fred H

JFK had had his watch BROKEN by a man named Dillon, who had inscribed things on the outside!
Nur

I suppose it doesn’t affect the watch’s operation so it’s alright but are you really supposed to scratch your name and a message into things you’re repairing? Is it one of these things which is ok because it’s a famous watch and happened a long time ago?

Imagine if you were to open your computer case when it came back from a repair and discovered someone had scratched a message about the Iraq war on it, you might not think that’s really what you intended when you said you “needed it to play Call of Duty”.
Bob

Noen: A muslin? Really? Our pres is a length of fabric? Gosh…

Still, cool stuff about Lincoln’s watch!
PFlint

The Lincoln Estate should sue the Dillon Estate for defacing its property. The watch shall be restored to its original state or replaced with a watch of equal or greater value. Yes, 1861 dollars plus appreciation.
Permanganate

I had a fully functioning gold railroad pocket watch from around 1912. The innards were decorated with the names & dates of numerous watch repair folks – it seems to have been an acceptable practice.
Anonymous

Damn Taggers….everywhere…
mikefinch

Dont forget to mention that the usa was hardly pulling the trigger. The anti-slavery movement was alive and well long before Lincoln was just a beard in his daddy’s pants.
arkizzle

#29 Nice one Tak :)
xzzy

I bet this ends up as fodder for the next ‘National Treasure’ movie.

Except instead of random messages about the war, it’s going to be an md1 (because md5 wasn’t invented yet!) encrypted string pointing the hero to a secret compartment in the foundation of the Washington monument, which contains Lincoln’s porn stash.
zyodei

Abraham Lincoln, the champion of the black race:

“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races – that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything.”

“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.”

Noen, glad you’re right at least on point #1.
Clayton

There’s no anti-slavery message. As the NYT notes, the actual message reads: “Jonathan Dillon April 13- 1861 Fort Sumpter was attacked by the rebels on the above date. J Dillon April 13- 1861 Washington thank God we have a government Jonth Dillon.”

NYT
Kickass McGrass

I wish you hadn’t said that. I liked what they said it said.
dbarak

The “Jeff Davis” inscription is a bit disappointing, but it does seem likely Grofs wrote it.. The “main” message can be read as being either pro- or anti-Confederate.

I’m amazed at the workmanship of the pieces. I guess I shouldn’t be, but still, it looks pretty darned good.
Redmond Cooper

Man, Lincolns gonna be pissed when he finds out some punk scratched up his pocket watch…
mdh

Before he died in 1906 that’s what the man thought he wrote. In fact he wrote somewhat less.

and clayton, both articles state that clearly. The one in the post and the one you brought in, so rtfa^2.
mdh

I wonder what’s etched onto the motherboard of Obama’s DoD crackberry?
Clayton

Thanks MDH. I am sure there are a dozen other articles that mention the same thing. Next time I’ll try to be more inclusive by first reading the same text in each article and making sure I have a proper citation for each one.
Felton

Steampunk Lincoln doesn’t have time for such rhetoric.
codereduk

Here, let me crack open my $3.99 Casio watch to etch a message for all the ages inside of it…

Oh..wait…that was kind of a mistake, wasn’t it….
fxq

Great. National Treasure III: The Secret of Boingboing’s Forum.

I actually like Nicholas Cage, but his posts read like he acts then I’m gonna kill myself.

Unintended benefit: Cory becomes so overstimulated he writes TWO books in his sleep!
Takuan

inscribing messages in watch guts; the steampunk internet.
Clayton

Katerade: I believe Cory added the word “apocryphal” after he originally posted the article, but that addition in no way helps clarify that the anti-slavery exists only in the memories of a dead man and not on any watch. If you read the article linked, you’ll get the full story. It’s worth a few minutes. Now if only Cory had taken that time…
rollerskater

i agree with 23.
reginald

opening bids…
watch this space
Lester

Is it just me or does it say “Jeff Davis” on that big piece in the center?
Factran

Wow ! First twitter in history !
SamSam

#10: It looks an awful lot like “Jeff Davis” to me too. But maybe the “a” is an “i”, “v” is a “ll”, the “s” is an “o”, and we can’t see the “n”?
Toast

Yes, it does say “Jeff Davis”. Maybe this guy was actually pro-Confederacy. The actual message could easily be read that way.
Toast

Well, this that’s what you get for reading a 3rd-hand story. The original article in the Washington Post mentions the “Jeff. Davis” bit:

‘The name “Jeff. Davis,” the president of the Confederacy, is also etched on a different part of the brass plate, in different handwriting. It remains unexplained. And someone added the name “LE Grofs” and “1864.”‘
Agies

@5 Made in China
Clayton

neon: Most historians would agree with your former point.

The “Jeff. Davis” inscription was made by another repairer, according to the sources I read.
teufelsdroch

“The original article in the Washington Post…”

Yeah, this is an article written by a Post staff writer and broken in the Post. As far as I can tell, watchismo just added some media?

Let’s get attribution right. AP owns this story.
zorach

Correction: the last name of the 1864 graffito’s author is Gross, not Grofs. He’s apparently German, and his penultimate s is shaped like a Frakturschrift s. It’s also sort of a holdover from the old days when non-ultimate s’s looked like f’s. Don’t forget Freberg’s “United States of America, Vol. 1″: Franklin: “…life, liberty, and the purfuit of happineff?”
Jefferson: That’s “the pursuit of happiness.”
Franklin: Well, all your s’s look like f’s!”
BTW: What’s written to the right of 1864?
Telecustard

I’d say Grofs wrote the “Jeff Davis” across the strap, the writing seems different than Dillons.
noen

But… but… the Civil War wasn’t about slavery, it was about state’s rights… sputter, fluuuggrrrrg. affirmative action is wrong…. gurgle… urrrrrp…. Obama is a muslin….. wheeeeeeze…..
Auto Parts for Brains

Grafitti. I bet these guys bragged about this to their friends.
“Oh yeah, well I have my name in the President’s watch.” :P