Lincoln's Gettysburg 'Poetry' Resonates

Embattled prez had more to deal with than Civil War

(NEWSER) - A handwritten note dated just a few days before Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address has finally made its way back to the National Archives, the Washington Post reports. The terse communication from the president to Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase addressed corruption charges against a Lincoln appointee. "Even though this item is seemingly routine, it is in fact very important," said an Archives official. More»

(NEWSER) - A legend about a DC watchmaker who etched a secret message inside Abraham Lincoln’s pocket watch is true, the Washington Post reports. Smithsonian officials opened the watch today and found it amid the tiny gears: "Jonathan Dillon April 13, 1861. Fort Sumter was attacked by the rebels on the above date. Thank God we have a government." Sumter proved to be the opening battle of the Civil War, and Dillon happened to be working on the watch that day. More»

(NEWSER) - The bicentennial of Lincoln's birth will be celebrated Feb. 12, so expect endless tributes to the president beloved by ordinary citizens and historians alike. Unless, of course, you're south of the Mason-Dixon line, where anti-Lincoln views "aren't particularly radical," writes Alex Beam of the Boston Globe. Lincoln is viewed by many as a cynical politician who pushed the Civil War not to end slavery but to keep his party in office. More»

Letter contains Lincoln's reply to kids' plea to free slave children

(NEWSER) - An 1864 letter from Abraham Lincoln to Massachusetts schoolchildren fetched a record $3.4 million at auction yesterday, a record for an American manuscript, CNN reports. In the letter, Lincoln responded to a petition from 195 youngsters asking him to "free all the little slave children of this country" with a heartfelt reply saying it was God's will that they be freed. An anonymous American collector bought the letter. More»

This re-enactment uses Confederate bonds, not weapons

(NEWSER) - Studying sales of Confederacy bonds in Amsterdam during the US Civil War, two economists say they're able to judge how European traders saw the South's chances of victory, the Wall Street Journal reports. Investors pegged the rebels' odds at 42% early on, but their 1863 defeat at Gettysburg sank bond prices. More»