Tag Archives: abraham lincoln

June 10, 2015 · 12:59 am

The Girl Who Told Abraham Lincoln to Grow Whiskers – 1860

c. 1860

The little girl who told
Abe Lincoln to grow a beard

“All the ladies like whiskers.”

by Chris Wild

c. 1846

Springfield, Illinois — Early portrait of Abraham Lincoln.

IMAGE: CORBIS

He would look better if he wore whiskers,
and I mean to write and tell him so.

11-YEAR-OLD GRACE BEDELL TO HER MOTHER, 1860

IMAGE: CORBIS

Abraham Lincoln became president of the United States in October 1860 at the age of 51. But a few weeks earlier he had been judged unequal to the task by 11-year-old Grace Bedell. Young Grace wrote to Lincoln pointing out what was, in her eyes, a serious defect: his lack of facial hair.

c. 1860

Half figure seated portrait of Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of the United States.

IMAGE: CORBIS

Oct. 15, 1860

Grace Bedell’s letter to Abraham Lincoln.

IMAGE: DETROIT PUBLIC LIBRARY, BURTON HISTORICAL COLLECTION

You would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President.

FROM GRACE BEDELL’S LETTER TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN, OCT. 15, 1860

IMAGE: CORBIS

Lincoln wrote back to Grace in the letter below.

(Some experts believe the letter’s spots are from snowflakes landing on the paper, as Grace hurriedly read the letter on her way home from the local post office.)

Oct. 19, 1860

Abraham Lincoln to Grace Bedell.

IMAGE: BENJAMIN SHAPELL FAMILY MANUSCRIPT FOUNDATION

Having never worn any whiskers, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affection if I were to begin?

FROM LINCOLN’S REPLY TO GRACE BEDELL, OCT. 19, 1860

IMAGE: CORBIS

1858

Beardstown, Illinois — Believed to be one of the last photos made before Lincoln grew a beard.

IMAGE: BETTMANN/CORBIS

Less than a month after receiving Grace’s letter, Lincoln had a beard.

Nov. 25, 1860

The first photograph to show Lincoln’s beard.

IMAGE: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

On his inaugural train journey from Illinois to Washington D.C., Lincoln stopped in Westfield, New York (Grace’s hometown) and asked to meet her.

There was a momentary commotion, in the midst of which an old man, struggling through the crowd, approached, leading his daughter. Mr. Lincoln stooped down and kissed the child, and talked with her for some minutes. Her advice had not been thrown away upon the rugged chieftain. The young girl’s peachy cheek must have been tickled with a stiff whisker.

EDITION OF THE NEW YORK WORLD, FEB. 19, 1861

Nov. 8, 1863

IMAGE: CORBIS

“Gracie,” he said, “look at my whiskers. I have been growing them for you.” Then he kissed me.
I never saw him again.

GRACE BEDELL

In 2009, almost 150 years later, a Liz Bedell, then a 23-year-old staff member in the U.S. House of Representatives, was exploring the Library of Congress’ Lincoln bicentennial exhibition. She saw the original letter from Grace, and Lincoln’s reply, in a display case.

In the exhibition’s visitor log, she wrote: “I cried my eyes out when I saw the letter from Grace Bedell to Abe Lincoln — she’s my great-great aunt, and I grew up with the story not really believing it.”

“In fifth grade, I wanted to be president of the United States. My Grandpa used to tell me, ‘You can do anything you want. You can be president. Why, just look at your great-great aunt Grace Bedell. She couldn’t vote, but she put pen to paper.’”

LIZ BEDELL, 2009

Historians unravel mystery behind cryptic Lincoln note

Published March 09, 2014

Associated Press

This photo provided by Papers of Abraham Lincoln project shows a note written by Abraham Lincoln. (AP)

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – The cryptic note penned by Abraham Lincoln identifies its recipient only as “my dear Sir” and has a small section carefully clipped out.

Who was he writing to and why was a key piece of information later removed so meticulously?

Historians believe they have unraveled the mystery and uncovered a bit of political intrigue in the process.

Researchers at the Papers of Abraham Lincoln project concluded Lincoln was writing to an ally to ask him to maintain a secret relationship with a political insider during the 1860 election campaign.

Lincoln asked his cohort to “keep up a correspondence” with the person, a phrase that gave researchers their best clue. They ran it through a searchable database of Lincoln’s papers and found several matches.

One was in a letter to Lincoln from fellow attorney and Republican Leonard Swett of Bloomington, Ill.

The two men, it turns out, were conspiring to keep tabs on a New York political figure. The mystery note was Lincoln’s response to Swett’s letter, the researchers surmised.

“If you can keep up a correspondence with him without much effort, it will be well enough,” Lincoln wrote to Swett. “I like to know his views occasionally.”

Swett’s earlier letter also had a clue about who the political insider was. It referred to “our friend TW of Albany,” who researchers concluded was Thurlow Weed, a Republican newspaper editor and political boss of New York state.

Lincoln was seeking Weed’s support in New York, even though Weed had been backing front-runner William H. Seward for the Republican presidential nomination. Lincoln got his way, ultimately winning Weed’s support. Seward later became his secretary of state.

But Lincoln couldn’t be seen as close to Weed during the campaign so he recruited Swett to be a secret go-between. That also explains why Swett clipped Tweed’s name from Lincoln’s note.

A New York City manuscript dealer recently contacted the Papers of Abraham Lincoln for help solving the riddle.

The group of researchers is trying to identify, transcribe and publish all documents written by or to Lincoln. Project Director Daniel Stowell said Saturday that solving the mystery behind the note points to the project’s value.

“To be able to identify the date, recipient and subject of such a brief letter is a remarkable achievement,” he said.

More Crossovers and Mashups

Once again a selection of crossovers and mashups, basically two things put together in a hopefully funny way. There are several recurring posts you can find by searching the home page for “crossovers”