|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The man for whom the nation cast its votes in 1860 for President did not look exactly like the man who led America during the Civil War. Just prior to the election, Grace Bedell, an 11-year-old from Westfield, New York, wrote to Abraham Lincoln about his appearance. She urged Lincoln, a lifelong beardless man, to grow a beard and improve his Presidential prospects, stating, “…I am a little girl only eleven years old, but I want you to be President of the United States… I have got four brothers and part of them will vote for you anyway and if you let your whiskers grow, I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you – 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…” Lincoln responded with a personal letter to Grace, adding, “As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affection if I were to begin it now?” (intended the word affectation) Lincoln, who was the last person to be a fashion plate, shocked his friends with a sudden decision to follow Grace’s advice and grew a full beard.
For some reason, the letter from Grace struck a personal chord with Lincoln, as he carried Grace’s letter with him for years thereafter, often pulling it out when people commented about his beard. The opposition press had a field day ridiculing Lincoln’s new appearance, alleging, “He was putting on airs,” and “using his political campaign to start his manly adornment.” Vanity Fair ran a cartoon of Lincoln’s new beard fully intended to humiliate the newly elected President. Some publications, caught off guard without word of Lincoln’s new beard, simply hired an artist and had him draw a beard on an earlier photograph.
When Lincoln left Springfield, Illinois on February 11, 1861 bound for Washington, he was fully bearded. When the train reached Westfield, New York, near Lake Earie, on February 16, Lincoln appeared on the train platform before several thousand people and called out for Grace, explaining to the crowd about her letter and his beard. Grace, a beautiful blushing girl, came forward. Lincoln kissed her, telling her he took her advice. He proudly showed her the whiskers that he had grown.
The original of Grace’s letter to Lincoln, valued in the early 1990’s in excess of $1,000,000, is now in the Burton Historical Collection of the Detroit Public Library. A private collector, who chooses to remain anonymous, owns Lincoln’s letter to Grace.
Sources: Abraham Lincoln Research Site, “Abraham Lincoln’s beard: The idea of an 11-year-old girl,”: Business Insider, Abraham Lincoln’s Beard History, “How an 11-year-old convinced Abraham Lincoln to grow a beard,” by Panela Engel, Oct. 15, 2013.
