October 15th 1860: Bedell’s letter to Lincoln On this day in 1860 an eleven year old girl from Westfield, New York, wrote a famous letter to Republican candidate for President, Abraham Lincoln. In the letter the young girl suggested the candidate grow a beard as all the ladies like whiskers and it would improve the appearance of his thin face. She also tells Lincoln that she hopes he wins the election and if I was a man I would vote for you to but I will try to get every one to vote for you that I can. Lincoln, then an Illinois Senator, replied to Bedell on the 19th, expressing his concern that people will consider it a piece of silly affection if he grows a beard now. However he took Bedell’s advice to heart and in the last weeks of the campaign Lincoln grew his now iconic beard. On February 16th, when Lincoln was on his way to the White House for his inauguration after having won the election, the train stopped in Westfield. While there, Lincoln called out for Grace and he greeted her as she came forward, showing her that he had taken her advice. Lincoln’s story from that moment on is well known - he led the Union to victory over the seceded Southern states during the Civil War and pushed for the emancipation of America’s slaves, before being assassinated in 1865. Bedell wrote another letter to Lincoln when she was fifteen, after her family had fallen on hard times, asking for help in getting a job with the Treasury, but this time the President did not reply. She later married a veteran Civil War sergeant and moved to Kansas where she raised a family. Grace Bedell died in 1936 just before her 88th birthday. “‘He climbed down and sat down with me on the edge of the station platform,’” she recalled. ‘Gracie,’ he said, ‘look at my whiskers. I have been growing them for you.’ Then he kissed me. I never saw him again.” - Grace’s account of when she met Lincoln in 1861
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 23:35:56 +0000
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