“…All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President…”
“…As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affectation if I were to begin it now?”
The Library of Congress exhibit “With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition” is on display in Washington D.C. until May 9, 2009. Among its features are the letters that Grace Bedell and Abraham Lincoln wrote to each other in 1860 discussing the possibility of a beard for the presidential candidate. Grace Bedell’s original letter to Lincoln is on loan to the Library of Congress from the Burton Historical Collection at the Detroit Public Library. Lincoln’s response is on loan from the Benjamin Shapell Family Manuscript Foundation.
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[...] Both letters can be seen below. Transcripts follow. Images courtesy of Detroit Public Library. [...]