How an 11-Year Old Girl Convinced Lincoln to Grow His Beard

theatlantic:

In what has to go down as one of the all-time great moments of political image consulting, an 11-year old girl suggested to a fresh-faced Abe Lincoln that he grow a beard. And then he did. The website Letters of Note even has copies of the girl’s letter and Lincoln’s response. Beyond being  the cutest historical footnote of all time, Ms. Grace Bedell, had some solid reasoning behind her request. 

“I have got 4 brothers and part of them will vote for you any way and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you,” she wrote, “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.” [emphasis added.]

Brilliant.  I have Lincoln on the brain since I’m devouring Sarah Vowell’s Assassination Vacation.

Notes

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    brain since I’m devouring Sarah Vowell’s Assassination Vacation.
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    Suddenly, I realize why my (late) high school history teacher loved talking about Lincoln Letters. I love American...
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    Sweet! Coincidentally, I wrote to Bill Clinton in 1994 and told him he should wear tighter trousers, to strengthen his...
  17. cgchen reblogged this from thesungho and added:
    SO adorable. and damn, 11-year-olds had some handwriting back in the day.
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