A history of abe lincoln's beard

He was known as Honest Abe because his supporters felt he was trustworthy. It was his saving grace, because Abraham Lincoln had a bit of a reputation for being unkempt and unpolished. Surprisingly, this was before he grew his iconic beard. The clean-shaven Abe ran in the presidential race of 1860, with critics straight-up calling him ugly.

To be fair to his critics, Lincoln had a kind of darkness about him, with sunken cheeks, black hair, and grey eyes. He was tall and lanky. Many thought he looked lifeless, like a character from an Edgar Allan Poe story. His charm, it seems, was wrapped up almost entirely in his perceived honesty— and it worked. Abraham Lincoln was elected and became the 16th President of the United States.

Still, his appearance was picked apart in the court of public opinion. One newspaper went so far as to call him a “horrid-looking wretch.” From all outward indications, Lincoln seemed to accept the criticism of his appearance—until a little girl convinced him to grow a beard.

Abraham Lincoln gets a safer, new look

Eleven-year-old Grace Bedell took it upon herself to write Lincoln a letter with some advice for the gaunt-looking presidential candidate prior to the election. She assured him that if he grew his whiskers, she could convince more people—starting with her own brothers—to support him.

She wrote:

I have yet 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.

Just a couple of weeks before the election, the soon-to-be president wrote back to the young girl, asking:

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 wearing them now?

By that time, there was no opportunity to influence the election with a brand-new beard, but Lincoln won anyway. Soon after his victory, he began growing out his whiskers as Grace had suggested. He even stopped to visit her in person while traveling through her hometown so he could show her the beard. She approved.

Honest Abe had not even been sworn in as president yet when he learned of a possible assassination attempt. He didn’t know when or where someone might try to kill him—only that they likely would. So he wore a large hat and relied on his new beard to help disguise his appearance while traveling to Washington, D.C. for his inauguration.

Traveling by train, he kept his hat low and his head bowed, and went unrecognized. Everyone was used to seeing clean-shaven, sunken-cheeked campaign portraits of Lincoln. No one expected a full beard. As we now know, he made it to his inauguration, whiskers and all, so it’s entirely possible that Abraham Lincoln’s beard—and a little girl named Grace Bedell—helped save the president’s life.

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