The Girl Who Told Lincoln to Grow a Beard

In October 1860, 11-year-old Grace Bedell of Westfield, New York, looked at a picture of Abraham Lincoln and wrote him a letter. “If you will let your whiskers grow… you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin,” she told him. “All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husband’s to vote for you and then you would be President.”

Lincoln wrote back four days later, wondering whether people would call it silly if he started now. He won the election, and then he grew a beard.

In February 1861, his train stopped at Westfield. Lincoln asked for Grace, stooped down and kissed her. By her own account, he said: “Gracie, look at my whiskers. I have been growing them for you.”

Watch on YouTubeSources and photo credits are below.

Fact check

The facts and where they come from

Grace Bedell, 11, of Westfield, New York, wrote her letter on October 15, 1860, after her father brought home pictures of Lincoln and his running mate, Hannibal Hamlin. 1 2
Her letter: “if you will let your whiskers grow… you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husband’s to vote for you and then you would be President.” 1 2 3
Lincoln replied on October 19, 1860, asking whether people would call it silly if he began now. 3 2 4
He won the 1860 election, then grew a beard. 1
At Westfield in February 1861 he asked for her and “stooped down and kissed the child” (New York World, February 19, 1861). 1
“Gracie, look at my whiskers. I have been growing them for you.” These are Grace’s own recollected words (Schenectady Gazette, November 4, 1936). The popular “I let these whiskers grow for you” is a misquote. 1

Sources

Grace Bedell Wikipedia
All the ladies like whiskers Letters of Note
Lincoln’s letter to Grace Bedell National Park Service
Lincoln to Grace Bedell, October 19, 1860 House Divided, Dickinson College

Notes

One word in Lincoln’s reply is read two ways: “affectation” (National Park Service, Letters of Note) or “affection” (House Divided, from Basler’s Collected Works). Our Short paraphrases that line.

Photo credits

The archive photos in this story

All the photographs and illustrations in this story are in the public domain. Tap one to enlarge it, or follow the link to its Wikimedia Commons page for the full record. The narration, music, captions and graphics in the Short are our own.