There was just one bodyguard with him, so if the president-elect were to be spotted he would have little defense against unfriendly crowds. The new plans required Lincoln to remain incognito while riding in public rail cars and switching between train stations. Lincoln decided to follow the advice of Allan Pinkerton, of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, and alter his publicly known itinerary in order to travel through Baltimore earlier than expected, before any would-be killers would know of his arrival. There was then no Secret Service to provide protection, so Lincoln and his supporters were on their own. On his way to Washington, D.C., for his inauguration on March 4, 1861, Lincoln learned that a group of secessionists in Baltimore were plotting his assassination. READ MORE: What Abraham Lincoln Was Carrying in His Pockets the Night He Was Killed Lincoln's new beard may have helped save his life Without Lincoln's beard, Bradley's new career might not have happened. It became the first in a long line of successes. Following this business disaster, Bradley began selling a board game called the Checkered Game of Life. But Lincoln's new facial hair rendered Bradley's inventory out-of-date and useless. In 1860, Milton Bradley had produced a lithograph of a beardless Lincoln. However, one man almost certainly loathed Lincoln's whiskers, at least at first. One paper, despite being pro-Lincoln, decided that even with a beard the president-elect was still 'very homely.' A few weeks before becoming president, he declared to one crowd: 'I have stepped out upon this platform that I may see you and that you may see me, and in the arrangement I have the best of the bargain.' And of course, not everyone was won over. One report stated, 'A vigorous growth of comely whiskers has entirely changed his facial appearance.' A woman in his hometown of Springfield felt that his 'whiskers are a great improvement.'įortunately, such approbation didn't inflate Lincoln's ego. There were other constituents who also applauded Lincoln's new facial hair.

The girl was shy and overwhelmed by the experience, but presumably approved of the addition. Lincoln stopped in Westfield, New York, on the way to his inauguration to show his new beard to Bedell. When opponent Stephen Douglas called him 'two-faced' during a debate in 1858, Lincoln is said to have answered, 'If I had another face, do you think I’d wear this one?' After all, he wasn't vain and in fact had a history of engaging in self-deprecating humor about his looks. In his response to Bedell on October 19, Lincoln shared some concerns regarding her advice: '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?' It seemed Lincoln didn't plan to follow the girl's suggestion. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President.' Following this, and after listening to some classmates disparage the candidate, on October 15 Bedell wrote Lincoln a letter that said in part: 'I have yet got four 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 you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. In 1860, Bedell's Republican father brought home a Lincoln poster from a county fair, but the images on it didn't impress her.

Bedell told Lincoln 'you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin'

Image cleaner as good as history kill