In 1860 on October 15th, a 11 years old kid by the name of Grace Bedell writes a letter to Abraham Lincoln asking him to grow a beard before presidency a year later. It was a radical idea, and I advocate the beards myself. The famous beards: Socrates, Leonardo da Vinci, Paddy Ladd, Robert McGregor, and others who fought for pursuit of happiness to advocate Deaf people in sign language, higher education and life. Imagine this, if Lincoln did not sport a beard in 1864, would National College for the Deaf and Dumb not signed by Lincoln? What would it be like?

Earlier, I read an interesting post called “The Trustworthiness of Beards” from The Chronicle of Higher Education, writes: “A recent study in the Journal of Marketing Communications found that men with beards were deemed more credible than those who were clean-shaven.”

Lincoln knew how important of higher education for Deaf people, and that was one of the most important signings in the history of Deaf community. Four days after Lincoln got the letter from Bedell in 1860, he responded to her letter: “Your very agreeable letter of the 15th. is received.” Can we ever thank Grace Bedell for the radical idea?

-JT

Copyright © 2018 Jason Tozier

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References:

https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/percolator/the-trustworthiness-of-beards/22581

http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gracebedell.htm