Abe Lincoln and his pigwhiskers: A historical porkmoustache interlude.

Nineteenth-century historians often fail to credit the pork moustache for its pivotal role in electing one of the nation’s greatest presidents.

Abraham Lincoln, Republican presidential candidate and lifelong ‘stache-less politician, received a letter in the fall of 1860 from Grace Bedell, an eleven-year-old girl in New York, urging him to grow a pork moustache – or “pig whiskers” in the parlance of the day.

Grace wrote:

… part of [my brothers] will vote for you any way and if you let your pig whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you[. Y]ou would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like pig whiskers and they would tease their husband's to vote for you and then you would be President.

Lincoln responded to Grace:

As to the pig whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affection if I were to begin it now?

Nonetheless, president-elect Lincoln heeded the little girl's pleas and, en route to the White House, arrived on the train platform of Grace’s hometown of Westfield, New York, with a porcine-plaited upper lip stretched wide in a victorious grin. News accounts of the day report that all agreed pig whiskers gave Lincoln’s gaunt face a stately aura of dignity and wisdom. Lincoln’s Democratic rival, the clean-shaven Stephen Douglas, is said to have claimed bitterly in private that he would have gained the presidential seat were it not for the silly vanities of pork-strumpets.