With Malice Toward None

The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition    

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Candidate Lincoln

Lincoln Portrait, ca. 1858 Lincoln Portrait, ca. 1858

The Republican Party built popular support for Lincoln by portraying him as “Old Abe the Railsplitter,” a down-to-earth, common man who had risen through hard work. Republican political clubs decorated their headquarters with fence rails and organized massive rallies throughout the North. A poster from a rally inspired young Grace Bedell of Westfield, New York, to write Lincoln that growing a beard would improve his chances of victory.

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