Interesting

[David Lockmiller]

(08-29-2019 06:40 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  

(08-29-2019 02:50 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(08-29-2019 01:45 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I am also going to insert a little incivility here - If the real Mr. Lincoln was ashamed of his looks, he would be delighted to find that his so-called look-alike looks even worse...

Lincoln apparently used to like telling the following story about his looks:

“I feel like I once did when I met a woman riding horseback in the woods. As I stopped to let her pass, she also stopped, and, looking at me intently, said: ‘I do believe you are the ugliest man I ever saw.’ Said I, ‘Madam, you are probably right, but I can’t help it!’ ‘No,’ said she, ‘You can’t help it, but you might stay at home!’”

Can't help it, I've always found the story weird. What's the source?

The story is published in Abraham Lincoln: A Life, Vol. I, page 414.

"After adopting this declaration of principles and naming a central committee (which included Herndon), the editors called for a state convention of antislavery forces to meet in Bloomington on May 29." (page 413)

(page 414)
The editors did not formally endorse a gubernatorial candidate, though some wanted to run Lincoln. . . . At the dinner following the editors' convention, Lincoln announced his support for Bissell. When toasted as "our next candidate for the U.S. Senate," Lincoln asked to be "let off." The editors would not let him off, so, after apologizing for his presence, he spoke for half an hour. He "stated that he believed he was a sort of interloper there and was reminded of the incident of a man not possessed of features the ladies would call handsome, while riding on horseback through the woods met an equestrienne. He reined his horse to one side of the bridle path and stopped, waiting for the woman to pass. She also checked her horse to a stop and looked him over in a curious sort of way, finally broke out with,

"Well, for land sake, you are the homeliest man I ever saw."
"Yes, madam, but I can't help it."
"No, I suppose not, she said, but you might stay at home."

Lincoln said "that he felt as though he might have stayed at home on that occasion."

(footnote 23: Illinois State Chronicle (Decatur), 28 Feb. 1856; Benjamin F. Shaw in Prince, ed., Bloomington Convention, 68.)

Michael Burlingame also concluded on page 414: "The editors' convention had in effect launched the Republican Party in Illinois."