Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Is That an Emoticon in 1862?. In the transcription of President Lincoln's speech, which added comments about applause and shouts from the audience was this line: "...there is no precedent for your being here yourselves, (applause and laughter 😉 and I offer, in justification of myself and you, that I have found nothing in the Constitution against." Bryan Benilous, who works with historical newspapers at Proquest, said the team felt the ";)" after the word "laughter" was an emoticon, more than a century before emoticons became a widespread concept.