A New York Times transcript of an 1862 speech given by Abraham Lincoln contains '' ; ) '' ( now known as a winky-face ) . There is some debate as to whether it is a typo , a legitimate form of punctuation , or an emoticon . A New York Times transcript from Abraham Lincoln 's speech written in 1862 discovered by Bryan Benilous contains '' ; ) '' ; there is some debate as to whether it is a typo , a legitimate punctuation construct , or an emoticon .