Smileys invented in 1862? The mystery remains

Were smileys invented in 1862? – While you already knew about the X-files, it’s with the greatest of honors that we bring to your attention the PMSLweb-files. Unresolved or unexplained online cases can appear once in a while among our posts, and what will follow will be left to your entire appreciation. Some time back, very savant observers of vintage online-documents noticed that one of Abraham Lincoln’s transcripts – which goes back to 1862 – seems to include a weird character that one could easily see as being the first famous emoticon. Evidently the opening brackets before the word “applause” will lead us to reasonably conclude that this was just a typo but hey… you never know!
Could Lincoln be the one to have invented smileys???? Could our whole lives have been a lie?????