Lincoln emoticons ;)

Were emoticons used in 1862? [Link]

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.

It sounds like a great theory, but I don't believe it. I believe it is simply a pause in the sentence, with the parenthetical applause placed in the sentence and indicating a pause by putting the semicolon in the parenthesis. This is repeated right after the sentence by another parenthetical applause that is not in the middle of a sentence so has a period in the parenthesis.

It just appears to be consistent even if not correct grammar. [Link]