Grace Bedell thought it could clinch the election when she suggested to Abraham Lincoln that he grow a beard. Now a century and a half later, Americans are asking their president to consider an updated proposal: Mr. Obama, please don’t kill us.

Unlike the correspondence from 1860 that was signed off by a single person — an 11-year-old girl from upstate New York — over 1,000 Americans have already added their name to a petition posted on the Internet this week. Their plea may sound silly at first glance, but it’s authors appear to be anything other than serious about it: after a Tuesday morning article in the New York Times revealed US President Barack Obama’s authority to add and remove names from a roster of alleged enemies of the state to be executed without due process, 1,679 Americans have already asked that they be placed on a “do not kill” list.