Obama To Travel by the Train to D.C.

By CQ Staff | December 15, 2008 1:17 PM | | Comments (0)

Channeling Abraham Lincoln and other presidents of yore, President-elect Obama plans to take the train to Washington on Saturday, Jan. 17 for the start of inaugural festivities.

lincoln copy.gifThe Presidential Inaugural Committee on Monday announced that Obama, Vice President-elect Biden and their families will do an abbreviated whistle-stop tour “to include as many Americans as possible who wish to participate, but can’t be in Washington,” according to Emmett S. Beliveau, executive director of the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Committee.

Plans call for Obama and his family to start the day in Philadelphia with a campaign-style event on Saturday morning before boarding a chartered train and heading to Wilmington, Del. to pick up the Bidens. The contingent then travels to Baltimore for another event before arriving in Washington on Saturday evening.

The trip will provide familiar surroundings for Biden, who famously took Amtrak to and from Washington to his Delaware home daily while serving in the Senate. It also allows Obama to reenact at least part of Lincon’s 1861 inaugural rail trip to Washington, which took nearly two weeks. t This time, the biggest peril will probably be significant delays on the already congested Northeast Corridor, a conduit for many inaugural attendees.

Lincoln had boarded his train in the state capitol, Springfield, on Feb. 11, 1861 and arrived in Washington on Feb. 23 after stops for speeches in Indianapolis, Columbus, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Albany, New York, and Philadelphia. The inauguration, at that time, was held on March 4.

pink.gifWhen Lincoln started his trip, he was so despised in the South that Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas already had seceded. Lincoln was supposed to make a last stop in Baltimore but Allan Pinkerton (left), namesake of the famous private detective firm, as well as detectives in New York City, uncovered evidence of a plot to kill the President-elect. Instead of stopping in Baltimore, Lincoln took a night train from Philadelphia to Washington passing through Baltimore at 3:30 a.m. Lincoln paid a price for that with critics describing him as having “crept into Washington.”

— Adriel Bettelheim

Post A Comment


(for verification only; will not be published with your comment)