Lincoln's train rides through the Hudson Valley
On his way to his first oath of office as US President on March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln (born February 12, 1809) boarded a train for a whistle-stop tour on his way to Washington to “help unify a greatly divided country.”
According to the Dutchess County Historical Society:
Their departure from Albany the morning of Tuesday, February 19, 1861 with the next overnight stay being New York City, set up the Dutchess “whistle stops†for the day. Although crowds gathered at Tivoli, Barrytown, Hyde Park, and Staatsburgh, and the President could be seen at the end of the train car platform, the train did not stop there.
They would only fully stop in Rhinecliff and Fishkill (Beacon), for 2 or 3 minutes. They stopped at Poughkeepsie for about 15 minutes.
Lincoln’s comments at Poughkeepsie:
I cannot expect to make myself heard by any considerable number of you, my friends, but I appear here rather for the purpose of seeing you and being seen by you. (laughter). Â I do not believe that you extended this welcome, one of the finest I have ever received, to the individual man who now addresses you but rather to the person who represents for the time being the Majesty of the Constitution and the government. (Cheers.)Â I suppose that here as everywhere you meet me without distinction of party but as the people. (Cries of yes, yes.) it is with your aid, as the people, that I think we shall be able to preserve not the country–for the country will preserve itself–but the institutions of the country–(great cheering);Â those institutions which have made us free, intelligent, and happy–the most free, the most intelligent and the happiest people on the globe. (Tremendous applause.)
I see that some, at least, of you are of those who believe that an election being a decided against them is no reason why they should sink the ship. (“Hurrah.â€) I believe with you, I believe in sticking to it; and carrying it through; and if defeated at one election, I believe in taking the chances next time. (Great laughter and applause.) I do not think that they have chosen the best man to conduct our affairs, now–I am sure they did not (here the speaker was interrupted by noise and confusion in another part of the crowd)–but acting honestly and sincerely, and with your aid. I think we shall be able to get through the storm (here Mr. Sloane caught hold of mr. Lincoln’s arm and pulled him around to see the locomotives, the Union and the Constitution, which passed gaily dressed with flags. Turning hastily Mr. Lincoln continued)–In addition to what I have said I have only to bid you farewell. (Cheers and a salute, amid which the train moved on).
According to local newspapers, “On arriving at Fishkill, the people were found gathered in force. Canon, music and shouting gave voice to the enthusiasm. Ladies waved handkerchiefs, the men cheered. Mr. Lincoln showed himself to the crowd and thanked them for the reception but as the train only stopped 3 minutes, Lincoln declined to speak saying only that a speech would delay his on time arrival in Washington.”
With the Tuesday, February 19, 1861 Poughkeepsie stop as a kind of beginning marker, it would only be four years, two months and several days later, that the same locomotives would take the remains of the assisanated President into a stop at Poughkeepsie station, this time heading north, Tuesday, April 25, 1865. On the train were the remains of son, Willie, who died age 12 in 1862.
Source: https://dchsny.org/lincoln/
