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Like Lincoln, Obama Will Ride the Rails To D.C.

Barack Obama has evoked Abraham Lincoln ever since launching his campaign at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill.

Now he plans to arrive in Washington the same way that Lincoln did in 1861, with a train trip that will include stops, speeches and crowds along the way.

On Jan. 17, Obama and his family will start the day with an appearance in Philadelphia, where they will board a chartered Amtrak train. The train will stop in Wilmington, Del., where the Obamas will be joined by Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. Then comes a stop in Baltimore before the group's arrival that evening in Washington.

"He's replicating the last leg of Lincoln's inaugural journey to Washington," said historian Harold Holzer, author of Lincoln President Elect: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter 1860-1861."This guy's reverence for Lincoln has no bounds."

Lincoln had left his home in Springfield on Feb. 11, 1861, for a 12-day journey east to Washington, during which he made 101 speeches. Philadelphia and Baltimore were his last stops before the nation's capital.
Read entire article at Washington Post