Cincinnati c1866
150 years ago Andrew Johnson’s Swing Around the Circle was rolling and floating along. Unlike Cleveland and St. Louis, President Johnson didn’t care to make a stand against the hecklers who confronted him in Indianapolis on September 10th. As some in the crowd constantly shouted and finally told the president to shut up, Mr. Johnson quietly left the hotel balcony and stayed inside for the rest of the night. The presidential faced less vocal opposition the next couple days. The September 12, 1866 issue of The New-York Times reported that all Indianapolis newspapers regretted the violence in the crowd the night before and reported on the enthusiastic reception the president received in Louisville when it arrived about 4 PM on the 11th.
According to the September 13, 1866 issue of The New-York Times 150 years ago today President Johnson and entourage visited Cincinnati and Columbus. On the evening of the 11th the party left Louisville on the steamer Uncle Sam (or United States in a dispatch from the Associated Press in the same story) and arrived in Cincinnati about 9 AM on the 12th. “Notwithstanding the Common Council refused to extend the municipal hospitalities, the reception was very fine, and the collection of people very large.”
State Capitol, Columbus, Ohio (ca 1860)
The group arrived in Columbus, Ohio about 4 PM later that day. The mayor welcomed the president at the state-house. “Both here and in Cincinnati the utmost respect was manifested. If Ohio people do not agree wholly with what he says, they are dignified and respectful in their entertainment of different opinions.” President Johnson spent the night at the Neil House, where he was reportedly visited by one of his former slaves, “a former chattel of his” almost 100 years old. “The old lady like to have collapsed with joy when she grasped the hand of her former owner. ‘O,’ said she, ‘he was a might kind master to his niggers.'”
If you read the New York Times reports of the President’s trip over the past few days you will realize that it sure seems like I was wrong to post on September 1st that General Grant left the tour at Saint Louis. He was reportedly with the group in Indianapolis and rejoined the group in Cincinnati. He went to the theater there and refused to see a group of soldiers who called for him outside the theater. He told their commander: “Sir, I am no politician. The President of the United States is my Commander-in-Chief. I consider this demonstration in opposition to the President …”
