Description
—A cross-country road rally of 100,000 automobiles —A continuous political parade from the Atlantic to the Pacific —A story about the famous Lincoln Highway in 1924 The political caravan highlighting the 1924 presidential campaign of Calvin Coolidge and his running mate, Charles G. Dawes, was a political masterpiece. This book is compiled from eyewitness accounts of the Coolidge-Dawes Lincoln Tour. It was documented by E. A. Seidel, who drove the lead vehicle and newspaper accounts along the route, all illustrated with 100 vintage photographs and political artifacts. Starting in Coolidge’s hometown of Plymouth, Vermont, the caravan wound its way down to New York City, then followed the Lincoln Highway across the country to San Francisco, then along the Pacific Coast. L Over five million people turned out to witness the caravan as it rolled along 6,500 miles — much of it still unpaved, ranging from dirt in good weather to mud in bad weather — and involving over 100,000 vehicles! Along the way local bands played, horns honked, most of the cars were decorated in red, white and blue, and two million campaign buttons were distributed. Civil War veterans who had voted for Abraham Lincoln were invited to sign a roster at the various stops and they turned out by the hundreds. National GOP dignitaries provided the rhetoric at the stops, making over 400 speeches promoting the re-election of Coolidge. The newspaper press along the route loved the event, proclaiming it “the largest continuous procession of any kind in all history.”
