THE POLITICAL GATEWAY TO THE SOUTH: PRESIDENTS IN LOUISVILLE

BY CLYDE F. CREWS*

Louisville was founded during the American Revolution. In fact, it was founded because of the Revolution and thus was in existence before there was such an institution as the presidency. Citizens of Louisville have consistently revered and honored that office, even during trying times of civil and political strife. Louisville's history and that of the presidency are, in a modest sense, intertwined. In fact, Louisville has probably hosted more American presidents than any other southern city. Of the thirty-nine presidents, fourteen have paid "state" visits to Louisville while in office; four others visited the city with considerable ceremony as presidents-elect. And at least nine others spent time in Louisville either before or after holding the nation's highest office. To study these presidential visits is to glimpse aspects of American history as they manifested themselves on the regional scene; it is also to come to understand something of the majesty with which the typical Louisvillian has regarded the office of President of the .

JAMES MONROE, 1817-1825 The first president to visit Louisville was , Ameri- ca's fifth chief executive. The date was Wednesday, June 23, 1819. The presidential party was in the area to inspect garrisons and arsenals along the western frontier, and it arrived after an over- land trek from Corydon, then Indiana's capital. The president travelled "through the wilderness on horseback with a merry, yet discreet cavalcade," and was outfitted in "a semi-military uni- form . . . the undress uniform of Continental officers in the Revolution, consisting of blue military coat, light colored under- clothing, and a cocked hat.''1 With the presidential entourage was General , hero of the Battle of New Orleans and the man destined to sit one day in the presidential chair himself. As reported by the Louisville Public Advertiser, Monroe, Jackson, and their party were entertained the day following their arrival at a banquet at the Union Hall, at the southeast corner of Fifth and Main. Monroe, acknowledging the warmth of the reception accorded him in the city and at the banquet, spoke to the gathering

*F. CL•'DZ CeSWS, Ph.D., teaches htetory and theologY at Bellarmlne College in Loulsville. 1 Henry A. and Kate B. Ford. comp., Histor• o• •he Ohio Fails C•iies (2 vols.; . 1882), I. 246. 181 182 The Filson Club History Quarterly [Vol. 56 of the immense growth and possibility of the region: "We have seen your population and wealth increase to an extent and with a rapidity of which there is no example . . . the history of the world affords no parallel to it."• With that burst of euphoria, Mr. Monroe lived up to his reputation as president of the "Era of Good Feelings." The inevitable toasts were drunk at the banquet of June 24th: "To James Monroe, the Chief Magistrate of a Free People. May he long live, to give vigor to our councils and oppose the shield of justice to the envenomed shafts of party." Rounds were also quaffed in honor of General Jackson, the American Navy, the Day Star of Liberty, the American Army, and even of the memory of St. John the Baptist (the banquet was held on St. John's Day) who was said to have suffered "the awful lesson of the danger of rash VOWS."3 On Friday, June 25 the president viewed a proposed route for a canal around the Falls of the Ohio and then was entertained at yet another dinner at the Union Hall. Shortly thereafter, he departed with his party to continue the military inspection tour.

ANDREW JACKSON, 1829-1837 Because of Louisville's strategic location on Andrew Jackson's route from to Washington, he was frequently in the city. Yet, with the exception of the visit in the Monroe entourage of 1819, probably the most elegant time Old Hickory experienced in Louisville was his visit en route to his first inauguration in 1829. He arrived in the city on Thursday, January 22 and was received and entertained at Mr. Perkin's Union Hall, where apartments had been provided for him. During the stay, a steady stream of visitors presented themselves to the president-elect. "National salutes were fired on his landing, at sunrise on Friday morning and immediately preceding his departure . . . on the steamboat .''4 In The Revolutionary Age of Andrew Jackson, Robert Remini traces the shift of political power from the east coast of the United States to the more democratic "new west" as symbolized in the personage of Andrew Jackson of Tennessee.5 Louisville was one of the five original great cities of the new west according to

2 LouisvtSe Public Advertizer. Jsmuary 26, 1819. 31 bid. 4 Loulsv/l•e Public Advertise', January •t, 1829. 5 Robert Remit, The Revo|ufionary Age o] Andrew Jackson (, 1976). 1982] Presidents in Louisville 183

Richard Wade. (The others were Pittsburgh, , Lexing- ton, and St. Louis.) 8 It should not be surprising, then, that all three presidents elected in the 1840's made it their business to visit Louisville with some ceremony on their way to their inaugurations in Washington. The receptions for Harrison and Taylor may be described as elegant; that for Polk, in just about every way, must be called stormy.

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, 1841 Having spent precisely one month as president, Harrison, "Old Tippecanoe," became the first chief executive to die in office. According to his biographer Freeman Cleaves, Harrison had been in Louisville many times before, in 1811, 1812, and in 1833, usually on military business.7 When he came to the city shortly after his election in 1840, Shadrach Penn's Public Advertiser was none too pleased: "The President elect arrived in this city by the mail boat on Monday night which was announced by the Federalists in their usual, noisy manner by discharge of a hundred guns.''8 George Prentice's Journal was, of course, much more sympathetic to the Whig cause represented by Harrison. "The nation is redeemed ; our shackles are broken and the despot has been crushed beneath the stamp of Liberty.''9 It was the Journal that reported "the whole city assumed the brightness of day" in the great illumination cele- brating Harrison's presence the night of Tuesday, November 17, 1840. At the Galt House, then at the northeast corner of Second and Main, 10,000 people are reported to have listened to the cannon thundering from the roof. The assembled throng roared its greet- ing to "old Tip" as the Journal called him. "All was joy and en- thusiasm -- deep and gushing enthusiasm.''10 Within six months, the subject of such enthusiasm, Old Tippecanoe who had been so comfortably lodged at the Galt House, was dead.

JAMES POLK, 1845-1849 Like his political patron Andrew Jackson before him, James Polk made his way through Louisville on the way to Washington for his inauguration, but the reception was markedly different

6 Richard Wade, The UTban Frontier (Chicago, 1989). 7]•eem•x Cleaves, Old Tippecanoe: Wtllta•rt Henry Harrison and His Time (Hew York, 1939), pp. 85, 118, 297. 8 Loui•ille Public AdverttseT, November 18, 1848. 9 Louisville Journal, November 16, 1840. 10 Lou/•vtlle Journal, November 19, 1840. 184 The Filson Club History Quarterly [Vol. 56 from the one accorded 01d Hickory. Polk had just defeated the Whig candidate in a narrow election, and that candidate happened to be none other than 's own . Polk's visit to Louisville was appreciated neither by the Whigs nor by all the members of a splintered Democratic party, split into regular and "Locofoco" wings. The President-elect and Mrs. Polk arrived at the Louisville wharf on the steamboat China on Tuesday, February 4, 1845 dur- ing a snowstorm. The weather and an earlier-than-expected arrival kept the welcoming crowds down. The Polks were lodged at the Louisville where they received visitors, and on Wednesday, February 5th they were driven in a barouche with some ceremony back to the wharf to continue their journey aboard the Pike. A crowd of at least five hundred and a military honor guard saw them off at the wharf.11 But the biting commentary of Prentice's Whig Journal makes much more fascinating reading than the simple statement of the details of the visit. The Journal announced on February 5 :

Mr. Polk's arrival was attended with disastrous omens. When he was about landing below the city on Monday night, a violent gale drove the steamboat against the shore or another boat and several men's hats (some say men themselves) were knocked overboard. Yesterday morn- ing he entered the city in the midst of a raging storm that kept nine- tenths of his friends shut up at home. Before he had been here three hours, there had been two alarms of fire . . . No doubt such dire omens will multiply as he approaches Washington City . . . Hadn't you better turn back, Mr. Polk?12 The president-elect's reception, the paper continued "was not more cold by Dame Nature than by the people." At the hotel, "the vulgar.., indulged themselves by gazing at him.., the crowd... would have been equally attracted by a double-trunked elephant (or) a five-legged calf . . ." The rest of the reportage was a similar tissue of jabs at the electoral victor. Mr. James Guthrie, who rode with Polk in his barouche, is said to have whistled on the drive through the city streets. At the Louisville Hotel, many well-wishers are said to have "crooked their knees" before Polk. He was "entertained 'uptown' by one of the aristocrats of the Democracy." A disproportionate number of foreigners were said to have been on the reception committee. In this, the Journal saw a nasty appropriateness: "The man who reached the highest sta- tion in this country by a fraudulent foreign vote should invite men

11 Louisville Journal, February 5, 1840. 12 Ibid. 1982] Presidents in Louisville 185 of other countries to surround his person." Additionally, Mr. Prentice's paper reported: We learn that while the Polk cavalcade was passing through the streets, a pistol or cracker was fired not very far from him by some rejoicing Locofoco. Whereupon Mr. Polk started, turned pale and anxiously looked around to ascertain whether he was still upon earth or in the land of the spirits. All in all, the paper concluded, the new chief executive received a reception in Louisville that was "miserably meager." And it added as if any further commentary was necessary to make its point:

If Mr. Polk has a tythe of common sense that his advisors give him credit for, he will, when next he travels through the country, go a thousand miles out of his way rather than pass through LouisviUe.13

ZACHARY TAYLOR, 1849-1850

Alone among the presidents, Zachary Taylor called Louisville home. One of his biographers has written of him:

Though at various times a resident of more than u dozen states and territories, Taylor was a Kentuckian at heart--typical of the sturdy sons of Revolutionary stalwarts who came out from the 01d Dominion to settle Louisville's eastern periphery. There he had lived as an infant, a boy and man. There a bride, later children, blessed his life. There he returned from the War of 1812. There he spent lengthy army leaves. There he owned property.14 And, of course, one might add, to complete the series, there he now lies buried. Zachary Taylor returned to the city he called home on Sunday, February 11, 1849 on his way to the nation's capital for his inauguration. Taylor's home city had truly taken part in the great growth indicated by President Monroe in his 1819 visit. When Monroe visited Louisville it was a town of about 4,000 residents and its southern boundary went not much farther than Green (Liberty) Street. By 1850, Louisville was among the twelve largest cities in America with a population of roughly 50,000; about twenty per cent of that number were slaves. The city's southern development had pushed out below Breckinridge Street.15 "The scene was," the Louisville Journal boasted of Taylor's arrival, "beautiful and stirring beyond description. The Louisville

13 LOUtSCtUe Jou•l, February 6, 1840. 14Holman Hamilton, Zachary Taylor: SoZdler in the White Ho•e (Indianapolis, 1951), pp. 399-40O. 15The S•oe•th Ce•.•r•s of the U.$.: 1850 (Washington, 1853), pp. Ill ff. Comparative cen- sus data provided. 186 The Filson Club History Quarterly [Vol. 56 wharf for three or four hundred yards (was) filled with a mass of people swaying to and fro, and every face beaming." The president-elect disembarked from the Courtland and in answer to Mayor Vance's welcome made reference to Louisville and Kentucky as his native areas and made polite assurances to the crowds: "I shall endeavor to administer the government upon the principles which guided the earlier presidents of the Republic and to this end I will dedicate all the energy and capacity I possess.''is From the wharf, General Taylor was taken by carriage to the Galt House escorted "by a crowd that could not be numbered." All day Monday, February 12th he received people at the Galt House. During this reception, the Journal gleefully reported an amorous touch : The ladies seemed charmed with the opportunity of paying their re- spects and expressing their admiration to the laureled conqueror, and many of them offered their bright and beautiful lips and received as hearty kisses as lips could possibly desire. Some of the jealous young gentlement present thought that the old chieftain, instead of kissing as a mere matter of form, kissed with a very decided appetite. Whatever he does, he does with a will.l•' On the evening of the 12th, another grand public dinner was held, this time at the Louisville Hotel on the south side of Main, west of Sixth. One feature of the gala was an extravagant example of bakery expertise: "a temple ten feet high, the work of the confectioners containing in one part an admirable figure of General Taylor and in another part, the American eagle." The next day, the president-elect boarded the Sea Gull and departed upriver. 18 But the year after all the festivities, Louisville sadly gathered on the wharf for the return of President Taylor in death for burial in his home ground. The president had attended ceremonies at the partially completed Washington Monument on July 4, 1850 and is said to have consumed huge quantities of milk and cherries. Whatever the cause, he was prostrated that night with severe stomach pains and died five days later. On Friday, November 1, 1850, the body was returned to Louisville. Holman Hamilton ob- serves that all Louisville payed final tribute; a procession com- posed of the mayor, the military, the fire companies, and the citizens wound its way to the wharf in a reception sadly different from the one extended the General the year before.19

16 LouisvtlZe Journal, February 12, 1849. 17 Louisville Journal, February 13, 1849. 18 Lou/svt•e Journal, February 14, 1849. 19 Hamilton, p. 400. 1982] Presidents in Louisville 187

MILLARD FILLMORE, 1850-1853 The year after Fillmore left office he toured the Whig centers of the United States with a group that was initially to have in- cluded Washington Irving. Irving, according to Fillmore's biog- rapher Robert Rayback, had declined the invitation, declaring: "I have no inclination to travel with political notorieties, to be beset by the speechmakers and little great men and bores of every community. I would as lief go campaigning with Hudibras or Don Quixote.''2° And so, without the company of Mr. Irving (who had been to Louisville in 1832),21 Fillmore arrived by rail in the city on Wednesday, March 15, 1854. Artillery discharges at the Court House signalled the former president's arrival; by "a great fault," according to the Journal, crowds waited at the Court House but Mr. Filmore did not appear. Instead, he was met at the railway depot, greeted by Mayor Speed and conveyed to the Louisville Hotel, from which balcony he addressed the waiting crowds.•2

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 1861-1865 A young Abraham Lincoln (thirty-two years old) passed three weeks of the summer of 1841 with his friend Joshua Speed at Farmington. From August 18th to November 7th, he again en- joyed the hospitality of his friend. Then on that Tuesday, Novem- ber 7th, he went with his friend Speed to the city wharf to take the steamer Lebanon downrlver. Years later, in a now famous letter dated August 24, 1855, he recalled that day to Speed with special moral intensity: In 1841 you and I had together a tedious low-water trip on a steam- boat from Louisville to St. Louis. You may remember, as well as I do, that from Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio, there were on board ten or a dozen slaves shackled together with irons. That sight was a con- tinued torment to me.23 ANDREW JOHNSON, 1865-1869 The only president ever to undergo impeachment proceedings, a man resolutely disliked by many citizens even within his own party, President Andrew Johnson was well received at Louisville on an official visit of Tuesday, September 11, 1866. Johnson was taking his "swing around the circle" that was to prove so unpleasant in

20 Robert Rayback, Meh•rd Ftl|more: BtoFraphy o] a PrestdenL (Buffalo, 1999), p. 387. 21S. T, Williams, The Life OS Wa•htnOton Irving (2 vols.: New York, 1863), I, 39. 22 Louisville 3ouynal, March 16, 1854. 23M. L. Schuster, A Treasury oJ the World's Great Letters (New York, 1940), pp. 319-16. 188 The Filson Club History Quarterly [Vol. 56

other major cities in the mid-west.24 But perhaps because Louis- villians saw Johnson as trying to offer a moderate approach to the south after the Civil War, they received him with dignity and honors. A diverse group of organizations were invited by the welcoming committee to greet the president at the wharf: "Military, Masonic and 0dd-Fellow fraternities, Fenian societies, the Fire Department and Transfer Companies and the Base Ball Club to turn out in full uniform." The president had come by train from Indianapolis, but because the Ohio was not bridged at Louisville, passengers still arrived by boat from the north. The procession wound from the wharf up Third Street to Broadway, down to Ninth and north again to Jefferson, and then to the Court House. Thus Andrew Johnson became the first president to speak at the present Jeffer- son County Court House. Arriving at the Court House after 4:00 p.m., President Johnson expressed a fear that the legislative branch was taking near com- plete control of the government. And yet, he came hopefully, for, as he related : "I come bearing the flag of your country containing thirty-six, not twenty-five states." Then with a rhetorical flourish, Johnson asked the crowd "Are you prepared again to open the bleeding wound ?" They roared back, of course, a resolute negative. The Jou,mal was proud of the citizenry in contrast to the reception in other cities: "It was no motley multitude either, but as intelli- gent, tidy and decorous a body of people as ever rallied upon any occasion."25

ULYSSES S. GRANT, 1869-1877 During the Civil War, of course, Grant had been through Louis- ville from time to time, such as the occasion of his arrival with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in October 1863.2e Grant, in fact, had stayed part of his wedding trip in Louisville with his new bride Julia Dent who had relatives in the area.27 But it was on Wednesday, December 10, 1879, as former president that U.S. Grant experienced his greatest welcome in the city. Even the scandals that had tainted his administration seemed incapable of diminishing the public's affection. Mr. Grant was welcomed to Louisville both by Mayor Baxter

24See Bill Weaver, "That Brief But Ple•ant Kentucky Interlude: Andrew $ohnson's Swing Around the Circle. 1866." The Ftlson C2ub History Quarterly, 53 (July. 1979). 239-49. 25Loutsvtl|e Journa|, September 12. 1866. 26 Margaret Leech and H. $. Brown, The Gar]leid Orbit (New York. 1978). p. 250. 273. Y. Simon (ed.), The Personal Memoivs o] Julia Dent Grant (New York, 1925), p. 56. 1982] Presidents in Louisville 189 and Governor Blackburn upon arrival at the J.M. and I depot at Fourteenth and Main. He spoke at the Court House, lodged at the Louisville Hotel, attended a gala ball at the Gall House, and was the guest of in his home on Fourth Street. One observer described the visitor as "the personification of iron will." Despite rain during the day, the crowds at what the Courier- Journal called "the gloomy old court house," were "irrepressible, undescribable and enthusiastic.''28

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES, 1877-1881 During the centennial year of 1876 America had experienced one of its more tortured elections. The outcome was that Hayes overcame Tilden in the electoral college by a 185-184 margin. Louisville's Henry Watterson, who had helped secure Tilden's nomination in the first place, was in a rage and had suggested that a peaceable army of Kentuckians march on the nation's capital to secure Tilden's inauguration. In the event, nothing so dire -- or so comical -- occurred.29 In fact, President Hayes was accorded a traditional Louisville reception when he arrived in the city with his wife and sons on Monday, September 17, 1877. Ironically W. N. Haldeman, presi- dent of Watterson's Courier-Journal, chaired the committee of welcome for the visitation. Hayes' biographer Charles Williams has written: "Nothing that southern hospitality could suggest was omitted in the attention paid to the illustrious visitors in their two days at Louisville. ''•° Banners hung across the major streets of Louisville. One at Ninth and Main read : "Equal Protection to All" ; at Fourth and Main : "Reform in the Civil Service" ; at Fourth and Market: "He Serves His Party Best Who Serves His Country Best." Major buildings throughout the city were decorated and, at night, illuminated. President and Mrs. Hayes had come to the city to visit the Louisville Exposition at the northeast corner of Fourth and Chestnut. They visited the grounds twice during their stay and were welcomed each time by a crowd in excess of 15,000. In remarks to the crowds, the president spoke of the decisive end of reconstruction in the south. "My friends, my confederates, do you intend to obey the whole constitution and amendments? I

28 Courier-Journal, December 11, 1879. 29BUly Reed, Favnous Kenbuck•an• (Louisville, 1977). pp 60-81; See Jose,ph F. Wall, "Henry Wattorson and the 'Ten Thousand Kentuckians,' " The Fitson Club History Quar- terly, 24 (October. 1950). 335-45. 30 Charles R. Williams, Ruthe•ord B. IIaye8 (2 vols.; Boston, 1914), n, 248. 190 The Filson Club History Quarterly [Vol. 56

thought you would. I believe you will. And that removes the last cause of discussion between us." During the visit, the president and first lady also visited schools and "The Blind Asylum. ''31

JAMES GARFIELD, 1881

In 1860, a twenty-eight year old Ohio legislator had come to Louisville in January to extend an invitation to Kentucky legis- lators to visit Columbus. Shortly after the trip, young James A. Garfield had an attack of "brain fever." Garfield's latest biogra- phers, Leech and Brown, comment cryptically that the brain fever may have been brought on "by the exhaustion and excitement from Louisville. ''ss Two years later, Garfield, then in the Union army, wired his wife from Louisville on August 2, 1862 that he was ill and was returning to her side.3s Ironically, Lucretia Garfield was in the Louisville area at the same time that her husband was telegraphing to her in Ohio. After some minor communications confusion, the couple was reunited in Ohio shortly thereafter,s4

CHESTER ARTHUR, 1881-1885

In 1883 Louisville extended its hospitality to the nation as it flung open the great Southern Exposition. Not only was the ex- position a shrewd ploy to attract the commerce of the southern markets; it was also a celebration of a kind of psychological re- union between the north and south nearly twenty years after hostilities had ceased. A Courier-Journal editorial entitled "With Open Doors" caught the tone of the event :

We throw open our doors and proclaim "Behold what can be done by the South." We desire to teach that even the scars of former conflicts have disappeared and that a new and fruitful day has dawned upon us. We have learned a great lesson . . . The pruning hook is indeed the successor of the sword in the hands of our people. The cannon's roar no longer disturbs the peaceful course of industry and thrift and is heard only when our citizen soldiery voice forth the greeting of our people to the Nation's Chief who comes for a few hours to be one of us and to learn how Time has wrought its wonders.• The "Nation's Chief" was Chester Arthur who officially opened the exposition on Wednesday, August 1, 1883. The city was de- scribed as being "in holiday garb" for the visit of President

31 Courier-Journal, September 18, 1877. 32. Leech and Brown, p. 95. 33/b/d., p. 119. 34Ibid., p. 102. 35Courier-Jaurna•, August 1, 1883. 1982] Presidents in Louisville 191

Arthur: "Every street and every building from the heart of the city out to the suburbs was gaily decorated . . . a rainbow multi- plicity of kaleidoscopic colors." The City Hall was in particular described as "a flaunting mass of streamers and banners." The president had arrived by train at the Short Line Depot with Bly's Artillery firing a salute. He was lodged at the Galt House and entertained at a particularly elegant dinner and later was feted at a private residence. A partial listing of the guests at that reception where "Eichorn's full orchestra" entertained, included such names as Watterson, Norton, Ballard, Thruston, Dupont, and Belknap. The morning of the dedication of the exposition, Mayor Charles Jacob called for the president at the Galt House and they proceeded by carriage out Fourth Street which was "jammed and packed with every possible variety and type of humanity from the boot- black to the elegant ladies in the windows on every side." The president, reported the Courier-Journal, "wore a serene smile" through it all. Later that night he was entertained at the Penden- his Club. The president departed Louisville on Thursday, August 2, 1883.•

BENJAMIN HARRISON, 1889-1893 Like Garfield before him, Harrison had also been at Louisville in the military during the Civil War. In August 1862, he had brought a thousand Hoosier volunteers across the river to Louis- ville. They encamped in territory three miles south of Louisville, "country overrun by enemies of the government." Harrison was mindful of the fact that during the entire march through Louisville, "most of the citizens looked on in sullen silence.''sT This state of affairs put the future president into a meditative mood. On August 21, 1862 he wrote to his wife from Louisville :

Ask God for me in prayer, my dear wife, that He will enable me to bear myself us a good soldier of Jesus Christ; second, that He will give me valor and skill to conduct myself so as to honor my country and my friends; and lastly, if consistent with His holy will, I may be brought "home again" to the dear loved ones; if not, that the rich consolation of His grace may be made sufficient for me and for those who survive.38

THEODORE ROOSEVELT, 1901-1909 The indomitable Teddy Roosevelt made several visits to Louis-

36 Ibid., August 2, 1883. 37 Harry Sievers, Benjamin Ha•: Hoosier Warrior (2 vols.. New York, 1960), I, 188-90. 38 Ibid., p. 190. 192 The Filson Club History Quarterly [Vol. 56 ville: to campaign for McKinley on October 13, 1900, on his way to dedicate the Lincoln Birthplace on February 12, 1909, and to speak for the candidacy of Charles Evans Hughes at Phoenix Hill in October 1916. Much earlier in his career, he had even spent about a month in Louisville in 1888 researching the early west at Colonel Reuben T. Durrett's library.39 Yet few presidential receptions in Louisville could quite equal the gala occasion of Roesevelt's presidential visit of Tuesday, April 4, 1905. Mr. Roosevelt was heading to the southwest for a Rough Rider reunion and made Louisville one of his few stops on the way. The president's train arrived at Third and A streets at 9:00 a.m. He was greeted by Acting Mayor Paul Barth since Mayor Charles Grainger was confined to his home with an attack of malaria. The president's carriage was driven north on Third Street to Broadway, across to Fourth and north to Jefferson, then to the Court House. As the entourage passed the Norton Hospital at Third and Oak, uniformed nurses stood in formation on the great stone steps. The president rose in his carriage and waved his handker- chief in greeting. At Fourth and Broadway, with an immense throng pressing about him, the president's carriage stopped so that he might hear 1,500 school children who sang "My 01d Ken- tucky Home." Through it all, the president appeared to observers "smiling and simple as a child, democratic, but dignified." Fourth Avenue offered "one long triumphant procession with crowds pushing out into the streets, with every window filled." The cheering was "without cessation." At the Court House the crowd was "absolutely solid in every direction." The president made reference to the Jefferson statue before the Court House and the Clay statue within and congratulated Louisville on its historical sense: "In coming to this great and beautiful city of yours, I wish to congratulate you upon the historic. It is a fine thing to keep a sense of historical continuity." The president was also taken to the Louisville Hotel for a small private reception and the presentation of gifts. And finally Teddy Roosevelt was driven to the Seventh Street Station for departure where he was sent off with the strains of "My Old Kentucky Home.''4° The Courier-Journal, for all its Democratic instincts, waxed enthusiastic over the Republican president. "President Roosevelt Captures Louisville," read the banner headline. The news article

39 The events of Roosevelt's earlier trips are to be found in the Courbrr-Journal f¢€ October 14, 1900, February 13, 1909, and in the Courier-Journars local obituary for Teddy Roosevelt on January 7, 1919 under heading "Death Keenly Felt In City." 4OCourier-Journ•, April 5, 1905. 1982] Presidents in Louisville 193 began: "Louisville cast 232,466 votes for as president of Louisville yesterday as well as every other square inch of the United States.... Never before in Louisville history has so much good will and enthusiasm been crowded into so short a space of time." And according to the front page account, Roose- velt had even changed the city's nickname from either "The Metro- polis of the South" or "The Gateway to the South." "He took down the Gate and declared Louisville a thoroughfare of the United States."•

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT, 1909-1913 Beginning with Teddy Roosevelt, every twentieth century presi- dent has visited in Louisville. Roosevelt's successor Taft had been in the city to address a Knights of Pythias convention on August 13, 1904.6 But he was to return as president on Wednesday, No- vember 8, 1911 to speak before the Louisville Press Club. He was regally entertained at a Seelbach Hotel dinner after a reception at Union Station. The banquet began at 8:30 p.m. and ended about 2:00 a.m., turning out to be a gridiron or "roast" session which the president seemed to enjoy thoroughly. The Courier-Journal re- marked: "It may be doubted if a President was ever so uncere- moniously, so enthusiastically and yet so sumptuously entertained in Louisville." Before the Seelbach dinner, the president had been treated to the traditional triumphal ride down Fourth Street and he also spoke at the comparatively new armory (now Louisville Gardens) pleading for an international arbitral court. President Taft warned his five thousand Louisville hearers that " is an armed camp." The next day the president went on to Hodgenville to the Lincoln Birthplace.•

WOODR0W WILSON, 1913-1921 had also stayed at the "new Seelbach" when he came as Princeton's president to address an alumni group in Louisville on May 22, 1909. His speech was an appeal that the great universities not turn into mere social, leisure, or athletic clubs.44 When he returned as president in 1916, the academic and poised Wilson accomplished the rare feat of avoiding crowds and

41 Ibld. 42 Courler-JournaI. August 14. 1904. 43 Cour/er.3o•rn•. November 9. 1911. 44 Courier-Journal, May 23, 1909. 194 The Filson Club History Quarterly [Vol. 56 president-gazers in order to take a relaxed sightseeing tour of the "Gateway to the South." Returning an hour early from yet an- other Hodgenville ceremony (three presidents in succession had made the trip to the Lincoln shrine), President and Mrs. Wilson took a touring-car ride through the city. The date was Monday, September 4, 1916, and the president and his wife were accom- panied by Dr. W. A. Bolling, the first lady's brother who lived in Louisville. The president's car took the inevitable ride down Fourth Avenue and then turned up Broadway to Cherokee Park. Later the same afternoon, the Wilsons boarded a train at the Seventh Street Station for their return to Washington.45

WARREN HARDING, 1921-1923 Warren Harding came to Louisville campaigning for the nation's highest office on Thursday, October 14, 1920. The Armory was packed with over 15,000 voters, but the crowd dwindled quickly because of difficulty in hearing the candidate. Harding flayed the Wilson administration for its foreign trade policies and announced "I am unalterably opposed to the League of Nations with Article Ten in it." Always, the Republican candidate insisted, American ideals have to be placed above European ideals. "America first in everything." Retiring to the Seelbach Hotel for the evening, Hard- ing had nothing for reporters but kindly words for "Kentucky's metropolis."4e

CALVIN COOLIDGE, 1923-1929 As vice-president, Calvin Coolidge came to town Tuesday, Octo- ber 31, 1922. He spoke at the Kosair Auditorium and made a ten- minute address over WHAS, the new "radiophone station of the Courier-Journal." Mr. Coolidge restated the fundamental aims of the Harding administration for his audience: %.. to be on friendly terms with other nations of the earth.., to reduce the burden of taxation.., and to take care of our sick and wounded soldiers who stood ready to give their all." The vice-president stayed at the Seelbach during his visit.47 After completing a term of office as president himself, Coolidge returned to Louisville on Friday, March 7, 1930 and became the tersest president ever to appear in the city. He walked to the rear

45 Courier.Journal. September 5, 1916. 46 Courier-JournaL October 15, 1920. 47 Courler-JournaL November I, 1922, 1982] Presidents in Louisville 195 of his train at Union Station, announced "I have no information about anything," and returned inside. The next morning the Courier-Journal headlined : "Six Word Interview Granted by Cool- idge".*s

HERBERT HOOVER, 1929-1933 Rightly or wrongly, Hoover has gone down in American history as "the depression president." Yet, on each of his visits to Louis- ville, he spoke on the subject of "Prosperity." Mr. Hoover had been in the city on October 20, 1926 to speak on the topic.4s But more dramatically on Wednesday, October 23, 1929, he and Mrs. Hoover arrived by the steamboat Greenbrier to speak about not only prosperity but inland navigation in America as well. The Courier-Journal reported: "Steamboatin' was Herbert Hoover's theme Wednesday... steamboatin' -- apostrophe and all.., tam- ing the Ohio for year-round navigability." Rain marred the occa- sion, and the crowds were not apparently what the president had hoped they would be. Mr. Hoover rested at the Brown Hotel, ded- icated the new Municipal (Clark Memorial) Bridge, spoke at the new Memorial Auditorium, and then departed to Washington by train the same evening. In addition to reports of the president's trip, the Courier-Journal bore a headline the next morning that read: "Stocks Crash in Wild Disorder.''•0

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, 1933-1945 Three times during the 1930's Franklin Roosevelt made it his business to enter Louisville. The first time, Saturday, October 22, 1932, he was running for the presidency and Louisville marked the opening of his campaign in the south. Over 50,000 people turned out to greet Roosevelt. On Fourth Street "an unbroken line of cheering citizens with flags" greeted him. At the Armory, FDR continued his unrelenting attack on the Hoover administration. While in Louisville, the candidate also conferred with one of his major backers, .51 A second, very brief visit occurred Tuesday, July 14, 1936 when the president's train made a brief stop at Union Station. Governor and Mrs. A. B. Chandler greeted the president on his arrival, and

48 Courier.Journal, March 8, 1930. 49 Courier.3ournal, October 21, 1926. 50 Courier-Journal., October 24, 1929. 51 Courier.Journal, October 23, 1932. 196 The Filson Club History Quarterly [Vol. 56 a few selected guests visited Mr. Roosevelt in his railway car.S2 The visit of Friday, July 8, 1938 was something more of a public event. The president had come to Louisville to campaign for Alben Barkley's renomination to the U.S. Senate. He also took the occa- sion to congratulate Louisvillians for "fine courage and fine spirit" during the 1937 Flood. A crowd of 12,000 applauded the president's remarks at Union Station on that early summer even- ing in 1938.53

HARRY TRUMAN, 1945-1953 Harry Truman had been a very frequent visitor to Louisville. He, like Roosevelt, was in the city in 1938 to speak for Barkley. He returned for the on May 6, 1939 and yet again for a Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner on March 29, 1941. The Tru- man train pulled into Louisville on Thursday, September 30, 1943 as part of the famous "Whistle Stop Campaign." Truman came back to the city after leaving office as well: on March 19, 1960 for another Jefferson-Jackson Dinner and on May 26, 1961 to receive an honorary doctorate from the . During one of his famous morning walks while visiting in 1960, reporters asked Truman's opinion of Louisville. "It's just like most towns," he said. "It's a lot like Indianapolis. It's a good town. I don't see anything wrong with it." And campaigning for Wilson Wyatt on October 19 and 20, 1962, the former president tossed off one of his famous aphorisms for the local reporters: "I don't give anybody hell. I tell them the truth about themselves and they think it's hell.''54

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, 1953-1961 Another campaigner for the nation's highest office, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, came to Louisville Monday, September 22, 1952. Arriving at Union Station, he was also the last presidential figure to enter the city by rail. A friendly crowd of 10,000 at the Court House listened to Ike criticize the Truman administration's handling of the Korean War. "Our servicemen were summoned," he charged, "to snatch military victory from political defeat.''55

52 Courier.Journal, July 15, 1936, 53 Courier.Journal, July 9, 1938. 54 The dates for the early Tl-ummn vtslts are listed in the local oblinary for Mr. Truman in the Louisville Times, Deceraber 26, 1972. For the Truman quotes cited here, see the Courier-Journal, December 27. 1972. 55 Courier-Journal, September 23, 1952. 1982] Presidents in Louisville 197

Private citizen Eisenhower returned to Louisville once again Sat- urday, October 27, 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis. Over 14,000 people gathered to hear the former president speak for Senator Thruston B. Morton's re-election,s8

JOHN F. KENNEDY, 1961-1963 The year 1960 brought the first televised presidential debates. These duals were hard-fought sparring sessions on the nation's networks. Yet one small skirmish of the debates was conducted in front of the Jefferson County Court House. Candidate Richard M. Nixon had pointed to the Jefferson statue in his visit of September 21, 1960 and had maintained that the Republican platform of 1960 was closer to Jefferson's ideals than was the Democratic platform.6• Candidate John Kennedy stood before the same Court House two weeks later, on Wednesday, October 5, 1960, and told a cheering crowd of 30,000 :

I came here to correct a historical misstatement. Mr. Nixon stood on this spot and claimed Thomas Jefferson as a Republican. They (the Republicans) can't have Jefferson . . . or the United States . . . or Kentucky in 1960.ss Kennedy returned to Louisville as president Saturday, October 13, 1962, one week before the Cuban missile crisis began. He spoke at Freedom Hall, stayed over at the Sheraton Hotel (Seelbach), and worshipped at St. Mary Magdalen Church on Brook Street on Sunday morning before he left the city.ss

LYNDON JOHNSON, 1963-1969 As vice-president, Lyndon Johnson had spoken at a Jefferson- Jackson Day Dinner in Louisville in March 1961)0 But his most important visit to the city came on Thursday, October 9, 1964 as he campaigned against Senator Barry Goldwater. The president was met at Standiford Field late Wednesday evening October 7 by four former Kentucky governors : A. B. Chandler, Lawrence Weth- erby, Earl Clements, and . An inveterate politician, Johnson was quick to spot the significance of the reception : "When you get all these ex-governors together, especially in Kentucky,

56 Couriev*Jouvna•, October 26, 1962. 57 Courter-Journal, September 22, 1960. 58 Courier.JournaL October 6, 1960. 69 Courier.JournaL October 14 and 15, 1962. 60 See the Courier-Journa•'a local obituary for Johnson in the edition of Sanuary 23, 1973. 198 The Filson Club History Q•rterly [Vol. 56 then you're invincible." He stayed overnight at the Sheraton Hotel and next day was driven in a motorcade downtown. Fourth Street was reported to be "bedlam" as the president appeared. At Fifth and Liberty the folksy Mr. Johnson shouted to the crowds "Come on now, let's go to the speaking." At the Jefferson County Court House, the president addressed himself largely to economic topics. He did not get out of town, however, without a barbed analysis of the campaign issues of 1964: 1) in foreign policy, "are we going to be responsible or irresponsible?" and 2) in domestic affairs, "are we going to undo everything we have done -- the farm pro- gram, civil rights, minimum wage, and social security? Are we going to let it go down the drain?" The partisan crowds--as well as the Kentucky electorate generally that year -- gave the president the answers he wanted to hear.e;

RICHARD NIXON, 1969-1974 In addition to Mr. Nixon's previously mentioned campaign speech of Wednesday, September 21, 1960, he had visited Louisville for the Kentucky Derby in 1968 and in 1969. He had also been through the city in February 1966 and September 1968.92 But the most tumultuous Nixon visit to the city came in the summer of 1970. Stressing what he termed "the new federalism," the president had come to Louisville on Tuesday, July 14, 1970 to meet with about a dozen Appalachian governors at the new Federal Building on Federal Place. "The president meeting with the governors is not unusual," Nixon said on that occasion, "but what is unusual is to have Washington come to Kentucky. We are trying to bring the government to the people." Throughout the downtown, espe- cially at old Fourth and Walnut, the president was met with "over- whelmingly friendly crowds" despite temperatures in the nineties. Included in Mr. Nixon's entourage were Daniel P. Moynihan, David Eisenhower, and John Ehrlichman. At the airport, Mr. Nixon spotted twenty-five men and women with anti-Vietnam War signs. "At this time I have noted some of your signs," he said. "I can assure you you have an administration in Washington that is working for all those great purposes in which you believe."63

61 Cour/er-Jou•l, October 9, 1964. 62 For dates of Nixon's early visits, see "political obituary" of the Cour/ey-Journal, AugUSt 9, 1974. 63 Courter-Journal, July 15, 1970. 1982] Presidents in Louisville 199

GERALD FORD, 1974-1977 A little over two months after assuming the presidency after the unprecedented resignation of , Gerald Ford made his first official call in Louisville. A modest crowd of only about two hundred and fifty met him at Standiford Field on Saturday, October 19, 1974. At Freedom Hall he spoke at a fund-raiser for Senator Marlow Cook and cautioned against a "veto proof Con- gress." "They are going right through the roof, as far as spending is concerned," Mr. Ford warned,e4 Six years later, as former presi- dent, Gerald Ford attended the 1980 Kentucky Derby.98

JIMMY CARTER, 1977-1981 The Democratic Issues Forum of November 1975 brought quite a bevy of political veterans to Louisville. was nearly lost in the shuffle. Nevertheless, he spoke at the conference held in Louisville Gardens on Sunday, November 23, 1975.e6 The next spring, however, he was back in Louisville with more open political intentions. Mr. Carter opened his Kentucky campaign for the Democratic nomination in Louisville Friday, April 16, 1976, with the assistance of Kentucky's Governor . Reporting on the scene at a Galt House reception, the Courier- Journal reported: "The entree was peanuts, the wine was cham- pagne and the guest of honor at a reception was Jimmy Carter, the toothy Georgia peanut farmer who is running for president." The reception, modest though it may have been, cost those attending $500.00 a couple. Afterward, Mr. Carter mingled with crowds on the riverfront Belevedere.67 As president, Jimmy Carter returned to Louisville July 31, 1979 to visit a Louisville Gas and Electric power station to emphasize the importance of coal in the national energy shortage. Later he attended a National Town Meeting in Bardstown on the same day.• Over the last one hundred sixty years, at least twenty-seven of America's presidents have visited Louisville. This makes at least a strong suggestion that the city has long been a strategic regional political center in the United States. It is with some ap- propriateness then that the likeness of one of America's early great presidents, Thomas Jefferson, has surveyed the political scene at

64 Courier-Journal, October 20, 1974. 65Courier.Journa•, May 4, 1980. 66Courier-Journal, November 24, 1975. 67 Cour[er-lournaL April 17, 1976. 68Cou•ter-Jouraal, Aub,l•t 1, 1979. 200 The Filson Club History Quarterly [Vol. 56

Sixth and Jefferson throughout this century from atop his menu- mental stand. Writer of the Declaration of Independence, Gov- ernor of Virginia, signer of the town charter of the City of Louis- ville in 1780, Jefferson watches magisterially over the political Gateway to the South which he helped to open wide in the begin- ning. His steady presence before the Jefferson County Court House can also serve as a reminder of the involvement of so many other American presidents in this old city at the Falls of the Ohio.