During his lifetime, Abraham Lincoln visited Philadelphia four times. Perhaps his most significant visit was on Washington's birthday in 1861, before he went to Washington, DC to be sworn in as President. He arrived from New York about 4PM on Feb. 21 to stay at the new Continental Hotel at 9th and Chestnut Streets. There he talked with advisers about the rising tensions and learned of a newly-discovered assassination plot. The following morning, Lincoln went to Independence Hall to ceremoniously raise the nation’s new flag. He hadn’t prepared a speech but spoke to the issues of the day:
“Now, in my view of the present aspect of affairs, there need be no bloodshed and war. There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course, and I may say, in advance, that there will be no bloodshed unless it be forced upon the Government, and then it will be compelled to act in self-defense.”
Lincoln raised the 34-star flag and left for Washington, D.C. Before he arrived, Texas had voted to approve secession. Five weeks after his inauguration, Southern forces attacked and captured Fort Sumter. The Civil War was underway.
Lincoln visited Philadelphia one more time, in June, 1864, to help fundraise for Army Hospitals. A year later the assassinated President’s remains would somberly return to Independence Hall to lay in state, before a final trip to Springfield, Illinois.
President-elect Abraham Lincoln
raising flag in front of Independence
Hall in honor of admission of Kansas
to the Union, February 22, 1861
Lincoln’s Funeral Procession,
6th & Chestnut St, April 22, 1865
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