Assassination Attempts On Whistle-Stopping Politicians

The recent attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump brought to mind the assassination attempts on and threats to whistle-stopping politicians. 

The list includes Abraham Lincoln in 1861, President Herbert Hoover in 1932, and Vice President Richard Nixon in 1960. 

 As I note in my recently published book, Whistle-Stop Politics, Abraham Lincoln’s whistle-stop train tour from Springfield, Illinois to his inauguration in Washington, DC in 1861 was marked by several threats to the president-elect’s life. 

For example, after his train left Cincinnati, Ohio, a bomb was discovered in a small carpet bag on a seat in the railroad car that was occupied by Lincoln and his family and friends. The bomb was found only because luggage was prohibited in the car. 

The explosive device, which was timed to detonate in fifteen minutes, was quickly deactivated. It “would have exploded with a force sufficient to have demolished the car and destroyed the lives of all persons in it,” according to a newspaper account. 

To help ensure his safety, President Franklin D. Roosevelt campaigned and traveled in a specially fortified railroad car, the “Ferdinand Magellan.” 

United Press reporter Merriman Smith, who often accompanied FDR on his train travels, described how the private railcar had been fortified. “The under part of the car is heavily shielded with steel to make it bottom-heavy in the event an assassin tried to bomb the train. The heavy weight would make the car sit down rather than turn over.

“The windows are three inches thick and can stop a .50 caliber machine-gun slug at point-blank range. The windows, because of their thickness, are tinted a slight green which has the same effect as a color filter on a camera. The countryside can be seen through the windows in true color value regardless of glare or reflection.” 

Presidents Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan also used the “Ferdinand Magellan” for their whistle-stop campaign trips.

For more stories about whistle-stopping politicians, read my new bestselling book, Whistle-Stop Politics: Campaign Trains and the Reporters Who Covered Them, which is available wherever books are sold.

For more information, go to WhistleStopPolitics.com.