Sept. 28, 1964 - President Johnson, his hands bruised and bloody from ardent handshakes, arrived in Manchester, N.H., tonight after the wildest, noisiest mob scenes of his campaign.
Huge crowds had crushed around him, chanting and shouting with enthusiasm. At times, the throngs became uncontrollable, pressing around his car with unrestrained eagerness to grasp his hand.
In Providence, R.I., a medical corpsman had to bandage the President’s right hand, rubbed raw and bleeding by the crowd’s continual pumping.
But Johnson loved it. Despite the Warren Commission’s recommendations that President should pay strict attention to security restrictions, he went out of his way to respond to the unruly enthusiasm.
From his open car, he even urged the milling admirers to come closer.
The tumult began in Providence and continued through Hartford, Conn., Burlington, Vt., Portland, Maine, and Manchester tonight, where he warned in a speech against voting for men “trapped by the dangerous illusions of fantasy.”
By the time Johnson arrived in Hartford, the crowds had forced him more than two hours behind schedule. John Bailey, Democratic national chairman and a Hartford lawyer, told newsmen the crowd was the biggest ever in Hartford, larger than that which turned out for John F. Kennedy in the 1960 campaign.
Near the Hartford Times building, where he made a speech, Johnson shouted through a bullhorn: “Are we going to be united in November?” The crowd shouted back in a mass affirmative.
Grinning, the President cupped his hand to his ear as if he hadn’t heard it. His listeners obediently yelled “Yes” even louder. Then they began chanting, “We want Johnson.”
“I expect victory,” Johnson told his Manchester audience. “Not swift victory. Not the victory of arms. And not the victory of the grave.”
“Our victory will come,” the President explained, “over many years as people choose freedom — as nations grow in independence — as the threat of war begins to fade. The victory will take strength and patience.”
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