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Barack Obama has made no secret of his admiration for Abraham Lincoln – both, of course, were politicans from Illinois who swept to power on a promise to unite the country in difficult times. To honour this, Obama has requested that the lunch that follows his swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday be modelled on foods enjoyed by Lincoln and for it to be served on replicate china picked out by Lincoln’s wife, Mary, for his first inauguration in 1861.

The menu opens with a seafood stew encased in puff pastry - Lincoln's favourite food - while the main course of duck breast with sour-cherry chutney and herb-roasted pheasant is a nod to the game that Lincoln enjoyed growing up in rural Indiana.

The 200 guests seated in the statuary hall in the Capitol building, which will include Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill Clinton, along with Supreme Court judges, members of the cabinet and congressional leaders, ends with a dessert of apple cinnamon sponge, recalling Lincoln's fondness for apples.

As reported here, on Saturday Obama will recreate part of the train journey taken by Lincoln before his swearing-in, when he travelled from Philadelphia, the first capital after independence, to Washington and stopped to meet and press the flesh of ordinary folk on the way.

However, a more unsavoury parallel with the Lincoln era will be apparent. When Abe won a slight majority in 1861 and seven states had ceded from the union as civil war approached, soldiers were placed on rooftops as he rode through an open carriage on his inaugural parade. Obama, who will make the same journey down Pennsylvania Avenue, has had to take similar precautions. He will travel in an armoured Cadillac capable of resisting a rocket-propelled grenade and there will be sharpshooters drawn from the US armed forces strategically placed along the route.

Stephen Hess, a presidential historian and former White House staffer, said: "I know of no other President-elect who has chosen to go so deeply into a previous president's inauguration. This is so unique, but he really has studied Lincoln and I think this is all heartfelt."

The event is likely to top the attendance record set by Lyndon Johnson in 1963. At his inauguration, in the wake of the assassination of John F Kennedy, 1.1m were present. Forecasters predict that number could be doubled next Tuesday.