Using the Constitution as the cohesive thread, the spring 2014 exhibit Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War offered a fresh and innovative perspective on Lincoln, focusing on his struggle to meet the political and constitutional challenges of the Civil War. Organized thematically, the exhibit explored how Lincoln used the Constitution to confront three intertwined crises of the war: the secession of Southern states, slavery, and wartime civil liberties. Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War was organized by the National Constitution Center and the American Library Association Public Programs Office and was sponsored by the American Library Association, the Linfield College Department of History, and the Jereld R. Nicholson Library.
In conjunction with the exhibit, Linfield College also hosted the conference The Political Thought of Abraham Lincoln, sponsored by the Linfield College Frederick Douglass Forum on Law, Rights, & Justice, the Jereld R. Nicholson Library, and the Linfield College Office of Academic Affairs.
This collection includes lectures delivered in association with the exhibit and as part of the conference.
Submissions from 2014
Lincoln's Tragic Pragmatism, John Burt
Prosperity and Tyranny in Lincoln's Lyceum Address, John Burt and Richard Ellis
Opening Ceremonies for the Traveling Exhibit Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War, Leon Litwack
Abraham Lincoln and the Ethics of Emancipation, Dorothy Ross and Andrew Valls
Abraham Lincoln's Competing Political Ideals: The Union, Constitution, and Antislavery, Manisha Sinha and William M. Curtis
Lincoln, Sumner, and Shakespeare, John Stauffer and Daniel Pollack-Pelzner
Frederick Douglass's Writings and the Core of Lincoln's Political Thought, John Stauffer, Manisha Sinha, Dorothy Ross, Michael Zuckert, John Burt, and Nicholas Buccola
Public Lecture for the Traveling Exhibit Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War, Ronald C. White Jr.
Providentialism and Politics: The Second Inaugural and the Problem of Democracy, Michael Zuckert and David Gutterman
