February 18, 2021
6 to 7 p.m. Zoom Webinar

Speaker: Dr. Lucas Morel

This program will examine Lincoln’s statesmanship in the context of longstanding and widespread racial bigotry against black Americans. It will explore how Lincoln attempted to inform public opinion regarding the natural rights of black Americans by reclaiming the central idea of the American regime—namely, human equality. Lincoln’s efforts to re-establish equality as the lodestar of the nation’s political practice will be contrasted with the policy of “popular sovereignty” as it was promoted by his long-time rival Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, the leading Democrat and therefore the leading American politician of the 1850s.

Other alternatives, like the radical abolitionism of William Lloyd Garrison and the pro-slavery thinking of Alexander H. Stephens, will further demonstrate Lincoln’s reputation as the Great Emancipator even before he issued the Emancipation Proclamation and helped secure passage of the 13th Amendment by Congress during the Civil War.

Advance registration is required for this FREE virtual event and is AVAILABLE HERE.

About the Speaker: Dr. Lucas Morel is the John K. Boardman, Jr. Professor of Politics and Head of the Politics Department at Washington and Lee University. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from Claremont Graduate University. Prof. Morel also teaches in the Master’s Program in American History and Government at Ashland University in Ohio; high school teacher workshops sponsored by the Gilder-Lehrman Institute, the John M. Ashbrook Center, the Jack Miller Center, and the Liberty Fund; and summer programs for the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy.

Prof. Morel is the author or editor of the following books:

• Lincoln’s Sacred Effort: Defining Religion’s Role in American Self-Government
• Lincoln and Liberty: Wisdom for the Ages
• Ralph Ellison and the Raft of Hope: A Political Companion to “Invisible Man”
• The New Territory: Ralph Ellison and the Twenty-First Century.

His most recent book is Lincoln and the American Founding (2020), published in the Concise Lincoln Library Series of Southern Illinois University Press.

Prof. Morel is a trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society, former president of the Abraham Lincoln Institute, a consultant on the Library of Congress exhibits on Lincoln and the Civil War, was a member of the scholarly board of advisors for the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, and currently serves on the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which will plan activities to commemorate the founding of the United States of America.