Constitution Day 2022: Lucas Morel

Join the CLSD and Lucas Morel of Washington & Lee University as we explore this year’s Constitution Day theme. What is “an America worth saving,” and how do our methods of Constitutional interpretation help us realize that vision? Dr. Morel is the John K. Boardman, Jr. Professor of Politics at Washington & Lee, and is the author of the recent book entitled Lincoln and the American Founding.

In Lincoln, the Founding, and an America Worth Saving, Dr. Morel argues that the most important influence on Lincoln’s political thought and practice is what he learned from the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. At a time when defenders of racial slavery also appealed to the nation’s founding for support, Lincoln interpreted the Declaration of Independence as a charter of human equality and individual liberty. He thought the American people needed to recommit themselves to putting slavery “on the course of ultimate extinction.” Only by doing so did he think the union of American states would be a union “worthy of the saving.”