Constitution Day

Presentation: What is an America worth saving?

Professor Lucas Morel, Professor of Political Science and Executive Director of the John L. Loeb, Jr. Institute for Religious Freedom and director of the Politics & Values Program at George Washington University

Lincoln, the Founding, and an America Worth Saving 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.