Abraham Lincoln Institute

04/10/2026

Emancipation Memorial 150th Anniversary -- On Saturday, April 11, 2026, the National Park Service will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the dedication of the Emancipation Memorial statue in Lincoln Park, Washington, DC.

Also called the Freedmen’s Memorial, the statue was funded by former slaves to honor the man who broke their chains and gave them their freedom. Frederick Douglass was the keynote speaker at the April 14, 1876 dedication ceremony. Also in attendance was President Ulysses S. Grant.

Saturday's free event will include historical reenactors and a panel of historians discussing the importance of Lincoln and the statue. More information here: https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/event-details.htm?id=40CB4BAD-A558-30DC-62BAF54F0F2ABC10

04/07/2026

Wow, look at this photo... Look at all the trees on Pennsylvania Avenue in 1865! Can you just imagine being there and watching this parade...?

My Top 50 Most Classic Civil War Photos. HERE’S #37, one of dozens of photos of the Grand Review, May 1865. With the famous Willard’s Hotel at left, the U.S. Capitol in the distance, top-hatted onlookers, and victorious soldiers marching up Pennsylvania Avenue, this series was all but certain to be used frequently to depict the War’s end. This photo’s caption suggests that army commander Gen. Henry Slocum rides in front. One of many full plates linked in the first comment

04/04/2026

, April 4, 1865, President visited Richmond after the city was take by Union troops two days before. Accompanied by his son Tad and a small cadre of sailors, Lincoln walked from the docks three-quarters of a mile to the former Confederate White House. Thousands of people, mostly Blacks, thronged the streets and shouted hallelujahs at their deliverance from slavery. As the correspondent for the Boston Journal recorded after witnessing the scene:

“The President walked in silence acknowledging the salutes of the citizens, black and white! It was the man of the people among the people. It was the great deliverer, meeting the delivered. Yesterday morning the majority of the thousands who crowded the streets and hindered our advance were slaves. Now they were free and beheld him who had given them their liberty. … He came among them unheralded, without pomp or parade. He walked through the streets as if he were only a private citizen and not the head of a mighty nation. He came not as a conqueror—not with bitterness in his heart, but with kindness. He came as a friend, to alleviate sorrow and suffering—to rebuild what has been destroyed.”

04/02/2026

Former ALI President Allen Guelzo has published a thought-provoking article that looks back through history -- and particularly at the Fourteenth Amendment -- to elucidate the constitutional issue of birthright citizenship, which the Trump Administration seeks to change and the Supreme Court discussed yesterday in oral arguments:

https://www.aei.org/op-eds/birthright-citizenship-and-the-making-of-citizens/

03/31/2026

ALI Board member David J. Kent's new book, "Lincoln in New England" has just been released by Globe Pequot. The book "revisits the important towns where Lincoln spoke and the pivotal figures that helped define the great issues leading to the Civil War. Readers join native New Englander and Lincoln historian David J. Kent as he travels back in time to examine the nation’s downward spiral into conflict."

David's recent talk to the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia, "Lincoln in New England: In Search of His Forgotten Tours," can be viewed by clicking on the link below:

https://youtu.be/mM1hxPz6CAs?si=o1CXK8QAOpKJIEFw

03/29/2026

Here's a clip from panel one of our recent symposium in which scholar Akhil Amar comments on Lincoln's vision of equality as stated in the Declaration of Independence:

https://www.c-span.org/clip/america-250/user-clip-amar-on-equality-at-the-founding/5198220

Panel 1 Akhil Amar begins by discussing Lincoln's ideas of the Declaration of Independence

03/25/2026

Some photos from our March 21 symposium! Courtesy Bruce Guthrie

03/22/2026

What a fantastic symposium we had yesterday! Thank you to all our speakers, sponsors, and attendees. We hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did. If you were unable to attend, you can watch the panels on American History TV on C-SPAN. Here's the link:

https://www.c-span.org/program/america-250/abraham-lincoln-conditions-leading-to-the-civil-war/675492

Please drop a comment and tell us your thoughts on the day, your favorites parts, and what/whom you would like to see at next year's symposium!

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edda Fields-Black and other scholars gathered by the Abraham Lincoln Institute explored Lincoln and the paths leading up to the Civil War. The event took place at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.

03/20/2026

Only one day away! Please join us for our 29th annual symposium tomorrow at Ford's Theatre. Speakers include Akhil Amar, Edda Fields-Black, Richard Brookhiser, Richard Carwardine, Steve Inskeep, Walter Isaacson, Jane Kamensky, Lucas Morel, Jeffrey Rosen, David Rubenstein and Judy Woodruff. Musical performance by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason.

Doors open at 8 a.m. Reserve your free tickets through the Ford's Theatre box office. All the info you need can be found here at our website: lincoln-institute.org.

We hope to see you there, but, if you can't make it, the event will be broadcast live on C-SPAN!

03/18/2026

As we near the day of our 29th annual symposium, we would like to offer our deepest and heartfelt thanks to this year’s sponsors, without whom this event would not have been possible:
• Ford’s Theatre
• Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia
• National Endowment for the Humanities
• Hogan Lovells LLP
• Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP
• Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s Founding Principles and History
• Perkins Coie LLP
• Riggs Washington, D.C.
• Sidley Austin LLP
• Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
• Wheatley Institute of Brigham Young University