PRINTAbraham Lincoln was confronted with enormous challenges when he was elected president in 1860. The nation was on the brink of Civil War, and Lincoln struggled with issues of secession, slavery and civil liberties—all questions our country's founding charter left unanswered.
President Lincoln used the Constitution to confront these three intertwined crises of war, ultimately reinventing the Constitution and the promise of American life. This exhibition develops a more complete understanding of Abraham Lincoln as president and the Civil War as the nation's gravest constitutional crisis.
Lincoln: the Constitution and the Civil War, a traveling exhibition for libraries, was organized by the National Constitution Center and the American Library Association Public Programs Office. The traveling exhibition has been made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Lincoln: the Constitution and the Civil Waris based on an exhibition of the same name developed by the National Constitution Center.