The Declaration and the Civil War
How can Abraham Lincoln’s moral evolution through the bloody crucible of the Civil War help illuminate its profound intersection of political philosophy and historical crisis? Witness how the Civil War transformed the Declaration of Independence from a static document into a living promise.
Experience the Event
Presented by Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government
Grasp the profound intersection of political philosophy and historical crisis. Abraham Lincoln’s moral evolution through the bloody crucible of the Civil War. Witness how the Declaration of Independence transformed from a static document into a living promise. Vincent Phillip Muñoz, founding director of Notre Dame’s Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government and Tocqueville Professor of Political Science, brings clarity to the stakes of statesmanship during America’s most harrowing trial.
To read along with the class, enjoy the following:
- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863
- Lincoln, Second Inaugural, March 4, 1865
- Frederick Douglass, “Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln,” April 14, 1876
- Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” July 5, 1852 (recommended)
- Class slides can be found here.
In what sense are “all men . . . created equal”? What is human liberty? What is prosperity, and how is wealth created? In 1776 these questions were addressed and acted upon in ways that have created the modern world. Commemorating the 250th anniversary, explore 1776 and the ideas that made the modern world, focusing on the Declaration of Independence and Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations.
1776 and the Ideas That Made the Modern World, taught by Vincent Phillip Muñoz, Tocqueville Professor of Political Science and Concurrent Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame and the Founding Director of ND’s Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government, and James Otteson, John T. Ryan Jr. Professor of Business Ethics in the Mendoza College of Business is sponsored by the Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government at the University of Notre Dame. To find out more, please visit their website.
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MoreMeet the Faculty: Vincent Phillip Muñoz
Vincent Phillip Muñoz is the Tocqueville Professor of Political Science and Concurrent Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame. He is also the Founding Director of ND’s Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government. Dr. Muñoz writes and teaches across the fields of constitutional law, American politics, and political philosophy with a focus on religious liberty and the American Founding. He won a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship to support his most recent book, Religious Liberty and the American Founding: Natural Rights and the Original Meanings of the First Amendment Religion Clauses (2022), published by the University of Chicago Press. Dr. Muñoz’s first book, God and the Founders: Madison, Washington, and Jefferson (Cambridge University Press, 2009) won the Hubert Morken Award from the American Political Science Association for the best publication on religion and politics in 2009 and 2010.