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Douglass Sizes Up Lincoln

From Fierce Critic to Great Admirer

Hybrid Program - The Friends of the Lincoln Collection and the Black Chamber Fort Wayne present the 2026 Rolland Lecture

This event will be offered both in person and virtually.

• Virtual attendees: Please register using the registration link.
• In-person attendees: No registration required.

Drawing on speeches and letters by Frederick Douglass, some to British abolitionists that have not been seen since they were first written, the lecture presents an account of how the great abolitionist came to appreciate Lincoln’s anti-slavery statesmanship over the course of the Civil War. The lecture derives from a recently published book, Measuring the Man: The Writings of Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln, co-edited by the lecturer, Lucas Morel, and Jonathan White.

Lucas Morel is the John K. Boardman, Jr. Professor of Politics and Head of the Politics Department at Washington and Lee University. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from Claremont Graduate University. He is the co-editor of Measuring the Man: The Writings of Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln and author of Lincoln and the American Founding and Lincoln’s Sacred Effort: Defining Religion’s Role in American Self-Government, and editor of Lincoln and Liberty: Wisdom for the Ages. 

Dr. Morel conducts high school teacher workshops for the Jack Miller Center, Hillel-Civic Spirit, Gilder-Lehrman Institute, Ashbrook Center, Bill of Rights Institute, and Liberty Fund. He is a former president of the Abraham Lincoln Institute; a founding member of the Academic Freedom Alliance; a consultant for the Library of Congress and National Archives; and currently serves on the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which will plan activities to commemorate the founding of the United States of America.