Join us on Wednesday, November 5, 2025, at 7 p.m. CT, for a great conversation with Dr. Jonathan White and Dr. Lucas Morel on their recently released book Measuring the Man: The Writings of Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln.

In Measuring the Man, acclaimed authors and scholars Lucas E. Morel and Jonathan W. White assemble Frederick Douglass’s most meaningful and poignant statements about Abraham Lincoln, including a dozen newly discovered documents that have not been seen for 160 years. Readers will encounter the distrust and vitriol Douglass directed at Lincoln throughout much of the Civil War, including his anger and frustration with the president as he moved slowly, but methodically, toward emancipation. Douglass’s writings also reveal how three personal interactions between these two great men led to powerful feelings of friendship and mutual admiration. There is no one better than Frederick Douglass to offer a critical assessment of the Great Emancipator and savior of the Union. His reflections not only convey Lincoln’s contributions to the nation but also teach today’s generation timely lessons on how to fulfill the promise of the American republic. Measuring the Man sheds new light on the most critical period of American history and will transform the way we think about these two extraordinary leaders.

Dr. Lucas Morel is the John K. Boardman, Jr. Professor and head of the Politics Department at Washington & Lee University. He also teaches in summer programs for the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy and high school teacher workshops for the Ashbrook Center, Hillel-Civic Spirit, Jack Miller Center, Gilder-Lehrman Institute, and Bill of Rights Institute. Dr. Morel is the author of Lincoln and the American Founding and Lincoln’s Sacred Effort; editor of Lincoln and Liberty: Wisdom for the Ages, and has written for the Wall St. Journal, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, and Richmond Times-Dispatch. He is a trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society, former president of the Abraham Lincoln Institute, and a consultant for the Library of Congress, National Archives, and National Park Service. He currently serves on the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which is planning the national celebration of the 250th anniversary of America’s birth next year.

Dr. Jonathan W. White is a professor of American Studies at Christopher Newport University. He serves as vice chair of The Lincoln Forum, on the Boards of the Abraham Lincoln Association and the Abraham Lincoln Institute, and on the Ford’s Theatre Advisory Council. He is the author or editor of 21 books, including A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House; Shipwrecked: A True Civil War Story of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running, and the Slave Trade. He has also published three books with CNU students: Untouched by the Conflict: The Civil War Letters of Singleton Ashenfelter, Dickinson College, which he edited with Daniel Glenn; My Work among the Freedmen: The Civil War and Reconstruction Letters of Harriet M. Buss, which he edited with Lydia J. Davis and From Dakota to Dixie: George Buswell's Civil War (A Nation Divided: Studies in the Civil War Era), which he edited with Reagan Connelly. He recently published a children's book, My Day with Abe Lincoln.