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 has taught at Washington & Lee University since July 1999. He also teaches in the summer master’s Program in American History and Government at Ashland University in Ohio; summer programs for the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy; and high school teacher workshops sponsored by the Ashbrook Center, the Gilder-Lehrman Institute, the Jack Miller Center, the Bill of Rights Institute, and the Liberty Fund. He is a trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society, former president of the Abraham Lincoln Institute, and a consultant on Library of Congress exhibits on Lincoln and the Civil War. He currently serves on the U.S. Semi-quincentennial Commission and has written for the Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, and Richmond Times-Dispatch.

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 17 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 published two books with CNU students: Untouched by the Conflict: The Civil War Letters of Singleton Ashenfelter, Dickinson College, which he edited with Daniel Glenn; and My Work among the Freedmen: The Civil War and Reconstruction Letters of Harriet M. Buss, which he edited with Lydia J. Davis. He recently published a children's book, My Day with Abe Lincoln.

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