The exhibition, on display in WIU's Malpass Library, explores Abraham Lincoln's actions during the Civil War as a wartime president, focusing on the evolution of his war power to emancipate the slaves and decision to suspend the writ of habeas corpus.

Three lectures by constitutional scholars and Civil War historians accompany the exhibition. On October 27 the Honorable Frank Williams will speak on "Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties in Wartime." Williams is former Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, author of Judging Lincoln (2002), coauthor of The Emancipation Proclamation: Three Views (2008), member of the U.S. Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, and Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians.

On November 11 Dr. Bruce Levine will speak on "Abraham Lincoln as a Revolutionary Leader." Levine is J. G. Randall Distinguished Professor of History and Professor of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and author of Half Slave and Half Free: The Roots of the Civil War (1992, 2005) and Confederate Emancipation: Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves during the Civil War (2005).

On October 13 Dr. Rick Hardy, Professor of Political Science at WIU; Dr. Larry Balsamo, Professor Emeritus of History at WIU; and Dr. Antonio Delgado, Illinois Humanities Council Road Scholar, will present a roundtable discussion of Lincoln's presidency and legacy regarding his use of the war power.

All lectures are at 7 p.m. in Morgan Hall Room 109 on the WIU campus. The exhibition and lectures are free and open to the public.

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 War is based on an exhibition of the same name developed by the National Constitution Center.