Constitution Day film screening and panel discussion

Each year colleges and universities across the country observe Constitution Day on Sept. 17 with programs designed increase understanding of the U.S. Constitution and its role – both historic and ongoing – in shaping our nation. This year’s observance at Augustana will shine a light on Abraham Lincoln’s Lyceum Address.

On Wednesday, Sept. 17, at 7 p.m., Augustana will host a screening of "Fortifying Our Democracy: Lincoln’s Lyceum Address," a documentary produced by the Lincoln Presidential Foundation, followed by a panel discussion. The event is free and open to the public.

Delivered on January 27, 1838, when Lincoln was just 28 years old, the speech before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, was intended to address what Lincoln himself described as “the perpetuation of our political institutions.” And while the speech was occasioned by a brutal mob killing of a Black man in St. Louis just a few weeks prior, it has resonated for the succeeding 19 decades as an insightful commentary on the importance of upholding the rule of law.

Lincoln opened his Lyceum Address by wondering how the American experiment might one day be threatened. “Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined…could not, by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.”

Following the screening of the 28-minute documentary, members of the Augustana campus community will take part in a panel discussion. Panelists include Dr. Lendol Calder, professor of history, Dr. Katie Madel, assistant professor of political science, and Isabel Grimes, a student majoring in political science.