FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Steven Reidburn
September 27, 2011
(701) 572-9034
WILLISTON – Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War, a traveling exhibition opening at the Missouri-Yellowstone Confluence Interpretive Center near Williston on Wednesday, October 5, examines how President Lincoln used the Constitution to confront three intertwined crises of the Civil War – the secession of Southern states, slavery and wartime civil liberties.
Open year-round, the Confluence Center is considered part of the Fort Buford State Historic Site, also managed by the state’s history agency, the State Historical Society of North Dakota. The Center is currently operating on its winter schedule, in place now through May 15. Its hours are Wednesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. Central Time.
The State Historical Society of North Dakota has partnered with the National Park Service to bring Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War to North Dakota. It will be at the Confluence Center through February 12, 2012.
Lincoln is widely acknowledged as one of America’s greatest presidents, but his historical reputation is contested. Was he a calculating politician willing to accommodate slavery, or a principled leader justly celebrated as the Great Emancipator? This exhibit provides no easy answers. Rather, it encourages visitors to form a nuanced view of Lincoln by engaging them with Lincoln’s struggle to reconcile his policy preferences with basic American ideals of liberty and equality. This exhibit develops a more complete understanding of Abraham Lincoln as president and the Civil War as the nation’s gravest constitutional crisis.
Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States in 1860, at a time when the nation was on the brink of war. Lincoln struggled to resolve the basic questions that divided Americans at the most perilous moment in the nation’s history: Was the United States truly one nation, or was it a confederacy of sovereign and separate states? How could a nation founded on the belief that “all men are created equal” tolerate slavery? In a national crisis, would civil liberties be secure? President Lincoln used the Constitution to confront these three crises of war, ultimately reinventing the Constitution and the promise of American life.
As a new president, Abraham Lincoln was faced with enormous challenges. This exhibit shows how Lincoln struggled with issues of secession, slavery and civil liberties – all questions our nation’s Founding Fathers left unanswered. Each section of the exhibit features information about a different aspect of Lincoln’s Presidency. For example, the section about slavery examines the various policy options Lincoln once embraced and how his thoughts about slavery evolved over time. Most importantly, the exhibit helps visitors understand why Lincoln’s struggle with the Constitution still matters today.
The National Constitution Center and the American Library Association Public Programs Office organized the traveling exhibition, which was made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The traveling exhibition is based on an exhibit of the same name developed by the National Constitution Center.
The traveling exhibition is composed of informative panels featuring photographic reproductions of original documents, including a draft of Lincoln’s first inaugural speech, the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment.
Located 21 miles southwest of Williston, the Missouri-Yellowstone Confluence Interpretive Center is closed only on New Year’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Admission is $5 per adult, $2.50 per child ages 6-15, and children 5 and under are admitted free. The fee also covers admission to Fort Buford State Historic Site.
Free admission to all sites administered by the State Historical Society of North Dakota (SHSND) is one of the many benefits for members of the SHSND Foundation. Others include a 15 percent discount on museum store purchases, and the quarterly publications North Dakota History and Plains Talk. To become a member, call the Foundation at (701) 222-1966 or click on the membership button on the agency’s website, www.history.nd.gov.
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