SXU students tour State Capitol for Abraham Lincoln course

Course instructor recently discovered lost Lincoln-Douglas debate accounts

SXU students at the Abraham Lincoln Museum in Springfield, Ill.

Chicago (June 4, 2009) Sixteen Saint Xavier University students recently visited Springfield, Ill. and toured its historical sites as part of a three-week course on Abraham Lincoln.

The course met for four three-hour sessions to learn more about Lincoln’s life and career, and culminated with a two-day visit to the State Capitol. While in Springfield, the group toured the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, the Lincoln Tomb, the Lincoln Home National Historic Site, the Lincoln-Herndon law office, the Old State Capitol and Lincoln’s New Salem.

Additionally, State Sen. Edward Maloney (D-Chicago) gave the group a surprise tour of the State Capitol.

Saint Xavier Associate Professor Graham Peck, who has published previous scholarships on Lincoln, taught the course and attended the trip. Peck recently discovered forgotten records that illuminate Lincoln’s historic rivalry with Senator Stephen A. Douglas. The written accounts, produced by two competing St. Louis, Mo. newspapers, chronicle a debate between Lincoln and Douglas at the 1854 Illinois State Fair.

Peck’s findings will be released in the Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, the country’s premiere academic journal in the field of Lincoln studies. To learn more about Peck’s findings, please click here.

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