{"id":11415,"date":"2010-09-07T06:57:36","date_gmt":"2010-09-07T11:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=11415"},"modified":"2010-09-07T08:51:53","modified_gmt":"2010-09-07T13:51:53","slug":"lincoln-in-liberia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2010\/09\/lincoln-in-liberia\/","title":{"rendered":"Lincoln in Liberia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>On August 26, MULS welcomed the Class of 2013, hosting a welcome mixer in the atrium of Eckstein Hall, the new home of the law school.\u00a0 During this event, Dean Joseph Kearney unveiled a portrait of Abraham Lincoln created by visual artist Don Pollack<\/a>.\u00a0 A few days later, the painting was hung in the Aitken Reading Room<\/a> on the third floor of the new building.<\/p>\n

The portrait uniquely places Lincoln reading the newspaper within a horizontal vista next to stacks of books which represent the learned man on his campaign trail many days before he became the sixteenth\u00a0president of the United States.\u00a0 Professor Michael McCrystal explains that MULS commissioned this painting of Lincoln to symbolize the importance of reading: \u201cAlthough we mean the building to be very contemporary in most respects, the intent of the reading room is to draw on strong academic and legal traditions to inspire students to serious work, and a Lincoln portrait seemed to serve this theme.\u201d<\/p>\n

The image seeks to capture Lincoln the great lawyer and the great reader.\u00a0 It also serves as a reminder that the former president spoke of the importance of reading when on September 30, 1859 he addressed<\/a> the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, right in the same spot where the Marquette campus now sits.\u00a0 On that day, Lincoln remarked,<\/p>\n

\u201cA capacity, and taste, for reading, gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. It is the key, or one of the keys, to the already solved problems. And not only so. It gives a relish, and facility, for successfully pursuing the [yet] unsolved ones.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The idea of learning the answers to old problems rings true today, as an appreciation for Lincoln\u2019s legacy knows no borders and continues to teach important lessons across the globe.\u00a0 Indeed, Lincoln offers a vision for countries seeking to recover from devastating internal armed conflicts.\u00a0 Pollack\u2019s own painting joins the collection of hundreds of portraits of Lincoln hung on walls around the world, from Italy and Germany to Ghana and Vietnam.\u00a0 As the artist explained at the unveiling, \u201cLincoln is not a static memory\u201d but rather a contemporary example of a \u201cgreat unifier\u201d for countries dealing with internal division and tension.<\/p>\n

Pollack himself learned about Lincoln\u2019s legacy while attending the Global Conference on Abraham Lincoln at Oxford University in July 2009. \u00a0\u00a0He recounted the opening remarks made by Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, president of Liberia who offered Lincoln as a \u201ccontemporary model for a nation in transition\u201d drawing parallels between the Civil War and Reconstruction in the United States with the current struggles of her own country to recover from a fourteen year internal armed conflict.\u00a0 Pollack explained that for Johnson-Sirleaf, Lincoln represented the possibility of wisdom, tolerance, optimism and hope.\u00a0 But above all else Lincoln\u2019s experience teaches other countries that out of ashes countries can build the rule of law and a culture of human rights. \u00a0\u00a0These are possibilities that we take for granted but which in countries like Liberia must be built from the \u2018ground up\u2019.<\/p>\n

Johnson-Sirleaf, who received her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin in 1964, inherited a country devastated by ethnic war led by Charles Taylor who now stands trial for war crimes<\/a> before an international tribunal.\u00a0 Taylor went into exile in 2003, allowing the country to sign peace accords with rebel groups and eventually establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission which released its report in 2009 (https:\/\/www.trcofliberia.org\/reports\/final).<\/p>\n

In my own Transitional Justice course, I teach not only about countries like Liberia but also about our own Civil War and the struggles of Lincoln.\u00a0 I save this topic for last, however, to allow the students to appreciate that we, like so many nations across the world, also had to struggle for these principles.\u00a0 At the same time, I try to convey to the students that the quest for tolerance, peace and human rights never really ends and that we must be constantly vigilant to practice law in a way that both celebrates and protects these values.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This lesson arises not only from the books we read, but the art we view.\u00a0 Pollack\u2019s other portrait of Lincoln (image at right; painting at the Abraham Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois) is based on Gilbert Stuart’s unfinished Washington Athenaeum portrait.\u00a0 Pollack explains, \u201cIt is a finished painting meant to look unfinished and intends to point towards our history, as well as Lincoln’s (and our) unfinished civic work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed,\u00a0 Lincoln\u2019s legacy includes both solving some of the most pressing problems in our history, but leaving still those \u201cunsolved ones\u201d for new generations to attend to so that Lincoln\u2019s vision remains an inspiration for others around the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On August 26, MULS welcomed the Class of 2013, hosting a welcome mixer in the atrium of Eckstein Hall, the new home of the law school.\u00a0 During this event, Dean Joseph Kearney unveiled a portrait of Abraham Lincoln created by visual artist Don Pollack.\u00a0 A few days later, the painting was hung in the Aitken […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,34,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","category-legal-education","category-marquette-law-school","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11415\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}