About

Leadership Seminars is a competitive, 10-day program on Notre Dame's campus for academically talented students who show impressive leadership within their communities. Approximately 150 students are admitted to Leadership Seminars each year, and students could be eligible to receive one transferable college credit upon completion of the program. Tuition, housing, and meals for students admitted to Leadership Seminars will be paid for by the University. Abraham Lincoln famously remarked that the core principle of the Declaration of Independence--“liberty to all”--was “the apple of gold” at the very heart of the American experiment in constitutional government. Was he right? America’s harshest critics–on both the left and the right–argue that the Declaration was fraudulent from the start, while others see it as representing a noble aspiration that has never been realized. In light of these critiques, and as we celebrate the Declaration’s 250th anniversary, we must ask ourselves: Are the principles of the American experiment truly the “apple of gold” that Lincoln described, or are they actually rotten at their core? Using Lincoln’s contention as a jumping off point, this seminar will explore the principles of the Declaration of Independence, their meaning and development, and the extent to which they have been realized over the course of the country’s history. Participants will engage in Socratic-style discussion and closely study several primary texts, including: the Declaration of Independence; writings of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton; selections from Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America on the tensions between liberty and equality; selections from the Lincoln-Douglas debates; and the speeches of Frederick Douglass, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, MLK, and Clarence Thomas.