Skip to main content

tv   American History TV  CSPAN  November 16, 2014 6:29pm-6:46pm EST

6:29 pm
or you'd have numerous air dcu ucts in case there were severe shelling and some of them caved in. the men could survive. ws howlly whshopws the army thought of fort mchenry as a viable fort for a generation or more after the "star-spangled banner" had been written. so, what you see through some of the underground chambers in the history of the fort is that fort mchenry has layered history. people ask what is original? the answer is, it is all original. some of it dates to the bombardment in 1814. some of it to the civil war, some of it to a few weeks ago. the core of the fort is original. a represents a timeline of american history, a timeline of "star-spangled banner "
6:30 pm
unique places, the architectural features. it speaks to the power of place that makes that history relevant and come alive. a lot of people say, well, in your title it says fort mchenry national monument and historic shrine. there are a number of national monuments. national monuments are designated monuments based on their historical and cultural merit. but fort mchenry is the only place that has a duel distinction of being a national alignment and historic shrine. the shrine part was added in the early 1940's because, after all, this is the only birthplace of the national anthem. we only have one national anthem. and this is the birthplace of it. so, national minute for his history. historic shrine as the birthplace of the national anthem. makes fort mchenry they unique, one of the crown jewels of the national parks service.
6:31 pm
as a ranger, it is a special honor to be the caretakers of this treasure of the american people. you can watch this or other american artifacts programs at any time by visiting our website -- 2015 c-span student cam video competition is underway. open to all middle and high school students to create a five to seven minute documentary on the theme the three branches and oyyou. there's 200 cash prizes for students and teachers totaling $100,000. for how to get started, go to student all weekend long, american history tv is featuring madison, wisconsin. raised in wisconsin, frank lloyd
6:32 pm
wright's contribution to the skyline include the monona terrace and then unitarian meetinghouse. partnerser cable worked with the c-span city tour staff when we travel to madison to explore its history. learn more about madison all weekend on american history tv. ♪ >> welcome to wisconsin's state capital. we are standing in the rotunda of the building. this is the public area of the capitol. this is where we have all our big parties, presentations.
6:33 pm
when you walk up, you see a big, white stone building. that stone is granite we got from vermont. 43 different kinds of stone were used to build the capital. stone from all over the world. six foreign countries, 8 states. great big dome on the outside of itol covered in granite. we have the only state capital covered in credit. we finish off with a statue -- we call her wisconsin p ritchie hera w -- we claall wisconsin. she has a w on her chest. she weighs over 6000 pounds. then we gave her that nice gold coat. ityou look past behind me, says legislation on a mosaic. an artist has created each mosaic with 100,000 little pieces of colored glass. they represent the three branches of government in the building -- legislation, justi
6:34 pm
ce, government for the executive branch. liberty in theys fourth corner. stones from around the world are on display. marble is from italy. all the green stone in the area is marble from greece. the red trim is a marble from algeria. the building was designed by anrge -- out of architectural firm out of new york. all of the artists are from new york. control to the artists out of new york. with a global look to our state capital. 1836.sin goes back to at that time, wisconsin was part of michigan. but michigan wanted to be their own state. so we had to set up our own territory. we call ourselves wisconsin, an
6:35 pm
indian word that means the gathering of wers. we haven't gathered 15,000 -- we have gathered 15,000 lakes. the president of the united states sends word back that he had appointed henry dodge to be our first leader. mr. dodge came to wisconsin to get rich because we find lead in our hills. miners come rushing to wisconsin to make a fortune. everybody wants to get rich. lead in thatt find hole, they would live there. look at those miners. they live like temperatures. that is how we get the nickname the badger state. nothing to do with the animal itself. we're outside the office of the governor. we have a badger. he worked on the battleship called the uss wisconsin. 1900-1920, got to
6:36 pm
sail all over the world. as the sailors left port, they would rub his nose. we invite everyone to rub his nose. i rub him all the time. and i am the luckiest guy in the world. he is working for me. come to the governor's conference room. this is the public office for the governor. scott walker's private offices behind this room. so when he meets with a group of people, he meets them in this room. the room was copied from a palace in venice, italy. this is our night room. in the ceiling, there is more gold in this room than any other room. in the late 1980's, we thought we ought to restore it. it was when it was first built. . opknew we needed fiber tic cables in central air conditioning. from 1988 to 2002 we spent $160
6:37 pm
million to fix it up. all of the wood furniture is original. all of the artwork is over 100 years old. so, you get to see kind of a old state01100 year capitol. over to my right is the first european to come to wisconsin care he was looking for a new route to china. someone told him that they felt was a northwest passage way. he came up through the great lakes. cannot get closer than green bay. it's 1634.s here this part of the world has not invented guns. the indians thought that those guns were thunder sticks. the gentleman on my left is sitting behind a desk is the first weatherman in the country. his name is increase allen -- he starts predicting the weather in madison in the 1870's. all of that weather technology starts in madison. it is simple.
6:38 pm
he knew somebody who lived 60 miles west and he would tell them and ask, what does the weather look like? if the note said, rain. he predicted is going to rain in madison soon, because he realizes that most of our weather comes from the west. in front of me we have a lady and the brown dress. that is cordelia harvey, the wife of the governor during the civil war. . the person in the center is called unity representing the civil war years. in those days, the woman from the state would make medical supplies for the military. her husband, the governor, took a load of military supplies to a tennessee military hospital. drowned in the river. his wife decided she wanted to take up the cause. she went out to talk to abraham lincoln. got him to give her that piece of paper. it says, wisconsin, you can build three military hospitals in the state of wisconsin. brand-new military thinking, because in the civil war days, you wanted your
6:39 pm
military husband a to the battlefield. when you were better, you were there and ready to fight. the idea you would go from tennessee to wisconsin and then return to fight -- not very good. cordelia convinced abraham lincoln that the soldiers from wisconsin we do that to wisconsin was the first state to be able to take care of their own civil war wounded soldiers. this is the highest court in the state of wisconsin. we have seven justices served in the supreme court, elected for 10 year terms. today we have for women and men. mthre this is an appeals court. it is not their job to decide if somebody is guilty or innocent. it is their job to interpret the laws that were passed and the other wings of the capital. somebody may challenge the law in madison. case is heard, someone will say, why don't we appeal it to the supreme court? this is the only court in wisconsin the constituents which cases they want to hear. they get over 1000 requests a year.
6:40 pm
10 cases a month for 10 months. then the group is on vacation in july and august. the signing of the u.s. constitution. independence hall, philadelphia, 1787. the guy sitting behind a desk with the george washington. there are three guys talking on the side. the chubby guy looking at you -- that is ben franklin. the gentleman over here with a rain coat over his arm is james madison. he is considered the author of the constitution. he ended up becoming the fourth president of the united states. for us who live in madison, we named our city after james madison, the president. in front of me we have a judge sitting in a chair. a federal judge trying chief oshkosh for murder. he supposedly killed a member of the pawnee tribe in hunting incidenta. the judge said, wait a minute. i do not have power over oshkosh.
6:41 pm
he comes from an indian nation. . he inquired of the menominee zana pawnees. he said, you're a free man. you committed no crime against the united states. above the door is latin for "law." a lot of the state capitals, the supreme court is in a separate area. this is unique to wisconsin that we have everything to do with samelature in the building. we are in the assembly. this is part of the legislature. we have two rooms. this is the assembly. people live in wisconsin. we divided our state into 99 districts. we have 99 representatives elected for two years, all elected at the same time. in november, half of this group is running for election. once you're in the room, you have -- the political leader has the chair in the front. that is the speaker.
6:42 pm
the speaker takes care all of the political issues. the speaker is going to tell them when they're going to meet, what they talk about, what committees work on, who the chairman are. the most important room would be the speaker -- the most important person in the room would be the speaker. the sconces past, present and future. an artist of new york worked on this for a year. he was smart enough to send us a photocopy to see what we thought of it. say,t our copy and how would you know it was wisconsin? we said we would not accept the mural unless he put a badger on it. part of that restoration in the capital, we hired an artist to clean up this art. -- q-tiup 20,002 tips they found that wasp as. to give us the badger. you look straight up. french priest. on top of his knee, a crucifix.
6:43 pm
it is touching the hat of the civil war soldier. you can see it looking out towards the rest. ♪ we consider this to be one of the nicest state capitals in the country. there is a lot of history here. and anybody in the world today -- politics is a big issue. we're in the middle of it. every day is the unique day here. it is still exciting to me to come down and show people a showcase for wisconsin. >> throughout the weekend, american history tv is featuring wisconsin. our city tour staff traveled there to learn about its rich history. learn more about madison and other stops on c-span's city tour at
6:44 pm
you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. >> monday night on "the lawunicators," tim wu, the professor who coined the term net neutrality on how to manage the internet. >> i have felt that one of the things that is getting overlooked in this debate, and not everyone is overlooking it, but generally in the big picture is the question of what about all people? how -- broadband, how are they going to get it? title ii does give the agency more power to try to do things like mandate universal service like we did for telephone service back in the 20th century. which collects money, right now goes mostly to subsidize rural telephone service, which could be ralositioned to create ru
6:45 pm
broadband service. there are possibilities with title ii that a future president could say, we need a universal service program and people all over the country need to have broadband. >> monday night at 8:00 eastern nn "the communicators" o c-span 2. >> tom brokaw has reported for nbc news for 50 years. he recalls experiences such as the fall of the berlin wall, the bush versus gore 2000 election, and what stories are most memorable to him. he also shares anecdotes about what happened before and after the cameras were on and reflects on how the news media has changed in the 21st century. correspondent luke russert conducts the interview which took place at the museum in washington, d.c. inat the newseum


info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on