signing of civil rights legislation in 1953 that hangs in the capitol building which is hidden in a corridor for many years but that avel brought forward during her time in office to again highlight, to create a space, a sign of memory, of civil rights accomplishment, which then is much more accessible and visible to anyone who comes comes into e capitol and to see that image and be remind of the particular oregon civil rights story; i think is very, very important legacy. >> our visit to ported ex-oregon, continues now with author james hite, who provides a history of the office of the vice president and the people who have held the post. >> mr. chairman, delegates, friends and my fellow americans, thank you from the bottom of my

heart. i am deeply humbled by your confidence and on behalf of my family here and gone, i accept your nomination to run and serve as vice president of the united states of america. [cheers and applause] >> in my book, i make the argument that the rise of the american vice-presidency began in what i've described as the rise of the modern vice-presidency. everything else i can consider the premodern vice-presidents si. and i trade this modern vice-presidency to warren hardings decision to invite calvin coolidge to be a member of the cabinet and sit with the cabinet. no president has done that about. not that there were the vice presidents in meetings but to be a formal member of the cabinet. invited coolidge to that.

so i described that as as being a very pivotal moment of furthering the attachment as an executive institution. origins are if was an afterthought at the federal convention. alexander hamilton proposed having a vice president. he was basing it on lieutenant governors because there were lieutenant governors in the colonies and first states. so this idea you had a backup the gunfire and the roger proposal for a vice president was to call them governor. and someone suggested that as a title for the vice president. so then in the federal convention moving forward, again it was proposed very late in the game, and it was proposed really not to be a functioning position but just as a backup to the

president if something were to happen to the president and heaven there the framersers were ambiguous how to work with secession. when you get the first -- the vice presidential -- vice president succeeding to the president, in the case of john tyler there was a lot of debate and concern amongst the political eleads at the time, like was this even how it was intended to be, right? a lot of people that questioned his legitimacy but he just -- john tyler steamrolled through and just took the presidency. and that began -- that set the precedent for vice presidents becoming president or. the duties have remain the stay. the constitutional duties are simple flow preside over the senate, they're the president of the senate. and to cast a vote only in the event of a tie.

so they have no vote. vary early vice presidents helped with committee selection, however, in obviously in the senate, however that practice stopped very early on, actually. so, the duties that the vice president has constitutionally remain the same. the institution, though, has gained and has -- gained more expansive powers and responsibilities, though none of them are delineated in the constitution there are certain things -- that's really because vice presidents have benefited when they have benefited from presidents who are generous for them and give them responsibilities and give them agencies to task and whatnot. so, in terms of relationships with presidents and vice presidents, there's a number of them historically that the relationships are not well

known and it's very telling, though, that there's these vice presidents who we think of as insignificant, unknown, and yet it turns out they actually did have a relationship with their president that was of -- meaningful and it mattered. one of hi favorite examples is hannibal hamlin who, when serving with lincoln in the first term of the lincoln administration, first administration, he was a close confidante of lincoln and the met often to talk policy and politics and hamlin pushed lincoln to issue the emancipation proclaim make and encouraged him on a number of times and told him he needed to do this. this is something lincoln should do. and so when lincoln did

eventually compose the emancipation proclamation, the first person he brought to see the document and read the document was hamlin, and they met and read over it together, and hamlin, according to his grandson, ham minimum made three suggestions for change in wording and whatnot of lincoln lincoln's, and lincoln made those changes, two out of three. the one of the relationships where very few people, if anybody knows about that. historically you look back and think that's significant. you had a vice president pushing a president to issue such a momentous document. so, the institution as it's grown -- and isit has grown considerably -- we still never seen a change in the basic fundamental constitutional role of the vice president.

one of the comment in terms of the role and presiding and casting a vote, that makes the vice president very unique in our system in that the vice president is attached to the executive, doesn't have executive authority or responsibility but is attached to the executive branch and is also attached to the legislative branch. no other political position in the u.s. system is that the case. so that's very unique. you can go to countries like -- if you good to great britain fish prime minister, members mes of -- brian, the prime minister, members of cabinet, remain in parliament. that's not in the case in our system for any position whatsoever. you're elected vice president or president or -- and you're a senator you have to resign, you have to get out. you can't be not branch of government so that makes the vice-presidency unique even though they're limit powers. the most significant early vice president in terms of the

institution i would suggest would be henry wallace. franklin roosevelt's second vice president. had an impact in a couple of different ways. first was that roosevelt for the first time for a presidential nominee insisted on henry wallace as his running mate for the third term in 1940, and he said he wouldn't run for a third term if he didn't get wallace as his running mate. that was significant to the institution of the vice presidency because it established presidential nominees choosing their vice presidential nominee. never before that that occurred until 1940 and the precedent was set. so, because of fdr, wallace can be included in terms of the institution as that was significant because it was because of him as an individual that roosevelt was so adamant about this and he wasn't going to take someone that the party

gave to him as running mate. wallace also, in terms of significance -- he is known but not that well known. there are people that know of him. he ran for president after he was vice president on the -- as an independent. again, harry truman and he did herefully and known today more for that than anybody else. but wallace began the role of what i say the vice president as chief administrator. roosevelt put wallace in a number of positions, war-related efforts, during world war ii, where he headed departments, similar to a cabinet secretary, and they were specific war-related, more analysis, war procurement, all these different things for the war, that he chose wallace to be in charge of

it as vice president. >> we represent most the free peoples of the world, are met here tonight in the interest of millions in all the nations who have freedom in their souls. let those millions in the other countries know -- >> wallace also continued to be a cabinet meetings and then one of the more significant historical factors about wallace, which speaks a great deal about wallace and also about his relationship with fdr, is that when fdr created a group of five to develop the atomic bomb, wallace was included in that. and that was in stark contrast to his third involvement, harry truman, who was only vice president three months, but in that time and during the campaign and the leadup to it, in the eight months that roosevelt and truman had contact with him, roosevelt never felt the need to tell truman about

the atomic bomb and the development of the atomic bomb, which that became a huge shock to truman once he became president. because of truman's inning norrans about the atomic weapon, truman felt that it was really important that vice president be included in national security decisions. so truman pushed for -- i think it was in 1947 -- national security act which made the vice president a statutory member of the national security council. so, that again -- just like being included in the cabinet, there is a case where you had a statutory law making the vice president a member of the most important security council in terms of national security.

getting back to this idea that the vice-presidency healy as an institution and clearly the individual who occupies the institution, has become indispensable to the american government. we're going to see lesser and more involvement, again, depending on the relationship. the current administration, i would imagine the vice president is sort of on the outskirt of the inner circle, however the vice-presidency as an institution by the cumulative effect over the years, will continue to have some major responsibilities and major influence in things. maybe not as much as an al gore and bill clinton or dick cheney and george w. bush or something, but it will. just bus by the virtue of the institution. the modern vice-presidency today

tells us that it has become an indispensable part of the executive government. clearly in the past that was not the case. even when you have these exceptions, and certain candidates -- excuse me -- certain presidents and vice presidents and you have these relationships that i've been talking about, where they were significant and meaningful, institution itself was not in dispensable. today i would argue that it indispensable institution because, number one, the presidencier clearly almost too much for one individual. so we need that sort of a collegial executive where the vice president can be an integral part of the administration and also always on the off chance they may become president. so it's important that they're

integral to the administration. >> nicholas reynolds talks about the life and legacy ofern net -- of ernest hemingway. >> during our time in portland, oregon, we visited powell city of books to hear how to and are historian nicholas reynolds to hear about this become can "writer, sailor, soldier,"" at ernest hemingway. >> mecca, the rome of book stores, maybe powell's and the strand in new york. so this is -- this is kind of my bucket list to come to powell, speak at powell's, be mentioned in the -- i haven't had a review yet in the "new york times" review of books. i've been mention limped spent one week on "the new york times" bestseller list,