all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3. c-span campaign 2014 debate coverage continues monday night with the pennsylvania governor race between tom corbett and tom wolfe. terry and between lee brad ashford and sunday, the u.s. senate debate between democrat reuss braley and joni ernst. more than 100 debates for the control of congress. all weekend, american history tv is joining our comcast partners to showcase the history of st. paul, minnesota. to learn more about the cities on our tour, visit c-span.org. we continue with our look of the

history of st. paul. this is american history tv on c-span3. alexander ramsey was a politician who achieved recognition and people don't realize that. he was not from minnesota. he and his wife or from pennsylvania. 1815. born in he rose through the ranks, he started as a lawyer and then became involved in the whig party, served in congress, and that is how he made connections. his would help him later in life, including working for zachary taylor. taylor was so grateful the work a pointid, he wanted to in the first territorial governor of minnesota. first had a career from territorial governor, the mayor of st. paul, second elected state governor, u.s. senator,

serving washington, and secretary of war. we are not sure why taylor chose alexander ramsey to be the first territorial governor. actually ramsey was the third choice. what if history went a different direction? who were the other people? ramsey did except. he and his wife or hesitant to come to this area. much a furs very trading village. very small. we knowcapital city today. and his wife, to show her sense of humor, supposedly said to him, minnesota, where is that, denmark? it was an unfamiliar place to people in the eastern part of the united states. as a good wife, in those days, she realized her fortunes lay with her husband and they ended up moving to st. paul and arrived in may of 1849. the house we are in was

completed in 1872. it took four years to build. 1872, they moved in. previously to this house, they called it their mansion house. they got the idea for building they spent inars washington, d.c., when he was a senator. it was the same style in the georgetown suburb of d.c. so they knew they really wanted to have their mansion reflective of what was being built on the east coast. that sign they had arrived in a home they felt they deserved, for a family home and also for entertaining. have over 14,000 artifacts attached to the site. that is remarkable for any historic site. the collections are stored here on site.

some are stored at the minnesota history center. this is the reception room that would have been used as a visiting space. you would have been here, she would have special places she would visit with you. it was a room designed to impress visitors. it would only be used during the day. if you had a dinner party in the evening, the ladies might adjourn for some lemonade. and the guys maybe had brandy or cigars somewhere else. that would have been the intended use of this room, to impress. one of the wonderful things is in 1872 grand piano made for the ramsey's daughter. that was a gift upon her completion after her year in germany. it is in working condition. it is something we do as we can to keep it in good condition. at that point, they would make

the anodes made to order and so one of the other p&f's being pianos one of the other being made was for queen victoria's daughters. one of the other items, there are several portraits. one is of alexander ramsey. that was about how he looked when he became evident of became governor of minnesota. there were policies you are expected to carry out. we know one of the main things taylor was sending him to do was to get land. this was the time of the manifest destiny in the united states. in many people's minds, the minds of that era, to gain more land. 1850, there were treaties negotiated with the dakota wasle and alexander ramsey

expected to take part in that, and he did. two treaties and they opened up for settlement the area we would call southern minnesota. the st. paul region south to the iowa border and then later on there were various treaties. settlersened is the were allowed to come in. the dakota people were forced onto reservations. cardset up a house of that would fall down many years later in 1862. tragic part of minnesota history. art of historyor to know about. people don't realize a lot of the treaties and also the failure of these treaties and

annuity payments, harsh treatment of the dakotas, would result in bloodshed years later. this is a spot in the house alexander ramsey used as his office later in his career. it was originally a guest room, but nader on -- later on this became an office space. you would meet with him up here. there is a lot of artifacts about his time in the various political offices he held. one of them, people don't realize he and his wife were very good friends of mr. and mrs. lincoln. abraham lincoln and alexander the 1840's as in congressman. lincoln was representing illinois. was representing pennsylvania. they had that connection and years later, when lincoln was in the white house, ramsey was the

second state governor. one of the things mr. ramsey was very proud of was that he happened to be in washington when the civil war broke out in 1861 and was able to pledge one thousand troops on behalf of minnesota to the union and he was able to contact simon cameron about that and he had down the offer and take it to president lincoln. himrnor ramsey was proud of having the distinguishing characteristic of the first of northern state to offer troops when the civil war broke out. one of the other items in the journalons is ramsey's from 1865. i have it open to friday, april 14. and also saturday the 15th. alexander ramsey was the u.s.

senator. that is why they were living in the international hotel in washington. his entries reflect a tragic time in american history. he writes about, in the middle of his daily affairs, the assassination of president lincoln. john wilkes booth, he mentions secretary stewart and jumps to the inauguration of president johnson. he was one of 10 present that day, including some from illinois. he was proud of that. he was always in the right place at the right time and always put himself there. it is fascinating to look through his journal. i mentioned some of the things he writes about might not be personal, but they are a great insight into what his daily life was like. it is important to have these objects help tell the story. later in his political career, after he had been a senator, he

, wereso nominated appointed, to be the secretary of war. hisof the other items in office focuses on his time as secretary of war. he served in that position until 1881. he hadn his paper holder sitting on the desk, you can see it states his name and also his title in the hayes administration. the two men had met many years earlier while serving in the u.s. senate. they have been governors. they were part of that club. and then of course hayes had become a friend and was elected. after his time of secretary of war, he served another administration, overlapping between garfield and arthur. the utah commission was put

together. they were supposed to explore this problem of what to do with the territory of utah. people wanted to become a state. they wanted to be admitted to the union. there was a problem according to some people because a lot of the people in the area were mormon and they were practicing polygamy. the country was up in arms about that. sentese politicians were to that area where they were supposed to interview people in that area and find out what was happening and what they were doing. the committee never really did end up making any decision, utah was later admitted to the union, but people felt strongly about that issue. there are different collection pieces here and the minnesota history center. two we have, when about the doctrine of mormonism and a

pamphlet dealing with plural marriage. ,o there is a lot more issues some of those issues we keep hearing about in the modern day as well. fascinating to note some of the same issues people were wondering how to deal with. felt in theple later victorian era ramsey really helped create what we would consider minnesota. you can say that. i think that is fair to say, you have to be very conscious about what that means in the modern day. aerything from ramsey county, waterfall in western minnesota. so his imprint is in a lot of places and it is important to realize what he meant at that time. he was very conscious of what his legacy was and looking at 2014, we can

understand how controversial and compelling his legacy can be, good or bad. we have to be able to address that head-on. >> american history tv is featuring st. paul, minnesota. our staff recently traveled there to learn about its history. learn more about st. paul and other stops at c-span.org. you are watching american history tv all weekend every weekend on c-span3. p.m., the war:00 in which investigated the assassination of john f. kennedy released its report in september 196450 years ago. sunday at 4:00 p.m. eastern, we will show a cbs pressure from

1964 that details the findings of the warren commission. it includes interviews with lee and motherld's wife as well as eyewitnesses to the assassination. report sunday at 4:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span 3. >> each week, american history tv's american artifacts visits museums and historic places. 200 years ago september 11th, 1814, british and american naval forces clash for two half hours in cumberland bay near plattsburgh, new york. up next, we travel to plattsburgh where retired author david fitz-enz, author of "the final invasion: plattsburgh, the war of 1812's most decisive battle," takes us on a tour of key locations to tell the story. >> pilot joseph baron.