>> 150 years ago this weekend, a grieving nation gathered along the route of abraham lincoln's funeral train as it made its way from washington, d.c., to this final resting place in springfield, illinois. this sunday afternoon at 2:30 on "american history tv" on c-span3 , we are alive to commemorate the anniversary of president lincoln's funeral, with over 1000 reenactors and the re-creation of the 1865 eulogy speeches and musical performances, as well as historians and authors on the funeral journey and a tour of the newly re-created lincoln funeral car. also on c-span this weekend, tonight at 8:00, the festivities of the state visit of japanese prime minister shinzo abe including his arrival at the white house and his toast in his honor at the dinner. the supreme court oral's argument -- oral arguments on

whether the 14th amendment requires the state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex. on c-span2's "the tv," author peter slavin looks at the life of our first lady to show obama. on sunday at noon on "in-depth," are live three-hour conversation with documentary filmmaker and not their jon ronson who has written many books including "so you have been publicly shamed," "the psychopath test, a journey through the madness industry." we will also be taking your phone calls, e-mail, facebook comments and tweets. get the complete schedule at www.c-span.org. >> all weekend long, "american history tv" is featuring topeka, kansas. it refers to a series of violent political contra -- confrontations between anti-slavery and proslavery groups.

between 1854 and 1861. the influx of proslavery and free state settlers during this time helped establish toby get as a major political -- topeka as a major political force in the area. c-span city tour staff recently visited many sides exploring the rich history. learn more all weekend here on american history tv. >> the state historical society are to collect kansas history, documents, and this is the repository for kansas history. today, we are going in the archives and look at the territorial map and some documents written by john brown senior. we're going to look at some of the territorial manuscripts of the constitution and just a

variety of written documents related to the territorial in kansas. the territorial per ini kansas the get ino 1854 andd attempting to become a state. this time became known as leading kansas, for the controversial. not only in the territory kansas but nationally. the eyes of the country were focused on what was going on out here. territorial kansas and they got the nickname bleeding kansas because of the struggle over whether kansas would enter the union as a free state or as a slave state. we're going to look at a map of kansas and nebraska territories. this is 1856 and in 1854, the kansas-nebraska act was signed

creating the twin territories of nebraska and kansas territories. both people assumed washington politicians -- assume that the kansas-nebraska act would probably somewhat replicate the missouri compromise in that if you bought in twin territories, one would naturally be free and other naturally slave. most people assumed that the new territory of nebraska would be settled by the free state of iowans. set up the government, rent a free state constitution and bring nebraska in as a free state, and nebraska would send northern senators to congress. conversely, i think there was -- i think there were 100,000 or so

slaves in the state of missouri. most people about people in missouri would come into eastern kansas, settled the area, set up a government, and write the constitution and coming to kansas as a slave state. and kansas would send two southern senators to washington and keep equilibrium in the u.s. senate. that is what most people felt. they assumed wrongly. the kansas-nebraska act was a call to arms for abolitionists. particularly, those in the east new england states. northern abolitionists were outraged by the kansas-nebraska act. they hated slavery abolitionists did, but they could live with it as long as it state the load 36/30. now slavery conceivably spread all the way to the pacific ocean.

so armed and heavily financed groups of abolitionists backed by new england concerns and eight societies, boston connecticut, rhode island, maine, ohio, new york they reported anti-slave -- -- anti-slavery abolitionist to stop kansas from becoming a slave state. missouri saw these yankees pointing to kansas territory they knew they were going to have a fight on their hands, and the mixture of abolitionists and proslavery mingling together in kansas territory -- the territory exploded in violence warfare, terrorism. it attracted men like john brown and his sons and starting in 1854, a low-grade, pre-civil war began in kansas. it was nicknamed bleeding kansas. 1854 until kansas became a free

state, 1861, warfare was going on in kansas territory over who would control this new territory. this was ground zero for the slave issue in this country. once you are designated as a territory by the united states government, the next step is to create a legislature, lost for the territory, then write the constitution that is approved by the voters of the territory, and then it will be sent to washington for ratification by congress, and finally, signed by the president of the united states. in the 6.5 years that kansas was the territory, there were clocked to attempts at constitution writing. the free state government wrote themselves a free state constitution, a topeka

constitution. it was set for washington -- it was sent to washington for approval and rejected. by the way, most people thought that the constitution had been lost for ever. in 2013 in the national archives, they rediscovered the topeka constitution, so it is in washington, d.c., at the national archives. in 1855, there was an election for the first territorial legislature. this was in march of 1955 -- 1855. the first governor of kansas wisely decided to do a census of the territories and discovered how many legal voters there were. he discovered there were 2900 and five legal voters and that would be white, male and 21. voting fraud on both sides, but more so on the proslavery side. in mass, missourians crossed the

kansas line, walked across it and took over the violent and ran out the election judges. stuff the ballot docs and created a proslavery legislature. it was known as the bogus legislature. they crafted the first loss in 1855 statutes of kansas which were repugnant to the free state , the class that protected slave property. the kansas statutes of 1855, kansas territory, stated that to merely speak out against slavery or write articles or publish articles or distribute any written material or printed material opposing slavery, that was a felony and you would go to prison for two to five years for speaking out for writing against slavery. if you were caught possessing a copy of uncle tom's cabin, that

was a felony. you could go to prison for that. the free stators rebelled against this so-called bogus government and one of the first things they did was to write a constitution known as the topeka constitution. it was this constitution that was written by free statement and abolitionists. it was written in downtown topeka kansas avenue, the 400 loch -- block. the building is still there today, built in 1855, the oldest standing building in topeka. it was known as constitution hall. when the topeka constitution got to washington, the national democratic administration, which was proslavery, said that this was not a legitimate government, it was not legitimate constitution convention and they rejected it. now, at the time in the u.s. congress, the house of representatives was now controlled by northerners, and

they approved the topeka constitution, but the u.s. senate, controlled by southerners, refused to even discuss the topeka constitution. it died in washington. that was the very first constitution that was written in kansas. the second constitution, and we are looking at the title page of the famous lecompton constitution, that was written in the fall of 1857 in lecompton, kansas, inside samuel jones;' woodframe commercial building. this constitution, lecompton of kansas, would make kansas a slave state. it was endorsed by president james buchanan from pennsylvania . he was a northern man but he was strong proslavery and his

predecessor was franklin pierce, president franklin pierce and concord new hampshire, even though he was from new england he was also a strong pull -- strong proslavery man. the democratic party in the 1850's, controlled by southern influence, strong proslavery. what president buchanan was not counting on was stephen a douglas, the father of kansas territory, he believed in the concept of popular sovereignty and let the will of the people being spoken. stephen douglas was outraged by the lecompton constitution. when the lecompton constitution arrived in washington, douglas got on the floor of the senate and called lecompton constitution a swindle, and a fraud. it did not represent popular sovereignty, it did not represent the role of the people. this constitution has debated --

was debated in the halls of congress. the u.s. senate, which was controlled by southerners didn't pass it. they ratified it. it got to the u.s. house, which is more northern influence, when it got to the u.s. house, it was -- the debate was so rancorous that in february of 1858, late one night this constitution was being debated in the u.s. house of representatives, a brawl broke out. over 50 congressmen were brawling on the floor of the u.s. house and supposedly, the only thing that broke them up was a rather humorous event. two u.s. congressman from wisconsin grabbed the hairpiece of the congressman from mississippi and tore it off his head and they held it high above their head and said, we have scalped demand -- the man. and the congressman stopped the

brawl. that is what was going on in washington. a brawl in the u.s. house of representatives over the lecompton constitution while the lecompton constitution was being debated in congress, the free stators were visiting -- were busy writing a second constitution. this is the leavenworth constitution. it is unique in that the leavenworth constitution written in 1858, does not contain the word white or white men. out of the three free state constitutions, this leavenworth was probably the most progressive, most radical constitution in that it gave african-americans voting rights. kansas fourth and final constitution, the wyandotte constitution was signed by president and literally on his way out of office. kansas enters the union january

20 9, 1861 as a free state. what we are looking at is a letter composed by the famous militant abolitionist in kansas territory, john brown senior. it is known as john brown's parallel. it was published in january of 1859, and this letter was written with the intent for it to be published in a lawrence newspaper that was basically john brown paralleling to incidents in kansas and justifying his actions in missouri. two plantations were attacked by john brown and his sons and followers, and one slave master was murdered. john brown in this letter, said that earlier, in 1858, in may of

1958, 11 to 12 free statement were taken prisoner -- free state men were taken prisoner, taken to a ravine, and shot down by proslavery men. this became known as the infamous massacre. five of those men died and in this parallel, john brown is saying after the death of one slave master, hell has stirred from beneath, to quote john brown, president of the united states james buchanan issued a reward for the capture of john brown for the death, the murder of this slave master in missouri. john brown argues that nothing is -- has been done to bring these proslavery men that slaughtered these five free state men to justice.

that is why it is known as john brown's parallel. abraham lincoln, when he visited in 1859, said, you know, no other territories had a history like kansas. it is a state historical society . to see these documents a person and that they have survived what hundred 50 plus years is pretty remarkable. the constitutions that have survived, the documents that are still here, and the state historical society does a great job of putting these documents online. so you can access these territorial period documents from a computer or anywhere in the world. >> throughout the weekend "american history tv" is featuring topeka, kansas. our cities toward staff recently traveled to learn about their rich history. learn about stocks on our tour

at www.c-span.org/cities tour. you are watching "american history tv" all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. >> each week, american history tv's real america brings you archival films that help tell the story of the 20th century. >> here is the shame of our american cities. here is the face of our cities we hide. endless blocks of housings scarred behind -- beyond the -- beyond belief, tenements sharks, human dwellings unfit for human beings to live in. ♪ >> in baltimore, as in all our cities, such conditions went untouched for years. then a new approach. a young social worker just out of school went into an area to

report on the work of social agencies. she was shocked by the housing conditions she saw. an indictment of baltimore's indifference interested three people. the department of public welfare, the commissioner of health and the newspaper editor. the newspaper hit hard. the people of baltimore conditions were impossible but there they were. as common as the daily paper. the paper kept hammering away, week after week, month after month, and gradually, the impact mounted. aroused by the hard-hitting news stories, groups of citizens organized a citizen plastic and

housing association and met with city officials. there were months of delays, but eventually, the determined action of organized citizens brought results. when you housing ordinance was drafted. it was a housing ordinance with a difference that outlined minimum standards for health and decency. the next step -- the formation of the division of housing in the city health department. it's a job that was not to wait for complaints but to go out and investigate. it's authority, to notify owners and landlords of violations and take legal action where necessary. but investigating and uncovering violations was just part of the new approach. the facts had to be brought to public attention time and again. the facts of the hidden costs of funds. >> the fire casualty -- the direct appeal to the conscious of influential baltimore.

its businessmen, its lawyers it's clergyman. >> lack of fundamental sanitation. the baltimore playground. >> the campaign of community education went on. young people are given firsthand knowledge of the problems and to the newly drawn plans. to concentrate housing law enforcement in one block in the area of the 2000 block. a test block. for the first time, an american city had selected a specific area to inspect. it was a thoroughgoing investigation of all fire building, and health violations,

in block number one. >> this was enough drama to involve even the most indifferent. it was a wholesale attack on one block, with the block captains, the mayor, and the heads of the city departments officiating. it was good to know that the city officials meant business. it was good to know, too, what could be done. soon, throughout the 27 blocks, the walls came tumbling down. ♪ >> and then after the tearing down, the rebuilding, the repairing. ♪ >> sunday that on c-span's

"q&a," "washington post" reporter on the situation in the middle east and his opinion on the 2003 invasion of iraq. >> and i think one of the things about the bush administration and will never claim to be an expert on the middle east or on iraq and proved it, and history has proved it. we look at things from our own point of view and get deceived by it. you can go back to be a non--- to vietnam as a great example. the first time we did it openly but we have a history of trying to think other people are like us who want our standards. the world is different. in particular, the middle east is totally different culture. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern and pacific on c-span's "q&a."

>> american history tv is featuring c-span's original series "first lady's influence and image" at 8:00 p.m. eastern on sunday night throughout the rest of the year. in a moment, we look at abigail adams. c-spanadams. c-span produced the series in cooperation with the white house historical conversation. through video to it, and questions from c-span's audience, we tell the stories of america's 45 first ladies. now, abigail adams on first ladies. this is about 90 minutes. >> ♪ [piano] >> abigail would grow to be the equal of john adams as confidante and dearest friend. she has really revealed herself as, yes, an 18th century woman