building on the ground level. if we were looking up, we would see into the dome where that is. when you're at the top of -- the top of the capital, and you can go out on the balcony and look and see for about 40 miles if you lean back on one of the four corners of the balcony, you can see added, who is a kansan indian word here -- warrior. he is a bronze statue and i guess even though i mentioned earlier that it took us seven -- 37 years to complete our capital, some people might say it was not completed until 2002 because that is the year we put that on top of the building. there were always notes that there should be a statue on top of the building, and, for a while, the goddess of agriculture was considered.

she was considered a little too permissible u.s. for the state of kansas, so she was not chosen. but it is an iconic tribute to the original people here first. so there was a big ceremony when he was placed on top of the building. it is a little tie in for the old and new. >> all weekend long, american history tv is figuring -- featuring topeka, kansas. charles was the first person with significant acknowledged native american ancestry to become vice president. he served in the hoover administration from 1929 to 1933. our cost communications cable partners worked with c-span's city store -- city tour staff when we recently traveled. learn more about to pick a all weekend here on american history

tv. >> in 1854, all eyes were on kansas because congress had passed a law creating the kansas nebraska territory and opening up areas of the united states that had been set aside as non-slavery, that it was possible for slavery to grow and develop in kansas. as a consequence, it set in motion a tremendous competition between folks who wanted to expand slavery and folks who wanted to put it on a course of ultimate extension. as a result, everybody was concerned about kansas. if you were for slavery, he wanted to make sure kansas would come a slave state. if you are opposed to slavery, you wanted to make sure no opportunities for slaves were opened up.

this movement into the territory created by congress in 1854 becomes the headline for the next decade. then it becomes all out war. first, they move into kansas to set up institutions through the process of voting and creating the kansas legislature that would create laws that would favor and support slavery. once that happens, then it becomes a constant -- a competition and people who want to make sure kansas does not become a slave state start pouring in as well. we are sitting in a house here in topeka built by one of those people who came to kansas in

1855, the first part of 1855, with the intent that he was going to stop the spread of slavery. john brought his family from franklin indiana in march of 1855, 3 months after the town of topeka was established. he becomes an activist in the cause. in the beginning of the fall of 1855 these rival forces are each creating their own towns here in the county, for instance to come to see as a community that was established by proslavery people, now about five miles to the east of topeka. it was the scene of proslavery folks.

and then one holiday and the people in his group were found topeka of december of 1854, they come with the notion they will have a free state. that is just five miles apart. all up and down the kansas river, you have these communities. one is a free state community as opposed to compton, a proslavery community. they hope, each one, to run the other side out. one of the things missourians do is they bring all sorts of militias from missouri into kansas. they identify lawrence as a community settled by new england antislavery people. so they really are going to drive the people out. so, an army literally comes into

existence from all the militia units that are coming in from missouri. the war in december of 1855 is the result. i think what is interesting about the effort to eradicate lawrence and to drive all the antislavery people out of the territory for this conflict, right outside of warrants in december of 1855, is that the antislavery people, likewise mobilize. for instance, the militia here in topeka, it goes to lawrence to defend lawrence. and john brown and his family come up to lawrence to help defend lawrence. you have all of these people coming together at lawrence in

the proslavery people reinforce one another and the antislavery people, that new network is created as a result of the various antislavery people coming together at lawrence. and john meets john brown and they become associates in the whole resistance by two of the efforts of the missouri institute control and promote and expand slavery. this house, we do not know exactly what it was built, but i think it was built in that summer and fall. of 1856. this wall, which was right behind me, is an example of the intense conflict going on. structurally, the wall does not do anything holding the floors up or anything like that.

but someone went to a lot of trouble to haul that in here and put this wall in from the basement up to the ceiling here on the first floor. i think it was built because of a need to reinforce the exterior walls. you have got these proslavery people with cannons running around and shooting. in 1856 when the house was built, richie's idea was to make the house as solid as he possibly could. it is kind of like a fort in that sense. the house has become known as somebody's fort, whether you on one side or the other. that results ultimately in richie's arrest and involvement

in stores. he will be arrested and he managed to escape and found his way back to franklin indiana leaving a wife. when richie comes back to topeka in the spring of 1857, the people have gained control. they begin to legislate now for governing the territory. they enact antislavery legislation.

that well seals the deal for kansas to become a free state rather than a proslavery state. the result is pretty clear that the people have become dominant. when that happens, it turns into a different scenario. that scenario is the people involved now began to operate the underground railroad. beginning in 1857, what happens is this house becomes one of the sitters were escaping slaves can find refuge and gain assistance to be transported to nebraska and into iowa, where they will be able to go to canada, where

they will ultimately find themselves free. so the underground railroad becomes a less violent manifestation, though the same people were involved trying to weaken the fabric of slavery in missouri. by helping runaways succeed. we have an active underground railroad operation from 57, 58, 50 nine and so on, that this house plays a role and so on. the people like those who come to kansas because they see kansas as an opportunity to create a new society from the ground up. in that sense, it will be an opportunity for themselves but also an opportunity to shape the institutions in a wreck -- in a way that they would perform to their vines -- their value

system. he will be very committed to not only prohibition and women's rights and after americans rights but he will be instrumental in founding washington university, to be an institution that is a part of this community. the idea that we will have an educated citizenry, inclusive, it is an improvement over what we had in the mississippi river at the time. kansas was a fertile ground for a new america. we tell the story to visitors. principally, we have an education program which we deal with, middle schoolers and education schools, where we talk about the underground railroad

and we connect the activities this house represents. we tell the story and kids can identify with it. but we also go five blocks to the self and they go to the monroe school, where they talk about the issues that lead to the civil rights movement of the 1950's. you have freedom issues we talk about here and the munro school come we talk about issues of the 1950's at the monroe school. kids begin to understand there is something really important about america that transpires right here. >> all weekend, american history tv is featuring topeka, kansas. in 1951, then aa cp -- the ends that -- the naacp -this led to a landmark-

in the supreme court decision. posted by our cable partners, c-span's city tour staff visited many sites. learn more all weekend on american history tv. >> while in topeka, we spoke with republican governor sam brownback. >> is there an event in kansas's history that interest or resonates with you? >> a lot of them do. probably the time that is pre-and right at statehood the one where kansas has had a large impact on the country and its trajectory at different points in time but may be no time larger than right then he or

john brown comes out here, the fight over slavery, the kansas and nebraska act passed. kansas is supposed to be a slave state and maintain the power. then the abolitionist movement comes together and says, we will not let kansas be a slave state. they start sending people here from ohio and the northeast. they did not come out here to form. that is what they did. they came out here to fight against slavery. you got the initial battle of the civil war from here to about 30 miles east. you have got your regular -- your regular battles -- irregular battles. another state was proslavery at that time. and then the free staters

fighting on the other side. it is the beginning of the civil war that happens here, a great tragedy of a war for the country, but it is the fight about slavery and it starts here. my mom grew up on a property were john brown would stay when he was in kansas. you may remember where brown was , they are saying, is that brown? he lost his son in the battle. he declares there will not be peace until the issue of slavery is resolved. 10 years later, we have got the civil war and it was a prophetic statement and a very difficult but incredibly important time for this country. >> kind of looking at these

famous names that have come from kansas, from vice president charles curtis to bob dole kansas has been really involved in national politics. are there any politicians that influenced you or your political ideals? >> a lot have. a governor and u.s. senator from congress -- and congressmen from kansas. he was eisenhower's guy in the senate. he was close to eisenhower. they were from about 40 miles apart from each other where they lived. eisenhower came out of abilene and frank came out of kansas. but he helped shape me a lot. it was because he was a very practical man with a lot of character and faith.

he did things for love of country. bob dole has been a big influence. he is a close friend. he still regularly calls every couple of weeks and chats and wants to know what is going on. bob is 91, 92 now. but a great mind. helps me a lot. i think just the nature of eisenhower represents that quintessential kansas nature. it is a guy when faced with a big task, he does not care who gets the credit and we will all pull together and get this done. there is a lot of kansas character about, we have got something to do. we have got to pull together and figure this out. those influenced me and have shaped me and have shaped the state.

>> you mentioned eisenhower and bob dole ran for president. campaign 2016 is right around the corner. if the road to the white house comes out of kansas, what is important to kansas voters? governor brownback: it is interesting you would ask that. the last election cycle, pat robertson and us are both in tight races and we get to see most of the republican presidential candidates. you have got a birds eye view. a lot of them were wrote -- well received. rand paul was here. chris christie. i think what kansans wanted to see what somebody with principal but that could get things done. -- principle but that could get things done.

the people here are conservative or they want somebody conservative but can get things done. we have got to start getting things forward. you have several in the field who would fit the bill. i find a lot of kansans, and pragmatic conservative, but it has got to work. that is what a lot would probably look for. >> how does the state of kansas deal with natural disasters and what is the relationship between state government and federal government in dealing with those situations? governor brownback: you usually anticipate these things will happen so you try to get to the situation ahead of time and prepare for it. there is an old story about a farmer going to bed at night, a big storm coming through sleeping well through the night

because he prepared everything ahead of time. made sure all the doors were shut and locked down. made sure the livestock was secure. that you try to prepare, so we do. a lot of preparing ahead of time, working with emergency management. we have a great partnership that the federal and state level command centers that we put together that are well-established. and the people have worked together enough, each knowing their duty, that when something starts to shape up, we will stand the command center up before anything will hit, or we will get a big snowstorm and tell people, look, do not go out driving. let this pass on through. and you do a lot of preparation and coordination, the partnership for the federal government and locals is excellent on this.

and a lot of kansans know there is a time to because just and careful. people will usually exercise a great deal of caution. it helps so much because then people are not putting themselves in harms way. >> religious freedom laws have been in the headlines lately for indiana. does kansas have a similar law an? governor brownback: a tough issue p or kansas has a religious freedom act. a number of other states do. most people for a long time have been strong supporters of religious liberty. i have been at the federal and state level. i fought for religious liberty overseas and here. the context this has grown in

now, where you have issue of same-sex marriage and other items really going up, the legal system, is what made these a lot more controversial than they had been in the past. i think it will just be a narrative you will see. a lot of passion and litigation probably as the country's source through these issues. this is a country that founded its principles on religious liberty pair the quakers were one of the first groups delivered in the country. at that point in time, they're pacifists. we do not serve in the military. that was a religious liberty issue at the time. we said, ok, -- these are issues you wrestle with it context. passion level has been different at other times than what it is now. i am hopeful we could work

through these issues and recognize legitimate concerns on these and work through them. it becomes more difficult when the passion levels become so high. >> the state of kansas has recently seen in budget cuts spirit what is the bill and what our root causes in the kansan economy that brought it about? governor brownback: school funding is up. the total amount from last year to this year, a legislature passed a bill that increased it $130 million. unfortunately, the formula design was such that that got ballooned at $240 million. we cannot fund the extra over $100 million that went in. that was wedged back to $177 million. it was still an increase but not the full amount.

but it was a big increase over the prior year. what has taken place is the old formula had been done away with. it produced a lot of questionable allocations. some of our schools were getting equalization payments that normally go to poor school districts. that was done away with and the money continued to go up in school finance. some people are saying it is not going as much as we anticipated. that is where people say it is cut or because it is not as much an increase. it is going up. what has happened overall is that our economy has grown to we are at record employment levels. we are at 4.2% unemployment rates, wage growth, but it is

not enough to fill in the growth in that and in medicaid and in our pension system. those were the big three. our pension system was hugely underfunded. we are trying to build it up. the medicaid system continues to grow. as our economy has improved, our share of the medicaid costs goes up, which it has. the federal share goes down. and the k12 spending, it has gone up. that is the problem to we have got revenue but it is not enough to cover the big spend growth. >> our book tv focuses on non- fiction books. we are interviewing local nonfiction authors. other any books or authors that have had an impact on you? governor brownback: