tv on c-span3 this july 4 weekend, tonight at 8:00, a lecture on history. julia ward howe increasingly focused on her position as a women aresay that different than men and women can really do society better than men have done. >> boston college professor on the new role of women in the workforce and in politics in the century, looking at political organizations that focused on women's issues and suffrage. 10:00, the 1968 republican and democratic national conventions. bellicose --ing resolute without being bellicose, strong without being arrogant. that is the kind of america that will build for piece of this

world. >> the time has come for us to leave the valley and climb the mountain so that we can see the glory of dawn. a new day for america and a new time of peace and freedom. >> richard nixon and hubert humphrey accepted the nominations. on monday, supreme court justices ruth bader ginsburg and sonia sotomayor share stories. ruth bader ginsburg: whenever a justice has a birthday, the chief brings in some wine and and thingsbirthday happy birthday. we are missing our chorus leader because, truth be told, most of them cannot carry a tune.

announcer: for our complete schedule, go to c-span.org. all weekend, american history tv is featuring provo, utah. provo house is the only missionary training center for the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints in the u.s. other stations are throughout the world, including brazil, england, and south africa. hosted by our comcast cable partners, the c-span2 or staff recently visited many sites -- c-span tour staff recently visited many of the sites in the city's history. was an early mormon apostle and u.s. senator. being an apostle of the church running for national office did not sit well with some.

there was a long series of called totestimony occur for elder's mood he would be allowed to sit in the senate before he would be allowed to sit in the senate. the called on the testimony of leaders of the church and others . ofeph smith was the founder the lds church. , and italled to testify would ask him a series of , mostly about the practice of polygamy. at that time, president smith was a practicing polygamist. there are some very good

political cartoons related to this time. looking through the papers, unfortunately, i did not see any about smoot, but these relate to the time. some might be related to the fears going on. to the testimony of president smith. things were said to put the church in a bad light, put him , that maybe were at thatmost helpful time. someone is showing how people felt after hearing president smith's testimony. there were many political cartoons of that time. there books published about that.

while this was going on, and polygamy being the main focus of these hearings going on, what is interesting about that is that he was not a practicing polygamist. his father was. other members of his family were. other members of the church were, but he was not. at that time, he only had one wife, alpha, or alley. , he servedirst term for four more terms, five total, for a combined 30 years in the senate. , he washat time involved with several very important pieces of legislation. i will focus on a couple here. he had been a big proponent of the national forest service, which had been around for several years at that time.

was friendly toward the idea of government being able to manage public lands of the nation. he tried to pass several bills basicallyal years, establishing a national park service, but unfortunately, they failed for one reason or another. in 1916, senator william kent of was trying to draft legislation basically establishing a national park service. read smoot jumped on board to try to help him in duty could -- and do what he could to push that legislation forward. successful they were . to him, it was a great day.

he saw it come to be. in his personal diary, july 12, , i attended a meeting of the public lands committee that the senate failed to establish a national park service, a member i have been interested -- an issue i have been interested in for a number of years past. the nationalfter also worked toe establish zion national park in southern utah. a visit thatto of went on in the 1920's with .resident warren g. harding the second most prominent piece

of legislation that senator in eventuallylved tariff actn as the of 1930. in the first stages of the great depression, the main goal was to as well asrican jobs farmers from foreign competition. this act was really a way to combat that. however, as people got into the meat of it, raising tariffs to was seen bys economists at the time and even as quiteiness leaders

controversial, and many of them protested it. at the time, senator smoot felt this was positive and would boost the economy, help for tech jobs and interests. in his entry on friday, june 13, 19 30. he talked about the fact that he speechesg several .bout the tariff act at the very end to the said the house will agree with it and it will be sent to the president for his approval and i know he will do so. unfortunately, this was one of his last acts as a senator and it's kind of gone down as one of , notnfortunate legacies the most positive way to end his

time as a senator. senator smoot in 30 years of washington became pretty good friends with many of the presidents there and many of them respected him highly. within his papers are a few letters we have from some of the presidents he served under. a couple i wanted to point out. one here -- there are a couple here, actually, from theodore .oosevelt this is an original copy, and it , is basically, dear senator had not seen that report, but if i had, i should have known it was false. thank you for writing me. year after the hearings started.

it shows that senator smoot, even with all of these hearings going on was still doing his job and able to function as a senator at that time. we have a copy of a letter in ,ossession of the smoot family but i wanted to bring it up just it's indicative of how president roosevelt felt about senator smoot. it says i have your letter of the 20th. are a staunch friend and you have been sound for the nation and the people on all questions that have come up. what you say carries great weight with me.

, thiss a young senator there he influential president -- very influential president is able to leave a very positive impression. another thing i was impressed by as i read through the papers is how personal of a relationship he had with these presidents. this letter from woodrow wilson just august 14, 1914, few month after president wilson .ost his first wife to illness of course, this is also during the beginning of world war i. been on his mind. it was a very difficult time for him. toator smoot had written president wilson, giving his condolences for the loss of his

wife. president wilson writes back, i am sincerely grateful to you. sympathy does strengthen and sustain and i want to say that your kind message was a most welcome evidence of your kindness and personal thoughtfulness. being from different parties as well, i think that says a lot. about that relationship he was able to have, and kind of bridge those gaps. >> our cities for staff recently traveled to provo utah to learn more about its history. c-span.org/cities toward. you're watching american history tv. ea