>> c-span, where history unfolds daily. created as aan was public service by america's television companies and is brought to you by your cable television provider. theirgonians are proud of high in air heritage. in portland, it highlights some of the legislation that has been passed by the state. oregonians have always been proud to be pioneers. when the first pioneers moved here, in a sense, was seems to be part of our culture is to be innovative, to try ideas that have never been tried before and push the envelope. that has been done time and time over the history of our

state. one of the first examples of the legislative innovations was 1902 when the legislation created a system that allows the public to in writing laws and regulations and also in recalling elected officials, but here in oregon, our ballots are often very lengthy because not only do we vote for candidates, but we are also voting for a series of issues and referendums on ideas for policy and legislation. one of the most important ones that was passed back in 1912 was giving women the right to vote. is of the great stories abigail who came across as a teenage girl and for more than half a century, she was oregon's leading suffragette, fighting to give women the right to own property, fighting time and time

again to give women the right to vote. women not until 1912 when .ot the right to vote the great story is that while abigail was doing all she could to get women the right to vote, one of the leading opponents was a fellow named harvey scott, abigail's brother, and unfortunately for abigail, the editor of the oregonian then as now, the most powerful newspaper in the state. harvey would advocate against giving women the right to vote. harvey famously said women would get the right to vote over his dead body. well, he died in 1910, and women got the right to vote in 1912, so i guess it all worked out for everybody. back in 1913, governor oswald west, the first

progressive governor in oregon, beaches tol oregon be public property. to 1966 when a motel owner and cannon beach on the north coast tried to limit access to some of the beach to his hotel guests only and block the public from coming onto this area. governor tom mccall was in office in 1967. in may 1967,ally he flew down by helicopter with the press there, landed on the beach, dramatically true a line in the sand and said that this, too, was part of the public

beach. later on, the legislature would endorse mccall's idea, giving the governor power to declare more of the beachfront as public property where you could not build anything on it. , health care reform remains on top of the national nationaln top of the debate. oregon became a national leader with the passage of what was called the health services act, which extended medicaid coverage to all oregon citizens below the federal poverty level and to all citizens denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions. it was a revolutionary idea that man, passed by the oregon legislature, signed by the governor. one of the driving forces behind it was the senate president, who was a physician and made health

care reform his signature accomplishment and which would eventually lead to him being elected oregon's governor. many ideas that are still being put forward in the health care debate, were first implemented in the oregon health plan, trying to get coverage for as many citizens as you could possibly get. there are still change is going back and forth with health plan improvements being made. it remains a key part of oregon's being, who we are, the fact the oregon health plan is his and that we extend health care to oregonians, regardless of income. perhaps one of the most controversial additions ever adopted by oregonians was what was called measure 16, which was deathd in 1994, known as with dignity or assisted suicide. it gives terminally ill

oregonians the right to end their lives with lethal medications prescribed as a physician. assisted suicide, very much debated at the local level and at the national level now as well. who lost ay folks loved one, saw a loved one dying painfully with it terminal illness. opposed by the catholic church and by those who thought it was a slippery slope to adopt assisted suicide. 20 years later, it is part of the ethos here in oregon. it is still the law of the state. it was adopted by washington state as well. our neighbor to the north. debated here in oregon but generally accepted as a humane part of oregon laws. as you might expect, the law

oregon past is quite controversial nationally. congress try to weigh in, tried to deny funds or block this from happening. thetually, it reached supreme court, which gave oregon the right to determine its own laws in this regard. if it is election day in oregon and you are looking for a place to go vote, you would not find one. back in 1998, overwhelming by a majority of 59%, oregonians as the only by mail way in which you can vote. there are no valid places. oregon has, like, a rolling two-week election process. we see their ballots in the mail about tina weeks before election day, and you've got until election day than to vote in the ballot and return it either by mailing it or by dropping it off

at the library or one of many dedicated places. all in elections now -- local, state -- are conducted by vote by mail. oregon,ally unique in although other states have gone toward that area, allowing early voting, allowing mail voting, absentee voting, and to have seen -- in the last election, you saw a massive number of people who took advantage of early voting and voted before election day. in oregon, since there is no election day, you can only vote why mail, but it has led to a dramatic change in strategy if you are a candidate running for office. in states where there is an actual election day, you want your commercials to be running close to election day. here, the big commercials run two weeks out. there are campaigns that study this. a vast majority of people vote immediately.

once their ballots are received, they cast their votes, and it is like a bell curve, and there is another rush on the actual last day of people who like to hold out to the very end. part of the reason why some people vote early is that campaigns can purchase lists of people who have and have not voted, so if you vote early, your name is off that list, and you will not be pestered by calls from different campaigns. if you do not vote and hold on to your ballot, you may be getting lots of telephone calls. there are those who say there are two oregon's, the one where most of the people live, the rural, and then there's oregon. oregon is a huge state geographically. most of the people live in a very concentrated area in limit valley and there are vast areas of the state where there are fewer people, and there are very

big political differences between urban and rural oregon, large, most oregonians have accepted if not endorse the innovations that have happened here, like vote by mail becoming part of the culture. death with dignity. are urban or rural, you're proud of what we have done to clean up oregon's environment. >> our cities tour staff recently traveled to portland, oregon, to learn about its rich history. learn more about portland and other stops on our tour at tour.n.org/cities you're watching american history tv all weekend every weekend on c-span3. >> this holiday weekend today at 6:00 p.m. eastern on the civil war, historians discuss new york

city during the war from divided political loyalties to southern 1863 draftes and riots. >> it seems clear that these draft riots really were kind of .n organic perfect storm tensions had been building may differ half a century. you were saying that this was but a much an irish riot working man's, the largest in our history. >> sunday at 8:00 p.m., george washington's life, including riverfront land, large thought to be his birthplace. >> george had sold the property off. he was still distancing himself. there were still family stories about the land, but they were washingtoner as himself was living further away.

>> monday at 8:00 p.m. eastern, the 1977 documentary about soldiers of the all-black 369th u.s. infantry regiment known as the harlem hell fighters, "men of bronze." >> our canteens, our rifles, our army belts, and our helmets. we were issued french helmets, french rifles, wrench .mmunition, french canteens >> pulitzer prize-winning historian david mccullough talks about how the founders, particularly john adams, valued education, viewed slavery, and persevered in the face of hardship and how these ideals shaped american society. >> he grew up at a time when they had no money. his mother was illiterate.

his father, we know, could sign his name. maybe he could read. there was a bible in the house, and that was the only book. they worked hard every day from he gotod on, but because a scholarship to this little college in cambridge called harvard, and as he said, discovered books and read forever, he became the john adams who helped change the world. >> for our complete american history tv schedule, go to www.c-span.org. sunday -- anybody thinking in 1962 after nixon's last press conference 10 years later, he then win a landslide, and it all came apart. >> columnist and political commentator pat buchanan served

as an advisor and speechwriter theixon and discussed battles that made and broken president and divided america forever. >> dean had testified you would have to keep the conversations with dean. i did not think they were going to be that damaging, and keep you reallyou need should tape, and take the rest out and burn it and shut down this special prosecutor's office now before this thing grows into a monster. i did not know at the time, but nixon had called in hague and fred lazard and entertained this idea that he should bring the tapes, and they said it would be obstruction of justice. first, i did not recommend burning subpoenaed tapes. second, they were his property.

existed. privilege everybody knew it. if he simply got rid of them, it was a fait accompli. president nixon said in his theirs, if he had burned tapes, as i urged him to do, that he would have survived, and i think that is right. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern .n c-span's q&a each week, american artifacts takes you to museums and historic places to learn about american history. the here and house -- the hiring heurich house. we learn how world war i impacted the brewing company and the family. >> hi. welcome to the heurich has museum, the home