that have taken place over that time, it seems to me that the real lesson is that our government is resilient, that our society is resilient, that we are able to incorporate and embody change and tension and find a resolution. and for me the state house and its grounds represents the stability of the american experience here in south carolina. welcome to the old capitol museum. we are standing on the first floor on this landmark built in 1839, which makes this 175 years old this year. this is the oldest surviving building in jackson, and a place

where mississippi history happened. over the 175 years many things occurred in this building within these halls that affected mississippi's history and made us what we are today. from 1839 to 1903 this building served as mississippi's state house, which was the witness of many important laws passed, visits by important statesmen across the south. a lot of important events took place here. for instance, mississippi ses ceded from the union passed in 18 0, most of our colleges and universities were chartered in this very building. laws that granted rights to many of our scitizens and then again laws that took away many of those rights, so i would say within these walls -- we are standing in the old preservation

building at the old capitol where we discuss a number of issues, for instance greek revival architecture. this resembles the greek temples in greece, very symmetrical with beautiful columns, great rotunda and dome and beautiful front. a native of england, had done a lot of work in other state capitols such as alabama and north carolina. he was actually the second architect hired the state of mississippi had to fire the first architect because they didn't like his work, so they kind of had to start over after he got the first floor built. so the beginnings of the building had some difficult history, but nichols was able to complete the project and move on. he later went onto design the governor's mansion. very much renowned architect. in 175 years the building has had a very tumultuous history in regards to its structure. the foundation here that we sit on is very difficult. clay has caused a lot of

foundation changes over the years. there's been storms, hurricanes have ravaged this city, believe it or not. in 1909 a hurricane came through and ripped off the roof. and in 2005 of course hurricane katrina came through and ripped off the roof as well, which led us to our new restoration here where we think we have created the most accuraw?uqáq'tati to date of what the building looked like back in 1839. one of the most interesting exhibits we have in this room is our rubble structure. during this last restoration the contracts and builders pulled a lot of stuff out that we put in a main rubble structure to kind of a visual representation of the building's kind of rise and fall. so in this structure we have 1840 bricks, we have some 1961 fluorescent lighting. we literally have the kitchen sink that was in our lounge during those years. i think the rotunda dome is the distinction that most people look at as soon as you walk in and we greet you at our front desk. we always ask our visitors to look up and stare at the dome

rising 94 feet to the top. some of the ornamentation inside the dome is original. a lot of questions we get in the building is what is original and what is 175 years old and depending on where you are in the building you get a different answer. but inside the interior dome the rosettes and ornamentation is about 175 years old. it's our ohh, ahh moment so to speak whether adults or kids. kids love to come in and stare up and twirl in circles. we enjoy giving them that feeling of awe at the capitol. now we're standing in the governor's office of the old capitol. we've restored to the best of our ability to what the building would have been like. one of the most interesting ones comes in 1861. a british correspondent was here in jackson probably covering the secession, he describes as one

being simplicity. he coming from great britain was probably used to covering the kings and queens of court, the governor's office, chief executive did apparently not impress that british correspondent very much. john j. pettis was one of the governors who served mississippi throughout the years. he served in the civil war. very much a fire year, meaning rather eat fire or ever eat lunch or have lunch with a yankee. pettis is important to mississippi because he was instrumental in leading mississippi out of the union, becoming the second state to do so following south carolina, eventually joining the rest of similar states that led to the confederate states of america. in the governor's office which kind of had an interesting role during the war, the building was captured several times during the war. the first time was in may of 1863. and when union army and soldiers first came into the building, one of the first people to come in here was a man by the name of fred grant. fred grant was the son of union general ulysses s. grant and

according to legend and story and fred grant's own autobiography, he apparently came into the governor's office and when he came in there was a still lit pipe from governor pettis he confiscated for his own use. another i like to talk about is ames. a constructioner union general came down and lived in mississippi and eventually became governor. he had to deal with the violence of reconstruction. a very difficult time in mississippi as mississippi is trying to go through those years of trying to deal with the former freedmen and dealing with a lot of whites who were not very happy about the situation and where mississippi was going. ames was eventually forced to get out of office and move out. another governor i like to talk about is a.h.longino, the last governor to serve in this building. the first governor to serve in the current state capitol. we call it the new capitol even though it was built in 1903. so it's 111 years old, but it is the new capitol to us. he had to deal with the difficult issues of trying to maneuver himself out of this

building and relocate government back over to a new structure. we are now standing in the most historic room in the state of mississippi. this is the house of representatives chamber which was a witness to many of the most important events in our state's history. for instance, on january 9 of 1861, delegates voted 84-15 to pull mississippi out of the union. and the reasons were very clear. they didn't leave much doubt in regards to their documentation, the journals that were passed and the statements that were made, they were doing it these delegates to defend the institution of slavery. there was a tremendous concern on what would happen when a new republican government in national office in the institution of slavery would be attacked and would be -- tried to be abolished. that's one of the most common questions we get here at the museum is why did mississippi secede from the union, it's clear. i think it's a different question than why did soldiers

fight in the war, i think that's entirely different. young man who lives in rural mississippi who does not own any slaves is probably fighting and enduring the hardships of war due to other issues besides slavery. he's doing it for home. he's doing it for his state. he's probably not doing it to deject slavery, an institution he doesn't even take part in. and so i think it's a very fine line that we today in mississippi and across the country struggle with trying to determine the causes of war, the reasons people fight and why, you know, why this country erupted in the four years of bloody civil war. besides all the passage of important legislation, this room is witnessed many important statesmen who have been here in this building. one of the most famous visits by anyone was andrew jackson. he came in 1840 basically a year after the building had been built, and was asked to speak here in his namesake city. jackson is named after our seventh president of the united states. andrew had been asked to go to new orleans to take part in the 25th anniversary of his victory at the battle of new orleans of

the british in 1812. when city leaders learned he was going to be there, they asked him to come here. so he did at age 73 came to jackson. it was a huge event in the young city. many of the town's residents had been asked to come to the state capitol and help decorate it to make it festive for the president's appearance. jackson was supposed to speak in this room, but at age 73 his voice was so frail he was unable to do it. so his nephew actually read his speech from the front portico instead. another important visit was by jefferson davis. he came in december of 1862 to boost sagging morale during the civil war. he was accompanied by his main general joseph e. johnston who vowed to be indefact -- many remember the quotes when vicksburg and jackson fell. after the war more interesting stories deals with a man named john roy lynch.

john roy lynch was a former slave who earned his freedom during the civil war and rose dramatically throughout the ranks becoming a member of the mississippi house of representatives and eventually becoming the first black speaker of the house of representatives. spoke in this very room. he went onto become a u.s. representative. so one of the biggest rags to riches stories is john roy lynch who we like to talk about. this room has seen a very dramatic change in looks throughout the years. from the beginnings of 1839 through the end of the civil war, this room would have been dominated by white men serving as representatives for mississippi. after the civil war and during reconstruction african-americans finally have an opportunity to take part in the political process and did that for the next 10, 15 years. unfortunately mississippi went through what is known as the redemption process where the white democratic party regained control through violence and economic intimidation and basically removed many black office holders and prevented them from voting. so for the next hundred years,

almost, whites again redominated the legislature and the political process. and that was not overturned until the modern civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s. hurricane katrina was a dramatic event in the history of the old capitol. in august of 2005 is when hurricane katrina came through mississippi devastating the gulf coast and making its way all the way to jackson where it removed our roof. prior to hurricane katrina this building served as the state history museum. we talked about everything from the native americans to the present. the hurricane changed all that. made us shut down as a state history museum and closed us down until a decision was made to restore the building and turn it into a new museum with a new purpose. we're very proud and excited about our new restoration. we are convinced we have done the most accurate restoration to date with limited money and funds and time we're convinced when you walk these halls you are walking in the building as close as it could be to 1839.

katrina was a devastating effect yet we look at it as a good thing. without katrina we would not have gotten the bond to rebuild the building and the exhibits that tell the history of this important place. this was a national historic landmark, the most important building in mississippi. and now when visitors come they can walk the halls, see exhibits and leave this building with a feeling of this is where history happened. history happened here is our motto. we hope people walk away with that idea. this might be the only government class you ever take. you're going to be a voter forever. you're going to be a juror forever, so i need to give you tools that are going to help you for the rest of your life in those pursuits do them well. >> tuesday night at 8:00 eastern, high school teachers discuss how current events affect their lessons on history,

politics and government. >> it's a little for them to learn a chance about their story. their story actually starts with people who've come long before them who have shaped the way that the world around them they were born into operates. so if they start to realize that, wait a minute, this doesn't just start and end with me but what i contribute where i'm coming from it's all part of this bigger story. so that way allowing them to then take in other people's opinions, to take in perspective of others through social media but also video, it gives them a chance to be able to think, okay, this is how i see the world. but why is it i see the world this way? how can i maybe expand that late l bit by taking in other people's perspectives. >> tuesday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, cspan.org and listening using the free c-span radio app. c-span's "voices from the road" at the national conference of state legislatures summit in boston asking attendees what's the most important issue to your state. >> one of the biggest issues

that's facing the great state of maryland is the issue a problem of juvenile justice. we have over 50 of our youth incarcerated for life without the possibility of parole. i'm going to be working very, very diligently with the legislature to put in place a bill that would allow for these juveniles to have a hearing. that is one of the biggest issues that we see facing us in the great state of maryland. the second has to do with the use of opioid. the use of opioid in the state of maryland is killing our young people, old people, has no respect for age, creed, state -- i mean, behavior, mental illness, all of these things are important, but opioid is the

leading cause of deaths in the state of maryland. so we're trying to do whatever possible we can to eliminate this problem. and that's one of the issues that we are going to be looking at as we move into the legislative session. >> one of the most important issues we're facing in new york right now is rail safety. we have over 5,300 rail crossings in new york, and we've seen unfortunately fatalities increase over the past few years while nationally those numbers have decreased. i've passed legislation that would require an inventory of the 5,300 rail crossings so we could prioritize and know which ones are the most deadly, which ones just need a simple amount of work. and which ones need to be eliminated altogether. when we look at the 5,300 altogether, it's too awesome of a task to tackle. but by focusing in and making sure we can add some new technologies and eliminate the most deadly, we can make a big difference in increase safety for everyone.

congress has allocated money, now we need to put our plan in place to access that funding for new york to make our rails and make our motorists safer altogether. >> the issue that's most important in my state is job growth and economic development. there aren't very many problems that a good job can't solve. and if we were to have that, that allows for parents to then provide the kind of income, kind of resources to those children, provide them with a good education and that allows them to really lift off and do a lot of pleasant things and wonderful things throughout their entire lifetime. so job growth and economic development are the two things our state drastically needs. thank you. >> probably the most important issue facing our state is the fact we don't have a budget. right now towns are preparing to go into the month of september, kids are going back to school, college back in session and our municipal aid is being cut drastically without a budget. executive border not giving the power to properly fund our schools, doesn't give him the power to increase education funding for higher ed, doesn't

help our state employees. and we really need this budget now and as soon as possible. >> and i'm here to just make a statement about what we need from our leaders in washington, d.c. what we're looking at in ohio, we need to take care of our infrastructure. that's a primary issue that's facing not only ohio but all across the united states. and we need washington to focus in on infrastructure. our roads are crumbling and we need trump and our legislators to start focusing on that issue. >> "voices from the road" on c-span. welcome to the maine state house. the state house was built in 1829 and it was designed by charles bullfinch. a very famous architect. in fact, he's reputed to be the country's first architect. bullfinch designed our building