that help you the rest of your life in those pur suits. >> tuesday night at 8 eastern high school teachers william camps and sunshine discuss how lessons affect pliks. >> as a history component this is a chance to learn about their story. the story doesn't begin the moment they were born it starts with people before them who shaped the world the borld operates. if they realize, 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 the bigger story. in that way allowing them to take in other people's opinions, take in the perspectives of others through social media but also through video it gives them a chance to be able to think, well, this is how i see the world and and why is that in how can i expand that a little bit by taking other perspectives. >> tuesday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on a c-span, c-span.org and listen using the c-span free

radio app. welcome the maine state house the state house was built in 1829 and designed by a gentlemen named charles bullfinch. he was a famous architect. in fact reputed to be the country's first architect. bull firj designed our building at the same time he was actually rebuilding the nation's capitol building in washington, d.c. as he was undertaking the rebuilding of the capitol after it was substantially destroyed by the british during the war of 1812. he was designing our building. when maine gained statehood in 1820 the first capitol was portland. that was the temporary arrangement and several reasons for that. chief among those was that people felt portland walls too far south to remain the capitol. on february 24th, 1827 the governor signed a bill into law

naming augusta as the capitol. it was moved from portland upon completion of the building. the first official use of this building, actually the first legislative session happened january 4th, 1832. since it's been leer here a long time it shouldn't be too surprising there have been changes to the building. in 1990 the rear section of the building was added. where you see the floor tiles change, from that points back is the 1890 addition. by 1909 they outgrown it. in order to accommodate the needs of the government some of the original had to be taken apart first. the original small wood frame dome was removed. the roof over the entire original building was removed. the front wall and front facade. what is left from the front is original. another original feature is the

floor on which we stand. this floor is italian marble. and the tiles on the floor are individual tiles. they're tiny, tiny, individual tiles, which were laid on the floor one tidy tile at a time. it took approximately a year and a half to lay all theless tiles. occupying obvious space of honor in the middle of the hall the flags is a burst of percival proctor baxter. he was honored here for more than public service but for the extremely generous gift to maine. after his public life in 1939 to until death in 1816 he purchased using his own money he purchased about 200,000 acres of land which we then gave to the state of maine. that land now comprises a state park appropriately named his honor called baxter state park. according to his wishes there is hunting allowed in only about

25% of the park. he intended it as a wild life refuge. this is a portrait of a grand lady from maine named marpgt j. smith. . she had the distinction of having been the first woman in this country ever to have been elected to both houses of the united states congress in 1940 she was elected to the u.s. house of represent he was. she served there until 1948 when she was elected to the united states senate. there by becoming the first woman to accomplish that featp when she was elected to the senate? 1948 she became the first woman elected to the senate as well. she had the distinction of having been the first woman in this country ever to have her name placed in nomination for president of the united states by a major political party. that happened at the republican national convention in san francisco in 1964. because that year the republican nomination went to senator barry

gold water backup you but the fact that so many people thought so highly of her was significant that they wanted her to run for president, for a lady, for a lady in 1964, at the fact she was here from maine gives us pride in that lady. this is a portrait of a gentleman named thomas bracket reed, a congressman from maine served in the u.s. house of represe representatives. several terms as speaker of the house of representatives was extremely powerful speaker earning himself the title czar reed. many of the rules he instituted as speaker of the house are still used to this day. they're called reed's rules. i especially like congressman bracket for his very acerbic wit. he was once asked if he would attend the funeral of a political rival. he said no but i do approve of

it. another time he was asked if he thought his party might nominate him for president. he said they could do worse and very likely will. finally a fellow congressman at one point very pompously stated i'd rather be right than president. speaker reed said well the gentleman needn't worth he will never be either. we are in the house chamber. maine's house consisted of 151 members. each member of the house represents about 86 or 870 oh people. the representatives serve two-year terms. and in maine we have term limits. they can serve no more than four consecutive two-year terms at the end of eight years they are turned out. the term limit law was passed in 1992, took effect in '96 was a result of citizen initiative. it was not enacted by the

legislature. it is a citizen legislation you are a part time legislature. the average leather could be described as the average mainer. we have people from all walks of life here. teachers, plumbers, people working in paper mills. so the population of the legislature is a very good miles an hour are of the population of the state of maine. when the speaker moves an item he uses a gavel to move that item. very often the speak -- it's wooden. very often the speak will be a little too aggressive and break the gavel. because business cannot be conducted without a gavel then the clerk of house standing here is prepared with additional gavels in her drawer. the maine senate consists of 35

senators. the districts are apportioned according to population. there is a quaint rule in the senate that prohibits anyone from sitting in a chair other than the senator to whom it's assigned. even staff people may not sit in the senator's chair. if they want to sit as they straighten the desks they have to move the chair out and bring in their own chair. the rotunda is on the third floor of the state house. and in the rotunda we have por traits of governors. we call this the governor's rotation because the immediate past governor always has his portrait displayed her here. this was our immediate past governor. when governor le page no longer is no office his portrait will come over. all the governors will move over to make room for governor le

page. that's why we call it the governor's rotation. this is a portrait of governor mckernan, who was married to one of our two united states senators olympia snow whose picture can be seen on the where the governor is leaning. that's a photograph of of he and his wife and his son from a previous marriage who tragically died while in college from a previously undetected heart condition. as we tour the building we see certainly in comparison to other building of this type throughout the country, other capitol buildings that our building is somewhat plain and simple. there is no opulence at the maine state house. there is nothing here to take a person's breath away. but the simple nature speaks volume for the puritan ethic.

if you want to one word to describe maine and its people. you can see fugalty throughout the building. that's an excellent portrait or picture of the people of maine. and the entire state. we are standing in the historic old senate chamber in the original 18th centerry poergts of maryland state house where between 189. it's also a space which between november of 1783 and august of 1784 was the home of congress. then operating under the articles of confederatation. then three of the most important events in the history of the united states took place here in in between 1783 and you go you 1784. amtdsinglyar