out, he was within three feet of me fromjack ruby came out behind me and went between bob jackson and i and then it began. we were all thrown it to the floor because there must have been 100 police in the basement that sunday morning. >> watch our photojournalists interviews on oral histories sundays at 7 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3. >> where in new hampshire where c-span is learning more about their history. we take you inside the state house for a tour to learn about its role in local and national politics.

>> we are standing in the new hampshire hollow. the building first began building on september 24, 1816. our first cornerstone was laid 1819.de out of granite by the statehouse opened its doors in this room during this time was a historic hall. the only thing in the room were large wooden columns. it was a cooling area for it legislators to come downstairs. peoplea place where would come and together and meet when they were coming to the statehouse for business. then came the civil war. 1861, new hampshire men answered the call to arms. they left their homes and many came to this building. they enlisted. they were given brand new flags

and what they hoped would be a short conflict. the flags that are in the case is here are the flags that were brought back by our men. ended, whathe war was left of the flags came back here to this building. we have 88 civil battle were spots inside the cases. the flags have been in these cases for well over 100 years. flags -- everyse one of these flags has a story and history behind it. there is never enough time to tell the story of each and every flag. there is a flight i love to talk the story of because it is unique. this 13th regiment flag was actually the flag that flew over the capital of richmond, virginia. the story is that a young man named richard forrester took the flag after it was tossed out

after the richmond government decided to secede from the union. he took the flag and put it under his cot and cap it there until the new hampshire 13th regiment came marching into richmond, virginia. he took the flag and put it up the pole. the men it the flag going up and they went and met him. he was an african-american who was working in the virginia legislature at the time. the 13th regiment and came back to new england. he finished out the rest of his life here in new england. stateag he brought back with the 13th regiment flags and ultimately ended up in our case. along with the fact that our men were off to war during the civil war, new hampshire legislature in our government was still going forward at this very dark time. the building had not had any renovations.

during the civil war, our legislature in our governor began discussing enlarging the building and adding a third floor and putting on embellishments. began., construction most of the men are at war and here we are dismembering the back of the building to make it larger. todayrtico that you see was added on during the civil war. designed after a special hospital that is in paris. on duringwas added the civil war in 1864. part of the reason we made the building whiter was because we were adding on such a large dome and removing a silo on the top of our building. we are in the members only anteroom.

it is the best place to enter the house of representatives because it allows you to see the full a fact the large chamber. new hampshire's house of representatives has the oldest continuously use legislative chambers in america. here is the room where the largest state legislature in the united states works and meets. -- you >> -- lx elects 400 each year. they have unique seats for sitting. they are sitting in the same it chairs that they have been sitting in since the 19 60's. we have seat numbers on every seats. a bit of a quirk is that there is no seat 13 in the new hampshire house of representatives. no representative has to sit in that traditional bad luck seat.

the members will come in who were here yesterday until near the end of the day in a room where it legislators have been working and meeting since 1819. we have had a few changes in this room. we went from candlelight to gasoline and now today we have in electric lights. the light fixtures that you see are the same light fixtures that were put in during the 1910 renovation. new hampshire's early government wanted to have a house that would be representative of the people. they put into the constitution that there would be representation to represent as many as people -- as many people as possible. we are the best represented people in the nation. each of the 400 representatives represents approximately 3400 citizens. it is a citizen legislature.

this is a legislature that is close to the people they represent. that the 400out state representatives are volunteers because in 1889, we established a salary cap for our legislators. new hampshire's state representatives receive $200 per turn. new hampshire house of representatives has a five wonderful portraits on the walls. the centerpiece is george washington. i will confess it is a copy of the gilbert stuart painting that hangs in rhode island. we are unique in that we has a portrait of franklin pierce, the only president from the great ande of new hampshire and he is to left of george washington. and was newars old hampshire's speaker of the house who went on to be the 14th

president of the united states. to the left of franklin pierce is daniel webster. webster was a great statesman. he was the defender of the constitution. new hampshire has a long looked up to daniel webster and so has the rest of the united states. to george washington's right is the portrait that was painted in the 1920's. it was a project of schoolchildren who felt that lincoln should have his portrait on the walls of the statehouse. they did a fund raising and raised enough money to have alexander james painted this wonderful painting. on the far right is john parker hale. one of my favorite on the wall have not heard of senator john parker hale. like franklin pierce, he served as speaker of the house in this chamber.

he was a lawyer and even ran for same timeat the franklin pierce ran for president. john parker hale ran on a platform that he wanted to end slavery. he was an abolitionist far before it was a popular thing to do. john hale has the distinction of having been the first senator to speak out against slavery. we bring guests from other legislators from all over the world and other states and often they will make comparisons to the a steer chambers that you are in to all of their artwork and embellishments in their chambers. part of the reason this room is so plain is because this is how it has looked for well over 100 years. , it actually had more paintings on the walls. when they added hallways, we took some portraits out. her used to be paintings on the top of the columns up there.

today, it it is a very us your .oom -- austere room it is the only space in the united states that does not have income tax, sales tax. we do not like to spend a lot of money on embellishments and things that are not needed for the people. thehis point, we will leave house chamber and take a very short walk to the room next door, which is where our senate meets. we are probably the only state that our house and senate share a wall. it allows for quick messages being brought back and forth between the house and senate. this is the new hampshire state senate. it is a huge contrast to the austere and giant size of the new hampshire house. 24s small room seats only state senators. we have elected 24 senators

since the 1870's. originally, there were only 12 senators sitting in this chamber. 1942 was a pivotal moment in the senate chamber. thatour beautiful murals you see behind me were placed on the walls. they were painted by barry faulkner. each of the merrill's depicts something important to new hampshire. s depictof the mural something important to new hampshire. one of the hoax is to educate indians in the north country. it was -- one of the goals was to educate indians in north country. daniel webster is the next one. he was born and raised here. born with the

constitution laid out in front of him. -- he was drawn with the constitution laid out in front of him. highlightsver here new hampshire's great contribution to the arts and natural science. barry faulkner painted himself within the mural. he is the gentleman in the brown suit who looks like the youngest man in the portrait. it was found later he was in his 60's and that is his friends in the painting. legse far left with his crossed was daniel french. he was one of the greatest hope sculpturers of all time. lap.one has birds on his colorsgiven different

which we call camouflage now. it was a contribution to our and not science. the final bureau is new duringre's famous leader the revolutionary war and john motto ofte the famous new hampshire. live free or die, for death is not the greatest of evils. 1945, tables and chairs the new hampshire legislator voted to make that the model. today, you see live free or die on our license plates even. this chamber, like the house chamber, is one of the oldest continuously used legislative chambers in america. history has been made in this room many times over. one of the highlights in most recent history was in 2008 when new hampshire voted to elect more women to our senate than men.

that made at the first legislative body in america to have a female majority. chamber not leave this without visiting this historic piece of furniture. this desk is from the 1819 senate chamber and it is a historic piece that is used to register our presidential candidates. every four years, we put this desk on a dolly and put it to the secretary of state's office where the candidates all come forward and sign in. the original part of the statehouse and we are in the 1910 edition. this addition houses the hall of governors, all of the portraits you see on the wall are former governors of new hampshire that we look at on our way to the executive council chamber and governor's office. into our office of the governor.

this first area is the governor's reception area with the most recent portrait, including the newest governor that is norman, and while yet, governor craig benson. prior to that, the most recent portrait was our first elected female governor. as time goes on and new governors are elected, we add to the wall and remove governors into this hall of governors. behind us is the new hampshire executive council chamber. this room is where our governor holds his governor and council meetings. new hampshire's unique form of government is our executive council. our other states we elect legislatures from our governor, new hampshire also elects executive councils. each of the five councils represents 1/5 of our states

population -- state's population. they have checks and balances in the governor's office. showaintings in the walls the earliest governors of new hampshire, including royal governors. back in the day, a world governor was able to appoint their friends to the judiciary and the friends would get the contracts to do the work. the executive council now takes that away. our governor nominates the judiciary appointments, but the executive council approves. our governor can nominate commissioners, he can extend overacts for any item $25,000, and the council will gather and meet and vote on that. they typically meet every other meetings are open to the public and we bring in

folding chairs for the visitors for the people who want to visit and see what is happening in our government. the wooden chairs on the side are where the commissioners come and sit. at this table, the same table since 1910, is where the governor and executive council hold their meetings. the governor presides at the head of the table, and our council sits in order of where they serve. district one, 2, 3, 4, and five. the additional seat at the table is for the secretary of state who handles all of the agenda and minutes of the meeting. they still do things the old-fashioned way. ,ust this week when they came each had a stack of papers so high that they could not see each other across from the table. it is the end of the fiscal year things that hadn't been voted on needed to be voted on.

this is new hampshire's state how visitor center. this is a room where tourists and guests can come and legislators will stop. every four years, this becomes a very special and unique. its firstampshire has in the nation presidential primary, all of the candidates who are running for president come to our statehouse. smallago, i started a display of some buttons and bumper stickers to encourage some of the candidates to come into the visitor center. over the last few elections, all of the candidates have been it visiting. peace ofust a bit and some of those candidates who visited our state capital, including when barack obama visited and had his photo taken and donald trump, hillary clinton, john mccain, chris c,

bernie sanders, all of the candidates for those who are extremely well known to those who only a new hampshire person would know. we embraced the presidential primary and we enjoyed the excitement. it is a unique opportunity to get up close and meet candidates. into this room along with our presidential primary display and we like to highlight that not only are we the first to president -- votes for president, but we are a state of many firsts. we were the first state to declare independence from the british spirit we were the first state to create a state constitution. upstairs, we were the first state to have a female majority in our legislative body in the senate. prior to that, we were the first state to have a female in-state leadership majority.

we had a woman speaker and a woman senate president and a woman governor. firstt on to have the state to have an all federal female delegation and even today, all of new hampshire's legislation are women. new hampshire is a state that does not have a professional sports team, but what we do have is politics. we watched our politics and embrace our politics. from the largest state legislature to our presidential process. politics place where is a pastime. >> our cities to our staff cap to concord, new hampshire to learn about its rich history. learn more about concord and other stops on our tour at c-span.org/cities to her.

you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3. >> no one is going to denied senator doctor gave the trips on his jet or that the campaign contributions were made. no one will deny that senator with variouslobby people the whole thing is why did he do and why did it happen? is because of a corrupt relationship that they had. the senator is claiming it is because the doctor is my friend. a, we talkon q & about the ongoing trial of new jersey's senator bob menendez. tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a.

>> next, an interview recorded for the c-span podcast, "the sidebar." the topic, reagan-era tax reform. our guest is henry olson, senior fellow of the ethics public policy center and the author of "the working class republican: ronald reagan and the return of blue-collar conservativism." tax reform is a top legislative priority for president trump. this interview looks at president reagan's efforts to reform the tax code in the 1980's. this is "american history tv" on c-span3. >> henry olson, a senior fellow at the ethics and public policy center, out with a new book titled "the working class republican: ronald reagan and the return of blue-collar conservativism." let's talk about tax reform because you wrote a piece that republicans are chomping at the bit to pass tax reform. how do they get there?