amendment says that there be prefixed to the constitution a declaration that all power is originally vested in and derived from the people. it goes on to say the government is instituted and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people. which consists of the enjoyment of life and liberty with the right of acquiring property and the pursuit of happiness. it goes on to say the people have an unalienable right to reform or change their government whenever it be found adverse or inadequate to the purposes of its institution. that is astonishing. what document does that sound like? that sounds like our declaration of independence. it sounds like the second sentence of the declaration. all men are created equal, endowed by the creator with certain unalienable rights. and whenever government becomes destructive of these rights, it

is the right and duty of the people to abolish it. it is so symmetrical. such synchronicity. we began with the documents by recognizing james wilson's the belief to alter government is an unalienable right that comes from god or nature and not government. here we see the first amendment madison proposed declared the right of amendment to be unalienable. it did not pass, but the right was embodied in the constitution in article five. go online. check out the interactive constitution. constitutioncenter/treasures for the five rarest drafts. come to the national constitution center. it is such an inspiring, beautiful place where citizens can unite around this amazing document of human freedom. it unites us, the constitution. how exciting. what a privilege it is to share with you the five rarest tracks the drafts -- the five rarest

drafts of the constitution assembled for the first time in one place. thank you to the historical society of pennsylvania and the c-span friends. happy constitution day. announcer: you can watch this or other american artifacts programs at any time by visiting our website. >> they say all politics is local, but in new hampshire that phrase really rings true. american history tv visits the new hampshire historical society to take a look at the long history with politics of this state. [chatter] >> this was the site of the first primary and on the eve of the elections there were quite a few undecided voters. >> people in new hampshire take politics seriously. they study it. they spend a lot of time meeting with candidates, reading about

candidates, interviewing candidates. and it is politics at all levels. new hampshire people are very serious about their politics at the local level, whether it is a town meeting or a school board, but they are equally passionate about politics at the county level, the state level particularly, and they get very interested in national politics, especially in regard to the presidential primaries. what we will do today is take a look at some items that reflect not only on new hampshire's politics, and new hampshire politics within a larger scope of national and even international politics. first item right here is a portrait, and the subject is governor benning wentworth. governor wentworth has the distinction of being the longest tenured royal governor. he served for almost 26 years as

governor of new hampshire. serving basically 1741-1767. that by itself is not that remarkable, except that he was a hot tempered, arrogant person who made a lot of enemies. the miracle is he survived even one or two years. he was there almost 26 years. with good coaching from his own father, who was a lieutenant governor, and some good friends and relatives both in england and new hampshire, he learned how to make the system work. he understood the whole colonial system, to the point that he knew how to please the authorities in london. after all they could hire and , fire him, and he could also please almost everybody in new hampshire by giving them something. he gave away most of the land in the state. in fact he gave vermont away as , well. so by a mixture of patronage,

shrewd politics, good connections, he survived not only for almost 26 years, but made himself very rich in the process. he finally was more or less forced out, partly because of page, he suffered badly from gout. in addition, the authorities in london had heard complaints and they came to the conclusion that he was operating perhaps too much out of private interest and not paying enough attention to the public good. after wentworth left office in 1767, he was replaced by young john wentworth, who was yet to be 30 years of age. the next and last of the royal governors. because we had had such a strong chief executive, new hampshire was very leery of having a strong executive in any form of government. so when john wentworth left, the

new hampshire had no government. basically, the government at this time consisted of the presence of the governor and his commission. when john wentworth fled in the middle of revolutionary events, new hampshire found itself without government. and so, our leaders wrote to the continental congress meeting in philadelphia, basically saying, what are we supposed to do, we do not have a government? john adams among others led the charge for new hampshire. he wanted a new england state to be the first state to actually declare a form of government independent of the crown. and so, we drafted a small, two-page form of government, seen here, that was approved by the congress on january 5, 1776. this basically states that we, the small provisional congress of new hampshire, are now the government. it created a legislative branch. no executive branch at all. said nothing about judiciary. it could not be amended.

it was a very flimsy little document, but it is the first of the so-called state constitutions independent of the crown. these are paintings of two of our most distinguished native sons. and in the early 19th century, little tiny new hampshire had some clout and some of our native sons did very well. on the right we have david -- daniel webster, native son of new hampshire, who was a lawyer in both his hometown in salisbury, but also then in portsmouth. he served in the house of representatives. he was a federalist politician and eventually he would move on to massachusetts and become a major national figure, depending on whether you like him or not, he was either godlike daniel or black dan. but he never lost his ties to the -- but he never lost his interest in new hampshire. he maintained a farm here and he

was very active in that he knew all the political leaders and figures of new hampshire. he constantly kept in touch with them and spent a good part of every year here. so webster was always here and present, even if he was living in washington or boston. he was too big to ignore. one of those who he had detested during much of his political career was our other famous native son, and that is franklin pierce over here. while daniel webster was a a whigist and later politician, his key opponent in new hampshire was franklin pierce, somewhat younger than webster. pierce was a jeffersonian and he later turned into a jacksonian democrat. he did serve for a while in the u.s. senate, but he did not stay there long. his wife hated public life in washington. so he returned to new hampshire, but was known here primarily as the enforcer of democratic harmony and unity. he wanted a democratic party

that was saying the same thing in alabama and new york. he was known as a true democratic party man. everyone knew the democratic nominee would win in 1852. it was the democrat's year, they just did not have a person. and so, at this time, the potential nominees at the time did not go to conventions, they sat at home hoping somebody would bring them good news. franklin pierce was not on anybody's radar screen. nobody knew anything about him outside of new hampshire. but the democratic members of the convention could not arrive at any kind of consensus. and finally, after about 40 ballots, people started to mention franklin pierce because he was a good solid democrat and he seemed to have, although he was a new englander, no particular bias against the south. so the southern delegates sent

telegrams up, asking questions of pierce, who was in new hampshire. and they liked his answers. after maybe the 49th ballot, he was finally nominated, to the surprise of everyone. the problem is that nobody knew who he was outside of new hampshire. and so, this painting was done in order to publicize franklin pierce and what he looked like. there were photographs of him wearing his mexican war uniform, which he still fit into. and his longtime friend, a college classmate, nathaniel hawthorne, actually wrote one of the early authorized biographies of franklin pierce. if you look at all of nathaniel hawthorne's work, along with "house of seven gables," you will see a biography of franklin pierce. but one of his great works. but pierce was the nominee and he went on to win the election

in 1852 and he served for one term. this is a picture of a cornish town meeting, 1947. new hampshire is very proud of the fact that it has town meetings. new hampshire has a long tradition of thinking government is best when it is small and close to the people. this is fairly typical of what you might have seen in 1947. cornish was a small town. people would have gathered in the town hall. what you see in this picture are a group of people who are concerned and they know exactly what they want to do, what items will be on the town warrant, who they are going to vote for. sometimes the meetings would last not just a few hours, but sometimes two or three days. it actually goes back to massachusetts in the 1630's, when they began to incorporate separate, small towns in and around the boston area. they allowed each of the towns the privilege of electing their own officers and to tax themselves.

in new hampshire today, there are 234 incorporated municipalities. on town meeting day, which is always in march, this is the one time when folks in town actually get together. one of the things that new hampshire developed during the progressive era, the first two decades of the 20th century, we developed a system for holding not only primary elections for state officials, but we also developed a system for holding a presidential primary for actual delegates to go to the conventions. and since about 1919, new hampshire has been the first state to select delegates to go to the presidential convention. but not that many people participated. we were just picking candidates out of a hat to go to the conventions. so we changed the law in 1949,

saying in the future primaries, we would not only pick individuals to go to the conventions, but we would have what they called a beauty contest. we would actually put the name of the candidates on the ballot. so in 1952, our presidential primary did not just list candidates from new hampshire, but it also listed the actual names of candidates. each town runs its own election in the way it sees fit. they run it through the secretary of state's office. what happened in a few of the towns is they decided to jumpstart the time. they had to do it on the day of the primary, but some of them jumpstarted the time. one small town did that in 1948. a little tiny town. it had about 50 voters at the time. but it was a railroad town and the only time they could get everybody together to actually

vote was around midnight, because after that the railroad workers all took off, they were maintaining tracks and doing all kinds of other things. so they decided to have its primary, the presidential primary, in 1948 at midnight. and then off they would go. since that time, other small towns have jumped into it. dicksville is another. mills field jumped into it as, which is not even unincorporated town. there is a state law that says if you have less than 100 voters, you can actually hold your presidential primary at midnight. so it became a proud tradition to be the first ones to jump in. what you have here is a little wooden ballot box used by the voters from hart's location. this little, tiny, simple box is in many respects our most valuable artifact.

you have to think about it on two planes. on the one plane, this is just a little wooden box. it is a relic, an artifact from the little town of hart's location. but on the other plane, this little wooden box is a symbol of who we are. we are a republic. we say that every time we salute the flag. a republic is by definition a form of government where the governed govern themselves according to the laws that they make. the minute that we fail to see this little wooden box as that second item, the symbol of who we are, we cease to be a republic. it is important people understand the whole concept of voting. this little box is a good way of showing it. the new hampshire primary was not very significant nationwide until 1952. in 1952, the front runner of the republican nomination was robert taft, often called mr.

republican, a fairly conservative republican, and he was well known by the party regulars. however, many party regulars thought that he was too far to the right and they did not like him. and so, a number of new hampshire people rallying around their governor at the time, sherman adams, decided to push the candidacy of dwight d. eisenhower. it was a little tricky. he was serving as the commander of nato in brussels at the time and he was not allowed to run, and he did not even come to the state. so there was a backdoor effort orchestrated by the likes of henry cabot lodge and sherman adams to get eisenhower on the ballot. and it worked. at least he said he was ok with , having his name on the ballot. on the democratic side, president harry truman was planning to run for another term. and he was contested. he had some problems in terms of the korean war and other things, and he was contested by a guy from tennessee, a senator who

nobody had ever heard about except he headed up a crime commission which got a lot of publicity on television. so, the 1952 primary breaks wide open with eisenhower versus taft and the other campaigning valiantly in new hampshire against the incumbent president. so we have a lot of artifacts. eisenhower was a popular figure at the time, although he could not campaign yet in new hampshire, not during the primary. and so, his name was floated out there. he was considered one of the heroes of world war ii. he was renowned for his work as a nato commander, but he could not campaign in new hampshire. taft did finally campaign in new hampshire, and maybe he should not have. he was not a big vote-getter, he was not a popular figure. so new hampshire came out in , force, saying "i like ike," and eisenhower won the primary. much has been made about the

fact that we are the first in the nation for the presidential primary and it is so important. we did not mean to do that in 1952. it was almost by accident. the decision was made to hold our primary election on the same day as the town meeting day, a it was the only way to get a big crowd and then you would not have to have two different elections, which cost a lot of money. the decision was made in 1949 to hold the 1952 primary, the presidential primary, on town meeting day. that meant we had a big turnout. the other thing that made it, and why we were the first in the nation, the other thing that made it a big deal was the nature of the election itself. you had an incumbent president running against a challenger within his own party, and you had a well-known, established republican running against a very popular military official. it was a wide open primary. one of the reasons it is

important i think was summed up very nicely several years ago by commentator john chancellor. he said we have polls galore, a lot of talk about who will be winning and who is the front runner and who has raised the most money, but until we get to the new hampshire primary we haven't really asked the ordinary voters in the privacy of the polling place to actually cast their votes. what you get with the new hampshire primary is an actual secret election by individuals, ordinary people, casting their preference. and that is going to be full of surprise. looking at new hampshire politics and new hampshire government, it is fun. it is a small state and people say it is not important. it is a small state. it is not unimportant. every voter is important, every town meeting is important, every congressional session in concord here is important. it is important in that people have the right and the

willingness, and certainly the aptitude and desire to make themselves heard. recently traveled to concord, new hampshire, to learn about its rich history. learn more about concord and other stops at c-span.org. you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend, on cspan3. >> on monday, a discussion about technology and telecommunications issues surfacing before congress with tech reporters. >> really important things to keep an eye on his we are headed in a direction where two different versions of net neutrality will likely be litigated.

wheeler net neutrality rules from 2015. ,nd we will have the pi un-title ii'ing of net neutrality. bighe senate has to hold a roll call vote on his reconfirmation which is unheard of for an fcc nominee. normally it is passed by unanimous consent in a bigger package. >> the merger at the top of in congress and for people who watch this space and for people in the industry is the sinclair broadcast group acquisition of tribune media company. a broadcasting giant perceived as somewhat conservative leaning and perhaps politically aligned with the administration, the implications of them growing

even bigger. communicators" monday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span2. >> usually, things run smoothly. every once in a while, federal banks have emergency action. let's go back in time to 1992. >> ♪ >> it is august, 1992. release a new album called "good stuff." >> ♪ let the good times roll >> in minneapolis, the mall of america opens for business with 300 stores. it is the largest shopping mall in the country. meanwhile, a major hurricane is moving directly toward south florida. >> we expect the storm is going to be in our neighborhood here by early in the day monday. monday, august 24, the storm

hits with full force carrying winds that reach 160 miles an hour. local airports are set down. most of the area is without power. in its wake, devastation that is nearly total. >> all of your life savings? >> all of my life savings. i put all the money in the house, everything. tuesday, august 25, almost everyone needs food and emergency supplies. but most stores are shut down. >> we are selling generators, chainsaws, gas, and oil. >> the only people selling things come from out of town. they will not accept checks or credit cards. there is a huge demand for cash and local banks are running short. that triggers emergency action by the miami branch of the federal reserve. the miami branch is part of the federal reserve bank of atlanta which serves the southeast.

the branch manager was at the bank soon after andrew struck. >> we started calling all the financial institutions and talking with them, letting them know we were in business and we wanted to assure them we had cash available and we would do whatever possible to get that cash to them based on their need. >> local banks have an account with the fed. they deposit their extra cash in the fed --and the fed credits their account. in normal times, local banks ask for cash as needed. in this case, it is needed immediately and in great quantity. bob jensen is vice president of the first national bank of homestead. >> people literally had to walk out of the lobby with somewhere between $3000 and $5,000 in cash. many people needed far more than that and got more than that. >> if you did not have cash, you have nothing. absolutely nothing. >> but sullivan owned a service

station in homestead. the town was hit especially hard. there was no water, no phone service, no electricity. just to buy ice, residents had to drive out of town and wait in long-lines. butch sullivan needed an emergency generator. >> you had to pay cash. no credit cards, no checks. they would not accept anything. >> back at the fed, they were in charge of shipping cash to local banks. tuesday, august 25, was the busiest and record. >> $99 million that day. it was a very heavy day. everything was done manually. no computers. >> the $99 million was sent out to local banks throughout south toward -- south florida, including the national bank of homestead. >> every dar