♪ ♪ well welcome to the wisconsin state capital, we are standing in the rotunda of the building. this is the public area of the capital this is where we have our parties and presentations. when you walk up you see a big white stone building. that stone is granted that we got from vermont. 43 kinds of different stone that were used to build this capital. from all over the world, eight different states, only a little bit of the stone is actually from wisconsin. dome outside of the capital and it's covered, we have the only dome that is covering granted. we finish it off with the statue on top, what w. is on the chest, and on top of the

head and there's a badger, and it is facing towards the nation 's capital. 15 feet five inches tall. with over 6000 pounds. then we gave you that nice gold coat. as you look behind me it's as low just legislation on the mosaic, and an artist has created each of these 100,000 pieces of little glass that represent the three. branches of government and the building to fix justice for the judicial branch, government for the executive branch, and above us it says liberty in the fourth quarter, representing all of us who live a here in wisconsin. stones from all around the world are on display. all the here is from italy, this is from france. all the greenstone in this area is the marble from greece. the red trim above the green column is a marble from algeria. the building was designed by george post, from an

architectural firm in new york. a lot of them subcontractors the architect was actually controlled out of new york. we have more of a global look to our state capital than most of the other state capitals that you will see. wisconsin goes back to 1836. at that time wisconsin was part of michigan, then michigan wanted to be their own state. but to set up our own territory, we called ourselves wisconsin. it's an indian word that means the galvanizing of water. we have gathered over 15,000 lakes. we sent our paperwork to washington d.c. approved us, and the president sends ward back here that he had appointed henry dodged to be our first leader. mr. dad was a gentleman from missouri who moved to wisconsin a few years earlier he came to wisconsin to become rich. we find lead in our hills, all kind of minors come rushing to wisconsin to make a fortune.

everyone quickly digs holes into the side of the hill. and if they didn't find lead in their whole day would live here. it's a look at those miners, they live like badgers. that's how we get the nickname the badger state. really nothing to do with the animal itself. we are outside the office of the government, we have a badger. this badger worked on a battleship called the uss wisconsin. we have to battleships named after state. this guy worked in the first. one 1900 to 1920 he got to sail all over the world. and people rub his nose for good luck. that's why his nose is shining. now we invite everyone that this is the capital maybe want to rub his nose every tour i take i rub his nose on the darkness luckiest kind of world, so he works for me. come on into the governors are conference room. this is a public office for the governor. this is a private office is right behind this room. when he meets with a group of people however he meets them in

this room. the room itself is copied from a palace in venice italy called the dosage palace. as you look up in the ceiling, there's more gold in this room than any other room in the capital. in the late 19 eighties, we thought we ought to restore capital. architectural we wanted to make it look like it was like when i was first built, but we needed a new infrastructure. fiber optic cables, computer stuff and even central air conditioning. from 1988 to 2002, we spent almost 160 million dollars to fix it. as you go around all the wood furniture is original, all the artwork is over 100 years old. also part of the conservation progress and renovating the capital. you get to see a brand-new hundred-year-old state capital. the mirrors in this room are unique in my right is the first european to come to wisconsin. his name is jean nickolay was from france looking for new route to china. they thought there was a northwest passageway so it came up through the great lakes, couldn't get any closer than

green bay. so he fired his pistols in the sky announces arrival, this part of the world does not invented guns yet. the indians thought those guns were probably thunder sticks. the gentleman here on my left is the first weatherman in the country. his name is increase alvin yet. he says predicting the weather in the madison area. in the 18 seventies. in the 18 seventies, it's kind of simple he knew someone that lives 60 miles west of here and he would ask the question, what does the weather look like. if the note came back saying rainy predicts it's gonna rain in madison pretty soon. because he realizes most of our weather comes from the west. in front of me, we have a lady in the brown dress with a piece of paper. she was the wife of the governor during the civil war. the person in the center is called unity, representing the civil war. in those days the women from your state would make the bandages and medical supplies

for the military. her husband, the governor took the military supplies to a tendency military hospital. something happened he drowned in the river. is wife decide she want to take up his cause. you've gotten it she got on a train want to speak with abraham lincoln. if you pull it out and says wisconsin, you could go build three military hospitals in the state of wisconsin to take care of your soldiers. this is brand-new thinking, in the civil war days you want to the hospital close to the battlefield, when you're better you're ready to fight. the idea you would go from tennessee to wisconsin wasn't very good. wisconsin was the first state, to be able to take care of their own civil war wounded soldiers. this is the highest court in the state of wisconsin. we have seven justices serving in the supreme court, elected for a ten-year term and today we have for women and three men

serving as justices. there's an appeals court. it's not their job to decide if someone is guilty or innocent, is their job to interpret the law. -- and after that case i want to say why don't we appeal to the supreme court. this is the only court in wisconsin, that gets to choose which cases they want to hear. they get over 1000 requests a year, way too many so they only pick about 100 of them. schedule themselves ten cases a month for ten months and the group is on vacation in july $(lh the murals are moments in history. spend a little time with them. behind me this is 1787. ifé guys in behind the desk is george washington. there's three guys talking on the side the chubby guy looking at you that's been franklin. the gentlemen over here with the rain coat over his arm is james madison. he's considered the author of the constitution. he ended up becoming the fourth

president of the united states. for us to live in madison, we name our city after james mattis and the president. in front of me we have a judge sitting in the chair, a federal judge trying to -- supposedly killed someone in another tribe in a hunting incident. as you look into the evidence with his jury behind him, things don't look good but then don't he said wait a minute, i really don't have power he comes from a different nation. he comes from the indian nation, so they settled their dispute under indian law. assure they had that he said you are a free man. you committed no crime against the united states. l.a.x. is the word lawton for law. -- there's an separate air is this is unique to wisconsin that we have everything to do with legislature in the same building. we are now in the assembly.

this is part of the legislature. we have two rooms we have a senate and an assembly. as i said this the assembly. 5,700,000 people living in wisconsin. we divide our state into 99 districts by population. so we have 99 representatives all elected for two years, all elected at the same time. in november this whole group is running for election. once you're all in the room your political leader, which is called the speaker. the speaker takes care of all the political issues. the speaker will tell them when they are trying to meet, what they're gonna talk about, what committee they will work on, with the chairman's are. the most important person in the room will be the speaker. the maryland front of you is called wisconsin past present and future. an artist from new york the worked on this model for a year. after he show sent a photo copy of it before they shipped to us. we've got a copy and we said good story, but how would you know it's wisconsin? we told the artist when except the middle unless you put a

badger in it. you see the badger next to the american flag on a rock. 80 years later, for that restoration of the capital. we had an artist to clean up the start. the used of 20,000 q-tips as they wiped off 80 years of dirt and grime. once they got the morale nice and clean, they find that there's a civil war soldier -- not you know there's about russia look straight up there's a brace, on top of his need is a crucifix. crucifixes actually touching the heart of that civil war soldier. we are cowboy, had a pirate had. you can see his hat here in shoulder looking up towards the west. would you consider this to be one of the nicest state capitals in the country. there's a lot of history here and anybody in the world today politics is a big issue. so we are right here in the middle of. it every day zany day here, so

it's still exciting for me to come down and show people the showcase for wisconsin. >> weeknights this month, we are featuring american history tv programs as a preview for what's available every weekend on c-span 3. tonight, we look at law in the courts. from our history bookshelf series, legal scholar cara robertson examines the 1893 murder trial of lizzie borden. the case received international attention, as miss borden was charged with murdering her father and stepmother. the child took place in falls river massachusetts. that is tonight, at 8 pm eastern. and, enjoy american history tv every weekend, on c-span 3.

up next on american history tv, legal star collar cara robertson describes the trial of lizzie borden who is accused of killing her mother and stepfather in massachusetts.