cuba, i had a place to flee to. [applause] my entire life, my dad had been my hero. you know what i find most incredible about his story? how commonplace it is. everyone of us here has a story just like that, whether it is us or our parents or great grandparents. we are all the children of those who risked everything. for freedom. us could walk up here one at a time and tell those stories. i am going to suggest that is the most fundamental dna of what it means to be an american, to value freedom and opportunity above all else. that is why we are going to succeed in turning this around. say,inal thing i want to

if you remember nothing that i said tonight, then you probably had too much to drink. [laughter] if you remember one thing that i said tonight, let it be this. as dire as things look right now, i am profoundly optimistic. we have seen things look dire before. i am optimistic for three simple reasons. number one, we are right. freedom works. [applause] there is a very simple dynamic, conservatives win when we effectively articulate what it

is we believe. this is fundamentally a center- right nation. liberals win when they effectively off the skate -- obduscate what they believe. their policies do not work and all we have to do is speak the truth. secondly, there is a new generation of leaders stepping forward in washington. new, young at leaders, people like rand paul and marco rubio and mike lee and kelly ayotte. [applause] you know what is incredible? five years ago, not one of them was in office. you have to go back to after world war ii to see an instance where the generation of leaders who were effectively defending free-market principles is a new

generation stepping forward -- let me suggest something. if you look at that new generation, they are almost always exactly the same age. was 10 whence, i ronald reagan became president. i was 18 when ronald reagan left the white house. know how for the world war ii generation, many of them would prefer to fdr as "our president?" i will go to my grave with ronald reagan defining what it means to be present. -- president. [applause] he didn't blink. i have referred to this next generation, this new generation as the children of reagan. listen to them communicate. listen to kelly stand up and talk about free-market principles. listen to marco. listen to rent.

-- rand. they are positive. they are echoes of ronald reagan. .hey are not hateful they are saying, we as americans can get back to our founding principles that have made this nation so great. the third and final reason i am optimistic, the biggest reason is because of each of you. because of the rise of the grassroots. if we are right, that the american people are standing up and saying, enough already, we are going to take our country back. we are going to get back to free-market principles, to the constitution, to the founding principles that made this the greatest country unearthed. took jimmy carter to give us ronald reagan. [applause]

and i am convinced that the longest lasting legacy of president obama is going to be all of us standing up together, arm in arm, to restore that shining city on a hill that is the united states of america. thank you and god bless you. [applause] >> thank you so much. first of all, i want to say i learned something new tonight. here in new hampshire, we say thank you all. in texas, they think all you all. is that more thank you or more

people? >> technically speaking, all y'a ll is the plural of y'all. that was ronald reagan reminded us that freedom is only one generation away from extension. if we do not engage now in the freedom, we will want -- we will one day be telling our children what it is like to be free. i need to repair and oversight. we have another candidate. i know there is nobody here who wants to see custer win another term in the united states house. we know we have a potential candidate and former senator gary lambert. he is with us tonight. i hope you get a chance to say hello to him as well. now, our host, i do so much. >> hey, did we have a speaker tonight.

joseph and i -- you turn down the heat to much. we would like to ask -- invite you all to have some coffee in the back. there is wonderful homemade cookies. eat some more of the food. photos thatken some are available in the foyer and al from the radio just announced that in 10 minutes, the international space station will go over -- >> if we look to the northwest. >> northwest is that way. the international space station will go over. go get some coffee. [applause]

[indiscernible] >> that is the only way we are going to turn it around. >> connecticut picture of the three of you?

-- can i take a picture of the three of you? [inaudible] >> they keep voting for obama care. they never come up with a plan -- nobody did. together, getet democrats on one, republicans online, and get something specific. that is how you're going to win. >> i agree with you. >> you have to have a plan. you have a couple years to work on it. >> i hear what you're saying. thank you.

the only way to win this is to do it together. thank you for what you're doing. thank you very much. [inaudible] >> thank you. that is powerful. [inaudible] thank you very much. i appreciate it.

[inaudible] >> when i heard you say that, i thought it was so inspiring. that was really the definition of what can be done. --the stakes for all of us to make it easier for people to that onerosperity generation ago would not have been. >> very powerful. >> god bless. >> thank you. i very much appreciate it. i would love to do a picture. >> one more? >> please.

thank u so much. >> you're right. we are the strong ones. >> that was unfortunate. we have to bring people together. >> keep up the fight. god bless. >> thank you. >> i was the campaign going? >> i need to talk to you. you -- right here?

very good. connect -- >> thank you very much. >> good luck to you. [inaudible] >> fantastic job. couldn't have gone better for you. just over here, john. one more here.

>> if you put cheese on broccoli, it is pretty good. >> that is printed. i can't have broccoli with cheese. i am a marketer -- i know something about marketing. >> thank you, i appreciate it. >> my husband and i came from massachusetts. thank you for the photo. >> come join us. get all three of us. >> here is my question. [inaudible]tts >> thank you very much.

>> i don't know if i should waste my time. >> in terms of -- i think if we're going to win [inaudible] we have some distance to go. the next stage is probably going [inaudible] --you look at it wasn't that long ago. >> even in a state like massachusetts, this thing can work. if people start hearing we can start changing.

don't think the senators will be the first to jump ship. >> it has a different economy. listen, i want to encourage you to reach out and call. [inaudible] >> a pleasure meeting you. >> thank you. >> where are you from? >> new hampshire. >> thank you for being here. >> i wish you the best. >> thank you very much. >> can i ask you one question on immigration? do you think there is a chance

the house is going to take separate pieces? do -- house is going to in my view, what the house is going to do, there are a lot of areas of bipartisan agreement on immigration. there is a lot of agreement that our current system is broken. there is agreement that we have to get serious about securing borders and about stopping the problem of illegal immigration. a lot of agreement that we should improve and streamline legal immigration so that we welcome immigrants. what i think the house should do, is focus on areas of bipartisan agreement rather than -- i think the gang of eight bill is the wrong approach. what they will do, i don't know. about theld you feel 11 million -- if we gave them but they nevers

passed the citizenship? >> i introduced in the judiciary committee stipulations to fix the gang of eight bill. i would like to see commonsense immigration reform. the gang of eight bill -- one of the amendments introduced was to do exactly what you said, to say that those here illegally will not be eligible for citizenship. every democrat voted against it. it was striking. the senator said, if there is no citizenship, there can be no reform. i took the opportunity to thank him. explicit, and over

arching political objective. you're willing to do nothing about border security, nothing about workers, nothing about farms, and nothing about the 11 million people in the shadows. you're willing to leave them in the shadows. problemhan solve this because your only priority is your partisan political objective. that is where the white house is right now. >> thank you very much for your time. take care. >> nice to meet you. >> we had such a good time. >> thank you so much. i am here from washington valley.

it would be wonderful if you would visit washington valley. >> we would love to have you. >> wonderful job. thank you. >> thank you for coming. i have a question. [inaudible] >> the administration doesn't want the facts coming out. follow the facts wherever they lead. did you want to get a picture? >> i would love to.

>> i am bill smith and i am one of your biggest and. god bless you. we need another ronald reagan. you are the only one. >> we all have to do it together. >> you're on the right track. >> thank you, i appreciate it. >> have to say i am concerned about the immigrants more than obamacare.

[inaudible] obama will not obey the law. you and i know that. is -- iknow what it have communicated with them. there are too many republicans that will not tell the truth. that is what i like about what you're doing. you're telling the truth. [inaudible] have been a republican for years. >> i think the only way for

changes that they hear from the people. >> i am ready to hand write letters. i don't know what else to do. they are not going to change. thank you for what you are doing. can someone take a picture? thank you. you are one of my heroes. >> the privilege is mine. >> senator, it is a pleasure to meet you. your motivating a lot of us. i appreciate it. i hope one of you guys are the next president.

[inaudible] >> we have got to have more scrutiny. it has to be driven from the house. in my view, what the house -- the chief prosecutors, i have been urging them. [inaudible] i think they systematically

walked through the facts. the advantage of a select -- [inaudible] >> really nice meeting you. >> thank you for coming. >> i have to tell you when i came to this country 40 some years ago, i had eight dollars in my pocket. i came over as a nanny.

i still had eight dollars in my pocket. here i am now, living in this beautiful state. i am having a great time. was --eech tonight >> i will say, it is a huge blessing to be the son of an immigrant who came here seeking freedom. if you don't have a special awareness of just how precious it is. i got away from socialized medicine in england. i keep telling everybody here, you don't want it here. you don't want this obamacare. you don't want socialized medicine because it is horrendous.

>> i would love to send you if , i give an e-mail speech in honor of our greatbatch are and i would love to have john send it to you. thatcher andrgaret i would love to have john send it to you. >> thank you, i appreciate it. >> i discouraged freedom loving y, but i appreciate everything you're doing. >> we have to do it together. >> thank you.

>> thank you. i welcome any support. [inaudible] >> doing a rally with ron paul -- it was, 5000 people came. [inaudible]

>> to we have a sharpie? you want it the picture of the frame? >> time will tell. [inaudible] >> thank you very much. [inaudible]

[inaudible] [inaudible] >> i just talked to a guy from the washington post, i said , i said igulations could get an audit. >> i would love to get more information about specific examples. realstories that make it power regulations are making it harder. it is much more real to get your

insight. [inaudible] >> thank you for your help. [inaudible] could get a little bit of light from there on you. >> great. >> thanks again, so much. you are always welcome. [inaudible]

[inaudible] >> we have got to have backbone. i am telling you, i am throwing the establishment away. i have you, i have around -- i have rand. >> the only way to do it is together. >> you are moving up. >> would you like a photo?

[inaudible] quick thank you. -- >> thank you. >> i have not studied the bill yet. i will give it a close look.

[inaudible] [inaudible] >> as those of and winds up, we are going to let you know that you missed any of the senator's remarks, you can find them online at the c-span video library. tomorrow morning, on washington journal, we take a look at the rising cost of college with richard fry with the queue research center. we talked with the author of

"the black history of the white house," tomorrow. washington journal is live on c- span tomorrow and every morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern. now, on c-span, president obama speaking at the state university of new york in binghamton earlier today. he talked about the cost of college tuition. ♪ ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. ♪

>> hello, binghamton. is good to see all of you. i am going to be here a while. [laughter] first of all, let me thank the university and your president for having me here today. give your president a big round of applause. [applause] a couple other people i want to recognize, the mayor is here. [applause] two wonderful congressman. [applause]

representative, marie's -- maurice. [applause] first of all, thank you. it is really nice outside. for you to be willing to come inside, i greatly appreciate it. i am not going to do a lot of talking because i want to have a conversation with you about a range of issues, but in particular, something that is personal for me. that i wasn'tnow born into a lot of wealth or fame. there wasn't a long obama dynasty. todayly reason i am here is because we have a great education. the essence of the american dream is that anybody who is

willing to work hard is able to get a good education. their dreams. central to that is the issue that we try to message effectively, college affordability. making sure that people can afford to go to college. i am on a road trip around new york to pennsylvania. yesterday, i was at buffalo. i visited students at syracuse. later today, i am going to meet joe biden in scranton, his hometown. i decided to stop here for a couple of reasons. toldr one, i have been that it is very important for me to go to speedy's while i am here. [applause] up andgoing to pick one try it on the road. number two, i am excited because of the great work that convinces

-- campuses like binghamton are doing to keep costs down for hard-working students. the chancellor is making sure that hundreds of thousands of city students across the state are getting a world-class education. but without some of the debt and financial burden that is stopping too many young people from going to college. that is what we want for all of our students across the country. over the past month, i have been visiting towns throughout america. i talked about, how do we secure a better bargain for the middle class? we fought our way through a very brutal recession. now, we are at a point where we are creating jobs, the economy is growing, but it -- budget deficits are falling. healthcare inflation has been reduced. yet, there are still a lot of working families out there who are having a tough time in this

competitive economy. the fact is, even before this last financial crisis, we had increasingly, and economy where folks at the top were doing better and better, but the average individual or family was seeing their incomes and wages flatlining. you start getting a tale of two americas. the whole premise of upward mobility in this country, which is central to who we understand ourselves to be, was being diminished. from my perspective, reversing that trend should be washington's highest rarity. -- priority. it is certainly my highest priority. what we see in washington all too often is instead of focusing on how we bring the class jobs back to america, making sure economy is growing robustly and

that growth is broad-based, we have been spending a lot of time arguing about whether we should be paying our bills that we have already accrued. or, the discussion has been about slashing spending on education and all the things that will make sure we remain competitive for the future. most recently, there has been threats that we would shut down the government unless we agreed to pull back healthcare reform that is about to provide millions of americans with healthcare coverage for the first time. that is not going to grow the economy. that is not going to create ladders of opportunity into the middle class. what we need to do is focus on the pocketbook bread and butter issues that affect all of you. making sure we have got good jobs and good wages, good education, a home of your own, affordable healthcare, secure for people and a way

who were currently in poverty to get out of poverty. that is what we should be spending our time thinking about when it comes to domestic policy. that is what makes america great. nothing is more important to that process than what we are doing in terms of k-12 education and higher education. here is the challenge. at the time when higher education has never been more important, and i mean two-year, four year, techno will colleges -- technical colleges, it doesn't have to be all traditional bachelor of arts or sciences. at a time when that has never been more important, college has never been more expensive. in fact, what you have seen is that over the last decades, the cost of higher education has gone up 250% at a time when family incomes have gone up about 16%. i am not a math major there it there are probably some here.

if you have one line going up 260% and another line going up 16%, you start getting a bigger and bigger gap. what has happened as a consequence is that either colleges become out of reach for too many people or young people are being loaded up with more debt. we have tried to close that gap. when i came into office, we reformed our financial aid system. student loan programs were being run through banks. thanks for making billions of dollars. we said, let's just give the money directly stu students -- directly to students, cut out the middleman. we were able to provide students with more grants and more assistance. we have done our best to keep interest rates on student loans as low as possible. even with all the work we are doing their, the fact is that the average student is coming out with $26,000 worth of debt when they graduate. for a lot of students, it is

much more than that. particularly for those young people who were choosing careers like teaching where they may not make a lot of money, if they are burdened with tens of thousands of dollars of debt, in some cases it is impossible for them to ever pay off. or, they have to put off buying a home or starting a business or starting a family. that has a depressive effect on our economy overall. it is not just that for the students. it is also bad for the economy as a whole. the bottom line is, we can't price higher education so prohibitively that ordinary families can't afford it. that will ruin our chances to -- what we have done, and i announced this yesterday, is proposed three basic reforms.

to try to shake the system up. number one, we want to start raking colleges -- rating colleges based on how well they are doing in providing good value and opportunity for students. right now, you have a bunch of ranking systems, some commercial , and when you look at what is being rated, it is typically how selective the schools are, how few students they take in. how expensive they are and what are their facilities like? what we want to do is start looking at factors like, how much debt do students meet with? do they actually graduate? do they graduate in four years as opposed to six or eight or 10? do they find a job after the graduate? giving some concrete measures that will allow students and families to gauge, if i go to this school, am i going to get a good deal?

s are ten providing families assistance, want to make sure taxpayers are getting assistance as well. that will create an atmosphere in which colleges start thinking about affordability and don't just assume that tuition can keep on going up. we are also going to put pressure on state legislatures to rebalance because part of the reason state universities have increased tuition is that legislative priorities have shifted. more money into prisons, less money into schools. that means that the costs are passed on to students in the form of higher tuition. we are also going to ask more from students. we are going to say, you need to actually finish courses before you take out more loans and more grants. we want to say that to students, not to be punitive, but instead,

to prevent a situation where students and up taking a lot of debt and never actually getting a degree. that put them in a deeper financial hole than they otherwise would be. second, we want to jumpstart competition among colleges and states to think of more innovative ways to reduce costs. there are schools doing some terrific work in reducing costs while maintaining high-quality education. for example, there are some schools experimenting where you can get credits based on your competency as opposed to how much time you're spending in the classroom. there is no law that says you -- that for you to be in school for four years rather than three or 3.5, somehow automatically gives you a better education. schools are experimenting with

compressing the time and reducing the cost. are there ways that we can use online learning to improve the educational quality and at the same time, make things cheaper for students? we are going to work with states, schools, university presidents to see what is working what is not, and spread best practices across the country. the third thing we want to do, is to expand and better advertising program that we put in place and expanded when i came into office. that is a program that says, for college graduates who do have debt, we're going to cap the monthly payments that you have to make to 10% of your income. that way its that is manageable and you are not going to have to make career decisions simply based on how much money you can make to pay off student loans.

if you want to be a teacher, a social worker, public service, and you can do that and you're still going to be able to act responsively and pay off your debts. we already had that program in place but it is not as widely known as it needs to be. not as many young people are eligible as we want them to be. we are going to work to improve on that front. stopm line is, we need to taking the same business as usual approach when it comes to college education. not all the reforms we are proposing are going to be popular. there are some who are benefiting from the status quo. there will be some resistance. there is going to have to be a broad-based conversation. part of our goal is to stir a conversation. the current path that we are on is unsustainable. it is my basic belief and i suspect the belief of most people here, i'll -- higher education shouldn't be elective.

it is an economic necessity in this knowledge-based economy. we want to make sure that every family in america can afford it. i am interested. if you have other ideas. [applause] if you have other ideas about things that we should be looking at, we want to hear it. that is part of the purpose of this town hall discussion. i am interested in hearing your stories, getting your questions, and this will be a pretty informal affair. as informal as it gets when the president comes and there are a bunch of cameras everywhere. [laughter] with that, i would like to start the discussion. i am going to call on folks. just raise your hands. i would ask you to stand up, introduce yourself. there are people with mics and they will bring the mic to you. girl boy, girlo

boy to make sure that it is fair. we will start with this young lady in the striped top. thank you. it is an honor to have you today. my name is nicole. i am from the school of nursing. it is an outstanding school that has excellent outcomes. my question is, because advanced practice nurses [laughter] and nurse practitioners have such an outstanding reputation and good outcomes and the affordable care act is ready to be rolled out soon, nurse practitioners and advanced to kitchener's are in an excellent position to serve vulnerable populations. i'm wondering if there is any provision within your educational act that would support healthcare workers and nurse practitioners to create a sustainable workforce that would

be able to support caring for people as we roll out the afford the care act. >> great question. first of all, let me say i love nurses. michelle and i have been blessed. we haven't been sick too much, but knock on wood. every interaction we have had of the hospital, doctors are wonderful and we appreciate them. i know when malia and sasha were being born, we spent 90% of the time with the nurses and 10% with the obgyn. grandmother was passing away, it was nurses that were caring for her. you are right that one of the keys to reducing our health care costs overall is recognizing the incredible value of advanced practice nurses and giving them

more responsibilities because there is a lot of stuff they can is frankly cheaper than having a doctor do it. the outcomes are just as good. the challenge we have is we still have a nursing shortage in too many parts of the country. my understanding, you probably know this better than i do, part manye problem is that too professors of nursing or instructors are getting paid less than actual nurses. what ends up happening, is we don't have enough slots in some of the nursing schools. that may not be true here, but there are parts of the country where that is true. we have to upgrade a little bit the schools of nursing and make sure they are properly resourced so that we have enough instructors. of the fact, as part affordable care act, one of the things we thought about was how to expand and improve the number

of nurses and make sure that they can actually finance their educations. there are some special programs for nurses who are committing themselves as well as doctors who are committing themselves to serving in underserved communities and we will be happy to give that information to the school of nursing here. ie other element to this that think is really interesting, we have been spending a lot of time thinking about making sure that our veterans coming back from iraq and afghanistan are getting the opportunity they need. we instituted something of the post-9/11 g.i. bill that provides the same kind of port -- support that my grandfather got when he came back from world war ii. the young people in our armed forces are doing extraordinary work. one of the problems is that they don't always get credit for the

skills that they possess when they come home. we have a gentleman here who is a veteran. one great example here is in the medical profession. when you get army medics coming back who served in the worst possible circumstances having to make life or death decisions. i met a man in minnesota, he had come back, wanted to continue to pursue his career and become a professional nurse, and he was having to start from scratch. taking the equivalent of nursing 101. we are trying to make sure that states and institutions of higher learning recognize some of the skills, because as we bring more and more of our veterans back -- we will be ending the war in afghanistan by next year. we want to make sure -- [applause] that those folks have the

opportunity to succeed in america. i give her a much. it is the guys turn. right here. all the way in the back. >> hello, mr. president. i am glad for you to come to binghamton university. i am a director of rainbow pride union here. it is the largest lgbt union on campus. i know a lot of stories of people who come to their parents and their parents are supporting them financially for college, and when they come out, their parents cut that support. i was wondering if maybe in the future, part of your affiliate -- affordability for college would be to include lgbt people. >> first of all, the programs we have in place don't and shouldn't disseminate. -- discriminate. the good news is, i think the

phenomena that you just described is likely to happen less and less with each successive year. think about the incredible changes that have been made just over the last decade. doma is gone. don't ask don't tell is gone. people's hearts and minds have changed. that is reflective of parents as well. that doesn't mean there won't still be struggles internally, but i think more and more, what we recognize is that just as we judge people on the basis of their character and not their color or religion or gender, the same is true for their sexual orientation. i don't suspect that we will have special laws pertaining to young people who were cut off support by their parents because their parents hadn't gotten to

the place i think they should be when it comes to loving and supporting their kids regardless of who they are. but we are going to make sure that all young people get the support they need so that their parents are willing to provide and that they can go to college and succeed. >> tomorrow on c-span, from the steps of the lincoln memorial, watch the 50th anniversary of the march on washington. speakers include reverend al sharpton, attorney general eric holder, congressman john lewis, and the families of trayvon martin. following the speaking program, they will march to the martin luther king memorial to the washington monument. after the march, listen to live interviews with reporters and attendees on c-span radio. live coverage begins at 9:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013]

season two of first ladies begins we are showing presentations of episode one each night on c- span. programs on every first lady. >> caroline scott harrison was born in 1832 where she met benjamin harrison. she grew into an accomplished artist, interested in women's issues. although the harrison presidency has been rated as fairly unsuccessful by some historians, those who tracked first ladies considered carolina harrison as one of the more underrated to serve in this role. we'll learn why in this segment of "first ladies: influence and image" and here to tell us more about the story of carolina harrison, our two guests who know the office well.

edie mayo, thanks for coming back. and bill seale, white house historian, has spent his professional career understanding the history of that building. bill and edie are both members of c-span's academic advisory committee for this series. we're going to start with an illustration tonight. the white house itself is one of the most iconic buildings in the world. i think -- >> certainly, yeah. >> is -- if caroline harrison had had her way, it would like different today. we have her designs for the white house that we'd like to show people at home right now. what were her plans? what was she trying to do with this big expansion of the white house? >> well, it was a time of big spending in his administration. the government was spending a lot of money. and she got into it by wanting

to create a house, they were crammed in this house. they only lived upstairs. you see, to understand it, on the picture, the middle of the upper picture, the columns and just the four windows to each side of it, the office was on the left. the east room was just below that and the other public rooms on the ground floor, then the other end, the west end, or the right side, was the family quarters which was seven rooms and a bath and a half and she wanted something big to live in. but something also to entertain in because the harrisons entertained all the time. and so she had this plan done which you see here. you're looking at the south, of the back part of the white house with the round porch, where president truman later built a balcony. the center part is the old white house building that was finished in the 18th century and the white house is on a bank. that's 17 feet from -- on one side it's one story -- two-story house. it's a three-story house on the walkout on the back. about 17 feet, i guess. and so what you see here was a

quadrangle with the green houses that they had had, which were really specimen conservetories up. see that's dropped. so the windows would still have the beautiful view of the potomac. it would not have been anence closed area -- an enclosed area. on the right side was to be, as i recall, the national gallery or the national museum. it was not washington one. and then there were other public rooms on the other side. the second floor then had guest room, family quarters and such as that to make it a much more livable house, as well as the office. >> looks a bit like some of the grand houses of europe. this is going to brand the other traditionalists, but are you happy she wasn't successful? >> yes, i am. from our point of view. it was basically theodore

roosevelt who insisted it be restored. >> edie, what's interesting about the story is this woman came into the white house not being seen as political but she had an innate sense of how the lobby was. she was successful in getting it past the senate. tell the story of how she put together that winning coalition for the senate. >> well, she went about lobbying through her entertaining in the first place. but she also called in the press and showed them the plans and got them to sign on that this was really a good idea. and of course they were in the white house at the centennial of the presidency. so she thought this would be a wonderful plan. as a memorial for the 100th anniversary, the nation had grown in land and in power and she wanted a residence that reflected the global power of the united states. so this was a perfect opportunity. so she called in the press, she got a lot of major people in washington interested. she lobbied the senate. she lobbied the house.

and i will let bill tell why it failed. >> before we do that, she also enlisted the help of a former first lady. >> harriette lane. she brought her in and she also used the name of george washington and how this would be, you know, a fitting memorial and so forth. >> he had built the house. she was just making it work. >> right. >> and hadn't washington also envisioned that it could have been added on? >> he did. in years to come. >> so, she won the senate but in the house she ran into a formidable foe which was the speaker reid. >> speaker tom reed from maine. he was a great adversary of benjamin harrison. they fought a lot over bills. and someone from california was mrs. harrison's great ally. and he spent the night sleeping in the cloakroom, hoping the appropriation would go through. but speaker reed, he was a very razor-tongued kind of sharp

guy, and he cooked up this story that harrison had appointed a postmaster in maine without his approval and he crashed the whole thing. he wouldn't let it come up. >> so, lacking her ability to expand the white house, she turned to restoring what she already had. >> she redecorated. thinking and hoping it was a minor thing to do. and she became interested in the historic house and began researching things. and pulling out antiques and stuff and putting them in the different rooms and she had a decorator in boston make things spiffy. tiffany had been the last one to do the rooms. and they were very rundown. the special effects and all that nobody could reproduce. >> she didn't just find old furniture that had been stored in the white house. here's a quote of what else she discovered in the white house. this is from her diary and we'll be using quotes from her very prolific diary throughout our program tonight.

>> tell me the story of the rats in the white house. >> washington has a very prolific and well-known rat community. so they had infested the white house. and were both in the basement and i guess also in the attic. >> yeah. >> and -- in attic. >> yeah. >> and so apparently the man with the ferrets was brought in to help reduce the rat population. but there was also a man with a gun i think. who was shooting the rats whenever he saw them. >> he would proceed her through atic. then strangely enough, atic had no access to it. the little back stair that

lincoln made famous was taken out and the elevator was put in there and somehow stair access to two floors, so they had to go on a ladder, up above the elevator, and she went, little tiny woman. she went up there with this guard, with the gun, and they began pulling things out of boxes and a rat would appear and he'd shoot it. and they were big ones, too. >> he'd shoot, she'd scream. >> she'd scream. >> is how the story goes. we would like to invite you to participate. this series, which we've been learning so much and hope you are too, this is our next to last for season one. and we'd love to have your comments and your participation and questions tonight. you can do it three ways. you can call us. and our phone numbers in eastern and several time zones -- >> make sure you dial that 202 area code. if you would like you can also join our social community, our facebook page already has some comments coming in. and you can tweet us, but if you do, use the#firstladies. as she approached the white house, she was criticized by

the press for being overly domestic. >> that's correct. >> what was the view of the changing first lady that it would be criticized? >> i think they thought that doing actual housework, which what was rumored, rather than looking for historical treasures and trying to salvage the history of the white house and presidency, it was looked at as she was, you know, actually engaging in housework and maybe, who are, cooking their own meals. and this was seen as very much beneath the dignity of a first lady. but one of the things that she mirrors in the time is the growing home economics movement. which organized itself around 1890. and so she was very much a part of her times in anticipating what was thought to be the professionalization of housework. so instead of being praised for

what she did, she was criticized. and she could not fathom why there was all this, you know, scorn and mocking and so forth in the press of what she was doing in the white house, but i think people didn't quite understand what she was trying to accomplish. >> i would have thought that washington is hard on first ladies. they've been a little hard on mrs. obama. they are until they sort of prove themselves. and she had been around, he been in the senate, they'd been in washington means times. she was a popular woman in washington, socially. but when she got in the house, it was a little different. >> different viewpoint. she was very hurt by the criticism. >> what we learn is that the press went into a frenzy. it was the booming age of newspapers, there was coverage in magazines. so, the press was prepared to cover this first lady and

weren't happy with what they were seeing. here's one quote from her diary. she wrote about the press, i am disgusted with newspapers and reporters. truth is the characteristic entirely unknown to them. sentiment we what might hear from presidents today. >> very modern. >> plus, she was following this absolutely gorgeous young woman. so that must have been very, very difficult. >> and a clever young woman. >> very clever woman. young and with a husband who had no use for p.r. so people flocked around francis -- frances cleveland. >> frances was the sort of jackie kennedy of her age. she was quite beautiful. >> about 10 years younger than mrs. kennedy was. >> she was 10 years younger than jackie was when she entered the white house. so she was very, very popular. of course there was this whole thing about this may-december romance that had taken place with the president. and much speculation before he actually married that maybe he

was courting her mother. then there was the sort of bombshell that, no, he was courting the young and beautiful frances. >> she was a beautiful woman but she was not -- frances cleveland, franky as she was known in the press, was just -- to tell a story about how clever she was. you may have had it on this show. >> she had her due last week. >> the president of spain is the first real visitor of state. she was the same as age as mr. cleveland. there was a reception at the white house and a pretty, pretty woman had -- wore pearls clear to the floor and diamonds and all that stuff. ms. cleveland wore an off-white

silk dress. it was a coup. she stole the show. >> benjamin harrison, our 23rd president, he was the republican -- cleveland was a democrat. we're going to learn about some of the policies of his administration. but we talked about the fact that we'd be reading quotes for her diary and dave measure douk on twitter asks, knowing how important the presidency had become, did caroline expect her diary to be made public someday? we're going answer that question about her diaries by visiting the harrison house. it is in indianapolis. and if you get to the cap cal -- capital city of indiana, visit it yourself. we're going to visit there for the first time and learn more about the diaries. >> caroline harrison's white house diary, this is something that we don't have out very often.

she kept the diary and you can see very fragile. so she's written in the front here, keeping the diary and the dates. 1889. to 1891 for this one. in the diary she mentions several different things she mentions going to arlington cemetery and decorating the soldier's gravesite at arlington. she mentioned riding with benjamin to the soldier's home and hospital. some of the things that were very near and deer to her here were working with orphans and with the hospitals and she continued to do some of that while she was in washington as well, visiting the hospitals and what not there as well. but she also mentioned some of the other events and things that are going none her diary. her artistic abilities i think -- [inaudible] and love of flowers. she mentioned making -- having the floral arrangements for several different bank wets and dinners.ts and

one was -- south american countries meeting. she mentions decorations there as well. this is a dinner at the arlington in washington, d.c., and you can see the table setting had quite a large group. we have the vice president, the president and where the different delegations were sitting at that particular dinner. she also talks a lot about the centennial celebration in new york for the centennial of george washington's inauguration. from 1789 to 1889. things from the banquets and one of the parades was 7 1/2 hours long. and then also very personal and family-related things mentioned in the diary as well. mentioned how she's feeling, what the weather is like. but one of the things that she talks about is the christening of their young granddaughter, mary lodge mckee. and she says that they used water from the river jordan that her sister had brought back from a trip over there. and we actually have some of that water in our collection

yet today. so we have a little container here. actually have, you know, some water in there as well. a bottle with the label there that her sister had brought back. and mary lodge mckee was christened in a private ceremony at that time and she also mentions christmas at the white house and having the tree put up for the grandchildren and the harrisons had the first decorated christmas tree in the white house. and she mentioned some of the gifts that were given to her at that time including some opera glasses. so we have her opera glass here's that were given to her as a christmas gift that she mentions in the diary as well. >> so the answer to the viewer's question is it looks like she intended for these to be public documents. >> but you never know. if she had started much earlier, a person can get so absorbed in a diary, it becomes a confidant or friend.

i don't know whether she did or not. she didn't do other things. like that. self-promotional or showing her. you know, she and the president both suffered from depression. and eventually it had an impact on her health. but they fought that together >> howard by keeping busy. many children did they have? had 2. >> they lost one. >> the white house in that time was filled with children but they were their grandchildren, correct? >> their grandchildren and their children. the son was in and out. he lived in montana. but his wife was there. and the children and then the daughter, mary, who's called mimi, and the little boy who became world famous for doing nothing.

just being baby mckee. at the white house. >> right. so what was life at the white house like? >> crowded. and lots and lots of entertaining. the evening was absolutely absorbed with it. remember the office was in the house. at the other end of the hall from the family quarters. so it was -- there were about 15 servants as i recall. most federal employees from the agencies and they are paid from the agencies and all these children and the routine of the private house, plus the public activities, it was a very busy place. >> we mentioned at the outset that the first lady was an artist and we're going to learn a little bit more about the kind of art she particularly loved but first let's do a few calls. we'll talk to horace from philadelphia. before ask you the question, would you mute the volume on your tv? we're getting feedback.

>> sure. thank you for taking my call. i've been watching the series right along. i'm enjoying it very, very much. can you tell us about her background? who were her parents, where was she raised? long before she met her husband, can you tell us about that? >> sure. can you take that and we're going to spend a segment on it later on. >> well, she was born and brought up in oxford, ohio. her father had been a minister, but at the time he was a professor. at the university, miami university. and then went on to found the oxford women's institute which was a college for women. and so her parents were both extremely well educated and her father was a supporter of women's education. so he made certain that his daughter had a good one. and i think that sort of interested her for the future in women's accomplishments and

the progress of women. >> laura is watching in clarksville, indiana. you're on. >> why are the first ladies called the first ladies? >> that's a good question. >> well, i think that started when zachary taylor used that term for dolly madson during her memorial service in 1849. and he said she was truly the first lady of our land. she was a connection to the revolutionary time period and she keeps coming back to the white house. she was the first in social standing, probably for 16 years. first as jefferson's stand-in, first lady then, first lady on her own. but she continued to have great influence. and so i think that's how it started, that she was the first in stature.

and that name carried on. it wasn't really picked up until after the civil war. mrs. hayes, although i think harriette layne had that under some of her photographs in papers and so anyway, but it just means the first among everyone. >> linda, bloomington, minnesota, you're on. >> good evening. i have a question that relates to my own family. i had a grandmother whose name was kate harrison and then she married and her name was thomas and she grew up i believe in missouri. there was a story that her mother had been married in the white house and i don't know if there's any truth to this, but i thought perhaps you might know if there was a wedding in the white house during benjamin harrison's term there. >> it would not be surprising but i don't know that name.

local newspapers would probably carry it. both in washington and wherever they were from. that's where i would look for it if i were looking for it. but i don't -- i know in lincoln's time there were marriages in the white house. john adams' and some others but i don't know any in the harrison tenure. >> one more question and then we'll learn more about the first lady's artistic endeavors. charlotte from olympia, washington. what's your question? >> hi. i just wanted to mention i had had the fortune of going through indianapolis last fall and got to visit the harrison home and it's a beautiful house and i've been able to go to several presidential homes but they have so much actual furniture that belongs to the harrisons and the people there are very friendly. in anyone happens to be going through indianapolis, do stop. it's a wonderful home. >> i think they will appreciate the endorsement and they certainly were very helpful to us in allowing us to record so much video for you to see

tonight. by the way, when we talked about the white house diaries, every week on our first ladies website, all of the video from the shows we've done so far are contained there and also special video you haven't seen during this program. but there's always one special feature for each first lady and tonight it is the entirety of caroline harrison's white house diaries. if you want to dig into her days, you can read it all there at c-span.com/firstladies. >> let's now go to the white

house for the next video. and you will learn more from the white house curator, about the white house china collection. >> when she came to the white house she was very interested in how the place worked. she came down here. this was the ground floor but it was sort of considered to be the basement because the kitchen was down here, laundry facilities, storage for food and tableware and such and she found that it was rather dirty. sort of ominous. and she tried to like spruce it up. she went through the cabinets and found old pieces of china and then asked servants if they could tell her, does anybody remember how old this piece is? so she started the idea of trying to catalog and create a sense of what chinas were. she had a plan for putting some display cases in the state dining room. but never came to fruition. she was credited with being the

initiater of the concept of a permanent china collection at the white house. she was interested in designing china she wanted it to be american, as other first ladies had discovered there was not a strong enough porcelain manufacturing industry in america in 1891 when she started looking into new china so she decided this would go ahead and let a france company make the blanks but she would provide the did he dine -- the design. it wasn't a full service. she didn't try to order 12 or 15 pieces per place setting. it was designed with a shape that was pretty much the lincoln-era shape, that kind of simple -- this is a soup plate and a breakfast plate or tea plate. the eagle was very similar to what was on the lincoln china that represents the great seal of the united states. what she specifically designed was the border. there was a combination of ears of corn and golden rod which she felt represented american

plants. the agricultural plants in corn. so there was dinner plates and soup plates and breakfast plates made in the blue. and there were also breakfast plates and tea plates made with the white border and then a series of cups and saucers. so there weren't all the other shapes that you might have in a state service of bowls and cream soup cups and various other things that went with it. >> so, we credit her today with establishing this very popular spot in the white house. >> yes. and of course table service all through the years is extremely important to the white house, with the state dinners. that is the official dinners that are are paid for by the state department. planned about the family more or less. but you know, eight wines were served normally at dinner. it would be reduced to three under theodore roosevelt and poured generously. there was a lot of wine and men guests would sometimes have scotch instead of wine. and then you would have numerous plates, bone dishes, all of these things that -- at

each plate, serving about 60 for a state dinner in those days. >> and i just wanted to say that the cups and saucers that were ordered for the harrison china did not arrive at the white house until after caroline's death. which is very sad. she didn't get to see them. and the china was reordered periodically in later administrations so it became a very popular service. ordered again by mckinley and roosevelt and even as late as jacqueline kennedy and mrs. clinton. >> in addition to the official design that she did, she was an avid painter of china as a hobby and in fact she gave classes in this at the white house. >> right. >> which may have been a political move. she had music -- she was a musician. >> politics in the white house.

>> and a former lobbyist. >> she was a musician, painter and was fluent in french. and i think she spoke spanish. did she? >> i know she spoke frenchment -- french. i'm not sure about spanish. >> she had classes. >> she did have language and china painting. >> it smoothed the feggetters of some of the people -- feathers of some of the people. in washington, they kind of silenced themselves about her because they wanted to be part of those classes. they were ladies classes. >> next, a phone call from phil in north hollywood, california. >> hi there. thank you so much for the wonderful series. i'm just wonderfully addicted to all of you. you mentioned baby mcfiat first. i was kind of curious about it because i remember reading something years ago, it was like the first pop culture. now we don't even know about them. but i was wondering if could you elaborate more about your story over there about maybe mckee and how he became such a big sensation throughout america. just kind of curious if you had

any more observations about him. >> thank you. we have a photograph of baby mckee, we'll show as we're learning more. >> i think he was just a cute little kid that they let the press have access to. >> and in the cleveland administration, you know, they had baby ruth. and the candy bar was named after baby ruth. not after the baseball player, babe ruth. but at any rate, this is the period when photographic studios started taking enormous numbers of pictures of the white house, the furnishings, the occupants and particularly the children. became very, very popular. it was sort of a new pop culture kind of sensation and fixated on babe mckee. >> this is a great picture we're showing right now of a goat cart on the lawn of the white house. with the harrison grandchildren. >> the wicker cart that the children played on the driveway on the south lawn. south lawn was kept closed since the grant administration for children to play. you see the greenhouses behind

them? and that goat is a special kind of goat. i forget its name but it was still very prominent goat raises that are raise that kind of goat and they do race them and show them. the harrisons were big animal people. so, they had all kinds of animals. mrs. cleveland had 29 pets but they didn't have that many pets. they had some pets and that little cart became quite famous there. actually is another one. another cart. as well as that one. >> in addition to the china, establishing the china collection, she also bought the first white house christmas tree. >> yes. >> which we now think of as very much a part of the holiday celebration. what was it like in the harrison years? >> i don't know what it was like. she brought the christmas tree in, do you know? >> that's as much as i know and it was decorated. >> in the family quarters. >> yes. >> today it's part of the public display for people coming in. >> and the president dressed up

as santa claus and played santa claus with the grandchildren and so forth. >> can we imagine a modern day president in a santa claus suit? >> now, i can. >> you can? >> i can. >> when i read that i thought, hmm, photograph. >> speaking of photographs and the donkey cart, i mean, the goat cart, excuse me, caroline i think was very savvy in knowing that people were going to demand photographs of the grandchildren. and the family. so instead of just letting them descend on her she called in a pioneering woman photographer, frances benjamin johnson, and had the children photographed and it gave her and the family much more control over how the photographs were taken and where and when and how these children were pictured in the press. >> that's a good point. >> i think she was very smart about doing that.

>> it also seems very modern. >> exactly. and that was one of the things that frances cleveland had -- or did complain about in the second administration. that she was afraid people were going to kidnap the children. they found ways to get into the white house grounds and she was constantly fearful. so i think what caroline did was very smart. >> another thing she did for the white house was to bring electricity into it. and we have a photograph or an illustration rather of what's called the great illumination of the white house in 1891. how important was this to bring electricity into the mansion? >> extremely important. and the harrisons were terrified of it. they wouldn't turn it on or off. when they were ready to go to bed they'd call one of the employees to turn the lights off. >> for four years? >> never got used to it.

scared to death of it. they were used to gas. >> what's interesting is it was installed by the edison company itself. >> yes. >> so was the entire mansion illuminated at that point? or was it just in the public space? >> no, the living rooms were. the bedrooms, they threaded the old gas fixtures, some of them, and hung lightbulbs from the chandeliers and that was that way until 199 -- 1892 and there were lots of those big old fillment bubbles hanging around, you know? but it was not lighted like it would be today. it would be heavy candlelight to us but it was really an innovation and considered less dangerous because the gas went off at a certain time at night, about 9:00 or 9:30 at night. if you didn't have all those turned, the gas would come out into the rooms and people weres asphyxiated all the time. then they would light the coal

oil lights, kerosene lights, and so this was something that wasn't as dangerous really. but it seemed dangerous to them. >> they were afraid of getting shocked i think or starting a fire. >> i think they could have been shocked if they did it wrong. >> so prior to this, when presidents burned the midnight oil, they really were. >> the gas was off. >> dan is in big timber, montana. what's your question tonight? >> my question, i heard you mentioned earlier that one of the president's children, i think his son, you said, lived in helen? >> rulls, yes. >> did they say it in helena? >> i don't know. there's a harrison house there. i think their house still stands. >> oh, wow. i remember justice harrison just passed away a couple of years ago, was on the supreme court for years. i wonder if he was related? >> i don't really know. i know they were devoted to

montana. he had ranching interests and also copper interests. and was a very successful man. he was not going to give that up to go stay in the white house. >> besides the baby mckee and things for which they might have been celebrated, she also received criticism in the press and this came when she accepted a gift from a postmaster general wanamaker who was a very successful man, a house in cape may, new jersey. can either of you tell the story of how that blew up in her face and what happened? >> well, people looked at it as if it were a bribe. it was supposed to be a little cottage and i think it had, what, 20 rooms or something? like that? at any rate, it was looked on as a bribe from wannamaker to the harrison administration. and finally the outcry got so heated that they had to pay wannamaker for it $10,000, which was a lot of money in those days. to make it look like, you know, the president said, well, we

were going to buy it anyway. but it was one of those things that, like, for instance, after the civil war, a list of subscribers got together and gave grant a home and so it was not unheard of. >> no. >> but for some reason the press spun it as if this was possibly a bribe. so they had to end up paying for the house. >> it was a very tumultuous time politically. anything they could jump -- grant got a house practically every year. he had lots of houses. fully furnished. linens and all. but he didn't get in any trouble for it. but this did. but it was a pretty hot time. it was a very tense time between the democrats and the republicans. the motivations were clearly drawn. the republicans were protectionist, the democrats were not. the republicans wanted high tariffs and the democrats did not. and so on.

and harrison was a man who was of conservative nature. in that he wanted the debts paid, he didn't want to allow -- a lot of spending, paradoxically because it was a time of very great spending really in his administration, but these were the the tensions of the time. and how cleveland got back in. >> i also read that it was a time of great grief and sadness in washington. no less than 15 deaths during a four-year period of people in the washington circle. people like associate justices on the supreme court. the navy secretary and his family were burned alive in a house. and there were strikes in the east and miner strikes. >> a steel plant, it was a terrible thing, and 20 men were shot dead, of the protesters and the american public, while it seemed justified to the plant and carnegie and rest,

it horrified the american public. they just could not believe it. and this chipped away at harrison, he got a lot of the blame for that. >> did this contribute to the depression that you mentioned earlier? >> the depression, oh, his own depression? i think that went way back. i think it goes back to the civil war when he was a private general and though he was a little man, he was quite a leader and the whole prospect of war was horrifying to him. they'd been married about, what, five years? >> yeah. >> maybe more. >> short time. five years, i think. >> and they both were very gripped by that period. as many people were. >> and he must have witnessed horrible things on the battlefield, i would imagine. >> yes. >> before we leave this part of the lesson, a couple more questions. >> there were a lot of old curtains. furniture. different objects of furniture. not specifically. >> was it the resolute desk

brought down? >> the resolute desk, it was just recently. >> that was something that came in the hayes administration. >> ok. >> and it was used in the upstairs hall. she furnished the upstairs hall from the attic. the corridor that runs the full length of the house, on the single floor, was just an old hallway with white wardrobes and things in it and one end of it was a waiting room. mrs. harrison furnished it as a room. and if you went up in the elevator, in the family quarters, you'd find that as a big sitting room and she furnished that a lot from old things she found in the attic. >> and she was trying to make more room for the family. the family quarters had become so cramped and overrun by the presidential offices that, you know, she was looking for space anywhere she could find it. so she turned that hallway into a large sort of living area with, you know, defined spaces for seating and conversation.

>> did caroline invite any first ladies back to the white house? >> mrs. hayes had died. >> that's the one i know about, harriette lane. >> only harriette lane. so we talked about the fact that she was seen as a domestic partner. but caroline harrison was a great political partner to her husband, benjamin harrison. and next we're going to learn about that more and how it affected his political success in this visit to the harrison home in indianapolis. >> caroline harrison was certainly an active participant in benjamin harrison's political life. i have just stepped out the door as benjamin harrison did many times to address the crowds that came to hear him speak when he was campaigning for the presidency. there were over 300,000 people who came to indianapolis. in fact, the yard became so crowded that they had to move some of the speeches downtown

to the university park. she was always beside him or just inside the door preparing for guests to come inside the house. preparing to maybe give refreshments to some of the guests. preparing to greet them and shake their hands. caroline was very much devoted to benjamin harrison and the ideals of his campaign. when she planned her inaugural address, she wanted it to be designed in the united states, she wanted the silk to be spun in the united states, she wanted the dress to be designed and made in the united states. because benjamin harrison campaigned, advocated that we become an independent nation. and she was willing to do her part to see that happen. this probably was one of caroline's favorite rooms in the house. she loved to entertain and

many, many different groups came to hear benjamin harrison speak. caroline was his right-hand person. she wasn't always on the stoop with him but she was certainly behind the scenes and eager to invite people in for some hospitality. one group that came was a group that harrison greatly admired and very much encouraged and that was the black community in this area. and when he finished speaking to them, he invited them all to come into his home which they did and they shook hands with benjamin harrison and caroline harrison. as they walked through the house. this is benjamin harrison's favorite room. it's his library. and how interesting that in his place to be, we have caroline harrison's beautiful little desk. i think that in this room,

probably benjamin drew a great deal of strength and comfort from having caroline close by. and maybe she didn't talk to him about what paper he was writing or what bill he was working on, but just looking up from his desk and seeing his carrie was an encouragement to him. he knew that she was there if he needed her, he knew that she loved him and i think that caroline was the kind of wife that empowered her husband. >> so, we learned that she was very much instrumental in hosting these events that would bring the crowds and campaigned for public office essentially by staying home. >> there were two new ways of -- two different campaign techniques that came in at the end of the 19th century. the front porch campaign was one and the whistle stop was the other and they were sort of that opposite ends of the spectrum.

the whistle stop, you know, you got on a train and went all around the country. this way you stayed home on the front porch campaign and greeted the neighbors and anybody who came in by train. so, this brought the wife of the candidate right into the forefront of the campaigning, without violating the norms of a woman's place in the home. so it was perfect for her as far as the type of campaign technique. >> did caroline like campaigning or did she have safety concerns for her husband? we'd already lost two presidents as a nation. was there an increase in security for presidential candidates at this time? >> i don't think so. >> maybe the local sheriff. but even president truman had no -- when he left office, had no protection. but one thing i'd like to add to what edie said is that it was considered inappropriate for a man to campaign for himself, to get out and make

the speeches for himself. >> very different from today. >> very different from today. and the sitting on the front porch was another way of sitting in your stage. >> you're being called to the office. you're not going out and -- it's not self-promotion. they're coming to call you to be their president. >> and these are regular carnivals. they sell postcards. >> and this will be repeated when you get to mckinley because he was very famous. and we'd just sit on the porch on rocking chairs and people would come by the thousands to look at them. >> jordan in pennsylvania. good evening and welcome to the conversation. >> hi. i'm a big fan of your guys' and i know all about the

presidents. i know their age and stuff. my question is, was caroline harrison older than her husband? >> yes. >> a year older. >> i was going to ask if jordan knew the answer. one year older. while we're talking about her husband, here are some of the important things that happened politically and policywise during the harrison presidency. first of all, there were a number of states that were added to the union. north dakota, south dakota, montana and washington. and in the year later, in 1890, idaho and wyoming were added as part of the united states. also, the battle of wounded knee occurred during the harrison administration. and the sherman antitrust act and the sherman silver purchase act. so two raging debates in this country were about silver, policy, and also the whole tariff concept which we saw that the president greatly supported. what happened to the economy result of this? >> the economy basically the silver act led the economy into

a depression. harrison lost in the election of 1892 and he was lucky because the economy crashed in the autumn of 1893. president cleveland returned to office. and mrs. harrison by that time had died. >> on twitter it was asked whether or not caroline provided any political guidance or was her place beside her husband like frances was with grover? the answer would be yes. she was much more atuned to politics. much more. i wouldn't say frances was at all. this woman was very savvy of what he was doing and very interested in the position of women. she was not an activist in the

street like the suffragists would be who wanted the vote later on. but she believed that the power of women was very, very great. which it was. and she believed in women getting out there and getting involved. >> and speaking of her influence, not just on her husband but also to affect change in society, here's another item from her diary. the first lady wrote, my mail, consisting of requests to use my influence for some office. >> they all have that. >> i think that was -- a part of being first lady probably since dolly madson's time. >> ms. f.d.r. had just cards and cards of letters, people wanted to get someone out of jail or kept from hanging or whatever. >> next is a call from duncan. >> my last name is -- [inaudible] and there was a wealthy family in ohio at the turn of the century last named rhinehart. did the harrisons have any experience with that family, by chance? >> i have no idea.

>> we wouldn't be able to know that kind of detail. hope you can find -- >> which wish i did, yeah. >> maybe someone in your own state could answer that. >> laura in michigan. >> hi, how are you? i'm so excited, i can't believe you're talking about the harrisons. i've lived here for about 30 years. i've had an inaugural invitation to the inaugural ball in 1889. of benjamin harrison. and i wonder if could you tell me anything about that inaugural ball. >> you don't need to write a regret anymore. but that's fascinating. the inaugural ball. it was a ferociously rainy time. >> and it was in the pension building, i believe. >> all decorated inside. >> yeah.

and marine band played. the harrisons -- and they danced. they had not done so in a while. and the dancing custom was brought back to the white house where it had been missing since harriette lane. and the marine band would play and people would dance and that was a spinoff of the inaugural. it was a very -- it was in rain storm but it was very glamorous and happy event. >> you're lucky to have that artifact. that's nice. >> more than halfway through our program and time to look back at an earlier question about this. about the couple's early life. they were both attendees of miami of ohio in oxford, ohio. tell us more about how they met. she was a native. he came from somewhere else? >> i think he was from cincinnati maybe. >> from ohio, yeah. >> he was definitely from ohio. and they met there in college. he i think was taking a course from her father. in mathematics. and then he began to visit the harrison home under the pretense of, you know, creating a relationship with his professor but in actuality because he wanted to see more of caroline. >> after they married they

moved to indianapolis. >> yes, where they were to stay the rest of their lives except for washington. >> were the politics in indianapolis or indiana at the time easier to get into? what's the motivation at that took them to the state? >> it's a smaller place. they were from prominent families. dr. scott was a prominent educator, as you've said, and very well known. and harrison quickly rose, really, he went to the civil war, and after the civil war his law practice flourished and business law and divorce. indianapolis was the reno of the day. and lots of people went there to get a divorce and he was the best divorce lawyer in town. and his fortune increased. he made quite a bit of money as a lawyer. >> indianapolis is the reno of its day. all you hoosiers out there, a little bit of your history. >> you don't have to leave home. >> so his civil war service, he had children by the time that the civil war had started and it was a big decision in the family as to whether or not he

would serve. what did she do during the civil war? >> she worked with several women's patriotic associations. she visited hospitals, attended wounded soldiers, you know, helped with the women's loyal league and that kind of -- union, what do i want to say, patriotic organizations, the women's sanitary commissions which were helping with -- nurse wounded soldiers. so, you know, the women's side of the war issue. >> which gave her experience in organizing for causes? was that fair to say? >> i think she was just psychologically set for that because of her upbringing. that's what her family believed in. i'm sure her father as a widower living with them in the white house encouraged everything she did in that direction. >> and contributing that to the

community i think was part of their ethical background. >> they were deeply religious people. >> how hr lead him into politics? >> the way a law career does. there he was and he was thought well of. and simply decided, persuaded to run for office and did. he just drifted into it. >> and then he became the secretary of the republican state committee. so through that he began to make all these contacts in the state. >> and campaigned -- >> and campaigned for other republicans which then stood him in good steady in his own right as far as a candidate or possible candidate. >> and was elected to the united states senate. he first tried for governor and was unsuccessful in that bid. >> yes. >> and then was successful in his bid for the united states

senate. we have another video. we're going to return to the harrison home and learn more about caroline's interests and causes. >> this is the part of the master bedroom suite. this is just a beautiful room, a room where we love to think of caroline. this would be the sitting room where caroline might have entertained her friends. for instance, she belonged to a number of literary clubs. perhaps they came and met here and talked about the authors that they liked. caroline particularly liked dickens and especially liked shakespeare so that might have been going on in this room. i think, too, that of course this might have been the room that inspired some of her art because it has a beautiful view out the window onto the yard. where her gardens were and where her flowers group -- grew. there's a wonderful easel which is a display easel. so when she finished a picture she might put it on that easel for her friends to admire when they came up for tea. there's a beautiful fan that

was given to her by ulysses grant's daughter-in-law. and she thought it was so beautiful that she put it in a frame so that nobody could hurt it. she also would have probably done some piecework in here. she loved to do embroidery. and i think she -- and beading. that was very popular. and so i think this would have been a room that she worked in. as well as entertained in. she did many community things. for instance, she was involved in the orphans' asylum. she served or their board she went to the orphan's asylum at least once a week she often made clothes or took clothes to them. she did cooking and took the cooking to the orphan asylum. she cared very much about these little children and making sure that their lives were better

than they might have been. so that was one of her causes. she also played the piano, of course, for her church. and every single sunday. so that was a talent that she put to use for other people. i think caroline had confidence but i also think she had purpose. and so she was always looking for an opportunity to use her skills, to help her fellow man. and to serve her community. >> really an interesting line, that she had purpose. and we're going to talk about how she used some of that purpose when she came to the white house. but first a couple of other questions. was it common for first ladies to go to school, let alone hold a college degree like mrs. harrison? >> that was something that was relatively new. mrs. hays was the first college graduate amongst first ladies. frances cleveland i think also graduated from college and i think grover waited to pop the question while sending flowers to her the whole time she was

there. and then caroline harrison also had a college degree. so it was something that was coming into vogue for women in the later part of the century. >> they were all well educated. whether it was home education of course was the commonest of all that people had, but some of these girls as young girls went to the female academies sponsored by the churches like the baptists and methodists and they'd live there and they'd learn language, they'd learn whatever they learned there. classics and. so they were -- some of them -- college was later idea with women. >> but very well read, all of them. >> well read, yes. >> mrs. harrison was so progressive on women's issues, what about her views on race? was she influenced at all by the abolitionist movement in her early adult years? >> oh, yes. >> very much so. >> very much so. and his whole administration

fought for the african-american vote everywhere. now, of course, remember now, that would be african-american men to vote, not women. but it was for the african-american vote, he was very vocal about it. >> next is dan in omaha. hi, dan. >> hi. when you showed the office there at his personal home there, i think i saw a picture of the ninth president, the grandfather of -- >> william henry. >> yeah. did william harrison, did he own this property himself? >> wait a minute -- >> did henry harrison own that property? >> where the house is? no, he lived in ohio. his home is in ohio and it's open to the public as well. william henry harrison's another matter. he died after 30 years in the -- 30 days in the white house. and harrison saw him as a little boy of maybe 9 years old

in his coffin. that's the only time he saw him. they weren't from a very distinguished family in virginia. they lived at berkley plantation on the james river. president harrison and benjamin harrison was the son except for the bushes, would be the only son of a -- because that was his grandfather, not his father that was president -- grandfather and son. but the grandfather's father signed the declaration of independence. as one of the virginia signers. and berkley, you can see on the james river, open to the public, and they were distinguished virginia family and in politics for years and years and when william henry harrison went to be inaugurated, he went to berkley where he been born. i don't know whether benjamin harrison ever went but he was very conscious of being the grandson of a founder. i mean the great-grandson of a

founder and the grandson of a president. >> just to summarize that, then, there have been two >> just to summarize that, then, there have been two father-son combinations. >> so there have been two father-son combinations, adams and the bushes, and this is the only grandfather-grandson pair. and the campaign, benjamin harrison's campaign was all about little tippecanoe. >> you saw the log cabin in there. >> that was his grandfather's cabin. and they said he sits his grandfather's hat, so there were a lot of hats as campaign device. >> did caroline's interest in the presidency fuel her desire >> that was his grandfather's cabin. for her to be d.a.r. president or vice versa? to apps that question, it's

interesting that she took on the role as the president general of the d.a.r. >> there's a story there. >> i thought there would be. >> the d.a.r. is always misunderstood. the d.a.r. was founded by working women who were supporting themselves, their children, perhaps, whatever, there were four major ones and many others, it was founded in the fall of 1890 and some -- for some way, caroline harrison became involved, probably because of all the 1789 centennial, centennial of president washington's inauguration. interesting that she took on the so they persuaded her to be first president and she made the first recorded address made by a first lady to their convention. the d.a.r. had a lot to do with working women who were in the field and not being treated like ladies -- >> particularly in the government agencies in washington.

>> yes. they showed descent from the revolution, i'm just as good as good as you are but mrs. harrison saw political promise in it and she taught the d.a.r. to be political, they never intended that. they met in the blue room at their first meeting and she told them how to do it. >> but it was a working job, it was busying required a lot of energy on her part. >> i think it did. she had a lot of support from the founders. >> could we imagine a first lady taking on a role like this? >> i could. >> it would depend on how overtly political people would think it was. but i could certainly imagine somebody doing something like that today. >> to clarify -- james asked, did caroline start the d.a.r.? the answer is no. but she agreed to run it and brought it -- >> visibility, legitimacy a place to meet. helped sort of smooth over the

political differences within the group, you know, people wanting different offices and so forth. so by taking the president general position, she sort of quelled a lot of that, you know, i want the position, i want the position. >> what was happening overall with the women's movement? women still don't have the right to vote in this country. >> they do not have the right to vote. the suffrage movement was finally coming together in 1890 after having been split since the end of the civil war. one group wanted to go the

constitutional route, the other group wanted to have it done state by state. in other words, a states' rights approach. and they fought each other for a generation and finally in 1890, they had a meeting in washington in 1888 and decided to unify the suffrage movement so that was going on at the national level, as i mentioned before, the home economics movement began in 1890, the club movement had progressed from local and state groups to national groups in 1890, you have the white club the black clubs, the jewish women's clubs, and they all get started in the early 1990's. the women are really beginning to organize and lobby very loudly for women's progress. >> harold in connecticut. your question? >> thank you very much for this wonderful series. i was just wondering, if your

guests know anything, you were discussing the china services at the white house. do you know anything about the silver collections? and how both the hollow ware and flat ware were being developed at the white house, and lastly, when did lennox china begin its first production for the white house, if you know? thank you so much and thank you for a great series. >> i can answer the question about the lennox china, that was the wilson administration. up until that time, there had been no ceramic manufacturer that could equal the quality of european ceramics and so almost all of the 19th century and even some of the early 20th century china ware that was ordered for the white house was from france, except for that of theodore and edith roosevelt and they used wedgewood. but it wasn't until the wilson

administration that lennox was producing the kind of ceramic ware they felt was proper for the white house and that was the first order from lennox. >> on the silver front, it's a strange story. silver, big orders of silver, such as the white house, in the as early as james monroe? s, came in trunks with trays and you had little depressions in there where a knife would fit exactly here so if you had a dozen knives, they'd be in a fan or line. these trays would come out. when it was all washed after dinner, you could look at the trays and if there wasn't a hole, a vacant place, it was all there. it lasted all those years through the 19th century and there were increases but they had all the trunks. mrs.

william howard taft went on one of those -- lesser tour than mrs. harrison, but a tour we were talking about, and she saw those dirty old trunks as she said and she had the silver taken out and put in drawers like anyone does at home today and had the trunks thrown away and the silver was decimated. it began to go out with the garbage. a lot of it remains but you began to lose it, if you can't count it. >> that is painful. >> it's like the decayed furnishings sales at the white house, all these things thought to be out of date were sold at auction. they had huge auctions and all of this marvelous stuff my grated out of the white house. >> sam is washing us in cherry hill, new jersey. you're on, sam. >> hello, there. i had a question about mrs. harrison's ill health.

let me begin by saying i am a huge caroline harrison fan, i've been following her for years but did her ill health have any effect on the amount of work she was able to do in her husband's administration? do you think it prevented her taking on more work in the administration? she was a beautiful woman and could have had a lot of influence. >> she had tuberculosis and stayed busy -- tuberculosis and depression, really. but finally she couldn't fight it anymore, it was really the only -- only the last two months of her life that were bad, everything happened to her in october, she was born in october, died in october, the d.a.r. was founded in october. >> before we leave her influences, there's a story about her support for johns hopkins that you need to tell. >> ok. well, the back story is that johns hopkins had built a hospital and was going to build a medical school with graduate education and they built the hospital but they ran out of money for the medical school. and so a young woman whose name

was mary elizabeth garrett, who was the daughter of the owner of the baltimore and ohio railroad, had a group of women, all of whom had their fathers on the board at johns hopkins university, and so they would meet regularly in a group they called the friday. not the friday club, the friday. and they referred to themselves in their memos and stuff as girls. the girls decided to take on this project. mary elizabeth garrett had been her father's sort of right hand person. she'd traveled with him, watched him make, as donald trump would say, the art of the deal. and so she was very aware that this was the time that they should tell johns hopkins that they would raise the money that was needed for this medical school, if the medical school

would admit women on the same equal basis as men. well, it took the men on the board a little aback and took them a while to sort of come around to the idea but there were all these incredible women that she had contact with and i will read you some of their names, they were mrs. leland stanford, -- >> stanford university -- >> of stanford university. and mrs. potter palmer, whose husband built the palmer house in chicago. julia ward howe. elizabeth blackwell, the first female doctor in the country. luisa katherine adams who i

think was a granddaughter of the first luisa katherine, the first lady. ann carrie thomas, head of bryn mawr. these women decided this would be their mission, they were going to raise $100,000 to help johns hopkins put up this medical school and the men acquiesced and the women divided the country into 15 geographical regions and invited caroline harrison to be the person in charge of washington, d.c. -- caroline harrison to be the person in charge of washington, d.c. she had several receptions in the white house and of course this was wonderful publicity and legitimacy for this group of women and their mission to get women into the medical school and she also went to baltimore several times. and was the guest of honor at

the reception that mary elizabeth fware rhett held. it was a very successful kind of lobbying, if you will, and the women came through and raised the money. >> and caroline harrison used the white house to advance the causes she was interested in. >> absolutely. >> on our next video we'll learn more about that as we once again visit the harrison home in indianapolis. >> caroline harrison was one of the first first ladies to have her own ideas to renovate the white house. we have fabrics here, this one was used in the east room and there are just lots of different fabrics here, little swatches, nice velvets in different colors and we have you know, the pale greens used in her bedroom, i believe, you have gold an green here, just all the different fabrics that were used when she was redecorating the white house as well. you can see the different shades.

and we have a little book that frances johnson was the photographer in the white house at the time and she took a lot of photographs than little book is a compiling of those but it also has a description of the rooms and the colors that were used by mrs. harrison along with the photographs of the rooms once they were decorated. and then we have just lots of things that they saved from those state dinners and things like the ribbons here, bows, it actually has the white house image on there and the date of the event. this is mrs. harrison, january 19, 1892. and different colors, different ribbons they would use, this is from a february dinner in 1892,

it's been untied but we have the white house image at one end, the date at the other end. we have place cards in our collection as well. the card with the eagle, mrs. harrison, january 20, 1891. we have another one for mrs. mckee, the daughter, so we have executive mansion on the one side and the event, may 29, 1891, on the other. one more here for the president, for the january 20, 1891 event, as well. and then also just below this section, a lot of the ribbons, again, nice red, white, and blue, these were all for the same event but different colors, we have the eagle on one end and the date, april 23, 1890 on the other in there for them as well. >> they entertained and some of the historic preservation of the events in the white house, interesting to see. become to telephone calls, marge is watching us in charleston, south carolina.

>> hello, what a wonderful program, i am so thrilled. my question may be a little premature but as the prime historian of the first ladies, can you, in your opinion, tell us which may have been the most despised? which may have been the most loved? and my second question is, is it true nancy reagan bribed the designers to give her her dresses for free? >> wow. well the most despised -- >> was there one? >> i don't know that i would use that term. there were people who greatly disliked eleanor roosevelt. >> but i don't think they despised her. >> i don't think they despised her. i think they respected her even though -- >> some didn't like mary lincoln. they loved to hate. >> i think mary lincoln also was very much hated and that had to do with the civil war, i think, as much as neg. >> most loved? >> probably dolly madison is who i would choose, or jacqueline kennedy in the modern time. >> mamie eisenhower. >> she was very well loved. and what was the last part of her question? >> the dresses for nancy reagan. >> oh, nancy reagan did receive dresses for free from -- as a form of advertising for the different designers who gave them to her. >> was -- would people have

designed dresses and given them to the first ladies or would they have purchased them? >> i think after nancy reagan -- >> i mean in the days we're in right now, 1890's and -- people becoming interested in fashion, were they supporting american -- >> i don't think so. >> they did it in europe. the designers, the same way movie stars are today, in europe, the nobility and people like that wore clothes, that's how worth in paris got its name. >> but i'm not familiar with anything that went on like this, in this particular period, maybe we didn't know. >> sharon in sacramento. >> hello. >> hi, sharon, we're listening. >> you talked a little while ago about the father-sons who have been president. i'm wondering about benjamin's father, what did he do? was he in poll techs? did it skip a generation? and did he live to see benjamin

become president? >> that's one for bill. >> that's one that bill doesn't know. he was in politics. >> he was. >> i think a congressman. >> yeah, he was. but whether he had died before harrison went to office, i don't know. >> i don't know that either. >> so the question is yes, his father was in poll techs, though he didn't make it to the level of his own father or his son but we don't know the answer, sorry, about whether or not he was there for the inauguration of his son. next up, marie in lovejoy, georgia. hi, marie. >> hi. i love this show and your guests, my question is, what was the salary of the president, from washington to harrison, compared to today? >> $25,000 a year had been the salary, it went up to $75,000 for grant and it stayed there forever and ever. >> that was good money in those days. >> it was.

and what they usually would do is they would spend it because they had to in the first term and pay their debt, second term they'd try to -- try to squirrel it away for retirement. lincoln was toning that. jefferson did it, of course he was no businessman. but then for every term, you have $20,000 you didn't have to account for. and that finally got up to $50,000 and more. and the first person that -- the president they made account for it was president truman in just a mean-spirited act from congress. they made him account for every penny of that but normally it was something realizing there were extra expenses they had to do. >> next is gail in palm coast, florida. hi, actually. >> i was wondering, since jacqueline kennedy, first ladies have been foremost in our country with hairstyles and

fashion, was caroline harrison the same way? she was such a beautiful lady. >> i don't think so. >> i don't think so. enge it was frances cleveland and certainly not caroline at that point in her life. >> ms. cleveland was into style. people would borrow her name, soaps and things would borrow her name without permission, it infuriated the president. >> and put her image on every kind of conceivable tchotchkes anybody wanted to sell. grover was so angered by that he tried to get a bill through congress to stop it. talking about from jacqueline kennedy on, actually, mamie eisenhower was the one who, i think, in modern times started the whole thing with fashion. remember her mamie bangs and the fact that she would buy fashionable clothes and she was approached by designers to wear their clothing and their hats and was on the best dressed list for many years in the white house. >> 1892, benjamin harrison is a candidate for re-election. the economy is in tough shape and he is once again in a rematch with former president

cleveland, and caroline harrison becomes more and more ill. can you tell the story of her death? >> she just declined and declined. he could have been re-elected but he was so devastated -- >> did he not send her to the adirondacks to recover? >> he did. and they tried to get her to go to montana to recover. >> the whole family went to the adirondacks with her. >> she died in the white house in 1892. >> the second of the only two first ladies to die in the white house.

>> leticia tyler was the first. >> was there a big state funeral, one of our viewers want to know. >> it was in the east room but it was not a state funeral. >> the people you have to invite were there, but it was in the east room, there's a photograph of her coffin covered in roses, pink roses. she died and had he worked harder he could have won in that campaign because what he was saying was flavored with reform and what grover cleveland was doing was bringing back the past. and it didn't happen. i mean, cleveland won. >> the other thing that i think is very notable about that is that neither of them, out of respect for caroline and her health and then subsequently her death, actually did much campaigning.

>> he didn't make speeches. >> nor did cleveland. >> cleveland never did make campaign speeches. >> it would be interesting to see what would happen today if there was a great death if we would abstain from campaigning as they did back then. so what happened to the official white house in the days after her death? did someone else step in to act as first lady? >> i think lady mckee did. >> the mother of baby mckee. benjamin harrison went on to remarry. can you tell us about that? >> he remarried care loin's niece who had been her social secretary and also an aide to him as the president. and she had lost both of her parents when she was very young so they brought her into the family, sort of as, you know, another daughter, into the family. and she looked at both of them, i think, for most of the time as parents, you know, substitute parents. whether -- >> elizabeth wasn't still living >> her mother had died in the white house. caroline's sister. >> the nice was a widow. >> she was a widow. and without parents. so they, you know, brought her into the family. >> so benjamin harrison after the death of his wife said, for

me, there is no staying and losing the election. after the heavy blow, the death of my wife dealt me, i do not think i could have stood the strain a re-election would have brought. how many years the defeat did he remarry? >> four. four or five. >> they married in 1896. there was a great scuffle about it. it was considered the wrong thing to do by a lot of the public. >> certainly by the children. they were furious. >> she had been there with them almost like a sister and it was very shocking to them. and they had a child. >> holly hunt asked, having read that benjamin harrison remarried after caroline died to her nice, wants to know, was there evidence of them having an affair while caroline was still alive? >> no. oh, no. >> it's interesting, one of the articles i read talks about memorandums written by george cordelio, mckinley's and then later theodore roosevelt's chief of staff, in which he says he had a conversation with robert mckee, the father of baby mckee, who lived in the white house the entire time and the story was that mckee told george that caroline was so distressed

because she thought she was losing him to the younger niece, that she was going to move out of the white house. and that he personally talked her out of it because of the scandal that would come down on the family and the presidency. i don't know whether -- who knows but that was -- >> he worked for harrison, george did. >> you're skeptical? >> and the people at the harrison home are very skeptical as well. >> as edie said she was like a child to them. but then they he married her, they had a baby, a little girl. the public will always give its opinion. >> lewis is watching us in los angeles and has a question. >> yes, i do. i'm enjoying this series and keep it up. i have two questions. you said that you had a recorded caroline the first lady was the first first laity to have her voice recorded and do we have who knowse president?

you go he worked for harrison. >> or skeptical. click the people of the harrison home are very difficult. >> like you said, like a child. and they had a little girl. >> lewis is watching us from los angeles and has a question. click yes, i do. you said you have a recorded caroline, the first lady, the the first lady to have her voice recorded. do we have one of the president? my second question is, what was the president, president harrison's views on civil rights at the time?

thank you. >> i don't know where that recorded is, i assume the daughters of the american revolution have it in their extensive library in washington but the harrisons were both committed to civil rights. i said earlier, he fought his whole time different ways and -- he had a very legalistic mind, of course, and looked for ways of sharing the vote to the african-american male, of course, remember it wouldn't have been -- white women weren't voting either but they were very committed to it and very public about it. >> and they were saying that one of the favorite people -- groups of people that visited the front porch during the campaign were african-american groups. >> crystal in terra haute, indiana, your question about benjamin harrison or his wife. >> this question is about mrs. harrison and it's on the line of the civil rights question. i know mrs. lincoln had an african-american

that was a friend of hers, i thought i read she was a confidant of mrs. lincoln. i know mrs. harrison had several helpers and servants at the white house, but did she have a special relationship with any of her african-american helpers or servants? and what was her relationship to them? >> i don't know. >> there were always african- americans except one brief period in 1859-1860, the butlers and people like that sort of ran things and she perhaps had a maid or somebody that -- but i don't know. >> i don't know whether there was a personal friendship of any kind. >> here is the not quite four years of her tenure of caroline harrison and what she's known for.

>> so where does she fit in the pantheon of first laities? >> unfortunately, obscurely. >> yes. >> why unfortunately? >> she did more than most. and the seeds of what she did -- >> they've come to fruition. certainly her vision of the historic nature of the white house and the fact that it should be reflecting the united states as this up and coming power in the world, i think were motivating factors in trying to get the white house renovated and reconstructed and her grand vision for what the white house could become and i think she also is probably the first who correctly understood that the white house was the historic repository of the american people and of the presidency and she -- i think the white house

china collection was one of the things she did, the fact that she used antiques that she kind of resurrected from the attic and the basement, so i think she, you know, she was a predecessor for people like mrs. coolidge and mrs. hoover who tried to do inventories of the white house she kid the first -- she did the first inventory i'm aware of. and her vision of the historic nature of the white house and its collections and her

campaigns for the betterment of women were very important but not picked up on in her own time. >> here's one from facebook, what modern day first laity would caroline compare most to? >> dare i say rosalind carter who was a quiet first lady but was very busy trying to do worthy things? i guess, you know, -- >> betty ford and her -- >> less public -- betty ford was awfully public -- not awfully but public. ms. carter wasn't. >> she was a much quieter, more behind the scenes kind of person but i also -- i want to say jacqueline kennedy in the sense

[inaudible] next week, ida mckinley will be the final first lady in our first season of first laities, taking us into the new century and we look forward to seeing you then. >> thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

if we turn away from the needs of others, we align ourselves with those forces that ring about suffering. >> you ought to take advantage of it. >> obesity is of a short of a public health crisis. >> once someone has their own agenda. >> there is so much influence at opportunity.

>> i think they serve as a window on the path to what is going on with american women. >> she becomes the chief confidant. only one you the can trust. >> a lot of the women who were first ladies were writers, journalists, they wrote books. >> they are more interesting as human beings than their husbands if only because they are not first and foremost defined and consequently limited by politic ambition. >> she is one of the unsung heroes. when you go to the white house today, it is really either through roosevelt's. edith roosevelt's. >> it was a little too fast. not enough change of pace. >> in every case, the first lady fits heres whatever

personality and her interests. click she later wrote in her memoirs, i, myself, never made any decision. wasly decided what important and when to present it to my husband. if you stop and think about how much power that is, that's a lot of power. >> part of the battle against cancer is to fight the fear that accompanies the disease. >> she transformed the way that we look at these bugaboos and for thesessible people do survive and flourish as a result. i don't know how many presidents realistically have that kind of impact on the way we live our lives. >> just walking around the white i am constantly

reminded about all of the people who have lived there before and particularly all of the women. "first ladies, influence and image," produced in cooperation with the white house a store coal association. season two premiere september 9 as we explore the modern era and first ladies from edith roosevelt to michelle obama. >> tonight, oklahoma senator tom coburn speaking at a town hall meeting and then an encore presentation from season one of first ladies, influence and focusing on caroline harrison and later president obama talking about college affordability and taking questions. >> i don't want to see the loss of print journalism. i'm frustrated when i see the loss of so much data in local journalism covering with happening and city councils, with happening on the ground

because a lot of this national journalism is not as good if you don't have the local journalism. a lot of what i do is watching and reading local and state stories to see what's happening on that level and see how it's bubbling up to the national level. if there are not people on the ground doing that sort of work hama again, national journalism suffers quite a bit. i hope someone figures out a way to help keep that sustainable and keep those people in place. we are going to see a lot more social media were people don't necessarily go to the websites of news outlets quite as much but they simply see stories being shared by others, by what their friends are talking about in the news goes that way rather than you go to these four websites. >> to managing editor at the huffington post, on shaping modern journalism sunday night at 8:00 on "q and a."

>> oklahoma senator tom coburn held a town hall meeting this oklahoma,skogee, talking about privacy concerns, the healthcare law, and privacy gun rights. this is one hour and 10 minutes. >> you good? good afternoon. we are on time. welcome. it is good to visit with you. i will be a little slow this evening. this is the fifth one i have done today. bear with me. it drag you down more than you think. i will not spend a lot of time talking, but i do want to hear from you. there are a lot of concerns in our country, not any of them on solvable -- unsolvable, but they're big and problematic. if i were to assess where we are today, and it's a constitutional republic we have is at risk for

the very reasons our forefathers talked about. the abandonment of constitutional principles, especially the enumerated powers. it has treated situations where we find ourselves leaving a legacy to our children i certainly cannot be proud of and i know most of you will not be proud of. our unfunded liabilities right now are $126 trillion when you add them all up. that includes the $17 trillion plus the rest of the unfunded. that includes the $17 trillion that we owed plus the rest of the unfunded liabilities. essentially, the game is up. the problem is we do not have any visionary leadership in our country in either party that

will stand up and talk about what the real principles and problems are. we have undermined self- reliance in the name of being charitable. we have abdicated personal responsibility in the name of being fair. we are following in the footsteps of whatever historian has noticed about every constitutional republic -- they do not last. the reason they do not laos is because we concentrate power in the central government and give

away freedom and create fiscal policies that undermine the economy that supports the growth and vibrancy of our country. i think they're all solvable. the questions i asked publicly and privately is all of these big problems, why are we not addressing them in the congress? i hear from oklahomans about the fact that we need to work together. i have an observation on that. we're going to have an $800 billion deficit this year. congress approved that. i would say we're working together to well. [laughter] we have agencies rife with fraud that congress has agreed not to do anything about. i think we're working too well together. our biggest problem, in my estimation, is not our country and not our people. it is the elitism that comes

from career politics that dominates our congress and our country. [applause] a was asked today and asked the law -- i was asked today and asked a lot about what we can do about it. throw them out does not work unless you replace them with people that are different. 70% of the senate essentially has never had a job out of career politics. they are wonderful people. i get along great with dick durbin. i like him as an individual. our philosophies are entirely different. he means well, as well as many of the of the people that

promote what i would consider policies that will undermine our future liberties. the thing is they lack a frame of reference from experience in the world like our farmers sitting over here that nose, like our insurance agents, our policemen that are here to have done something with their lives outside of elective politics. it does not do any good to throw them all out. i have been convinced, in the last week or so i have read a book called "the liberty of amendments." i used to have a great fear of a constitutional convention. i have a great fear now of not having one. 3/4 of the states would have to approve anything approved through that. i do not think there is a lot of danger from our republic in us

taking back control from washington and honoring the 10th amendment, enhancing federalism, and recreating a sense of personal responsibility and accountability at the individual, city, and state level. i had a fire chief get upset with me today because i do not see any role in the federal government for us to be buying fire engines for states and cities. the danger with that is you become addicted to the largess of the federal government who says they're giving you something but are actually stealing it from your children and grandchildren. i do not think we have problems we cannot solve. we lack leaders thinking long term and understand what makes our country great or has made our country great is the very fact we enhance personal responsibility, hard work. we do not condition dependency more so than what is needed, rather than to create an

environment where you do not have to help yourself. i am thankful each of you are here today. we have had a big turnout at town hall meetings. we're talking to the choir. he would not be here. he would not be here unless you were concerned and had an interest in it. we're going to do questions. i will try to answer to the best of my ability. we have one rule. we do not let go of the microphone. i learned a long time ago if i let go of the microphone, it may be 20 minutes before i get it back. i will go as long as you want to be here. almost as long as you want to be here, until my blood sugar get

so low that i will go eat some ribs. that is not a commercial. that is just my favorite place to eat in town. who wants to ask the first question? we have a microphone right here. >> i appreciate your being here. if not for you, we would not have any senator at a town hall meeting. you touched on the topic of wanted to hear about, personal responsibility. there is no accountability in the government, ok? you, with all of these great research papers on fraud and waste. nothing happens. the constitution does not seem to matter anymore. obama, i cannot work with him so i will do it this way.

nobody seems to object. the only people punished where the -- >> i am going to make you get to a question. >> my point is let's not talk three years to the next president. what are we going to do in the next 12 months to correct the course? are you going to go on his show and talk about his book? >> right now, i am out of favor with the lavigne show because i do not think it is a smart strategy to shut down the government to defend obamacare. our economy is so precarious right now. shutting down the government will not stop obamacare. it will continue to roll out. we are limited. a couple of points i would make. republicans control the house of

representatives. that is 1/6 of the total government. we do not control the presidency, we do not control the senate. the second point i would make is when they do those things, as a u.s. senator, i do not have standing in a court of law i have letters out right now chastising a justice department asking why they have not cooperated with the government accountability office. by law, they have to cooperate. except this administration is refusing to do so on multiple events across multiple agencies. i think a lot of ways, they are loyalists in terms of their behavior to congress. the leadership in the congress, especially the senate, is designed for short-term political gain, not designed to solve the problems of our country. the reason i can say that is the numbers i just gave you in terms of our unfunded liabilities, you would think we would be addressing those issues. $100 billion a year in fraud in i have three bills that i cannot

get considered. i know something about health care and insurance and medicare. the point is my desire is great. my ability to continue to push boulders up is limited because there are not the votes there to help me. we have great people. i love mike lee. we differ on the shut down strategy. he is a great patriot. we have 20 or 30 guys like him. but that is not enough. until you change to is there, you are not going to change. i do not have a great answer for you. i will keep fighting and oversighting, keep putting out reports. i have offered more amendments on the floor than anyone else combined. i held more bills and appointments than almost anybody else there. my first rule book is the u.s. constitution. it is not the republican party.

it is the u.s. constitution. we will keep fighting. but remember, the press is not balanced in this country. there is a bias, a hard left bias in the press. you put it out there and makes common sense, but they will not cover. next one. >> thank you for being here today. last week, it was the first time i have been to one of these. this is the first time i have been to hear you.

i am proud of what you do for our state and how you represent us. i just wish there were 100 like you. i have been around a few years. i am reminded of when strom thurmond said 100 here and there and soon we're talking about real money. i wish we were still talking about $1 million here and there. now we're talking about billions. we're getting desensitized about money, where it goes and what not. we have a debt limit coming up next month, actually in october. i am reminded that we pay our bills. i'm reminded that we pay our bills. this is not money to spend. is to pay what we already spent. that is the whole point. when are you going to quit spending so we do not have to keep raising the debt limit to pay our bills? that is the problem as i see it. that is just a basic. >> so your question is?

>> why do we keep letting them spend our money? i thought congress was the one that allocated money. how did they get this billions of dollars to give away? we have got serious problems in this country that this money could go to. >> the answer, first of all the federal budget under the johnson administration was unified. social security access monies started in our deficit five years ago. there is mandatory spending that congress then appropriates. it is the vast majority of spending. that is why shutting down the government over obamacare will not top obamacare. 85% of it is mandatory spending. there is some good news on that front. over the last two years, we have spent about $160 billion less on

discretionary programs than we did the two years before. that is the first time that happened to since the korean war. we did it once in 1996 when we did a package when i went into congress, which ultimately resulted in us balancing the budget. the extrapolation of that $64 billion came out to be $130 billion a year. it was a big deal. this is a bad way of doing it, a sequester, but it is a whole lot better than not doing it at all. it is like when your wife asks you to pick the weeds. you take the lawnmower and mow everything. that is what we are doing. if you go on our website, we put out a whole lot of sequester letters to the administration. what we were hearing from the president, how bad sequester is

going to be, how -- all this, what was going to be 17 days of furloughs is now down to four on only 50% of agencies. necessity is the mother of invention. there is still, after the sequester, $250 billion appear fraught -- of pure fraud, waste, and deprecation in the federal government every year. and we have nothing -- done nothing about that. the question is, where's is the leadership to do that? what i'm telling you, it is not there. i do not see it. it is not in my party and not in the other party. certainly not the president -- he thinks we need to spend more money, not less. a big portion of that social security, medicare, medicaid, veterans benefits, all mandatory spending, unless we reform those programs they are going to continue to grow, and massively. but i will show the 30-year projections of spending.

and the 30-year projections of revenue. it is totally unsustainable. we are at $17 trillion of debt. in 10 years, we will be at $30 trillion. that is a great sidebar, whether we will get there. whether the international community will continue to loan us money. whether the federal reserve will continue to print money at interest rates. if we were at historical interest rates today for what we borrowed in the last 20-30 years, we would have another $1 trillion of deficit in interest costs. historic is 5.89%, and we are paying 1.35% now. instead of $233 billion in interest cost a year, we would have $1 trillion in interest costs. that is a $1 trillion you are not going to pay. your kids are going to pay. how they are going to pay it is through a markedly decreased

standard of living. the inability to purchase a home, inability to send kids to college. that is what is going to happen. and we need to change it. that is why i said that i am afraid not to have a constitutional convention. i do not think we have time to waste. i think mark 11 has done a terrific -- levin has done a terrific job. he is pretty harsh sometimes, but we have real problems and they need real solutions. nobody else is offering anything that comes close to it. >> welcome home, senator coburn. >> thank you. >> are you aware the bureau of land management office in salsa is reposing to consolidate it with oklahoma city at a cost to taxpayers of $2.5 million, and it will take 20 years to reach recoup those moving cost us? >> no, i am not. i would love to have the details

on it. if you will either give that to connie or one of my staff, the details. do you recognize we spend $5 billion a year maintaining buildings the federal government owns that are empty? and that rather than moving into buildings and buying them, now the agencies lease them. why is that? because of the stupid accounting rule that says if you buy a building you have to expense it in the year you bought it. anyone here who has ever bought a building knows that you do not write off the whole building the first year you buy it. the government will not let you write off the building in the first year you buy it. there is no way that the federal government cannot save tremendous amounts of money not owning their own buildings and getting rid of the excess property. i have been trying to do that

for five years. i got a bill that taxed -- attached real property reform to the postal reform bill. i have an agreement with tom carper. we are not taking it out. we will reform real property, the way it is handled by the federal government, and save a ton of money. >> i believe john locke said that the purpose of government is to protect private property. when i look at what is going on now, the irs is collecting our financial data, ready soon you will be collecting all our healthcare data. they are collecting our e-mail, all our web access. they will be using our kids to collect family data that is very personal. plus, we do not get a salary until the government takes their percentage. freddie and fannie hold liens on

all our homes and 401(k) or ira. a 10% penalty or wait forever. so my question is -- >> 65 is not forever. [laughter] >> do not put me in that group yet. >> ok, almost forever. anyway, what kind of republican party, and you as a senator or >> ok, almost forever. anyway, what kind of republican party, and you as a senator or group of senators, can do to restore our privacy and stop the progressive tax code to steal he rest of our property? [applause] >> let me have a philosophical point first. we had an election in 2012. the republicans did not do so well, did they?

my observation is everyone in the world knows what we are against, but nobody knows what we are for. when all they hear about is what we are against, they quit listening. the first thing we need to be is talking about a positive vision of how we restore our country, and what it means to you. what does it actually mean if we restore? what does it mean to your kids? what does it mean as far as personal liberty and private property? you forgot to mention that all these enrollers for obama care will look at every bit of your tax staff and every bit of your medical stuff. these are people who have not had the background screen, have ot been looked at. you are just going to trust the average person on the street with some of the most personal information you have. if, in fact, you want to enroll. if you do not enroll, we will find you. -- we will fine you with a, quote, tax, our supreme court justice manipulated the words on.

i think the first thing we have to do is talk about success. that means something different to each of us. whether it means i'm a great oet or i have built a business or i am a physician or a great carpenter or policeman. we need to re-enhance what it means to be successful. in contrast with what it means to be dependent. i have been working on this for six months. my staff, you have a great staff in washington. they are not careerists. most of them are young, but they are very smart. the average age is probably 35 or 40. we have been researching all the government benefits, and right now if you are a family and you take advantage of every government program available you can receive almost $50,000 without taxes per year on the backs of us. on the backs of us.

now, my faith says to help those that need help. that is not helping. ultimately, that is hurting. it is hurting everybody. so i would recommend, and i may have done this at a town hall meeting before here. there is a book, i believe, every concerned citizen ought to read. it is called "the tragedy of merican compassion." it is written by a guy by the name of marvin o'lasky. he outlines the history of how americans use to help people who need help. it was highly effective. in terms of turning people's lives around. if, in fact, they wanted help to continue. kind of like you would discipline your child, how you would change behavior. so i think we have a long ways to go in terms of doing hat. all these programs are multiply well-intentioned, but administered in such a way and

run in such a way that they totally undermine self-reliance. we need to change that. it is a big deal when it comes to the money that our kids are going to have to pay in regards to those programs. who is next? >> thank you. want to thank you, and want you to know i am proud of you. i am proud of everyone divine -- everyone of our oklahoma representatives. when you talk, i understand what you are saying. and i really appreciate that. one is going to be real bloody. he said the other one is a state convention, which you just mentioned. is there any conversation going on among the states, and as an individual, what do we need to do to get that started? she made the point that it will take a while to get it done. >> first of all, that would not

go through me. that would come through your state legislature. so what you need to do, you need to first of all, i would recommend you read that book and have a good understanding of the case so you can defend your position. number two, you have to lobby your state legislators. they are the ones who have to make that decision. i do not agree with everything in his book, but i certainly agree with his attempt at a solution where we find neither the liberal party has the courage to stand up and do the things they are supposed to o. it is plain english in the constitution that fire control, the local community has nothing to do with the federal government. yet now we have become an entitled class because we have

been given grants and 911, -- since 9/11, and everyone thinks you should have more money for your fire department. that is your responsibility, same as police. education -- we have spent $2.6 trillion since the education department was founded, and there is not one parameter and measure of education success that is better. there are multiple that are worse. thomas jefferson's quote on education was this -- the father of our modern university ystem. he started the university of virginia. if the federal government is to be involved in education, you have to have an amendment to the constitution to be involved. one of the authors of the constitution specifically saying, the federal government has no business in education. as a matter of fact, we have made a mockery of it. we send all this money down, but then we make all these requirements and don't allow the local teachers who really love the children, the administrators and the parents to make the

decisions that are best for their kids. and consequently, we are not succeeding. today, less than 12% of people taking the a.c.t. this year are qualified to go to college. that is a disaster for our country. all right. you do not get to hold onto it very long. >> you know me. i have a couple of comments i have made. when we were talking about congress -- first of all, thank ou for being here. of course, i wish you would come o tulsa. when our leadership will not allow congress to do some of the things and to hear some of the bills being heard, it is not so much the good men and women we have serving in congress as it is people like speaker boehner that will keep things from being

heard. you have stated, you know, when we talk about obamacare. the supreme court did not give us the ruling that we wanted. in 2012, the elections did not give is that either. when you ran last time, you stated that you were the most opposed to obamacare of anyone that could be. we reelected you to not only represent us, but to fight for s. because of that, we need men and women that have courage. we are not looking for excuses. heritage foundation, freedom works, all have found -- sound arguments on why obamacare should be defunded. so my question to you is, have used that than with any of these organizations -- have you sat down with any of these organizations to discuss this so

your opinion would be changed? if not, would you do so? [applause] >> i have dinner every week with jim demint. i have met with markley and -- ike lee and marco rubio. the claim that because you won't sign a letter are you for obama care iserly ridiculous. -- is utterly ridiculous. i don't degree that we need to get rid of obama care. i degree with the tactic. you do not set a strategy at the -- out to try to accomplish something, ignoring a couple realistic facts. one, the only way you get rid of obamacare is with 67 votes in the u.s. senate. to -- and two thirds of the house of representatives. unless sbm going to roll over

and say, we made a mistake. i'm going to quit this. and i don't think that's going to happen. number two, i'm glad you raised the issue because it means you are involved in the future of our country. i believe that is admirable. mike lee, marco rubio, ted cruz have the purest of intentions, but i believe they are dead rong on tactics. if you will recall, we had a government shutdown in 1996. we lost 15 seats in an off year election when we should have won 5. you are missing my point. missing my point. that is not my excuse for doing it. what my reason for not embracing their strategy is, i am 100% onvinced it will not work. let me explain why. let's say we carry out the full strategy and the government gets shut down. what do you think will happen to the weak-kneed, soft-spined

members of the republican conference of which i am not one? i will not get reelected, we got to open this back up. that is exactly what will happen. we will have gone through all this exercise, not a combatant our goal, when in fact if we strategically look at it, a better place to do it is on the debt ceiling. you do not impact the economy negatively in the short run. you do not alienate all the federal employees who are disrupted, a good portion of whom are your neighbors who work hard every day. you do not send a signal that you are way out here and do not have any idea about what real is the consequences -- realistic consequences are of what you are doing. finally, you recognize the career politicians who care more about being reelected than solving the country's problems.

>> you cannot. >> it cannot. i understand that is what they have put out. i spent an hour and a half on the phone with senator lee. he is going to keep going the direction he is going. my career is eight times longer in a legislative body than his. my judgment with people, having been a physician for 25 years, is pretty good. the fact is they have a failed strategy. i do not disagree with them getting rid of obamacare, but if you tell me i'm not a principal person because i will not sign a letter that they should do that, i disagree with you. i offered 300 amendments in committee on obamacare. i led the fight. i made bernie sanders read his but i cannot be intellectually dishonest with you and tell me i -- agree with the strategy. it is setting up hope that we can do something that i am convinced we cannot. we will not accomplish. o it is great you are here and

great you are fighting for that. i just think it is misguided. you are not going to change my mind. i have had debates late into the night with marco rubio and mike lee on this. they are on one side. i am on the other. we are just not going to agree. i am not going to support it. f it is there, i will be there anyway.

a cottage anyway. cr's are a stupid way to run the federal government. [applause] >> this is the first time i have been to one of these things. it is great to be here. >> thank you for coming. >> i do not want to take away from obamacare, because i'm interested in it. >> i have heard about it all day. >> i am interested -- my granddaughter is going to a private christian school. i thought she was safe there, but they will get it there, and even homeschoolers. i know texas opted out. how can we opt out of it and not ave it in our schools? >> let me give you background on common core.

it is not emanate from anything the senate has done. comment core is a program developed by the governors'association. if you do not want obama to be a part of it, all you have to do is change it. it is not anything that goes through me. it is a state opt-in, opt-out deal. that is a state-run issue that you all need to deal with. i do not think the goals behind, and -- common core are necessarily bad. i think probably the implementation is probably dangerous. but the point is that improving the educational standards of our children, the best way to do that is the parents and teachers and administrators back in charge and leave the federal government out of it. [applause] >> senator, thank you very much for being -- for the opportunity

to represent oklahoma. really, all the years you have invested. we appreciate that. i am really concerned that maybe in a generation we are going to lose our second amendment right as americans, as oklahomans, to defend ourselves, our homes. no pun intended, under the gun. what can we do? senator feinstein and senator reid, there is no common sense. the east coast, west coast, liberal politics, anyone who owns a gun is a criminal. what can we do? >> let me give you a little reassurance first.

of all the 10 amendments, probably be one that is safest is the second amendment. i actually believe that. that is why i voted for debate on the gun bill. i want to have that debate all the time. because you cannot stand up to the logic and consistency or the supreme court rulings that have instituted your right to defend ourself. i am not worried. the ban on "assault weapons" got the lowest number it has ever gotten. i feel really good. we have great lobbying organizations that are out to protect gun owners and the national rifle association. there is a lack of knowledge of a lot of people and a fear of guns. they associate violence with guns -- gun's fault rather than

the individual. but they discount the number of tragedies that are averted because of the same thing. i would just want to reassure you, i think that is pretty ecure. i believe with rights come responsibilities. i think gun owners ought to set the example for being exemplary citizens by being totally esponsible with guns, who they sell them to, how they sell them, how they handle them, how they keep them locked up, how they keep children from getting to them. how they keep -- teach young children about them. i think with every one of our rights comes real responsibilities. i think if we were to example that to the coasts on both ends, they might soon have an understanding of it. gun violence in this country over the last 20 years is 46% less than it has ever been. a decline of 46% over the last

20 years in this country in gun violence. the number of guns is about fivefold. so there are a lot of arguments to be made. the tragedies associated with violence are terrible. my wife and i had this debate. she is totally anti-gun, and i understand her situation. but the one reason our founders wanted to protect our rights under the second amendment did not have anything to do with hunting. it has to do with defending our freedom. so maybe you could call us paranoid that we are worried about it. but if you look at the fiscal situation in the country and some of the lawlessness of the gencies of this administration in terms of ignoring what the law is, i think we have real reason to protect that right. what i see now in congress is a

growing group that wants to protect that right rather than a lessening group. i would tell you to worry more about your intellectual rights, property rights, your privacy than i would the second amendment. >> thank you for coming. we are back on obamacare. you said you disagreed with the strategy that senator cruz and mike lee are offering to defund obamacare. what other alternatives are out there to keep this horrible bill from being implement it on october 1? [applause] >> the debt limit. the debt limit. attach it to the debt limit. the point is, you have -- you attach a repeal of mandatory spending to the debt limit. therwise the debt limit does not go up. let me make my point, then we will get around to you.

the one thing that average americans agree with us, the government wastes money. the one thing the average american agrees with us is that trimming down the size of the federal government is a good thing. an 80% issue in this country. restricting the debt limit does both that and repeals the obamacare, or at least a laser for a couple years. -- delays it for a couple years. because it is an absolute disaster. why don't we build where our strength is? my strength, let's cut down the size and scope of the federal government, and let's do that through the debt limit rather than have a fight. remember, we lost the 2012 election because nobody knew hat we were for, but we also lost the independent voters

because -- simply because we did not seem reasonable to them in our approach to government. people did not know what we were for. we talked about what we were against. what we ought to do is put out a message of, here is what -- where we can actually do something that will make a difference for our kids. not only will we have an impact on obama care, we will also have an impact on spending. i want to crank this thing down. >> i would debate that with you. they did not this last time because they strategically were licking their wounds from the election. how did we get the $158 billion cut? we did it by combining the budget control act with -- the sequester, with the debt limit. so, look, i do not just work

strategy on my own. i see john boehner once every two weeks or once every 10 days. i ask in the critical question -- what are you thinking, what are you planning, how are you trying to do it? remember, he does not have a solid, together republican congress. the point is that -- they are the majority. you have to govern. if you do not govern you are going to get thrown out. so he does not have an easy job of doing things i would like for him to do. he does not have the votes over there to do it. there is not enough conservatives in the house yet. until we get there -- it is kind of like the conversation i had with jim demint, the brainchild behind all this. i would like for them -- for there to be 60 conservatives in the senate. how many of you all think that is a realistic expectation that we'll have in my lifetime? it is not going to happen. it ain't going to happen. the point is, the recommendation, -- >> i understand that. where are we?

>> to defund obamacare, what i'm hearing from mike lee commercials on tv, heritage foundation, is that they will fund everything but obamacare. how does that shut down the government? >> first of all, the only discretionary portion of obamacare is less than 15% of the total cost. i do not care whether we shut down the government or do not shut down the government, obamacare, 85% will get implemented. if we shut down the government, all the president has to do is declare all the spending associated with obamacare as essential.

everything with obamacare will happen, whether we shut it down or not. it will still get implemented. i asked them to do the studies. the fact is, the irony is we shut down the government -- obamacare keeps going even if the government shuts down. >> you think the president is going to sign that bill? >> then it is on him. > let's go back. how big a megaphone do you think the president has in the liberal press? about seven times bigger than our voice. if every republican was preaching the same song and all the conservative-slanted news outlets preached it, we would still get outnumbered seven to one. here's the thing. you are here today. how many of your neighbors are as concerned about this issue as you are?

half of them do not even listen to anything. so what do you think, in terms of the influence, in terms of the electorate, that will have? will it be positive for us in terms of trying to grow our majority and change things? or will it be a two-tall -- too tall effort? -- will it be a futile effort, where we pound our chests and say, by gosh -- and then we don't do it. if i had a coach who said you are going to do it, and rather than create a strategy that will allow you to score, i would rather try to score them look good trying. i would rather score than look good trying. that is the difference.

mandatory spending happens no matter what. discretionary spending has to be appropriated. in a shutdown, all the president has to say is that they are essential employees, and they get funded regardless of what congress says. they have already said that. that is the irony of this whole strategy. whereas in a debt limit, the government is still running, we decide which bills we are going to pay. the first one is interest and redeem the bonds. then all of a sudden what do they have to do? they have to start squeezing things down. necessity becomes the mother of invention again. all of a sudden we start shrinking the federal government today -- again. we have not even begun what we can do in terms of shrinking the excesses of the federal government. the average federal employee is $130,000 a year. that's 2.5 times what the family n muskeegee makes. that's the average federal employee. there is a lot of we can do.

how about a hiring freeze? how about stopping? how about using videoconferencing instead of spending about $580 million a year in one department for conferences? how about doing the things you and i would do when we have to pinch pennies? we create priorities. we say what is first, what a second, what is third. what is most important. that is starting to happen only because of sequester. we went from 17 days, everyone will be furloughed, to now only four. where did you get the money? they made some decisions, didn't they? certain monies did not spent that were discretionary that could have been spent. all of a sudden, the sequester has turned out to be not a bad

deal overall for our kids. a bad deal for some federal agencies, not a good way to do it, but a lot better than not doing anything. what i would -- my approach would be not to use the cr, but to use the debt limit. on grounds the american people agree with us on. they agree with us about obamacare. they do not agree with us about a government shutdown. regardless of who caused it. they think is in competency. -- incompetency. and i agree with them. it is childish to shut the government down when there are certain legitimate aspect of the federal government that ought to be operating everyday. >> should i state my name? >> you better. we have the fbi here that will photo you, too. [laughter] >> i'm from broken arrow. my partner and i got here a little late. i did not quite understand you. are you for defunding obamacare or against it? give me a yes or no.

>> i'm for defunding of obamacare. >> i'm for defunding of obamacare. >> that is i want to hear, and what most of the people in this room want to hear that. we can count on you to vote that way? because we are going to be looking and watching you, senator. that is what we want you to do, because we pay your salary. people here comment about -- i want to see your hands, to defund obamacare? >> let me ask a different way -- how many of you want me to defund obamacare if it will force a government shutdown? you have three out of this whole group that will want me to do that strategy. you missed that point. i do not vote for cr's anyway. nobody thought harder and nobody has led the fight against obamacare -- we have got to do six components already out of obamacare.

you realize we have gutted six components already out of obama care? no, it's not. it's 30 days after that. you and i are going to have to degree. i think the tactic is a failed tactic. you are missing my point. let me set one record straight. it will offend some of you. you elected me to follow the constitution. that's what you elected me to do. you are not going to like every one of my votes. but i do have a 99.2% conservative rating in terms of protecting. no other senator in the u.s. senate has that high of an average. so i have pretty well gone the line of abiding by the constitution. but you are asking me to commit to making a policy vote that is something that i think won't ork.

i am totally against obamacare. i think this is a foolish way of getting there. next question. >> i am sick of the big federal government. in oklahoma we have a pipeline that should already be done under way. last week the justice department did an 11th hour stop on a merger of an airline here. what makes me feel like, these big bureaucracies, unelected people, the epa, the irs, the justice department, you can go on and on. it is like they want us to be detroit. we did not vote for him. he got no votes from this state. thank you, obama. e are paying for it. he does an in run around everybody. what can we do to get oklahomans working, to get these things implement it without them sitting up there and saying, this is what you are going to do. instead of the people that own

this country telling them what to do. [applause] >> you know, i would tell you, do not blame it all on obama. they were uncontrolled bureaucracies under george bush. i experienced them. he did, too. it goes back to the thing we started with. this government is on -- out of control. it has been predicted by historians our republic would fail. the question is, how do we cheat history? how do we go back? how do we re-embraced the things that made america great? as i said earlier, we have to get in charge. i have been working for nine years to try to make a big difference. i have made a small difference, not a big difference. i worked every day -- > we are going to leave this -- i'm convinced the only way we

do that is start reassessing real convention changes to the constitution that restore 0 federalism and a constitutional relationship republic. i think that's the way. you're frustrated. you ought to see me in washington. sk my staff. sk reply wife. i see two things. one, i seed constitution, and i see what's happening to it. then i see grown men and women that don't care. that's what really makes me want to pull my hair out. they ignore what the constitution says because it is better for their political career if they do. that's an abandonment of their ath.

[inaudible] >> oh, no, it is not over with. you have condemned those airlines to go out of business. if it is not anti-competitive for those other two. the ooh -- the only reason they are doing this, it's because they want to look touch on anti-trust. it has nothing to do with the facts of the case. the point is, it is arbitrary and it is capreeshes -- caprecious. first of all, they found seven codes out of all those codes that are anti-competitive. they are going to stop that merger on the basis of that?

it shows you how lawless this administration is. i don't say that word lightly. >> senator, i am one of those federal employees that you were talking about. but i can assure you i don't $138,000 a e near year. i live up in wagner. you were talking about the sequester and how it has been a good thing and decreasing the size of the federal budget. t's certainly done that. my agency, we don't have a whole lot of discretionary spending. as you might expect, the public defenders don't get the biggest budget for the whole federal government. it is pretty lean. so when there is a big

percentage ever cuts, like sequester is imposing on us, it means we are equal. e cut three employees. we might have to lay off more at the start of the fiscal year. we prosecute people, yes, but we have to have people to defend those people. we don't take a case because it will close lose an attorney then it will go to an appointed attorney that gets paid by the hour. it actually ends up costing the government more when we can't ake these cases. as a doctor, would you rather do surgery with a scalpal or a hatchet? why doesn't the government step in and say, these are the programs that are efficient,

necessary, and these are the programs we think we can waive, and why doesn't congress make that decision instead of imposing and tightening down on some agencies that are necessary and efficient? >> i basically agree with you, the indiscriminate nature of the sequester. i think i said earlier, better sequester than nothing. your agency, by the way, is one of the most wasteful agencies in washington. it is not my fault the money doesn't come to you. you spent $480 million last year on conferences. half of those could have been done on -- let me finish the point. half of those could have been done on video conferencing. but, no, we decided to spend $400 a night on rooms. tripudges are taking a big here in the next --

$600-dollar-a-night rooms. the fact is, what do you think? should we have a conference where judges should get together, or should we pay public defenders? so i don't degree with you on the way it is rolled out, but p. you didn't hear one thing about the sequester department, did you? not one peep? why? because there is so much waste in the state department it is nothing to have a 5% cut. and if you had any common sense applied to the manage management of most agencies, it wouldn't be a problem. the second point i would make, president obama to the o.m.b. made this sequester much harder than it needed to be. he had the choice of doing two things. he could make the sequester agency-wide, which means program specific, or he could make it

just to the department, and let them meet the goals. he chose to make it specific. so it would exert the most pain on the most people so that he could win the battle of increasing spending. that's what he did, through the o.m.b. so they had a choice. and your department probably would not have got a cut at all, had he made a choice to do it the smart way, the way a pursuedent person would do it. by line item, by facility. so the problems we have sequester -- we have the problems we have with sequester because of the choice that the president made to make it as painful as possible. >> senator co-burn. will you please explain to the audience what obama did has to do with using the office of

personal management to contemplate the health care needs of the static members in congress and not force congress to go on to obama care? [applause] >> i actually raised the question because i turn back about 20% of my budget every year in the office -- thank you very much, bob. i wanted a decision made, because i think employees that work for me ought to get insurance. i think members of congress ought to be in anything that we pass the american citizens. i have no problem saying that. [applause] but i think asking people who work 15 are 18 hours a day some days to give up health insurance or at least the contribution portion of that health insurance from the senate office, isn't

fair to those employees. it is not fair to you. that's my opinion. it doesn't make it right, it's my opinion. i wanted to know what the decision was going to be because i wanted to prepare my budget to hold health insurance for my employees. also, every other federal employee has a generous 72% payment toward their health insurance. in fact, staff are federal .mployees under the law i offered an amendment to put members of congress into the law. i fotely disagree with the ruling on members of congress. i don't disagree with it on the employees that work for you that are employed by the federal

overnment. i think the ruling was totally erroneous. again, outside the law. it is again, another instance of the lawlessness or at least the very loose interpretation of executive privilege which i assure you is not there. ok. then one here and right back over here. >> dr. co-burn, on behalf of my family, i appreciate what you've done for us. your sacrifices have been tremendous i know. we've talked a lot about the constitution, we've talked about the lawless administration that we currently have. the constitution provides for branches -- executive, judicial, legislative.

we have an executive sitting president, who is rewriting laws, failing to enforce laws he has chosen. -- are part of the laws part what is congress' esponsibility. [inaudible] >> it is the judiciary committee. what you have to do, is you have to establish the criteria that

would qualify for proceedings against the president. that's called impeachment. [applause] but that is not something you take lightly, and you have to read the historical precedent of what that means. i think there is some intended violation of the law in this administration, but i also think there is a ton of incompetence of people who are making decisions -- you know, in meland security, 15-17 top .pots right now are empty i would tell you, a general portion of the nominees are bsolutely incompetent.

my wiggle out of that when that is wrip to me, i believe that needs to be evaluated and determined, but thank goodness it doesn't have to happen in the senate. charges are in the house. that is serious measures, but we are in serious times. i don't have the legal background to know if that rises to high crimes and misdemeanors, but i think they are getting personalously close -- perilously close. ufcis employees -- these are the people that did the background investigation on immigration -- told me personally, managers, that homeland security was told, don't worry about it. ignore the background of those people. this is the management telling the career employees to do something against the law. so i'm duming all this stuff as it goes along. but i don't know where that level is.

i'm kind of like the lady in the back. i am fed up. i am frustrated. i am happy to raise an issue at every forum. barack obama is a personal friend of mine. he became my friend in the senate. that does not mean i agree with everything he is doing or how he's doing. i quite frankly think he's in a difficult position he's put himself in, and if it continues, i think we're going to have another constitutional conference in our country in terms of the presidency. it is not just his failure. look, i'll make this point. the rule of law is the one thing that this country has better than anything else. the rest of the world looks at us and says, that's the glue that holds them together. because whether you are poor, a minority, rich, insider,

outsider, you have this gentleman in the back who will defend you and make sure that your side of the story gets told. when you are in an administration that jupped mines the rule of law, here's what happens -- the next time i make a decision point on the rule of law, i say, well, gosh, if the administration doesn't have to follow the law and the president have to follow the law and the senator doesn't have to follow the law, why should i? all of a sudden, you have a declining public. what we really need is enhanced fidelity to the rule of law rather than the opposite of what we see in this administration. i'll hang around about 10 or 15 minutes. i want to thank you for coming out. i'm glad you are here to stress your point. i think it is great.

i just don't agree with it. i have a little bit of an ornery streak in me, independent streak, but that's the one reason why i'm challenging things in washington, too. you may have heard something here tonight that you ad maptly degree with. got an e-mail co-co-burn.senate.gov. i'm about 10,000 e-mails behind at this point, so i won't get an e-mail to you quickly, but i will e-mail you. so e-mail me if you heard something you didn't like and want to educate me on, and let me know your thoughts, and i will try to warn you, my cost savings -- one of my cost savings is not having as many people to help me write letters, so it takes a little longer for me to write letters. god bless you, and thank you. [applause]

>> today at an event marking the 50th anniversary of the march on washington hosted by the national urban lead, the parents of trayvon martin spoke for 10 minutes about the loss of their son, voting rights, and stand your ground laws. here's a look. start start. >> trust in the lord with all your heart. lead not in your -- lean not in your understanding. in all your ways go to him, and he shall direct your path. he shall direct your path. it doesn't say "maybe," "possibly" it says "shall." that means absolutely he will direct our path. but we have to believe in him. that's proverbs 3, 5, and 6. my favorite bible verse. i say it every day, and i want to share it with you.

so you will have something to hold on to. losing trayvon was absolutely devastating. but as i think about the law, i also think about the possible gains and what are they? just to be here amonst you. just to be here to let people know or for people to let me know that they are praying for us, that they are with us, that they are supporting us. that's what gives us fuel to eep going. we have that drive just because, just like trayvon is our son, i'm sure you have children, you have grandchildren, you have nieces and nephews that you have to care about as well.

and it is very difficult to stomach the fact that trayvon wasn't committing any crime. he was on his way home from the store. so how many teenagers go to the store? that's how close it will hit home. that's my message. don't wait. don't wait until it is at your front door. don't wait until something happens to your child, your niece, your nephew, yu grandson, granddaughter, godson. don't wait. this is the time to act now. this is the time to get involved. and don't just say i support the foundation, i support the family. i think they are doing a great job.

that's good. it has to be more than that. we have created through the negative energy -- and we humans, too -- it is negative energy when you are disappointed. it is negative energy when you have a loss. we took that negative energy and create the we use to trayvon martin foundation. that's where our time is going into the trayvon martin foundation, to try as best we can to help another family that is going through some of the same loss that we are going through. that's what we decided to do to give back. we were blessed to have a law firm that gave us direction. we were blessed to have people from all over the united states, different countries and everything. we were blessed to have those

people stand with us and say "i am trayvon martin." but we have to also think about the ones that are being killed or being murdered and the injustices going on to other people and try to help them as well. [applause] we want people to know in general that you have a right to walk in peace regardless of your race, regardless of the color of your skin. [applause] you have a right as an individual, as a human being, to walk and not worry about someone following you, someone doing something to you, saying something to you, and you end up deceased. time.you so much for your

god bless you all. [applause] >> good morning. it is certainly an honor and a pleasure to be here amonst all f you on this commemorating, 50th anniversary this week, of the march on washington. but be mindful that we are also couventing -- counting days. it has been 544 days since the loss of trayvon. and just like this is historic, we want to make our tragic incident become historic for all people by letting the world, by letting the country know that we whether continue to stand as parents not only for our kids,

but for all of our kids, and fighting for justice for all of our kids. that's one of our main goals. i think it is real imperative that we silt down as individuals , as god-fearing people, as a nation, and come together and rewrite the mipt -- manuscript on how to be a good parent and how to instill in our children that you don't have to be afraid to walk out and get candy or ice tea from the store. [applause] this issue is not an issue that is only an issue in the black communities. it is in all of our communities. the only way that we will solve the issues as we work together, have to work together, no matter what race, what creed, what religion. we have to work together as a

nation of people to start to understand each other as a people. and we just feel our fight is your fight. your fight is our fight. we are just asking for simple justice for all of our children. thank you. [applause] real quickly before we exit. we would encourage you guys to go on our web site, which is trayvon martin foundation.org. we have, as sybrina said earlier, we have a foundation. a few of the objectives of the foundation is to start mentoring programs for our youth, to start educational programs, so to

educate our kids, our communities on the laws how they apply equally to us and just understanding the laws period. before this incident happened with trayvon, i never heard of stand your ground. so many other people across this country hadn't heard of it. so we need to start understanding how these laws apply to us, how they affect us directly and indirectly. we just have to educate ourselves on things that we take for granted in our every day lives. as we all know, life is very precious. it is just a blessing to wake up each morning to be able to put on your shoes and socks. but as i said, before 544 days ago, i never thought i would be here talking about my son being deceased. so every day, every day from ere on out from february 26,

, 12, and we continue to count i kind of took for granted that he was going to bury me. we have to as parents, we don't fasth i don't mean the idea of burying -- we don't fathom the idea of burying our children. so we have to give our kids a hug every day. assure your child that you love him, whether your child is an adult or a child, you have to let him know that. thank you. >> on the next "washington journal" a look at the cost of college and whether or not education is worth the money. after that, officer clarence hussein on the 50th anniversary of the march on washington and modern civil rights challenges. plus your e-mails, phone calls, and tweets. "washington journal" live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span.

tomorrow on c-span on the lincoln memorial, watch the 50th anniversary of the march on washington held by the national action network. speakers include al sharpton, congressman john lewis and steny highwayer. following the speaking program, they will mark from the martin luther king memorial to the washington monument. after the march, listen to reporters on c-span radio. ur coverage begins >> all this month we are showing encore presentations of "first ladies" on season one. programs on every first lady

from martha washington to ida mckinley. tonight's program focuses on the life of caroline harrison.  >> caroline scott harrison was born in 1832 where she met benjamin harrison. she grew into an accomplished artist, interested in women's issues. although the harrison presidency has been rated as fairly unsuccessful by some historians, those who tracked first ladies considered carolina harrison as one of the more underrated to serve in this role. we'll learn why in this segment of "first ladies: influence and image" and here to tell us more about the story of carolina harrison, our two guests who now the office well. edie mayo, thanks for coming back.

and bill seale, white house historian, has spent his professional career understanding the history of that building. bill and edie are both members of c-span's academic advisory committee for this series. we're going to start with an illustration tonight. the white house itself is one of the most iconic buildings in the world. i think -- >> certainly, yeah. >> is -- if caroline harrison had had her way, it would like different today. we have her designs for the white house that we'd like to show people at home right now. what were her plans? what was she trying to do with this big expansion of the white house? >> well, it was a time of big spending in his administration. the government was spending a lot of money. and she got into it by wanting to create a house, they were crammed in this house. they only lived upstairs. you see, to understand it, on the picture, the middle of the upper picture, the columns and just the four windows to each side of it, the office was on the left. the east room was just below hat and the other public rooms

on the ground floor, then the other end, the west end, or the right side, was the family quarters which was seven rooms and a bath and a half and she wanted something big to live in. but something also to entertain in because the harrisons entertained all the time. and so she had this plan done which you see here. you're looking at the south, of the back part of the white house with the round porch, where president truman later built a balcony. the center part is the old white house building that was finished in the 18th century and the white house is on a bank. that's 17 feet from -- on one side it's one story -- two-story house. it's a three-story house on the walkout on the back. about 17 feet, i guess. and so what you see here was a quadrangle with the green houses that they had had, which were really specimen conservetories up.

see that's dropped. so the windows would still have the beautiful view of the potomac. it would not have been anence closed area -- an enclosed area. on the right side was to be, as i recall, the national gallery or the national museum. it was not washington one. and then there were other public rooms on the other side. the second floor then had guest room, family quarters and such as that to make it a much more livable house, as well as the office. >> looks a bit like some of the grand houses of europe. this is going to brand the other traditionalists, but are you happy she wasn't successful? >> yes, i am. from our point of view. it was basically theodore roosevelt who insisted it be restored. >> edie, what's interesting about the story is this woman came into the white house not being seen as political but she had an innate sense of how the lobby was. she was successful in getting it past the senate. tell the story of how she put together that winning coalition for the senate.

>> well, she went about lobbying through her entertaining in the first place. but she also called in the press and showed them the plans and got them to sign on that this was really a good idea. and of course they were in the white house at the centennial of the presidency. so she thought this would be a wonderful plan. as a memorial for the 100th anniversary, the nation had grown in land and in power and she wanted a residence that reflected the global power of the united states. so this was a perfect opportunity. so she called in the press, she got a lot of major people in washington interested. she lobbied the senate. she lobbied the house. and i will let bill tell why it failed. >> before we do that, she also enlisted the help of a former first lady. >> harriette lane. she brought her in and she also used the name of george

washington and how this would be, you know, a fitting memorial and so forth. >> he had built the house. she was just making it work. >> right. >> and hadn't washington also envisioned that it could have been added on? >> he did. in years to come. >> so, she won the senate but in the house she ran into a formidable foe which was the speaker reid. >> speaker tom reed from maine. he was a great adversary of benjamin harrison. they fought a lot over bills. and someone from california was mrs. harrison's great ally. and he spent the night sleeping in the cloakroom, hoping the appropriation would go through. but speaker reed, he was a very razor-tongued kind of sharp guy, and he cooked up this story that harrison had appointed a postmaster in maine without his approval and he crashed the whole thing. he wouldn't let it come up. >> so, lacking her ability to

expand the white house, she turned to restoring what she already had. >> she redecorated. thinking and hoping it was a minor thing to do. and she became interested in the historic house and began researching things. and pulling out antiques and stuff and putting them in the different rooms and she had a decorator in boston make things spiffy. tiffany had been the last one to do the rooms. and they were very rundown. the special effects and all that nobody could reproduce. >> she didn't just find old furniture that had been stored in the white house. here's a quote of what else she discovered in the white house. this is from her diary and we'll be using quotes from her very prolific diary throughout our program tonight.

>> tell me the story of the rats in the white house. >> washington has a very prolific and well-known rat community. so they had infested the white house. and were both in the basement and i guess also in the attic. >> yeah. >> and -- in attic. >> yeah. >> and so apparently the man with the ferrets was brought in to help reduce the rat population. ut there was also a man with a gun i think. who was shooting the rats whenever he saw them. >> he would proceed her through atic. then strangely enough, atic had no access to it. the little back stair that lincoln made famous was taken out and the elevator was put in there and somehow stair access to two floors, so they had to go on a ladder, up above the elevator, and she went, little tiny woman. she went up there with this guard, with the gun, and they began pulling things out of boxes and a rat would appear and he'd shoot it. and they were big ones, too.

>> he'd shoot, she'd scream. >> she'd scream. >> is how the story goes. we would like to invite you to participate. this series, which we've been learning so much and hope you are too, this is our next to last for season one. and we'd love to have your comments and your participation and questions tonight. you can do it three ways. you can call us. and our phone numbers in eastern and several time zones -- if you would like you can also join our social community, our facebook page already has some comments coming in. and you can tweet us, but if you do, use the#firstladies. as she approached the white house, she was criticized by the press for being overly domestic. >> that's correct. >> what was the view of the changing first lady that it would be criticized? >> i think they thought that

doing actual housework, which what was rumored, rather than looking for historical treasures and trying to salvage the history of the white house and presidency, it was looked at as she was, you know, actually engaging in housework and maybe, who are, cooking their own meals. and this was seen as very much beneath the dignity of a first lady. but one of the things that she mirrors in the time is the growing home economics movement. which organized itself around 1890. and so she was very much a part of her times in anticipating what was thought to be the professionalization of housework. so instead of being praised for what she did, she was criticized. and she could not fathom why there was all this, you know, scorn and mocking and so forth

in the press of what she was doing in the white house, but i think people didn't quite understand what she was trying to accomplish. >> i would have thought that washington is hard on first ladies. they've been a little hard on mrs. obama. they are until they sort of prove themselves. and she had been around, he been in the senate, they'd been in washington means times. she was a popular woman in washington, socially. but when she got in the house, it was a little different. >> different viewpoint. she was very hurt by the criticism. >> what we learn is that the press went into a frenzy. it was the booming age of newspapers, there was coverage in magazines. so, the press was prepared to cover this first lady and weren't happy with what they were seeing. here's one quote from her diary. she wrote about the press, i am disgusted with newspapers and reporters. truth is the characteristic entirely unknown to them. sentiment we what might hear from presidents today. >> very modern.

>> plus, she was following this absolutely gorgeous young woman. so that must have been very, very difficult. >> and a clever young woman. >> very clever woman. young and with a husband who had no use for p.r. so people flocked around francis -- frances cleveland. >> frances was the sort of jackie kennedy of her age. she was quite beautiful. >> about 10 years younger than mrs. kennedy was. >> she was 10 years younger than jackie was when she entered the white house. so she was very, very popular. of course there was this whole thing about this may-december romance that had taken place with the president. and much speculation before he actually married that maybe he was courting her mother. then there was the sort of bombshell that, no, he was courting the young and beautiful frances.

>> she was a beautiful woman but she was not -- frances cleveland, franky as she was known in the press, was just -- to tell a story about how clever she was. you may have had it on this show. >> she had her due last week. >> the president of spain is the first real visitor of state. she was the same as age as mr. cleveland. there was a reception at the white house and a pretty, pretty woman had -- wore pearls clear to the floor and diamonds and all that stuff. ms. cleveland wore an off-white silk dress. it was a coup. she stole the show. >> benjamin harrison, our 23rd

president, he was the republican -- cleveland was a democrat. we're going to learn about some of the policies of his administration. but we talked about the fact that we'd be reading quotes for her diary and dave measure douk on twitter asks, knowing how important the presidency had become, did caroline expect her iary to be made public someday? we're going answer that question about her diaries by visiting the harrison house. it is in indianapolis. and if you get to the cap cal -- capital city of indiana, visit it yourself. we're going to visit there for the first time and learn more about the diaries. >> caroline harrison's white house diary, this is something that we don't have out very often. she kept the diary and you can see very fragile. so she's written in the front here, keeping the diary and the dates. 1889.

to 1891 for this one. in the diary she mentions several different things she mentions going to arlington cemetery and decorating the soldier's gravesite at arlington. she mentioned riding with benjamin to the soldier's home and hospital. some of the things that were very near and deer to her here were working with orphans and with the hospitals and she continued to do some of that while she was in washington as well, visiting the hospitals and what not there as well. but she also mentioned some of the other events and things that are going none her diary. her artistic abilities i think -- [inaudible] and love of flowers. she mentioned making -- having the floral arrangements for several different bank wets and -- banquets and dinners. one was -- south american countries meeting. she mentions decorations there as well. this is a dinner at the arlington in washington, d.c., and you can see the table

setting had quite a large group. we have the vice president, the president and where the different delegations were sitting at that particular dinner. she also talks a lot about the centennial celebration in new york for the centennial of george washington's inauguration. from 1789 to 1889. things from the banquets and one of the parades was 7 1/2 hours long. and then also very personal and family-related things mentioned in the diary as well. mentioned how she's feeling, what the weather is like. but one of the things that she talks about is the christening of their young granddaughter, mary lodge mckee. and she says that they used water from the river jordan that her sister had brought back from a trip over there. and we actually have some of that water in our collection yet today. so we have a little container here. actually have, you know, some water in there as well. a bottle with the label there that her sister had brought back.

and mary lodge mckee was christened in a private ceremony at that time and she also mentions christmas at the white house and having the tree put up for the grandchildren and the harrisons had the first decorated christmas tree in the white house. and she mentioned some of the gifts that were given to her at that time including some opera glasses. so we have her opera glass here's that were given to her as a christmas gift that she mentions in the diary as well. >> so the answer to the viewer's question is it looks like she intended for these to be public documents. >> but you never know. if she had started much earlier, a person can get so absorbed in a diary, it becomes a confidant or friend. i don't know whether she did or not. she didn't do other things. like that. self-promotional or showing

her. you know, she and the president both suffered from depression. and eventually it had an impact on her health. but they fought that together very hard by keeping busy. >> how many children did they have? they had 2. >> they lost one. >> the white house in that time was filled with children but they were their grandchildren, correct? >> their grandchildren and their children. the son was in and out. he lived in montana. but his wife was there. and the children and then the daughter, mary, who's called mimi, and the little boy who became world famous for doing nothing. just being baby mckee. at the white house. >> right. so what was life at the white house like? >> crowded. and lots and lots of entertaining. the evening was absolutely absorbed with it. remember the office was in the

house. at the other end of the hall from the family quarters. so it was -- there were about 15 servants as i recall. most federal employees from the agencies and they are paid from the agencies and all these children and the routine of the private house, plus the public activities, it was a very busy place. >> we mentioned at the outset that the first lady was an artist and we're going to learn a little bit more about the kind of art she particularly loved but first let's do a few calls. we'll talk to horace from philadelphia. before ask you the question, would you mute the volume on your tv? we're getting feedback. >> sure. thank you for taking my call. i've been watching the series right along. i'm enjoying it very, very much. can you tell us about her background? who were her parents, where was

she raised? long before she met her husband, can you tell us about that? >> sure. can you take that and we're going to spend a segment on it later on. >> well, she was born and brought up in oxford, ohio. her father had been a minister, but at the time he was a professor. at the university, miami university. and then went on to found the oxford women's institute which was a college for women. and so her parents were both extremely well educated and her father was a supporter of women's education. so he made certain that his daughter had a good one. and i think that sort of interested her for the future in women's accomplishments and the progress of women. >> laura is watching in clarksville, indiana. you're on. >> why are the first ladies called the first ladies? >> that's a good question. >> well, i think that started when zachary taylor used that term for dolly madson during

her memorial service in 1849. and he said she was truly the irst lady of our land. she was a connection to the revolutionary time period and she keeps coming back to the white house. she was the first in social standing, probably for 16 years. first as jefferson's stand-in, first lady then, first lady on her own. but she continued to have great influence. and so i think that's how it started, that she was the first in stature. and that name carried on. it wasn't really picked up until after the civil war. mrs. hayes, although i think harriette layne had that under some of her photographs in

papers and so anyway, but it just means the first among everyone. >> linda, bloomington, innesota, you're on. >> good evening. i have a question that relates to my own family. i had a grandmother whose name was kate harrison and then she married and her name was thomas and she grew up i believe in missouri. there was a story that her mother had been married in the white house and i don't know if there's any truth to this, but i thought perhaps you might know if there was a wedding in the white house during benjamin harrison's term there. >> it would not be surprising but i don't know that name. local newspapers would probably carry it. both in washington and wherever they were from. that's where i would look for it if i were looking for it. but i don't -- i know in lincoln's time there were

marriages in the white house. john adams' and some others but i don't know any in the harrison tenure. >> one more question and then we'll learn more about the first lady's artistic endeavors. charlotte from olympia, washington. what's your question? >> hi. i just wanted to mention i had had the fortune of going through indianapolis last fall and got to visit the harrison home and it's a beautiful house and i've been able to go to several presidential homes but they have so much actual furniture that belongs to the harrisons and the people there are very friendly. in anyone happens to be going through indianapolis, do stop. it's a wonderful home. >> i think they will appreciate the endorsement and they certainly were very helpful to us in allowing us to record so much video for you to see tonight. by the way, when we talked about the white house diaries, every week on our first ladies website, all of the video from the shows we've done so far are contained there and also special video you haven't seen

during this program. but there's always one special feature for each first lady and tonight it is the entirety of caroline harrison's white house diaries. if you want to dig into her days, you can read it all there at c-span.com/firstladies. >> let's now go to the white house for the next video. and you will learn more from the white house curator, about the white house china collection. >> when she came to the white ouse she was very interested

in how the place worked. she came down here. his was the ground floor but it was sort of considered to be the basement because the kitchen was down here, laundry facilities, storage for food and tableware and such and she found that it was rather dirty. sort of ominous. and she tried to like spruce it up. she went through the cabinets and found old pieces of china nd then asked servants if they could tell her, does anybody remember how old this piece s?

so she started the idea of trying to catalog and create a sense of what chinas were. she had a plan for putting some display cases in the state dining room. but never came to fruition. she was credited with being the initiater of the concept of a permanent china collection at the white house. she was interested in designing china she wanted it to be american, as other first ladies had discovered there was not a strong enough porcelain manufacturing industry in america in 1891 when she started looking into new china so she decided this would go ahead and let a france company make the blanks but she would provide the did he dine -- the design. it wasn't a full service. she didn't try to order 12 or 15 pieces per place

setting. it was designed with a shape that was pretty much the incoln-era shape, that kind of simple -- this is a soup plate and a breakfast plate or tea plate. the eagle was very similar to what was on the lincoln china that represents the great seal of the united states. what she specifically designed was the border. there was a combination of ears of corn and golden rod which she felt represented american plants. the agricultural plants in corn. so there was dinner plates and soup plates and breakfast plates made in the blue. and there were also breakfast plates and tea plates made with the white border and then a series of cups and saucers. so there weren't all the other shapes that you might have in a state service of bowls and cream soup cups and various other things that went with it. >> so, we credit her today with establishing this very popular spot in the white house. >> yes. nd of course table service all through the years is extremely important to the white house, with the state dinners. that is the official dinners that are are paid for by the state department. planned about the family more or less. but you know, eight wines were served normally at dinner. it would be reduced to three under theodore roosevelt and poured generously. there was a lot of wine and men guests would sometimes have scotch instead of wine. and then you would have numerous plates, bone dishes, all of these things that -- at each plate, serving about 60 for a state dinner in those days. >> and i just wanted to say that the cups and saucers that were ordered for the harrison

china did not arrive at the white house until after caroline's death. which is very sad. she didn't get to see them. and the china was reordered periodically in later administrations so it became a ery popular service. ordered again by mckinley and oosevelt and even as late as jacqueline kennedy and mrs. clinton. >> in addition to the official design that she did, she was an avid painter of china as a hobby and in fact she gave classes in this at the white house. >> right. >> which may have been a political move. she had music -- she was a musician. >> politics in the white house. >> and a former lobbyist. >> she was a musician, painter and was fluent in french. and i think she spoke spanish. did she? >> i know she spoke frenchment -- french. i'm not sure about spanish.

>> she had classes. >> she did have language and hina painting. > it smoothed the feggetters of some of the people -- feathers of some of the people. in washington, they kind of silenced themselves about her because they wanted to be part of those classes. they were ladies classes. >> next, a phone call from phil n north hollywood, california. >> hi there. thank you so much for the wonderful series. i'm just wonderfully addicted to all of you. you mentioned baby mcfiat first. i was kind of curious about it because i remember reading something years ago, it was like the first pop culture. now we don't even know about them. but i was wondering if could

you elaborate more about your story over there about maybe mckee and how he became such a big sensation throughout america. just kind of curious if you had any more observations about him. >> thank you. we have a photograph of baby mckee, we'll show as we're learning more. >> i think he was just a cute little kid that they let the press have access to. >> and in the cleveland administration, you know, they had baby ruth. and the candy bar was named after baby ruth. not after the baseball player, babe ruth. but at any rate, this is the period when photographic studios started taking enormous numbers of pictures of the white house, the furnishings, the occupants and particularly the children. became very, very popular. it was sort of a new pop culture kind of sensation and fixated on babe mckee. >> this is a great picture we're showing right now of a goat cart on the lawn of the white house. with the harrison grandchildren. >> the wicker cart that the children played on the driveway on the south lawn. south lawn was kept closed since the grant administration for children to play. you see the greenhouses behind

them? and that goat is a special kind of goat. i forget its name but it was still very prominent goat raises that are raise that kind of goat and they do race them and show them. the harrisons were big animal people. so, they had all kinds of animals. mrs. cleveland had 29 pets but they didn't have that many pets. they had some pets and that little cart became quite famous there. actually is another one. another cart. as well as that one. >> in addition to the china, establishing the china collection, she also bought the first white house christmas tree. >> yes. >> which we now think of as very much a part of the holiday celebration. what was it like in the harrison years? >> i don't know what it was like. she brought the christmas tree in, do you know? >> that's as much as i know and it was decorated. >> in the family quarters. >> yes. >> today it's part of the public display for people coming in. >> and the president dressed up as santa claus and played santa claus with the grandchildren and so forth. >> can we imagine a modern day president in a santa claus suit? >> now, i can. >> you can? >> i can. >> when i read that i thought, hmm, photograph. >> speaking of photographs and

the donkey cart, i mean, the goat cart, excuse me, caroline i think was very savvy in knowing that people were going to demand photographs of the grandchildren. and the family. so instead of just letting them descend on her she called in a pioneering woman photographer, frances benjamin johnson, and had the children photographed and it gave her and the family much more control over how the photographs were taken and where and when and how these children were pictured in the press. >> that's a good point. >> i think she was very smart about doing that. >> it also seems very modern. > exactly. and that was one of the things that frances cleveland had -- or did complain about in the

second administration. that she was afraid people were going to kidnap the children. they found ways to get into the white house grounds and she was onstantly fearful. so i think what caroline did was very smart. >> another thing she did for the white house was to bring electricity into it. and we have a photograph or an illustration rather of what's called the great illumination of the white house in 1891. how important was this to bring electricity into the mansion? >> extremely important. and the harrisons were terrified of it. they wouldn't turn it on or off. when they were ready to go to bed they'd call one of the employees to turn the lights off. >> for four years? >> never got used to it. scared to death of it. they were used to gas. >> what's interesting is it was installed by the edison company itself. >> yes. >> so was the entire mansion illuminated at that point? or was it just in the public space? >> no, the living rooms

were. the bedrooms, they threaded the old gas fixtures, some of them, and hung lightbulbs from the chandeliers and that was that way until 199 -- 1892 and there were lots of those big old fillment bubbles hanging around, you know? but it was not lighted like it would be today. it would be heavy candlelight to us but it was really an innovation and considered less dangerous because the gas went off at a certain time at night, about 9:00 or 9:30 at night. if you didn't have all those turned, the gas would come out into the rooms and people weres sphyxiated all the time. then they would light the coal oil lights, kerosene lights, and so this was something that wasn't as dangerous really. but it seemed dangerous to them. >> they were afraid of getting

shocked i think or starting a fire. >> i think they could have been shocked if they did it wrong. >> so prior to this, when presidents burned the midnight oil, they really were. >> the gas was off. >> dan is in big timber, montana. what's your question tonight? >> my question, i heard you mentioned earlier that one of the president's children, i think his son, you said, lived n helen? >> rulls, yes. >> did they say it in helena? >> i don't know. there's a harrison house there. i think their house still stands. >> oh, wow. i remember justice harrison just passed away a couple of years ago, was on the supreme court for years. i wonder if he was related? >> i don't really know. i know they were devoted to montana. he had ranching interests and also copper interests. and was a very successful man. he was not going to give that up to go stay in the white house. >> besides the baby mckee and things for which they might have been celebrated, she also received criticism in the press

and this came when she accepted a gift from a postmaster general wanamaker who was a very successful man, a house in cape may, new jersey. can either of you tell the story of how that blew up in her face and what happened? >> well, people looked at it as if it were a bribe. it was supposed to be a little cottage and i think it had, what, 20 rooms or something? like that? at any rate, it was looked on as a bribe from wannamaker to the harrison administration. and finally the outcry got so heated that they had to pay wannamaker for it $10,000, which was a lot of money in those days. o make it look like, you know, the president said, well, we

were going to buy it anyway. but it was one of those things that, like, for instance, after the civil war, a list of subscribers got together and gave grant a home and so it was not unheard of. >> no. >> but for some reason the press spun it as if this was possibly a bribe. so they had to end up paying for the house. >> it was a very umultuous time politically. nything they could jump -- grant got a house practically very year. he had lots of houses. fully furnished. linens and all. but he didn't get in any trouble for it. but this did. but it was a pretty hot time. it was a very tense time between the democrats and the republicans. the motivations were clearly drawn. the republicans were protectionist, the democrats ere not.

the republicans wanted high tariffs and the democrats did not. and so on. and harrison was a man who was of conservative nature. in that he wanted the debts paid, he didn't want to allow -- a lot of spending, paradoxically because it was a time of very great spending really in his administration, but these were the the tensions of the time. and how cleveland got back in. >> i also read that it was a time of great grief and sadness in washington. no less than 15 deaths during a four-year period of people in the washington circle. people like associate justices on the supreme court. the navy secretary and his family were burned alive in a house. and there were strikes in the ast and miner strikes. >> a steel plant, it was a terrible thing, and 20 men were shot dead, of the protesters

and the american public, while it seemed justified to the plant and carnegie and rest, it horrified the american public. hey just could not believe t. and this chipped away at arrison, he got a lot of the blame for that. >> did this contribute to the depression that you mentioned earlier? >> the depression, oh, his own depression? i think that went way back. i think it goes back to the civil war when he was a private general and though he was a little man, he was quite a leader and the whole prospect of war was horrifying to him. they'd been married about, what, five years? >> yeah. >> maybe more. >> short time. five years, i think. >> and they both were very gripped by that period. as many people were. >> and he must have witnessed horrible things on the battlefield, i would imagine. >> yes. >> before we leave this part of the lesson, a couple more questions. >> there were a lot of old curtains. furniture. different objects of furniture. not specifically. >> was it the resolute desk brought down? >> the resolute desk, it was just recently. >> that was something that came in the hayes administration. >> ok.

>> and it was used in the upstairs hall. she furnished the upstairs hall from the attic. the corridor that runs the full length of the house, on the single floor, was just an old hallway with white wardrobes and things in it and one end of it was a waiting room. rs. harrison furnished it as a room. and if you went up in the elevator, in the family quarters, you'd find that as a big sitting room and she furnished that a lot from old things she found in the attic. >> and she was trying to make ore room for the family. the family quarters had become so cramped and overrun by the presidential offices that, you know, she was looking for space nywhere she could find it. so she turned that hallway into a large sort of living area with, you know, defined spaces for seating and conversation. >> did caroline invite any first ladies back to the white house? >> mrs. hayes had died.

>> that's the one i know about, harriette lane. >> only harriette lane. so we talked about the fact hat she was seen as a domestic partner. but caroline harrison was a great political partner to her husband, benjamin harrison. and next we're going to learn about that more and how it affected his political success in this visit to the harrison home in indianapolis. >> caroline harrison was certainly an active participant in benjamin harrison's political life. i have just stepped out the door as benjamin harrison did many times to address the crowds that came to hear him speak when he was campaigning for the presidency. there were over 300,000 people who came to indianapolis. in fact, the yard became so crowded that they had to move some of the speeches downtown to the university park. she was always beside him or just inside the door preparing for guests to come inside the house.

preparing to maybe give refreshments to some of the guests. preparing to greet them and shake their hands. caroline was very much devoted to benjamin harrison and the ideals of his campaign. when she planned her inaugural address, she wanted it to be designed in the united states, she wanted the silk to be spun in the united states, she wanted the dress to be designed and made in the united states. because benjamin harrison campaigned, advocated that we become an independent nation. and she was willing to do her part to see that happen. this probably was one of caroline's favorite rooms in the house. she loved to entertain and many, many different groups came to hear benjamin harrison speak. caroline was his right-hand person. she wasn't always on the stoop

with him but she was certainly behind the scenes and eager to invite people in for some hospitality. one group that came was a group that harrison greatly admired and very much encouraged and that was the black community in this area. and when he finished speaking to them, he invited them all to come into his home which they did and they shook hands with benjamin harrison and caroline harrison. as they walked through the house. this is benjamin harrison's favorite room. it's his library. and how interesting that in his place to be, we have caroline harrison's beautiful little desk. i think that in this room, probably benjamin drew a great deal of strength and comfort from having caroline close by. and maybe she didn't talk to him about what paper he was writing or what bill he was

working on, but just looking up from his desk and seeing his carrie was an encouragement to him. he knew that she was there if he needed her, he knew that she loved him and i think that caroline was the kind of wife hat empowered her husband. >> so, we learned that she was very much instrumental in hosting these events that would bring the crowds and campaigned for public office essentially by staying home. >> there were two new ways of -- two different campaign techniques that came in at the end of the 19th century. the front porch campaign was one and the whistle stop was the other and they were sort of that opposite ends of the spectrum. the whistle stop, you know, you got on a train and went all around the country. this way you stayed home on the front porch campaign and greeted the neighbors and anybody who came in by train.

so, this brought the wife of the candidate right into the forefront of the campaigning, without violating the norms of a woman's place in the home. so it was perfect for her as far as the type of campaign technique. >> did caroline like campaigning or did she have safety concerns for her husband? we'd already lost two presidents as a nation. was there an increase in security for presidential candidates at this time? >> i don't think so. >> maybe the local sheriff. but even president truman had no -- when he left office, had no protection. but one thing i'd like to add to what edie said is that it was considered inappropriate for a man to campaign for himself, to get out and make the speeches for himself. >> very different from today. >> very different from today. and the sitting on the front porch was another way of sitting in your stage. >> you're being called to the

office. you're not going out and -- it's not self-promotion. they're coming to call you to be their president. >> and these are regular carnivals. they sell postcards. >> and this will be repeated when you get to mckinley because he was very famous. and we'd just sit on the porch on rocking chairs and people would come by the thousands to look at them. >> jordan in pennsylvania. good evening and welcome to the conversation. >> hi. i'm a big fan of your guys' and i know all about the presidents. i know their age and stuff. my question is, was caroline harrison older than her husband? >> yes. >> a year older. >> i was going to ask if jordan knew the answer. one year older. while we're talking about her husband, here are some of the important things that happened politically and policywise during the harrison presidency. first of all, there were a

number of states that were added to the union. north dakota, south dakota, montana and washington. and in the year later, in 1890, idaho and wyoming were added as part of the united states. also, the battle of wounded knee occurred during the harrison administration. and the sherman antitrust act and the sherman silver purchase act. so two raging debates in this country were about silver, policy, and also the whole tariff concept which we saw that the president greatly supported. what happened to the economy result of this? >> the economy basically the silver act led the economy into depression. harrison lost in the election of 1892 and he was lucky because the economy crashed in the autumn of 1893. president cleveland returned to office. and mrs. harrison by that time had died. >> on twitter it was asked

whether or not caroline provided any political guidance or was her place beside her husband like frances was with grover? the answer would be yes. she was much more atuned to politics. much more. i wouldn't say frances was at all. this woman was very savvy of what he was doing and very interested in the position of women. she was not an activist in the street like the suffragists would be who wanted the vote later on. but she believed that the power of women was very, very great. which it was. and she believed in women getting out there and getting involved. >> and speaking of her influence, not just on her husband but also to affect change in society, here's another item from her diary. the first lady wrote, my mail, consisting of requests to use my influence for some ffice. >> they all have that.

>> i think that was -- a part of being first lady probably since dolly madson's time. >> ms. f.d.r. had just cards and cards of letters, people wanted to get someone out of jail or kept from hanging or whatever. >> next is a call from uncan. >> my last name is -- [inaudible] and there was a wealthy family in ohio at the turn of the century last named rhinehart. did the harrisons have any experience with that family, by chance? >> i have no idea. >> we wouldn't be able to know that kind of detail. hope you can find -- >> which wish i did, yeah. >> maybe someone in your own state could answer that. >> laura in michigan. >> hi, how are you? i'm so excited, i can't believe you're talking about the harrisons. i've lived here for about 30 years.

i've had an inaugural invitation to the inaugural ball in 1889. of benjamin harrison. and i wonder if could you tell me anything about that inaugural ball. >> you don't need to write a regret anymore. but that's fascinating. the inaugural ball. it was a ferociously rainy time. >> and it was in the pension building, i believe. >> all decorated inside. >> yeah. and marine band played. the harrisons -- and they danced. they had not done so in a while. and the dancing custom was brought back to the white house where it had been missing since harriette lane. and the marine band would play and people would dance and that was a spinoff of the inaugural. it was a very -- it was in rain storm but it was very glamorous and happy event. >> you're lucky to have that artifact. that's nice.

>> more than halfway through our program and time to look back at an earlier question about this. about the couple's early life. they were both attendees of miami of ohio in oxford, ohio. tell us more about how they met. she was a native. he came from somewhere else? >> i think he was from cincinnati maybe. >> from ohio, yeah. >> he was definitely from ohio. and they met there in college. he i think was taking a course from her father. in mathematics. and then he began to visit the harrison home under the pretense of, you know, creating a relationship with his professor but in actuality because he wanted to see more of caroline. >> after they married they moved to indianapolis. >> yes, where they were to stay the rest of their lives except for washington. >> were the politics in indianapolis or indiana at the time easier to get into? what's the motivation at that took them to the state? >> it's a smaller place.

they were from prominent families. dr. scott was a prominent educator, as you've said, and very well known. and harrison quickly rose, really, he went to the civil war, and after the civil war his law practice flourished and business law and divorce. indianapolis was the reno of the day. and lots of people went there to get a divorce and he was the best divorce lawyer in town. and his fortune increased. he made quite a bit of money as a lawyer. >> indianapolis is the reno of its day. all you hoosiers out there, a little bit of your history. >> you don't have to leave home. >> so his civil war service, he had children by the time that the civil war had started and it was a big decision in the family as to whether or not he would serve. what did she do during the civil war? >> she worked with several women's patriotic associations.

she visited hospitals, attended wounded soldiers, you know, helped with the women's loyal league and that kind of -- union, what do i want to say, patriotic organizations, the women's sanitary commissions which were helping with -- nurse wounded soldiers. so, you know, the women's side of the war issue. >> which gave her experience in organizing for causes? was that fair to say? >> i think she was just psychologically set for that because of her upbringing. that's what her family believed in. i'm sure her father as a widower living with them in the white house encouraged everything she did in that direction. >> and contributing that to the community i think was part of their ethical background. >> they were deeply religious people. >> how did his law career lead him into politics?

>> the way a law career does. there he was and he was thought well of. and simply decided, persuaded to run for office and did. he just drifted into it. >> and then he became the secretary of the republican state committee. so through that he began to make all these contacts in the state. >> and campaigned -- >> and campaigned for other republicans which then stood him in good steady in his own right as far as a candidate or possible candidate. >> and was elected to the united states senate. he first tried for governor and was unsuccessful in that bid. >> yes. >> and then was successful in his bid for the united states senate. we have another video. we're going to return to the harrison home and learn more about caroline's interests and causes. >> this is the part of the master bedroom suite. this is just a beautiful room,

a room where we love to think of caroline. this would be the sitting room where caroline might have entertained her friends. for instance, she belonged to a number of literary clubs. perhaps they came and met here and talked about the authors that they liked. caroline particularly liked dickens and especially liked shakespeare so that might have been going on in this room. i think, too, that of course this might have been the room that inspired some of her art because it has a beautiful view out the window onto the yard. where her gardens were and where her flowers group -- grew.

there's a wonderful easel which is a display easel. so when she finished a picture she might put it on that easel for her friends to admire when they came up for tea. there's a beautiful fan that was given to her by ulysses grant's daughter-in-law. and she thought it was so beautiful that she put it in a frame so that nobody could hurt it. she also would have probably done some piecework in here. she loved to do embroidery. and i think she -- and beading. that was very popular. and so i think this would have been a room that she worked in. as well as entertained in. she did many community things. for instance, she was involved in the orphans' asylum. she served or their board she went to the orphan's asylum at least once a week she often made clothes or took clothes to them. she did cooking and took the cooking to the orphan asylum. she cared very much about these little children and making sure that their lives were better than they might have been. so that was one of her causes. she also played the piano, of

course, for her church. and every single sunday. so that was a talent that she put to use for other eople. i think caroline had confidence but i also think she had purpose. and so she was always looking for an opportunity to use her skills, to help her fellow man. and to serve her community. >> really an interesting line, that she had purpose. and we're going to talk about how she used some of that purpose when she came to the white house. but first a couple of other questions. was it common for first ladies to go to school, let alone hold a college degree like mrs. arrison? >> that was something that was relatively new. mrs. hays was the first college graduate amongst first ladies. frances cleveland i think also graduated from college and i think grover waited to pop the question while sending flowers to her the whole time she was there. and then caroline harrison also

had a college degree. so it was something that was coming into vogue for women in the later part of the century. >> they were all well educated. whether it was home education of course was the commonest of ll that people had, but some of these girls as young girls went to the female academies sponsored by the churches like the baptists and methodists and they'd live there and they'd learn language, they'd learn whatever they learned there. classics and. so they were -- some of them -- college was later idea with women. >> but very well read, all of them. >> well read, yes. >> mrs. harrison was so progressive on women's issues, what about her views on race? was she influenced at all by the abolitionist movement in her early adult years? >> oh, yes. >> very much so. >> very much so. and his whole administration fought for the african-american vote everywhere.

ow, of course, remember now, that would be african-american men to vote, not women. but it was for the african-american vote, he was very vocal about it. >> next is dan in omaha. hi, dan. >> hi. when you showed the office there at his personal home there, i think i saw a picture of the ninth president, the grandfather of -- >> william henry. >> yeah. did william harrison, did he own this property himself? >> wait a minute -- >> did henry harrison own that property? >> where the house is? no, he lived in ohio. his home is in ohio and it's open to the public as well. william henry harrison's another matter. he died after 30 years in the - 30 days in the white house. and harrison saw him as a little boy of maybe 9 years old in his coffin. that's the only time he saw him. they weren't from a very

distinguished family in irginia. they lived at berkley plantation on the james river. president harrison and benjamin harrison was the son except for the bushes, would be the only son of a -- because that was his grandfather, not his father that was president -- grandfather and son. but the grandfather's father signed the declaration of independence. as one of the virginia signers. and berkley, you can see on the james river, open to the public, and they were distinguished virginia family and in politics for years and years and when william henry harrison went to be inaugurated, he went to berkley where he been born. i don't know whether benjamin harrison ever went but he was very conscious of being the grandson of a founder. i mean the great-grandson of a founder and the grandson of a president. >> just to summarize that, then, there have been two father-son combinations. adams and the bushes, and this is the only

grandfather-grandson pair. and the campaign, benjamin harrison's campaign was all about little tippecanoe. >> you saw the log cabin in there. >> that was his grandfather's cabin. and they said he sits his grandfather's hat, so there were a lot of hats as campaign device. >> did caroline's interest in the presidency fuel her desire for her to be d.a.r. president or vice versa? to apps that question, it's interesting that she took on the role as the president general of the d.a.r. -- > there's a story there. >> i thought there would be. >> the d.a.r. is always misunderstood.

the d.a.r. was founded by working women who were supporting themselves, their children, perhaps, whatever, there were four major ones and many others, it was founded in the fall of 1890 and some -- for some way, caroline harrison became involved, probably because of all the 1789 centennial, centennial of president washington's inauguration. so they persuaded her to be first president and she made the first recorded address made by a first lady to their convention. the d.a.r. had a lot to do with working women who were in the field and not being treated like ladies -- >> particularly in the government agencies in washington. >> yes. they showed descent from the revolution, i'm just as good as you are, but mrs. harrison saw political promise

in it and she taught the d.a.r. to be political, they never intended that. they met in the blue room at their first meeting and she told them how to do it. >> but it was a working job, it was busying required a lot of energy on her part. >> i think it did. she had a lot of support from the founders. >> could we imagine a first lady taking on a role like this? >> i could. she was too busy. >> it would depend on how overtly political people would think it was. but i could certainly imagine somebody doing something like that today. >> to clarify -- james asked, did caroline start the d.a.r.? the answer is no. but she agreed to run it and brought it -- >> visibility, legitimacy a place to meet. helped sort of smooth over the political differences within the group, you know, people wanting different offices and so forth. so by taking the president

general position, she sort of quelled a lot of that, you know, i want the position, i want the position. >> what was happening overall with the women's movement? women still don't have the right to vote in this country. >> they do not have the right to vote. the suffrage movement was finally coming together in 1890 after having been split since the end of the civil war. one group wanted to go the constitutional route, the other group wanted to have it done state by state. in other words, a states' rights approach. and they fought each other for a generation and finally in 1890, they had a meeting in washington in 1888 and decided to unify the suffrage movement so that was going on at the national level, as i mentioned before, the home economics movement began in 1890, the club movement had progressed from local and state

groups to national groups in 1890, you have the white club the black clubs, the jewish women's clubs, and they all get started in the early 1990's. the women are really beginning to organize and lobby very loudly for women's progress. >> harold in connecticut. your question? >> thank you very much for this wonderful series. i was just wondering, if your guests know anything, you were discussing the china services at the white house. do you know anything about the silver collections? and how both the hollow ware and flat ware were being developed at the white house, and lastly, when did lennox china begin its first production for the white house, if you know? thank you so much and thank you for a great series. >> i can answer the question

about the lennox china, that was the wilson administration. up until that time, there had been no ceramic manufacturer that could equal the quality of european ceramics and so almost all of the 19th century and even some of the early 20th century china ware that was ordered for the white house was from france, except for that of theodore and edith roosevelt and they used wedgewood. but it wasn't until the wilson administration that lennox was producing the kind of ceramic ware they felt was proper for the white house and that was the first order from lennox. >> on the silver front, it's a strange story. silver, big orders of silver, such as the white house, in the as early as james monroe?

came in trunks with trays and you had little depressions in there where a knife would fit exactly here so if you had a dozen knives, they'd be in a fan or line. these trays would come out. when it was all washed after dinner, you could look at the trays and if there wasn't a hole, a vacant place, it was all there. it lasted all those years through the 19th century and there were increases but they had all the trunks. mrs. william howard taft went on one of those -- lesser tour than mrs. harrison, but a tour we were talking about, and she saw those dirty old trunks as she said and she had the silver taken out and put in drawers like anyone does at home today and had the trunks thrown away and the silver was decimated. it began to go out with the garbage. a lot of it remains but you began to lose it, if you can't count it. >> that is painful. >> it's like the decayed furnishings sales at the white house, all these things thought to be out of date were sold at auction.

they had huge auctions and all of this marvelous stuff migrated out of the white house. >> sam is washing us in cherry hill, new jersey. you're on, sam. >> hello, there. i had a question about mrs. harrison's ill health. let me begin by saying i am a huge caroline harrison fan, i've been following her for years but did her ill health have any effect on the amount of work she was able to do in her husband's administration? do you think it prevented her taking on more work in the administration? she was a beautiful woman and could have had a lot of influence. >> she had tuberculosis and stayed busy -- tuberculosis and depression, really. but finally she couldn't fight

it anymore, it was really the only -- only the last two months of her life that were bad, everything happened to her in october, she was born in october, died in october, the d.a.r. was founded in october. >> before we leave her influences, there's a story about her support for johns hopkins that you need to tell. >> ok. well, the back story is that johns hopkins had built a hospital and was going to build a medical school with graduate education and they built the hospital but they ran out of money for the medical school. and so a young woman whose name was mary elizabeth gear rhett, -- garrett, who was the daughter of the owner of the baltimore and ohio railroad, had a group of women, all of whom had their fathers on the board at johns hopkins university, and so they would

meet regularly in a group they called the friday. not the friday club, the friday. and they referred to themselves in their memos and stuff as girls. the girls decided to take on this project. mary elizabeth garrett had been her father's sort of right hand person. she'd traveled with him, watched him make, as donald trump would say, the art of the deal. and so she was very aware that this was the time that they should tell johns hopkins that they would raise the money that was needed for this medical school, if the medical school would admit women on the same equal basis as men. well, it took the men on the board a little aback and took them a while to sort of come around to the idea but there were all these incredible women that she had contact with and i will read you some of their

names, they were mrs. leland stanford, -- >> stanford university -- >> of stanford university. and mrs. potter palmer, whose husband built the palmer house in chicago. julia ward howe. elizabeth blackwell, the first female doctor in the country. louisa katherine adams who i think was a granddaughter of the first louisa katherine, the first lady. ann carrie thomas, head of bryn mawr. these women decided this would be their mission, they were going to raise $100,000 to help johns hopkins put up this medical school and the men acquiesced and the women divided the country into 15 geographical regions and invited caroline harrison to be the person in charge of washington, d.c.

she had several receptions in the white house and of course this was wonderful publicity and legitimacy for this group of women and their mission to get women into the medical school and she also went to baltimore several times. and was the guest of honor at the reception that mary elizabeth fware rhett held. -- garrett held. it was a very successful kind of lobbying, if you will, and the women came through and raised the money. >> and caroline harrison used the white house to advance the causes she was interested in. >> absolutely. >> on our next video we'll learn more about that as we once again visit the harrison home in indianapolis. >> caroline harrison was one of the first first ladies to have her own ideas to renovate the white house. we have fabrics here, this one was used in the east room and there are just lots of different fabrics here, little swatches, nice velvets in different colors and we have you know, the pale greens used in her bedroom, i

believe, you have gold an green here, just all the different fabrics that were used when she was redecorating the white house as well. you can see the different shades. and we have a little book that frances johnson was the photographer in the white house at the time and she took a lot of photographs than little book is a compiling of those but it also has a description of the rooms and the colors that were used by mrs. harrison along with the photographs of the rooms once they were decorated. and then we have just lots of things that they saved from those state dinners and things like the ribbons here, bows, it actually has the white house image on there and the date of the event. this is mrs. harrison, january 19, 1892.

and different colors, different ribbons they would use, this is from a february dinner in 1892, it's been untied but we have the white house image at one end, the date at the other end. we have place cards in our collection as well. the card with the eagle, mrs. harrison, january 20, 1891. we have another one for mrs. mckee, the daughter, so we have executive mansion on the one side and the event, may 29, 1891, on the other. one more here for the president, for the january 20, 1891 event, as well. and then also just below this section, a lot of the ribbons, again, nice red, white, and blue, these were all for the same event but different colors, we have the eagle on one end and the date, april 23, 1890 on the other in there for them as well.

>> they entertained and some of the historic preservation of the events in the white house, interesting to see. back to telephone calls, marge is watching us in charleston, south carolina. >> hello, what a wonderful program, i am so thrilled. my question may be a little premature but as the prime historian of the first ladies, can you, in your opinion, tell us which may have been the most despised? which may have been the most loved? and my second question is, is it true nancy reagan bribed the designers to give her her dresses for free? >> wow. well the most despised -- >> was there one? >> i don't know that i would use that term. there were people who greatly disliked eleanor roosevelt. >> but i don't think they despised her.

>> i don't think they despised her. i think they respected her even though -- >> some didn't like mary lincoln. they loved to hate. >> i think mary lincoln also was very much hated and that had to do with the civil war, i think, as much as neg. -- as much as anything. >> most loved? >> probably dolly madison is who i would choose, or jacqueline kennedy in the modern time. >> mamie eisenhower. >> she was very well loved. and what was the last part of her question? >> oh -- >> the dresses for nancy reagan. >> oh, nancy reagan did receive dresses for free from -- as a form of advertising for the different designers who gave them to her. >> would people have designed dresses and given them to the first ladies or would they have purchased them? >> i think after nancy reagan --

>> i mean in the days we're in right now. people becoming interested in fashion, were they supporting american -- >> i don't think so. >> they did it in europe. the designers, the same way movie stars are today, in europe, the nobility and people like that wore clothes, that's how worth in paris got its name. >> but i'm not familiar with anything that went on like this, in this particular period, maybe we didn't know. >> sharon in sacramento. >> hello. >> hi, sharon, we're listening. >> you talked a little while ago about the father-sons who have been president. i'm wondering about benjamin's father, what did he do? was he in poll techs? -- was he in politics? did it skip a generation? and did he live to see benjamin become president? >> that's one for bill. >> that's one that bill doesn't

know. [laughter] he was in politics. >> he was. >> i think a congressman. >> yeah, he was. but whether he had died before harrison went to office, i don't know. >> i don't know that either. >> so the question is yes, his father was in poll techs, though he didn't make it to the level of his own father or his son but we don't know the answer, sorry, about whether or not he was there for the inauguration of his son. next up, marie in lovejoy, georgia. hi, marie. >> hi. i love this show and your guests. my question is, what was the salary of the president, from washington to harrison, compared to today? >> $25,000 a year had been the salary, it went up to $75,000 for grant and it stayed there forever and ever. >> that was good money in those days. >> it was. and what they usually would do is they would spend it because they had to in the first term and pay their debt, second term

they'd try to -- try to squirrel it away for retirement. lincoln was toning that. jefferson did it, of course he was no businessman. but then for every term, you have $20,000 you didn't have to account for. and that finally got up to $50,000 and more. and the first person that -- the president they made account for it was president truman in just a mean-spirited act from congress. they made him account for every penny of that but normally it was something realizing there were extra expenses they had to do. >> next is gail in palm coast, florida. hi, actually. >> i was wondering, since jacqueline kennedy, first ladies have been foremost in our country with hairstyles and fashion, was caroline harrison the same way? she was such a beautiful lady. >> i don't think so. >> i don't think so. it think it was frances

cleveland and certainly not caroline at that point in her life. >> ms. cleveland was into style. people would borrow her name, soaps and things would borrow her name without permission, it infuriated the president. >> and put her image on every kind of conceivable tchotchkes anybody wanted to sell. grover was so angered by that he tried to get a bill through congress to stop it. talking about from jacqueline kennedy on, actually, mamie eisenhower was the one who, i think, in modern times started the whole thing with fashion. remember her mamie bangs and the fact that she would buy fashionable clothes and she was approached by designers to wear their clothing and their hats and was on the best dressed list for many years in the white house. >> 1892, benjamin harrison is a candidate for re-election. the economy is in tough shape and he is once again in a rematch with former president cleveland, and caroline harrison becomes more and more ill.

can you tell the story of her death? >> she just declined and declined. he could have been re-elected but he was so devastated -- >> did he not send her to the adirondacks to recover? >> he did. and they tried to get her to go to montana to recover. >> the whole family went to the adirondacks with her. >> she died in the white house in 1892. >> the second of the only two first ladies to die in the white house. >> leticia tyler was the first. >> was there a big state funeral, one of our viewers want to know. >> it was in the east room but it was not a state funeral. >> the people you have to invite were there, but it was in the east room, there's a photograph of her coffin covered in roses, pink roses. she died and had he worked harder he could have won in that

campaign because what he was saying was flavored with reform and what grover cleveland was doing was bringing back the past. and it didn't happen. i mean, cleveland won. >> the other thing that i think is very notable about that is that neither of them, out of respect for caroline and her health and then subsequently her death, actually did much campaigning. >> he didn't make speeches. >> nor did cleveland. >> cleveland never did make campaign speeches. >> it would be interesting to see what would happen today if there was a great death if we would abstain from campaigning as they did back then. so what happened to the official white house in the days after her death? did someone else step in to act as first lady? >> i think lady mckee did.

>> the mother of baby mckee. benjamin harrison went on to remarry. can you tell us about that? >> he remarried care loin's niece who had been her social secretary and also an aide to him as the president. and she had lost both of her parents when she was very young so they brought her into the family, sort of as, you know, another daughter, into the family. and she looked at both of them, i think, for most of the time as parents, you know, substitute parents. whether -- >> elizabeth wasn't still living with her mother? >> her mother had died in the white house. caroline's sister.

>> the niece was a widow. >> she was a widow. and without parents. so they, you know, brought her into the family. >> so benjamin harrison after the death of his wife said, for me, there is no staying and losing the election. after the heavy blow, the death of my wife dealt me, i do not think i could have stood the strain a re-election would have brought. how many years the defeat did he remarry? >> four. four or five. >> they married in 1896. there was a great scuffle about it. it was considered the wrong thing to do by a lot of the public. >> certainly by the children. they were furious. >> she had been there with them almost like a sister and it was very shocking to them. and they had a child. >> holly hunt asked, having read that benjamin harrison remarried after caroline died to her nice, -- to her niece, wants to know, was there evidence of them having an affair while caroline was still alive? >> no. oh, no. >> it's interesting, one of the

articles i read talks about memorandums written by george cordelio, mckinley's and then later theodore roosevelt's chief of staff, in which he says he had a conversation with robert mckee, the father of baby mckee, who lived in the white house the entire time and the story was that mckee told george that caroline was so distressed because she thought she was losing him to the younger niece, that she was going to move out of the white house. and that he personally talked her out of it because of the scandal that would come down on the family and the presidency. i don't know whether -- who knows but that was -- >> he worked for harrison, george did. >> you're skeptical? >> and the people at the harrison home are very skeptical as well.

>> as edie said she was like a child to them. but then they he married her, they had a baby, a little girl. the public will always give its opinion. >> lewis is watching us in los angeles and has a question. >> yes, i do. i'm enjoying this series and keep it up. i have two questions. you said that you had a recorded caroline the first lady was the first first laity to have her -- lady to her have voice recorded and do we have one of the president? my second question is, what was the president, president harrison's views on civil rights at the time? thank you. >> i don't know where that recorded is, i assume the daughters of the american revolution have it in their

extensive library in washington but the harrisons were both committed to civil rights. i said earlier, he fought his whole time different ways and -- he had a very legalistic mind, of course, and looked for ways of sharing the vote to the african-american male, of course, remember it wouldn't have been -- white women weren't voting either but they were very committed to it and very public about it. >> and they were saying that one of the favorite people -- groups of people that visited the front porch during the campaign were african-american groups. >> crystal in terra haute, indiana, your question about benjamin harrison or his wife. >> this question is about mrs. harrison and it's on the line of the civil rights question. i know mrs. lincoln had an african-american that was a friend of hers, i thought i read she was a confidant of mrs. lincoln. i know mrs. harrison had several helpers and servants at the white house, but

did she have a special relationship with any of her african-american helpers or servants? and what was her relationship to them? >> i don't know. >> there were always african- americans except one brief period in 1859-1860, the butlers and people like that sort of ran things and she perhaps had a maid or somebody that -- but i don't know. >> i don't know whether there was a personal friendship of any kind. >> here is the not quite four years of her tenure of caroline harrison and what she's known for. >> so where does she fit in the pantheon of first laities?

-- ladies? >> unfortunately, obscurely. >> yes. >> why unfortunately? >> she did more than most. and the seeds of what she did -- >> they've come to fruition. certainly her vision of the historic nature of the white house and the fact that it should be reflecting the united states as this up and coming power in the world, i think were motivating factors in trying to get the white house renovated and reconstructed and her grand vision for what the white house could become and i think she also is probably the first who correctly understood that the white house was the historic

repository of the american people and of the presidency and she -- i think the white house china collection was one of the things she did, the fact that she used antiques that she kind of resurrected from the attic and the basement, so i think she, you know, she was a predecessor for people like mrs. coolidge and mrs. hoover who tried to do inventories of the white house she kid the first -- she did the first inventory i'm aware of. and her vision of the historic nature of the white house and its collections and her campaigns for the betterment of women were very important but not picked up on in her own time. >> here's one from facebook, what modern day first laity

-- lady would caroline compare most to? >> dare i say rosalind carter who was a quiet first lady but was very busy trying to do worthy things? i guess, you know, -- >> betty ford and her -- >> less public -- betty ford was awfully public -- not awfully but public. ms. carter wasn't. >> she was a much quieter, more behind the scenes kind of person but i also -- i want to say jacqueline kennedy in the sense of her sense of the white house and historic preservation and why that's important to the presidency. >> we began 90 minutes ago with the thesis that caroline harrison was one of the more underrated first lady. we hope we have demonstrated some of the ways she perhaps should be better known than she is. i want to say thanks to our guests for being here for the help they've supplied in the series. next week, ida mckinley will be the final first lady in our

first season of first laities, -- ladies taking us into the new century and we look forward to seeing you then. >> thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] ♪

>> in our original series "first image," weluence and look at the women who served during the nation's first 100 years. we featured the first ladies in their own words. >> civil rights will be one of the foundations on which we would build in the world and world in which peace could grow. think the white house belongs completely to one person. it belongs to the people of america. should is the first lady preserve the tradition and leave something of themselves there. "first ladies" live on mondays

at 9 p.m. eastern. conclude season 1 of "first ladies." span, from the c- steps of the lincoln memorial, watched it it anniversary on the march on washington. attorneyinclude general eric holder and john lewis and steny hoyer. and the families of trayvon martin. march, the have a live interview with reporters and attendees on c-span radio -- we have a live interview with reporters and attendees on c- span radio. live coverage on c-span. is texas senator ted cruz delivering keynotes at a gop party fundraiser. this event was held at the home of a former ambassador joseph

petrone and his wife in hampshire. senator cruise is introduced by the new hampshire senator kelly ayotte. this is an hour and 20 minutes. [applause] >> thank you so much. what a beautiful, beautiful job. everything that a have and again,e party time and time again hosting this event, their activism, we are so blessed to have great americans like the dust and joe petrone. patron.ta and joe

you are wonderful. [applause] to ourto save thank you party chairman for her dedication. [applause] and for her tenacity. she does not back down from a fight. she stands for our principles. she works very hard. we are grateful for what you are doing for our party. i know that jennifer and all of you are working incredibly hard to make sure that 2014 is a winning year here in new hampshire for republicans. a winning year, we need not just new hampshire, but we need to take back the united states senate for republicans. [applause] what is at stake? we know what is at stake. what is at stake is we live in

the greatest nation in our. we are so blessed to live here in this country. $17 trillion in debt, and a president who wants to keep spending and spending. it is only because republicans have control of the house that there has been any stop on that spending. when you think about obamacare and what it is doing to our businesses, to individuals -- what about the rest of us americans? that law has to go, and it has to be repealed. we need more republicans in the united states senate and in congress to keep the majority in the house and the senate to make sure that happens. i know i see it every day. joe is a small business owner. each of you have felt it in your business. republicans have ideas about how we can use market-based principles to drive down health care costs and to make health

care better in quality and give people more choice, not less choice, like this president is doing to average americans with obamacare. and finally, the defense of our nation. look at what is happening around the world right now. jennifer talked about benghazi. we need republicans in the united states senate. we need to hold people accountable for what happens to those poor brave americans. [applause] and i can tell you that i am not going to give up this fight for the truth, and to hold people accountable, to make sure this never happens again. we can say the same thing for the irs. that the irs would target americans for their viewpoints so absolutely wrong. despite you are engaged in, not only here in new hampshire, but

across the country, to make sure we can win back a majority in the united states senate in 2014, and then go and take on the white house, a republican president in 2016. that will make the difference for this nation. we are the party of opportunity. we are the party of growth, the party that wants to give people the opportunity, the american dream, that you can do anything in this country with personal responsibility, work ethic. nothing can stop you in this country. and i am so proud to be here tonight. i know someone whose family story, and his own personal story, demonstrates what you can do as an american living in the greatest country on earth, with the american dream. it is my honor tonight to be here with my colleague, ted cruz.

i want to tell you a little story about ted, because i met him long before i came to the united states senate. that was when i was involved in a little fight when i was attorney general, and i took a case to the united states supreme court. it was a case i took to the supreme court defending our parental notification law. and i know many of you followed that case. ted was solicitor general when i was attorney general. and he filed a brief on behalf of the state of new hampshire. it was not just any brief. let me tell you how smart this guy is. the grief that he filed on behalf of the state of new hampshire was instrumental in us winning that case. i want to thank ted for that.

[applause] and so i knew that was not going to be the last that i was going to see of ted cruz. low and behold, he has come to washington. he has come and take in on with a storm. storm.n it on by he has passion. he has principles. and he is very smart. i am honored to introduce my colleague and friend, ted cruz. [applause] >> thank you very, very much. kelly ayotte is a rock star. [applause] let me tell you, your senator is tough as granite.

there is no stronger advocate of the men and women in our military in the u.s. senate than kelly ayotte. and there is no one tougher going to get the truth about what happened in benghazi than kelly ayotte. your senator is part of a new generation of leaders that are stepping forward. let me say on behalf of texas, and on behalf of americans across our great nation, thank you to the state of new hampshire for your tremendous senator, kelly ayotte. i also want to thank the ambassador and augusta for your tremendous hospitality, for opening up this incredible home, for bringing a texan from the swamps of houston to this exquisite vista that is truly breathtaking.

and i am pretty sure you can actually see canada from here. [laughter] so i appreciate you going above and beyond to welcome me. [applause] and i will note, as i went upstairs in the home, that augusta had a bumper sticker sitting on the stairs that said, "stop crying. shoot back." [applause] and that is really how you make a texan feel at home. [laughter]

i want to thank jennifer for your incredible hard work bringing this together, bringing everyone here. i want to thank all of you for traveling. so many of you traveled hours, from all over the place, to be here. thank you. thank you, thank you. i do need to begin with a warning. by virtue of your coming here tonight, tomorrow morning, each of you will be audited i the irs. -- by the irs. [laughter] so thank you for the strength and the courage of your convictions. this week, our eldest daughter, caroline, started kindergarten.

it is a big week in the cruz household. caroline was giddy, bouncing off the walls. couple ofnk back to a years ago. we were on vacation. we were with some friends. we were going out to dinner. caroline wanted to drive with them. there was no space at the bar. -- in the car. she proceeded to fall down to the ground, kicked, yellow, and -- yell and scream and throw a total fit. i know none of you have had kids do anything like that. my wife, heidi, is tough. she had a very stern conversation with caroline. dinner was almost canceled, and then it was not. we went to dinner. we went back to the hotel room. heidi and i are kneeling with caroline as she is saying her prayers. caroline looks up, and she goes, dear jesus, today we had a

situation. [laughter] and i am not sorry, but it is not going to happen again. [laughter] heidi and i just bit our tongues. not to laugh out loud at that precious, precious prayer. and you know what? that is why each and every one of us is here today. we are here because of our kids. we are here because of our grandkids. we are here because we are worried about the direction this country is going. and we are here because we want to make sure our kids and grandkids have every bit of opportunity, and even more, that we were blessed to have. i want to come here today with

just a word of hope and optimism. something incredible is happening, i am convinced. we are seeing a new paradigm in politics that is changing the rules. that new paradigm is the rise of the grassroots. there is no power in politics like the grassroots. i want to talk about the grassroots in the past, in the present, and in the future. in the past, i want to give the example of my race for senate in texas. -- grass when we launched the campaign, january of 2011, i was at 2% in the polls. the margin of error was 3%. [laughter] those were our real poll numbers. i am not making that up. i was really, really excited

with those numbers. until heidi pointed out to me that technically i could have been at negative one percent. [laughter] we ended up going through a $50 million primary, the most expensive in the country. we were outspent three to one. had $35 million in nasty, personal, ugly attack ads. midway through, heidi is watching all those ads. she turns to me and says, goodness, gracious. i did not know you were such a rotten guy. [laughter] and what we saw happen was incredible. we saw grassroots leaders throughout texas. we saw a republican women like my friend sylvia manley. we saw tea party leaders, business leaders, community activists come together, men and

women, to begin knocking on doors, sending e-mails, getting on facebook and twitter, reaching out to everyone they knew, saying, we cannot keep doing what we have been doing. we have to turn things around. despite being outspent three to one, we went from 2% in the polls to not just winning, but winning the primary by 14 points and the general by 16 points. [applause] that was a testament to the grassroots. it was a testament to the power of men and women across the state, with a passion to turn our country around. i do not think i have ever been part of anything in my life that was more humbling and inspiring.

i will tell you a true story from the campaign trail. i was up in lubbock, texas, during the runoff. an older gentleman came up to me and put his hand on my shoulder. he said, i am 74 years old. i am retired. i gave you $2500 for the primary out of my retirement savings. he said, tonight, i am giving you another $2500 for the runoff out of my retirement savings. because if we do not stop what is happening in this country, my retirement is going away. that is powerful, when you look in someone's eyes, and they are saying, please help us turn things around. let us talk about the threats. one of the first fights i was privileged to be part of in the senate was standing side-by-side

with my friend, senator rand paul, in his 13 hour filibuster on drugs. -- drones. [applause] when that started, it was 11:47 a.m. that rand paul went to the floor of the senate. most of our colleagues thought what he was doing was strange, curious, even quixotic. the first senators to show up to support him were mike lee and myself. what happened is, the american people began to get engaged. across this country, people became fixated by c-span. [laughter] a phrase that does not occur naturally in the english language. i say to our good friends at c- span. [laughter]

and we saw people all over the country going online, speaking out, saying, defend our constitutional rights. it was incredible. as the day went on, one senator after another came to the floor of the senate. a number had gone home to dinner, and their staffs would say, get back here. you would see colleagues of mine coming to the floor of the senate saying, the tweety thing is happening. i need to be here. [laughter] for 13 hours, the american people spoke up, and spoke loudly. because of the involvement of the grassroots, the next day, president obama was forced to do what he had refused to do for three consecutive weeks, which was admit in writing that the constitution limits his authority to target u.s. citizens. [applause]

that was a bit. of the grassroots. that could not have been done from washington. that could only have been done from the american people. the next fight we got involved in was the battle over guns. we all remember the horrific, heart tragedy in newtown, connecticut. unfortunately, following that tragedy, president obama did not come out and say, let us go after violent criminals. let us do everything we can to stop violent crime. we ought to come down on them like a ton of bricks. [applause] but unfortunately, president obama instead tried to use that tragedy as an excuse to go after the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. vice president joe biden -- [laughter]

you know, you do not need a punchline. [laughter] you just say his name. people laugh. but vice president joe biden told all of us. he said, if anybody attacks your house, just go outside with a double barrel shotgun, and fire both barrels in the air, which is very, very good advice, if it so happens you are being attacked by a flock of geese. [laughter] but let me tell you, that fight over guns -- in the early days and weeks, that fight looked unwinnable. the momentum was entirely with

the president. all of the media told us it could not be won, and there were lots of senators on the edge, waiting. a handful of senators stood up and said, we will filibuster any legislation that amends the second amendment right to keep and bear arms. [applause] what happened next was exactly the same thing that happened with drones. what happened next was, the american people began getting involved, began tweeting, began calling their senators and saying, defend our bill of rights. let me tell you one of the most effective defenders we have of the second amendment is your senator, kelly ayotte. [applause] and any new york mayor -- [boos]

-- who thinks he can come up here and believe the senator -- bully the senator from new hampshire seems a little confused by the concept of "live free or die." [applause] but as a result of the american people getting engaged, all of the senators that were on the fence, that were thinking about going with the president, that were agonizing when it came the day for the vote -- every single proposal of president obama's that would have undermined the second amendment right to keep and bear arms was voted down on the floor of the senate. [applause] that is the power of the grassroots. that is the new paradigm we are seeing. let us talk about the future. in my view, the top priority for

every republican should be to champion growth and opportunity. [applause] in the last four years, our economy has grown, on average, 0.9% a year. to put that in context, there is only one other period post world war ii of four consecutive years of no growth, on average. that was coming out of jimmy carter, and it was the same economic policy. it produced the exact same economic stagnation. i think restoring economic growth ought to be a bipartisan executive.

it ought to be the top priority of every elected official, republican or democrat. growth is foundational to everything else. if you want to turn around unemployment, we have to have growth. if you want to maintain the strongest military in the world to protect our national security, you have got to have growth. [applause] how do you get growth? three simple steps. finally reining in the out-of- control spending and unsustainable debt in washington. [applause] last fall, i had the privilege of speaking at the republican convention down in tampa.

i talked about our little girls. that evening, heidi and i got back to the hotel room, about 1:30 in the morning. i pulled out my iphone, looking at twitter. it so happens that all of poundstone, the comedian, was watching the convention that night. i guess she did not have anything better to do. she sent a tweet. she said, ted cruz just said when his daughter was born, the national debt was $10 trillion. now, it is $16 trillion. what the heck did she do? [laughter] heidi and i laughed so hard we almost fell out of bed. i said that at another gathering, and a guy at the backside, "so it is her fault!" but you know what, caroline is five. in her short life, our national debt has grown over 60%. what we are doing to our kids

and grandkids is fundamentally immoral. it is wrong. if we do not turn back from this past, they are going to spend their whole adult lives not working to meet the challenges of the future, but working to pay off the debts that we are racking up. our parents did not do that to us. their parents did not do the -- do that to them. there are a lot of people in the media that say anyone who was elected with support from the tea party -- those guys are radical. they are extreme. i have to chuckle at that. it is only in washington, d.c. that it is considered radical to want to live within your means. [applause]

it is only at the united states capitol that it is considered extreme not to want to bankrupt our kids and grandkids. the second step to restoring economic growth is fundamental tax reform. [applause] our tax code is far too complicated. it is far too byzantine. there are more words in the irs code than there are in the bible. not a one of them is as good. every year, we spend roughly 500 alien dollars on tax compliance, -- billion dollars on tax compliance, on lawyers, on accountants. that is roughly the entire budget of our military. and it is pure deadweight loss.

as we like to say in texas, it does not produce a single truck or tortilla. [laughter] and we have seen the abuses from the irs. we have seen the irs targeting the political enemies of president obama. we have seen the irs asking citizen groups, tell us what books you are reading. prepare a book report on the books you are reading. we have seen them telling other citizens, tell us the content of your prayers. you know what? the federal government has no business asking any american the content of our prayers. [applause] on one level, this scandal reflects the corruption and abuse of power in the obama administration. in another level, it is indicative of too much power in washington. when the federal government

thinks it has that much power over our lives, it does not matter which party is in power. something is wrong. that is why the simplest and best solution is, we should abolish the irs. [applause] we should move to a simple, fair flat tax, so that -- [applause] so every american can fill out his or her taxes on a postcard. in washington, d.c., that is what is known as crazy talk. listen -- let us be very, very clear. abolishing the irs, that is not going to be easy. the reason is, there is an army of lobbyists on k street who make hundreds of millions of

dollars getting exemptions to the tax code. frankly, there are career politicians in both parties, with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. i do not know how many of y'all have run across management consultants, but they have a phrase called bhag's -- big, hairy, audacious goals. abolishing the irs is a big, hairy audacious goal. but if i am right that we are seeing a new paradigm, the ability of the american people to hold elected officials accountable, it is only through that new paradigm that we can get that done. the third piece to restoring economic growth is regulatory

reform. president obama has unleashed regulators like locusts on small businesses, destroying jobs. the only problem is, you cannot use insecticide on the regulators. [laughter] that is tough. i am like -- there is someone in the back going, want to bet? and there is no more important regulatory reform we could do them to repeal every single word of obamacare. [applause] we are, right now, in the middle of a fight.

we have, i believe, the single best opportunity we have had to actually succeed in stopping obamacare. on september 30, 38 days from today, the continuing resolution that funds the federal government expires.

i have publicly pledged, along with a number of other senators, that under no circumstances will i support a continuing resolution that funds even one penny of obamacare. [applause] let me take a couple of minutes talking about this. in terms of why it is important, and how we can win. there is bipartisan agreement right now that obamacare is not working. the lead author, democrat senator max baucus, has publicly described it as a huge train wreck. that is the guy who wrote it. now, maybe he did not read it. [laughter] the president of the teamsters, james huff, has publicly said obamacare is destroying the 40 hour workweek that is the backbone of the american middle class.

that is not me saying that -- that is the teamsters. the irs employees union has publicly asked to be exempted from obamacare. these are the guys in charge of enforcing it on us. most strikingly, president obama has now unilaterally and lawlessly exempted members of congress from obamacare. that is exactly right. it is shameful. that happened after harry reid and senate democrats sat down in a closed-door meeting, where according to public reports, they basically begged, let us out from under obamacare. i think the biggest divide in washington is not a divide between republicans and

democrats. it is a divide between entrenched politicians in both parties, and the american people. [applause] and there is no better example of that than the president's decision to exempt members of congress from obamacare. obamacare is the single biggest job killer in this country. a couple of days ago, i was down in kerrville, a small town in texas in the hill country. i sat down with business owners and said, share with me an issue

that is weighing on your heart. totally open-ended question. over half said, the single biggest obstacle my business faces is obamacare. several said, we have 30, 40 employees in our business. we have great opportunities to expand. but if we get over 50 employees, we are subject to obamacare, then that will drive us out of business. one woman owned several fast food restaurants. she said, almost with tears in her eyes, that she has been forced to reduce the hours of every single employee on her staff to 29 hours a week or less. she said, many of these employees have worked for us 10, 20 years.

they cannot feed their families on 29 hours a week. but if we go out of business, they cannot feed their families either. another fellow at a manufacturing company described how, much to his chagrin, he was forced to move manufacturing overseas to china. that is 150 to 200 good manufacturing jobs i want to have in the united states, that we cannot be competitive in the marketplace with that cost, and i am forced to send it overseas. just this week, ups sent a letter to 18,000 employees, saying they were dropping

spousal coverage, telling those employees, your husbands and wives all just lost their health insurance. we all remember president obama telling the american people, if you like your health insurance, you can keep it. every day, that is becoming less and less true. how do we win this fight? a lot of people will tell you

this fight is not winnable. a lot of people will tell you -- let me tell you what i think should happen. the house of representatives should pass a continuing resolution that funds the entirety of the federal government, every bit of it, except obamacare. [applause] and they should explicitly prohibit spending any money, mandatory or discretionary, on funding obamacare. we have seen this play before. president obama and harry reid

will scream and yell. those mean, nasty republicans are threatening to shut down the government. we ought to do something republicans have not done in a long time -- stand up and win the arguments. [applause] we need to say, listen -- we have voted to fund the government. we do not want to shut the government down. president obama has granted waivers to giant corporations. why is president obama threatening to shut the government down to deny those waivers to american families? that is an argument we can win. if president obama forces a partial temporary shutdown, and you have an impasse, you have two sides. the impasse ends when one side or the other blinks. why is it the media always says that president obama will never, ever abandon his principles, so republicans have to abandon ours? you want to know how we win? don't blink. [applause]

at this point, i am going to be brutally honest. we cannot win this fight if the ordinary rules of washington apply. if the forms in which i need to make this argument are the smoke-filled rooms of washington, d.c., we cannot win this argument. cannot be done. is someone ok over there? ok. let us just hold off a minute and make sure she is all right. ok. the ordinary rules of washington will not win this fight. i cannot win this fight. mike lee cannot win this fight. there is no elected politician in washington who can win this fight. only you can win this fight. the only way this fight can be won is if i am right that we are seeing a new paradigm, a new model, the rise of the grassroots. reporters are saying, how is it going, convincing your colleagues in washington? the plan to defund obamacare has

been called deceptive, deceitful, nuts, crazy, stupid, and wacko. that is just by republicans. the answer i give to friends in the fourth estate is, i am not trying to convince my colleagues. i am trying to make the case to the american people. a website has been launched -- dontfundit.com. i would urge you to sign it, call your elected representative, and get 10, 50 of your friends to do the same. do you know, in just a few weeks, we have gotten over a half-million signatures on the website? in just a few weeks. the only way we will win this fight is if we see a grassroots tsunami.

if between now and september 30, we see millions upon millions of americans signing the petition, speaking out, and holding our elected officials accountable. there is nothing that gets a politician's attention more than hearing from his or her constituents. liberty is never safer than when politicians are terrified. i am here to ask for your help.

if you agree we should bring back jobs, bring back -- we need your help in the next 30 days to get as many people as possible to come together and hold our elected officials accountable. every one of us, including me. [applause] let me tell you the most important reason economic growth is important. because it is foundational to opportunity. it is foundational to helping people achieve the american dream. for a long time, i have advocated what i call opportunity conservatism. every policy should focus like a laser on opportunity, on how it impacts the least off among us young people, hispanics, african-americans, single moms, those struggling to climb the economic ladder. the dirty little secret those in the media will not tell you is that people who have been hurt the most by the obama economy are those who could not afford it. youth unemployment is over 25%. when you pound corporations with massive regulations, it is not the ceo's that get hurt. if you were flying in a private jet, you are still flying in a private jet. the people getting hurt are those struggling to climb the economic ladder. those finding their hours forcibly reduced our single moms, trying to put food on the table for their kids. the last election, jay leno said, right before the election, the obama campaign is targeting first-time voters. of course he is. the second time voters have all graduated. they cannot find a job.

[applause] we should be the party of the 47%. we should be the party of those climbing the economic ladder. you know what? the american free enterprise system has been the greatest engine of prosperity and opportunity the world has ever seen. no nation on earth has allowed so many millions to come from all over the world with nothing, and achieve anything. i want to close with two final observations. in my life, as in all of your

lives, freedom and opportunity are not abstract concepts. they are not things we read about in a book. they are personal. in my family, my dad is from cuba. he grew up in cuba. when he was 14, he began fighting the cuban revolution. he was thrown in prison and tortured i the batista regime, beaten almost to death. today, my father is a pastor in dallas. to this day, his front teeth are not his own, because they were

kicked out of his mouth when he was a teenager. my dad fled cuba in 1957. he came to texas. when he landed in austin at 18 years old, he could not speak a word of english. he had $100 sewn into his underwear. i do not advise carrying money in your underwear. he got a job washing dishes. he made $.50 an hour. he worked seven days a week. he paid his way to the university of texas. he went on to get a job. he started a small business. he worked toward the american dream. when i was a kid, my dad used to say to me, over and over again, when we faced depression in cuba, i had a place to flee to. if we lose our freedom here, where do we go? [applause] [applause] my entire life, my dad had been my hero. you know what i find most incredible about his story? how commonplace it is. everyone of us here has a story just like that, whether it is us or our parents or great grandparents. we are all the children of those

who risked everything. for freedom. each one of us could walk up here one at a time and tell those stories. i am going to suggest that is the most fundamental dna of what it means to be an american, to value freedom and opportunity above all else. that is why we are going to succeed in turning this around. the final thing i want to say, if you remember nothing that i said tonight, then you probably had too much to drink. [laughter] if you remember one thing that i said tonight, let it be this. as dire as things look right now, i am profoundly optimistic. we have seen things look dire before. i am optimistic for three simple reasons. number one, we are right. freedom works. [applause] there is a very simple dynamic, conservatives win when we effectively articulate what it is we believe. this is fundamentally a center- right nation. liberals win when they effectively off the skate -- obduscate what they believe. their policies do not work and all we have to do is speak the truth. secondly, there is a new generation of leaders stepping forward in washington. if you look at new, young leaders, people like rand paul and marco rubio and mike lee and kelly ayotte. [applause]

you know what is incredible? five years ago, not one of them was in office. you have to go back to after world war ii to see an instance where the generation of leaders who were effectively defending free-market principles is a new generation stepping forward -- let me suggest something. if you look at that new generation, they are almost always exactly the same age. in my instance, i was 10 when ronald reagan became president. i was 18 when ronald reagan left the white house.

now, you know how for the world war ii generation, many of them would prefer to fdr as "our

president?" i will go to my grave with ronald reagan defining what it means to be present. -- president. [applause] he didn't blink. i have referred to this next generation, this new generation as the children of reagan. listen to them communicate. listen to kelly stand up and talk about free-market principles. listen to marco. listen to rent. -- rand. they are positive. they are echoes of ronald reagan. they are not hateful. they are saying, we as americans can get back to our founding principles that have made this nation so great. the third and final reason i am optimistic, the biggest reason is because of each of you. because of the rise of the grassroots. if we are right, that the american people are standing up and saying, enough already, we are going to take our country back. we are going to get back to free-market principles, to the constitution, to the founding principles that made this the greatest country unearthed. it took jimmy carter to give us ronald reagan. [applause] and i am convinced that the longest lasting legacy of president obama is going to be all of us standing up together,

arm in arm, to restore that shining city on a hill that is the united states of america. thank you and god bless you. [applause] >> thank you so much.

first of all, i want to say i learned something new tonight. here in new hampshire, we say thank you all. in texas, they think all you all. is that more thank you or more people? >> technically speaking, all y'all is the plural of y'all. >> it was ronald reagan that reminded us that freedom is only one generation away from extension. if we do not engage now in the fight for freedom, we will want we will one day be telling our children what it is like to be free. i need to repair and oversight.

we have another candidate. i know there is nobody here who wants to see custer win another term in the united states house. we know we have a potential candidate and former senator gary lambert. he is with us tonight. i hope you get a chance to say hello to him as well. now, our host, i do so much. >> hey, did we have a speaker tonight.

joseph and i -- you turn down the heat to much. we would like to ask -- invite you all to have some coffee in the back. there is wonderful homemade cookies.

eat some more of the food.

allen has taken some photos that are available in the foyer and al from the radio just announced that in 10 minutes, the international space station will go over -- >> if we look to the northwest.

>> northwest is that way. the international space station will go over. go get some coffee. [applause] [indiscernible] >> that is the only way we are going to turn it around. >> connecticut picture of the three of you? -- can i take a picture of the three of you? [inaudible]

>> they keep voting for obama care. they never come up with a plan nobody did. why don't we get together, get democrats on one, republicans online, and get something specific.

that is how you're going to win. >> i agree with you. >> you have to have a plan. you have a couple years to work on it. >> i hear what you're saying. thank you. the only way to win this is to do it together. thank you for what you're doing. thank you very much. [inaudible] >> thank you. that is powerful. [inaudible] thank you very much. i appreciate it. [inaudible]

>> when i heard you say that, i thought it was so inspiring. that was really the definition of what can be done. >> the stakes for all of us -- to make it easier for people to achieve prosperity that one generation ago would not have been. >> very powerful. >> god bless. >> thank you. i very much appreciate it. i would love to do a picture. >> one more? >> please. thank u so much.-- thank you so

much. >> you're right. we are the strong ones. >> that was unfortunate. we have to bring people together.

>> keep up the fight. god bless. >> thank you. >> i was the campaign going? >> i need to talk to you. >> where do you -- right here? very good. if you connect -- >> thank you very much. >> good luck to you. [inaudible] >> fantastic job. couldn't have gone better for you. just over here, john. one more here. >> if you put cheese on broccoli, it is pretty good. >> that is printed. i can't have broccoli with cheese. i am a marketer -- i know something about marketing. >> thank you, i appreciate it. >> my husband and i came from massachusetts. thank you for the photo. >> come join us. get all three of us. >> here is my question. is massachusetts [inaudible] >> thank you very much. >> i don't know if i should waste my time. >> in terms of -- i think if we're going to win [inaudible] we have some distance to go. the next stage is probably going to be [inaudible] if you look at -- >> it wasn't that long ago. >> even in a state like massachusetts, this thing can work. if people start hearing we can start changing. i don't think the senators will be the first to jump ship. >> it has a different economy. >> listen, i want to encourage you to reach out and call.

[inaudible] >> a pleasure meeting you. >> thank you. >> where are you from? >> new hampshire. >> thank you for being here. >> i wish you the best. >> thank you very much. >> can i ask you one question on immigration? do you think there is a chance the house is going to take separate pieces? >> the house is going to do -- in my view, what the house is going to do, there are a lot of areas of bipartisan agreement on immigration. there is a lot of agreement that our current system is broken.

there is agreement that we have to get serious about securing borders and about stopping the problem of illegal immigration. a lot of agreement that we should improve and streamline legal immigration so that we welcome immigrants. what i think the house should do, is focus on areas of bipartisan agreement rather than i think the gang of eight bill is the wrong approach. what they will do, i don't know. >> how would you feel about the 11 million -- if we gave them permanent status but they never passed the citizenship? i introduced in the judiciary committee stipulations to fix the gang of eight bill. i would like to see commonsense

immigration reform. the gang of eight bill -- one of the amendments introduced was to do exactly what you said, to say that those here illegally will not be eligible for citizenship. every democrat voted against it. in fact it was striking. the senator said, if there is no citizenship, there can be no reform. i took the opportunity to thank him. he made very explicit, and over arching political objective. you're willing to do nothing about border security, nothing about workers, nothing about farms, and nothing about the 11 million people in the shadows. you're willing to leave them in the shadows. rather than solve this problem because your only priority is your partisan political objective. that is where the white house is right now. >> thank you very much for your time. take care. >> nice to meet you. >> we had such a good time. >> thank you so much. i am here from washington valley. it would be wonderful if you would visit washington valley. >> we would love to have you. >> wonderful job. thank you. >> thank you for coming. i have a question. [inaudible] >> the administration doesn't want the facts coming out. follow the facts wherever they lead. did you want to get a picture? >> i would love to. >> i am bill smith and i am one of your biggest and. god bless you. we need another ronald reagan. you are the only one. >> we all have to do it together. >> you're on the right track. >> thank you, i appreciate it. >> have to say i am concerned about the immigrants more than

obamacare. [inaudible] obama will not obey the law. you and i know that. i don't know what it is -- i have communicated with them. there are too many republicans that will not tell the truth. that is what i like about what you're doing. you're telling the truth. [inaudible] i have been a republican for years. >> i think the only way for changes that they hear from the

people. >> i am ready to hand write letters. i don't know what else to do. they are not going to change. thank you for what you are doing. can someone take a picture? thank you. you are one of my heroes. >> the privilege is mine. >> senator, it is a pleasure to meet you. your motivating a lot of us.

i appreciate it. i hope one of you guys are the next president. [inaudible] >> we have got to have more scrutiny. it has to be driven from the house. in my view, what the house -- the chief prosecutors, i have been urging them. [inaudible] i think they systematically walked through the facts. the advantage of a select committee is -- [inaudible] >> really nice meeting you. >> thank you for coming. >> i have to tell you when i came to this country 40 some years ago, i had eight dollars in my pocket. i came over as a nanny. i still had eight dollars in my pocket. here i am now, living in this beautiful state. i am having a great time. your speech tonight was -- >> i will say, it is a huge blessing to be the son of an immigrant who came here seeking freedom. if you don't have a special awareness of just how precious it is. >> also, i got away from socialized medicine in england.

i keep telling everybody here, you don't want it here. you don't want this obamacare.

you don't want socialized medicine because it is horrendous. >> i would love to send you if you have an e-mail, i give a speech in honor of our greatbatch are and i would love to have john send it to you. she was -- margaret thatcher and i would love to have john send it to you. >> thank you, i appreciate it.

>> i discouraged freedom loving y, but i appreciate everything you're doing. >> we have to do it together. >> thank you. >> thank you. i welcome any support. [inaudible] >> doing a rally with ron paul it was, 5000 people came. [inaudible] >> to we have a sharpie? you want it the picture of the frame? >> time will tell. [inaudible] >> thank you very much. [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] >> i just talked to a guy from the washington post, i said federal regulations, i said i could get an audit. >> i would love to get more information about specific examples. tell stories that make it real power regulations are making it harder. it is much more real to get your insight. [inaudible] >> thank you for your help. [inaudible] >> if we could get a little bit of light from there on you. >> great. >> thanks again, so much. you are always welcome. [inaudible] [inaudible] >> we have got to have backbone. i am telling you, i am throwing the establishment away. i have you, i have around -- i have rand. >> the only way to do it is together. >> you are moving up. >> would you like a photo? [inaudible] quick thank you. -- >> thank you. >> i have not studied the bill yet.

i will give it a close look. [inaudible] [inaudible] >> as those of and winds up, we are going to let you know that you missed any of the senator's

[inaudible]

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> on the next "washington journal," richard fry. after that, author and

professor on the 50th anniversary on the march on washington in the modern civil rights challenges. , phone calls,ails and tweets. live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c- span. theomorrow on c-span, from steps of the lincoln memorial, watch the 50th anniversary of the march on washington held by the national action work -- network. following the speaking program, they will march by the martin luther king memorial and after the march, listen to live interviews with reporters and attendees on c-span radio. live coverage begins at 9:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span. >> i do not want to see the loss of journalism.

the frustrated steps of the lincoln memorial, watch the 50th anniversary of the march on washington held by the national action work -- network. when i see the loss of state and local journalism, covering what is andening at city locals what is happening at the ground. a lot of what is happening is not as good if you do not have local journalism. a lot of what i do is seeing what is happening at that level and seeing how it is bubbling up. if there are not people on the ground doing that sort of work tom again, because i think national journal suffered quite a bit, i hope someone figures out a way how to keep that sustainable and keep those people in place. we will see a lot more social media where people do not maybe go to the website, news outlets, quite as much, but they see stories being shared by others, by what their friends are talking about, and the news sort of goes that way rather than you go to these four websites.

>> amanda terkel on what is shaping modern journalism sunday night at 8:00 on c-span's q&a. vice president obama continued his economic bus tour today. he out -- outlined his plans and took questions from the audience. this is about one hour and 15 minutes. ♪

>> hello, binghamton! it is good to see all of you. go ahead and have a seat, i'm going to be her a while. first of all, i want to thank the university and your president harvey singer for having me here today. give your president a big round of applause.a and is in ad you you