said that hughes, quote, looks like god and talks like god, end quote. >> in 16 footage of charles evans hughes, shot as hughes republican presidential nominee campaigned after the republican national convention. tonight "the contenders" looks at the life and legacy of charles evans hughes, who was a two-term new york governor, secretary of state, and twice a supreme court justice. of all of this, he is perhaps best known for his role as the chief justice during the years of fdr's new deal. "the contenders" is live this evening from the united states supreme court. just across from the capitol in washington, d.c., then-chief justice hughes inaugurated this building when it first opened to the court in 1935. let me introduce you to our two guests. the first two guests of the evening, who are joining us to talk about the life and legacy of charles evans hughes david pietrusza, 1920 the year of six presidents, and bernadette meyler, a professor at cornell law school, which is hughes' alma mater. we'll jump right into the election. set the stage for us. 1916, woodrow wilson wants to be re-elected,

we're featuring charles evans hughes, who was the nominee for president in 1916. it was a close election against wood row wilson who was vying for his second term. hughes went on to serve as chief justice, a second term on the supreme court. and was very much at the center of things during fdr's court packing scheme. from mississippi, anita. anita, hello, you're on the air. >> caller: to the professor, i hope you have a healthy and happy baby. i try to catch you every friday night. my question is, hughes, justice hughes sounded like a man who was for progression, and i hear you wax and wane about how he wanted the blacks for it. i wonder what you all would think about women stepping forward and them being on the court now, and what he would think about the wrong doings that are going on in the court today. >> i think that that's a really interesting question about his attitude towards women. we heard a little bit earlier that he was in favor of penal suffrage than a lot of other people. i think his attitude about women was somewhat ambiguous. as governor of new yor

the relationship between fdr and charles evans hughes. can you speak to it? >> hughes swore in fdr on several occasions. so there was an amity between them. but the various tensions over the relation between the court and president at that point in time, it didn't really lead to a very amicable friendship between the two men. and also, hughes himself was somewhat reserved in terms of social life, within d.c. he and his wife only would entertain, or agree to attend dinner parties on saturday night because he felt that it would contravene his judicial practice if he went out any other time. so he wasn't as much as a figure in the washington social scene as one might imagine. >> the only thing i would add, too, he wasn't really from the same aristocratic roots as roosevelt. his upbringing was exceptional from an education standpoint. i think both his parents were really remarkable individuals, but i don't think it was a youth of great luxury, and great wealth. i think most of the wealth he accomplished over his career, was really through his own law practice and

that the conventional wisdom after taft had died was that charles evans hughes would not agree to serve as chief justice, because doing so would mean that his son would have to resign as solicitor-general, and then to everyone's surprise charles evans hughes, sr. decided to take the job and his son had to resign as solicitor. >>> general. >> you probably know some of the history of your predecessors in the solicitor-general position. what can you tell us? >> i have heard the story, and i do not know whether it's true. i've heard different versions of this story, and you may have a perspective as to the truth of it. i will say this, though. which is to say i think if somebody, you know -- if the president really thought -- president hoover really thought charles evans hughes would not take the job and was not interested in being chief justice, that seems like a very naive assumption because hughes had an interest in the chief justice job going way back. when he was first put on the court as an associate justice, he was appointed with some understanding -- there's a letter to this effect

. >> we'll talk about charles evans hughes, the man. we heard from the outset that he looked and sounded like god. would you add a little more color? how tall was he? >> he was 5'11". interesting enough, he was very slight as a young man. very thin. as an adult, as a young man he weighed 127 pounds, and the guy who cleaned up the insurance agency, they would not write an insurance policy for him. they gave him the physicals and say, we can't find anything wrong with him, but he's just too thin. we won't give him a life insurance policy. he lived to be about 85 and was very vigorous, very active. ultimately he reached an adult weight of about 173 pounds, which he would measure very carefully. he would do this in an interesting way. at breakfast he would have a pile of toast in front of him, and he was putting on too much weight, he would remove a slice of toast. and if he didn't weigh enough, he would put another slice on. but this fellow who was supposedly so slight and not vigorous was a great mountain climber. when he is solicited by

. >> i want to say thank you to our three guests who have been with us tonight on our charles evans hughes program from outside the united states supreme court. we appreciate your time with us as we learn more about this period of american history. people who sought the presidency, and even though that bid was not successful, still had an important impact on american history. we're going to close, as we started, with archival footage from the 1916 campaign. ♪ ♪ ♪ >>> all summer on sundays, "american history tv" presents the contenders. this 14-week series highlights key political figures who ran for president and loss, but nevertheless changed political history. our program with charles hughes airs again tonight on "american history tv" on c-span3. next sunday we continue our contenders series about al smith, who was the democratic presidential candidate in 1928. you can watch the contenders here on american history tv each sunday at 8:30 a.m., 7:30 p.m., and 10:30 p.m. through labor day weekend. >>> this is the 40th anniversary of the june 1972 watergate break-in. next, president nixon's

. >> i want to say thank you to our three guests who have been with us tonight on our charles evans hughes program from outside the united states supreme court. we appreciate your time with us as we learn more about this period of american history. people who sought the presidency, and even though that bid was not successful, still had an important impact on american history. we're going to close, as we started, with archival footage frhe 1916 campgn. ♪ ♪ ♪ >>> next sunday we continue our contenders series with alex smith. you can watch the contenders each sunday at 8:30 a.m., 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. through labor day weekend. >>> this is the 40th anniversary of the june 1972 watergate break-in. next, president nixon's first televised speech about watergate, almost a year later in april 1973. from the white house, he announced the resignation of several members of his administration, including bob haldeman and john dean. and the appointment of a new attorney general elliott richardson. president nixon's resignation comes more than a year later in august 1974. this is 25 minutes. >> good ev

sunday, charles evans hughes ran against wilson and was the last justice nominated by a major party at 7:30 p.m. american history tv this weekend on cspan3. >> he writes about presidents. >> he goes to the white house, says to eleanor roosevelt, can i pray for you? she says no. we need to pray for you. >> their campaigns. >> there are a lot of promises made. said they would have to represent a large hall, much larger than this one to get all of the people jack kennedy promised the vice presidency to that year. >> and their ideals. >> calvin coolidge may indeed have been the last jeffersonian. a man that believed strongly enough in limits of governmental power, particularly federal power, to resist temptation to extend it. >> this sunday on book tv, your questions and comments for david live at noon eastern on in depth. also this sunday, middle east expert on the obama administration's response to arab spring, afghanistan, iraq, and israel, palestinian peace process. sunday at 9:00. part of book tv on cspan2. >>> next weekend, head to the state capital named in honor of thomas jefferson

you see when you look at the republican party, teddy roosevelt, charles evans hughes, all these figures coming out of new york politics. when you look at democratic party, you see roosevelt and smith. new york as a state has two machines really going, and it has a pretty significant national effect. >> two machines? >> the famous machine is the tammany machine, but the republicans had an incredibly powerful network as well. >> what is tammany hall? >> tammany hall is technically just the new york city democratic party. the manhattan democratic party. tammany hall from the mid 19th century was best known as the machine of machines in urban america. it was identified as primarily irish machine, a machine in new york that really depended on neighborhood power, word power and that was as much about sort of taking care of your neighborhood and coming up through the neighborhood as it was anything really about national politics. tammany, absolutely the most powerful force, certainly in new york city politics at that moment, but really in new york state democratic politics as well. >> john eve

he runs for governor in 1906 against charles evans hughes and loses. runs for new york city mayor and loses. but he has control of the two newspapers, "the evening journal" and "the new york american." and he turns out real -- the bases appeal to people. to try to tell them that i know better. i'm a reformer. i want municipal ownership of utilities that will lower your rates. i want to have transparent government. you can get that if you back me. in 1918 he wants the nomination for governor. and they try to figure out how to go about, you know, who's going to get this. they settle on smith. smith goes and gets elected. in 1919, immediately, william randolph hearst starts to poke at smith's programs. there's a milk strike in new york city. the upstate dairies can't get the milk into new york city. they then have a milk strike upstate where the producers won't ship it to new york city. well, none of this is within the purview of the governor's powers. the governor tries to get his department of farms and markets to act. they don't act because they don't

. >> host: they you think charles evans hughes would have made a padide? asc- a w b o tonight on americanhistory tv. he wasmazi ivl. hag oove gh hd under both of them a secretary of state and then was a fairly conservave n'totally pigeonhole him and it is one of the foremost progressives and he starts o by busting themstfo how w did thomas dooley -- dewey no earl warren? >> guest: how well didl enimde wenooiske h a lot. and the republican governors' atewas a full. d he was a progressive fell. d sro. all dewey turns him down. warren thanks if he has a future in the party i better turnim dn agn. eyon. hwas campaigns don't mesh and earl warren's wife ends up in that voting booth in novembepulling do theeveror tran ndsif oian pe trpr two tears while congress is unfettered. any chance to go back? >> guest: ion thi so. rt constituency among the senators who all want to succeed two term president so i don't think that wilpp irdamenthe s e hder ha. >>t:t ll, two left. john in port st. lucie. u are on book. tagonioonwge e tfo. he the first to have a vice-presidenti

do you think charles evans hughes would've made a good president? he was an amazingly capable individual. >> guest: he was a capable individual, i was on c-span talking about it. we will be on tonight on american history tv, they are re-airing that. >> host: that is right yes mackey is amazingly capable as an individual. he might've been more liberal or progressive. under harding, even though he served under both the secretary of state, he was a fairly conservative chief justice of the supreme court. but not entirely. so you can't totally pigeonhole him. his revocation of governor -- reputation of governor of new york, he starts out by busting trusts or the insurance industry. >> host: how well did thomas do we know earl warren before the 1948 election, and why was earl warren concerned? >> guest: the question is how well did earl warren know tom dewey? and i -- i think he liked them a lot. they had these governor conferences. they met them up so that they actually knew each other. and one of the dewey was a darn fool. just shut up and, oh, i don't

. >> guest: it's all very grudging but the party comes together enough where, you know, charles evans hughesoes to bed thinking he is the president elect, and he ain't. and woodrow wilson, before that, was putting together a scenario where, in case he los, he was going to resign and appoint secretary hughes secretary of state, and end the vice president could quit and republicans could take over, because otherwise you have to wait until march back then. republicans win the congressional races in 1918, and you don't need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing. >> host: so, back to the first part of that statement. republicans faced an unprecedented problem in 1920. their logical candidate was dead. would tr, if he lived, be the nominee? >> guest: absolutely. he was not only physically ill, -- and it's interesting. i think he makes the statement early nobody his life to a sister, he's going to live -- going to live life the fullest until he is 62, and he dies about -- right on schedule. he had also been hurt very much by the death of his son, quintin, in world war i. he was a

more from the contenders, charles evans hughes ran against woodrow wilson and was the last supreme court justice to be nominated by a major party. this weekend on c-span 3. >> more congressional reaction to the supreme court ruling on the health care law. this is 45 minutes. >> rob andrews from new jersey joins us from philadelphia this morning. he is here to talk to us about the student loan package that was passed this ek in congress. the headline in this morning's edition says they approve a student loan package. the article by jonathan weisman says it extends the 3.4% interest rate on stafford loans for one year financed by changes in pension laws and a restriction on the length of time students to get these lots. it increases premiums and requires people living near levies to have coverage. we will talk about that as well. tell us what exactly this student loan does for interest loans. why was it so important to get this thing passed this week. guest: it would have gone from 3.4%%. what this means is that people will be able to keep their student loans at the same rate they are righ