Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Presidency 20150503

Claimed to be an expert on middle east or iraq and proved it. History has proved it. We look at things from our own point of view and get deceived by them. We go back to vietnam, a great example of the first time we did it openly. We have a history of trying to think other people are like us or want our standards. The world is different. In the middle east, it is a totally different culture. Tonight at 8 00 eastern and pacific, on cspan, q a. All we can long, American History tv is joining our Cox Communications Cable Partners to showcase the history of topeka kansas. To learn more, visit cspan. Org citiestour. This is American History tv on cspan3. The state Historical Society collects kansas history documents. This is the repository for kansas history. Today, were going to the archives. We are going to look at the territorial period map. We are going to look at documents written by john brown, senior. We are looking at territorial many script of the constitution manuscripts of the constitution and other documents related to the territory. The territorial period in kansas began in 1854 and it ran for almost seven years. Kansas was attempting to become a state. This period became known as bleeding kansas. Very controversial. The eyes of the country were focused on what was going on out here. Kansas got the nickname bleeding kansas because the struggle over whether kansas would enter the union as a free state or a slave state. We are going to look at a map of kansas and nebraska territories. This is 1856. In 1854, the kansasnebraska act was signed, creating the twin territories of nebraska and kansas. Oath people assumed both peoples assumed that the kansasnebraska act would probably replicate the missouri compromise in that if you brought in twin territories, one would be naturally free and the other naturally slave. Most people assume that the territory of nebraska would be settled by the free state of islands of iowans. They set of the government, wrote a free state constitution and brought nebraska in as a free state. Conversely, there were 100,000 or so slaves in the state of missouri. Missourians would come into eastern kansas and settle, set up a government, write a constitution, and kansas would come in as a slave state. They would send two southern senators to washington and you would keep an equilibrium in the u. S. Senate. That is what people thought. They assumed wrongly. The kansasnebraska act particularly those in the east when states, northern abolitionists were outraged by the kansasnebraska act. They hated slavery, but they could live with it as long as it stayed below 3630. Now it could spread all the way west to the pacific ocean. Armed and heavily financed groups of abolitionists backed by new england concerns boston, connecticut, rhode island, maine, ohio, new york, they poured in antislavery men and women to stop kansas from becoming a slave state. Missourians saw these yankees pouring into kansas territory. They knew they were going to have a fight on their hands. The mixture of abolitionists and proslavery mingling together in kansas territory, the territory exploded in violence warfare terrorism. It attracted men like john brown and his sons. It started in 1854, a lowgrade war again in kansas. It was nicknamed bleeding kansas. From 1854 until kansas became a free state in 1861, a war was going on in the territory over who would control this new territory. Ground zero with slave issues in this country. Once designated as a territory by the United States government, the next step is to create a legislature, create laws for the territory, and write a constitution. Which is approved by the voters of the territory. Then it will be sent to washington for ratification by congress. Finally, signed by the president of the United States. In the 6. 5 years that kansas was a territory, there were 4 attempts at constitution writing. The government wrote a free state constitution. It was sent to washington for approval and it was rejected. By the way most people thought that the constitution had been lost forever. In 2013, in the national archives, they rediscovered the topeka constitution. It is an washington, d. C. , at the national archives. In 19 in 1855, there was a collection for the first territorial legislature. This was in march of 1855. The first governor of kansas wisely decided to do a census of the territory and discovered how many legal voters there were. He discovered there were 2,905 legal voters. That would be white, male, and 21. Voting fraud happened more so on the proslavery side. People crossed the kansas line or took a ferry boat across the river, and took over the ballot boxes, stuffed the ballot box and created a proslavery legislature, which is known as the bogus legislature. They crafted the first laws they 1855 statute of kansas. There was a clause that protected slave property. The kansas statutes of 1855 stated that to merely speak out against slavery or write public articles and distribute printed material opposing slavery, that was a felony. You would go to prison for merely speaking out or writing against slavery. If you were caught possessing a top a copy of uncle toms cabin, that was a felony. You could go to prison for that. The free staters rebelled against the bogus government. One of the first thing they did was to write a constitution known as the topeka constitution. It was this constitution it was riven it was written by free statesmen and abolitionists in topeka. The building is still there today. It is the oldeststanding building into a beaker it was known as constitution hall. When the topeka constitution got to washington, the National Democratic administration, which was proslavery, said that this was not a legitimate Constitutional Convention and they rejected it out of hand. The house of representatives now controlled by northerners they approved the topeka constitution. The u. S. Senate, controlled by southerners, refused to even discuss the topeka constitution. So it died in washington. That was the very first constitution that was written in kansas. The second constitution we are looking at the title page of the famous lecompton constitution. That was written in the fall of 1857. In lecompton, kansas. Inside samuel jones woodframe commercial building. This constitution would have made top would have made kansas a slave state. It was endorsed by president James Buchanan from pennsylvania. He was a northern man, but he was strongly proslavery. His predecessor, Franklin Pierce from concord, New Hampshire even though he was from new england, he was also a strong proslavery candidate. Democratic party in the 1850s was controlled by southern influence strong proslavery. What president buchanan was not counting on was stephen a douglas, who believed in the concept of popular sovereignty let the will of the people be spoken. Stephen douglas was outraged by the lecompton constitution. When it arrived in washington, douglas got on the floor of the senate and called it a swindle and a fraud. It did not represent popular sovereignty or the will of the people. This constitution was ferociously debated in the halls of congress. The u. S. Senate, controlled by southerners, did pass it and ratified it. It got to the u. S. House with more northern influence and the debate was so rancorous that in february of 1858, late one night , while the constitution was being debated in the u. S. House of representatives, a brawl broke out over 50 congressmen were brawling on the floor of the u. S. House. Supposedly, the only thing that broke them up was a rather humorous event. Two u. S. Congressman from wisconsin grabbed the hairpiece of a congressman from mississippi, tore it off his head, and they held it high above their head and said, we have scalped the man. The congressman stopped the brawl. That is what was going on in washington. A brawl in the u. S. House of representatives over the lecompton constitution. While it was being debated, the free staters were be were busy writing another constitution. The second constitution does not contain the word white. Out of the three free state constitutions, this is probably the most radical constitution in that it gave africanamericans voting rights. Kansas is fourth in constitutions. The wyandotte constitution was signed by president James Buchanan on his way out of office. Kansas and is the union january 29 1861. What we are looking at is a letter deposed by the famous militant abolitionist john brown, sr. It is known as john browns parallels. It was published in january 1859. This letter was written with the intent for it to be published in a lawrence newspaper. It was basically john brown paralleling two incidents in bleeding kansas and justifying his actions in misery. In missouri. Two plantations were attacked by john brown and his followers. One slave master was murdered. John brown, in this letter, said that in may of 1958, 11 to 12 free statesmen were taken prisoner, herded into a ravine, and shot down by proslavery men. This became known as the five of those men died. In this parallel, john brown is saying, after the death of this one slave master, hell is stirred from beneath. The governor of missouri, the president of the United States, James Buchanan, issued a reward for the capture of john brown for the death of the murder of this slave master in misery. John brown argues nothing has been done to bring these proslavery men that slaughtered the free state men to justice. That is why it is known as the john brown parallels. Abraham lincoln, when he visited, said no other territory had a history by kansas. To see these documents in person , that they have survived 150 plus years, is pretty remarkable. The constitutions that have survived. The documents are still here. The state Historical Society does a great job of putting these documents online. You can access these territorial period documents from a computer anywhere in the world. Throughout the weekend, American History tv is featuring topeka, kansas. Our staff recently traveled there to learn about its rich history. Learn more about topeka and other stops on our tour at cspan. Org citiestour. You are watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend on cspan3. Monday night on the communicators, we spoke with three members of congress who shared issues on communication. Al franken, bob goodlatte, and doris matsui. Senator franken i firmly believe that if comcast were bought by time warner cable, it would have been too big of a company, not in the public interest. It would have led to higher prices for consumers, less choice. Senator goodlatte we are also working on doing with peoples privacy as protection of their civil liberties. That is legislation dealing with the nsa and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court Dealing with the revelations about the gathering of telephone metadata. This bill which passed the house with a big bipartisan vote, we are about to bring it up again bans metadata collection and storage by the government. Senator matsui it was unbelievable in the sense that people understand that the internet should be free. They should not be people who get faster access or not. When that occurred, that whole energy that happened with that when chairman wheeler, because of the overturning of the open internet order, when he had to have a new proposal out there he hinted that there might be paid prioritization. What that means is from the Internet Provider to the enduser which is a customer in essence, that they may have to pay for faster speeds or whatever. That was unheard of. Monday night at 8 00 eastern on the American History tv is featuring the cspan series first ladies through the rest of the years. Shes been produced this with the White House Historical association. With only stories we tell the first ladies. More dolly madison. This is about an hour and a half. Dolley was both socially adept and politically savvy. Madison is just not a lot of laughs, but she was his best friend and she compensated. It is aaron burr that lets her know that James Madison wishes to meet her. She carved out a space for women where they could wield a great deal of political power