On december 15, 1791, virginia ratified the first 10 amendments to the constitution. The bill of rights then became law. Amending america is a national explores thebit history and the process of amending the constitution. This tour is about 45 minutes. My name is Jennifer Johnson and i am a curator at the National Archives museum. Black, i am anne outreach specialist. I am cocurator. We are standing out the gallery and about two take you through. Next to me is a case showing the more than 11,000 amendments that have been proposed to the constitution. Christina and i have been working on this exhibit for a couple of years right now. We could not help but notice that the variety and depth of amendments in the stacks when you walk into the stacks, there. Ere more than 11,000 proposed we started asking ourselves why there had been so many and so few were actually ratified. We explore that idea and how the Founding Fathers set up our government. Billf the challenges, the of rights was in the rotunda, which is a different area of the museum. We decided to have a banner leading people from the bill of rights to the obrien gallery. It was a small team, a staff of volunteers who worked last summer to transcribe from a variety of publications into one document. The bill of rights is the first 10 met amendments to the constitution. We decided to open up the gallery with those first 10 amendments which are known as the bill of rights. Want to explain how we got to have a bill of rights in the first place. It wasnt guaranteed that we would have one. At the Constitutional Convention 1787 when the delegates were talking about the bill of rights, they took a vote on whether or not they should include one in the constitution. The document right here, voting record from the Constitutional Convention, shows that when they took a vote, two thirds of the way down the page 010 onat the vote was including a bill of rights in the constitution. The delegates to the Constitutional Convention did not think it was needed with the constitution. But then after the constitution sent to thewas states for ratification and the states did not agree with the delegates that it was not needed. One of the states have disagreed was new york. Pages of the six pages of the state of new york ratification of the constitution. What happened in new york and several other states was that they decided to ratify the asstitution and to use that the start of a new governmental system. A bunch ofuggested amendments that they think should be included in the new constitution. They were hoping that after the constitution went into effect that the new representatives would use article five of the constitution which explains how to make an amendment to the constitution and add new things to add. New york ratification document right here, here is the beginning of a list of the amendments that new york wanted to see added to the constitution. Soundede several that very familiar to people who lead the bill of rights. No person ought to put twice in jeopardy of life or lamb. Punishment al that the people have a right to keep and bear arms. That thethe words state of new york used in their ratification document and it up in their bill of rights. Of obrien the lords gallery come in, one of the first things they will see is this montage of photos and film clips showing americans using their First Amendment rights to of religion, free press, free speech, the right to assemble and the right to petition their government. Over here is one of my favorite documents in the gallery, a draft version of what became the bill of rights. We refer to this as the Senate Markup area when you look at this document you see a printed amendments as7 they were passed by the house of representatives. Then you see handwritten notations that were made on top of it. Those are the changes, additions and deletions that were made in the senate. The senate took the 17 amendments that were passed by them intoand changed 12 amendments that after a conference committee, it was 12 amendments that were sent to the states for ratification. 10 of those 12 or ratified by the states indicating the First Amendments of the bill of rights. What is listed as article the third an article the fourth are what later became as we know the First Amendment. That includes most of the rights that a lot of the blog from anywhere. Markings,osely at the a lot of ink spilled in the , thee over these clauses most inkless spilled on the clauses that have to do with the free exercise and establishment of religion. After the bill of rights was sent to the states for ratification, many states did ratified. This document is the ratification from the state of 11th out which was the of the 14 states to ratify. Upt brought the amendments to the constitutionally required threef the states quarters of the states to ratify. The bill of rights became part of our constitution. It was signed on december 15, 1791. That is the date we celebrate as bill of rights day. Birthday that we are celebrating this year. Rights in bestknown the bill of rights is the right to petition their government for directed grievances. This afternoon, this is a great example of that happening. Typical method by which people to petition the 18thnment for most of the and 19th and 20th century. The way they did it is the petitioners reprint the text of whatever it is they were advocating for and leave the remains of the page blank for signatures. They would make multiple copies of this and they would go out into the countryside to the places where people gather, churches and taverns and they will collect as many signatures as they could. Then the organizers would gather them up together and glue each and forming one giant document. Like auld roll it up scroll and this is how it would be presented on the floor of the house of representatives or the senate. We have also given our visitors the opportunity to see what petitioning looks like an the 21st century. We have an ipad here that is shown on the we the people website. This is a website set up for people to submit petitions directly to the white house about whatever topic it is that they want. If that petition gets over 100,000 signatures within 30 days, the administration will respond directly. Right here you can see what 18th century petitioning looks like and what 21st century petitioning looks like. Is our fifth amendment right to not incriminate ourselves. The court affirmed in 1966 that persons who were arrested have the right to remain silent or to not incriminate themselves. That is where the miranda warning was born. We created this montage of clips from different shows and movies, people being put under arrest. Rounding out the bill of rights theme is the poster that was taken during the bicentennial of the constitution. It gives you a philip visual illustration, except for the 27th. We find it to be a wonderful cheat sheet for visitors and staff alike to explain and show what each amendment did when it was added to the constitution. Moving into what we call the vote, five amendments to the constitution expanded the right to vote forces since. One of our favorite stories here is what we call the widows and spinsters document. Sustaineds to stay ineven when it was ratified there have been quite a campaign since the 1840s and earlier for womens suffrage. This document shows one of those more than 11,000 per postals. Resolutions that Voting Rights for widows and spinsters only and the suggestion was that married women were represented by their husbands. This did not go very far. Voting rightsl for women was proposed and ratified in 1920. It was one good illustration of how we try before we get to the final version of an amendment. To poster relates to womens suffrage. Address themen to house judiciary committee. She did so to advocate for womens suffrage. She said at the time that the 14th amendment gave the right to women, she made the argument that voting is a right of citizenship therefore the gave that right to vote to women. Unfortunately for her and the rest of women they did not buy that argument. Happened nothing further at that time. This next section over here in the section called the vote is about one of the amendments that to extend Voting Rights that failed. In 1978, the Congress Proposed by a two thirds vote of both houses a constitutional amendment that would have given the resident of the district of columbia the right to vote. D. C. Residents do not have a residents of a Federal District they do not have representation in congress the way that as state does, with two senators and representatives according to population. This would have changed that and toe the district of columbia be treated like a state for the purposes of representation in congress. Although the amendment passed the first part, meaning that it was proposed by a vote of two ,ervers of the vote of congress it failed the second part, which is two thirds of the dates have to ratify it. It. He states have to ratify issues was ther fact that as this cartoon shows that residents of the district of columbia the end say pay. Ederal taxes they dont have any say about the money is spent. Another amendment was lowering the voting age to 18. It was born in world war ii but didnt get enough traction until the vietnam, where 18yearold a hugerafted became divisive part of that war. The 26th amendment is the amendment that was ratified the quickest. Is in theto know amendment process the president has no role. It is a matter between congress and the states. President next and decided anyway in addition to inviting 318 euros to participate in the ratification of the amendment. Cheers and applause] the cartoon next to it explains it or shows a good visual of the president , especially men who are being ed how they felt on this issue. Closestamendment that it, itidnt quite make has taken up quite a bit of has an amendment for equal rights from anyone is the e. R. A. The ra was probably closest to getting ratified at 35 out of 38 states rather for ratifying it. This tells a little bit of the story. This one is a pro e. R. A. Letter right here and it is from to carpenter who was an aide Lady Bird Johnson in the 1960s. Nd later became a major player she explains here some of the main reasons why people supported it, including equal pay for work was one of the main arguments that when it made. This other letter overhear is another one of my favorites. We dontm a woman that know anything about, just a citizen writing to her member of congress. She needs she uses extraordinary language to voice her opposition to the e. R. A. And takes the point of view of the traditional homemaker who is therested in maintaining position of women in the home. She expresses a little bit of wonderment as to why anyone would want to work outside of the home because she said ends jobsare just not mens are just not that interesting. This is the 14th amendment to the constitution. Role in a significant the history not only of our country but especially in the history of the bill of rights. The 14th amendment was ratified in 18 six ea, three years after the end of the civil war. Protect thewas to new league free slaves from things that would try to take ,way their inequality citizenship and freedom again. Had a numberdment of important clauses including , the equalsaid protection of the law as applied to all persons. It defines anyone born in the alsoas a citizen, and it guarantees a due process of law to every citizen. Every person has a right to a fair trial. It wasnt until the 20th century that the due process clause was interpreted by the Supreme Court to apply the bill of rights to the States Government as well. When the bill of rights was first written, it only prevented the federal government from abridging those rights. Congress shall make no law. Those protections did not apply to state governments. Starting in the 20th century, the Supreme Court began applying the due process clause of the 14th amendment to all those rights in the bill of rights, and said that in order for those rights to be protected, the states had to protect them as well as this is referred to as incorporation. Because of the incorporation of the bill of rights to the states , that those rights are truly protected for all americans today. The 14th amendment is what we thatthe final version represents the legal final version of the text. With bound in this book the other joint resolutions that were passed by congress at the same time. It is listed chronologically as it was passed. There are other versions of the amendments in our records here in the National Archives and in the records of congress and in the house and senate. This version of the bill of rights is the official version. We wanted to put this on display even know it takes up this giant place in the gallery because of the importance of the 14th amendment. There are many drafts of amendments. Thursdayall the first 13th amendment is on display. It is one of the six that got closest to ratified. Congress proposed about the states did not ratify it. Something different and what we know as the 13th amendment which abolished slavery. It would have enshrined slavery in the constitution. It was proposed as a last ditch effort to save the union and it went to the states civil war any forached ratification. They got a two thirds margin of approval. Allowing visitors to understand that it is a high bar for ratification, we want visitors to know how to amend and why. Five spells out the outline for how an amendment can be ratified. Then it isrt sent to the states. You need three quarters of the states to ratify it to add it to the constitution. Modern amendments have come to the National Archives to be certified and officially noting it is part of the constitution. This is a transcription of article five. It lays out the broad or general guidelines for that process. We also think it is important for visitors to understand that the Founding Fathers gave us this mechanism because they wanted us to be able to change it through the folds im not war. There has never been anything like this. The Founding Fathers wanted a peaceful way and also knew that they could not have predicted what the government would have needed to protect the citizens or as a country mature dating new that future generations might need to tinker with it. They wanted to have that mechanism. One thing that is interesting is , there are only two things that they list in article five that could not be touched. One is moot now, but when they signed the constitution they knows that no amendments could be proposed that would prohibit the 1808. Ation is lays until this issue divided the Founding Fathers. Also that we would always have this equal representation in the senate. To members from every state represent every state. Maybe one day it will be four or eight members, but it outlines explicitly that would be something we cannot tinker with if you will. It also explains that there is a second method for proposing amendments as well as rest fine. Both methods have been use rarely or not at all. Weve used the conventional method for ratifying once before, the 21st amendment which repealed prohibition. We also understood that is kind of confusing, amendments versus laws, what do those mean. We have these graphics here to explain for example that laws, you need a simpler majority or its much easier to pass a law and therefore pass a new law to negate the other law. Amendments on the other hand, the process is a twostep process which involves quite a bit of consensus, both in congress and throughout the states. Again with the article 5 which , allows us to amend, the Founding Fathers really were striving for a balance of flexibility, but also stability. It is very hard to ratify an amendment. Its very easy to put an idea on the table in congress, as the more than 11,000 show us and only 27 made it all the way to the final part of the process. So, we wanted visitors to walk away understanding that while it is possible the Founding Fathers made it difficult in terms of getting something added to the constitution. The second theme of our gallery is called refining powers. All the amendments in this section of the gallery reflect in some way amendments that either tried to give new powers to the federal government or in some cases, actually take them away. All of these documents in this section have something to do with what powers the government is allowed to exercise. The first one over here is from 1938, which is after world war i and during the great depression, but before world war ii actually started. But over in europe it looked already like there was going to be a war, but Many Americans did not want to participate. This is actually a petition in favor of an amendment that has been introduced in congress that would take away a power from congress. Article i, section 8 of the constitution gives congress the power to declare war. This proposed amendment would say that if congress did declare war, it could not go into effect until after that war resolution had been voted on in a national referendum. That was definitely an attempt to try to get the peoples voice in there. Although they did get a lot of support for this here, they didnt have enough support to get that into the constitution. Over here we have another perennial issue related to amending. The balanced Budget Amendment is one that has been introduced repeatedly and congress for probably about the last 40 years or so. It has been a regular events. We included this video here of Ronald Reagans 1988 state of the union address. Because in it, he talks about and advocates for the passage of a balanced Budget Amendment. President reagan this is the conference report. 1053 pages report, weighing 14 pounds. [laughter] let us do now what so many states due to hold down spending and what 32 state legislatures , have asked us to do. That is, heed the wishes of an overwhelming plurality of americans and pass a constitutional amendment that mandates a balanced budget and forces the federal government to live with it. [applause] another amendment i came across in my research that i did not know anything about until researching for this exhibit, it is often referred to as the christian amendments. This is a type of amendment that was first introduced in congress in about 1840s, and was introduced as recently as this one here from 1923. The idea behind this amendment is that it would amend the preamble of our constitution to place the primary authority for that document, rather than in we the people, it would place that authority in this one says, the laws of jesus christ, the savior and king of nations. Sometimes during different time shiftedthe wording based on the denomination, the church that was writing and to support it. The idea if the constitution was not created explicitly as a christian document, so they wanted to amend the constitution in this way to ensure that it was. Another story that surfaced in the 11,000 as we were researching them was the effort to actually, five years after the repeal of prohibition, the 18th amendment banned the sale and manufacture of alcohol. The 21st amendment appealed that , or negated the 18th amendment. That is the only time that has happened. However, five years after that, it was proposed in congress that instead of banning the sale and manufacture of alcohol, we would prohibit drunkenness and regulate Human Behavior in that way. The absurdity of this idea was cheekily pointed out in the handwritten note at the bottom, and i will read. It says, why not add, section three, that period of time commonly known as saturday night is hereby stricken from the calendar of the United States and abolished. Section 4, congress and the several states shall have concurrent power to change human nature from time to time, in its or their discretion. This one did not go very far. I think at this point, citizens realized that prohibition had failed, not only for the sake of regulating behavior, but also for very real issues, as this cartoon explains. Nonregulated manufacture of alcohol sometimes produced very harmful or poisonous liquor, without government oversight, bootlegging became a health issue as well. This document was an amendment proposed in the house, and this is the formal submittal of that amendment. We have tried and tried to find out who wrote that. We dont know if it was a clerk or another legislator. We are not sure. But it was added to it after the formal submittal of the document. The child labor amendment proposed by congress in 1924 was another one of these six amendments that was proposed by congress, but not ratified by the states. This letter right here shows the feelings that this one woman had, that she felt strongly enough about to write to her member of congress. She had seen some small children who were working, and working so hard that they couldnt even play because they had no energy left after working. She wrote this letter to her member of congress to explain why she wanted to support regulation of child labor. But then she added this handwritten note at the bottom of it that ties together two of the great amending issues of the progressive era, at the beginning of the 20th century. And after she signed her name, she wrote, one woman who wants the ballot for the purpose of helping these helpless little ones. In doing so, she showed how many of the amending issues are often tied together and are occurring at the same time. In this case, the move towards regulation of child labor was also tied very closely with getting women the right to vote so they could help in those ways. This document is an interesting one that relates to polygamy, which was actually a really big amending issue at the end of the 19th century, when the state of utah, which had a significant mormon population the state of , utah was trying to become a state. And many of those mormons did participate in polygamy. And there was other people throughout the country who did not want utah to become a state if they engaged in that activity. There was a bunch of pushback against that effort to become a state. In response to that, this document was created. It says here, defense of plural marriage by the women of utah county. They wrote this long document, we can only show one page here. It is about seven or eight pages long. They explained that polygamy is a divine directive, and they will stand firm in their unalterable faith in plural marriage as a divine ordinance. Moving on to the next scene, the shape of our government. The stories explore how the structure of our government really affects how it works. A great example of that is our 25th amendment. As early as 1841, actually, William Harrison was our first president to die in office. And the constitution indicates that the Vice President would assume the role of presidency. However, the constitution is silent on pretty much Everything Else after that. So congress wasnt really sure what the Vice President john tyler was to be called. Was he president . Was he acting president . What exactly did all of this mean . Its a question that lingered on until the late half of the 20th century. It wasnt until john f. Kennedy was assassinated, and lyndon b. Johnson stepped up to become president , that enough support was galvanized to really answer this. Over the course of that time, from 1841 to the 25th amendment was ratified, if you combined the years where we had no Vice President , you would get to 38 years. So, the 25th amendment was ratified, and think goodness, because it wasnt long after that we now have president nixon and Vice President spiro agnew. Agnew resigned. Nixon uses the amendment to appointed Vice President. He ends up appointing gerald ford. Just a year later president nixon resigned. Now president ford uses the 25th amendment to appoint his own vp. However, if the 25th amendment had not existed, we would have a huge political crisis on our hands. We would not have somebody representing the presidency was voted by a majority of the country. It would have been somebody voted by a very small majority of a state. The 25th amendment finally resolved a big question mark the constitution did not answer at the time. This is a motion to amend the resolution to strike out a president and insert Vice President s now exercising the office of president. This is what was submitted after William Harrison, president harrison died in office. Vice president john taylor took office. This is a photo of lyndon b. Johnson aboard air force one taking the oath of office to become president of the United States. Here is a really interesting letter that delves more into the intricacies of what president nixon was doing, where he asked gerald ford to recommend three people on who he thought should be his Vice President. So gerald ford actually gives him four choices which you can , see here. As we know, president nixon ended up picking ford anyway. This petition to congress was sent in, in 1868, right at the beginning of the impeachment fewl of Andrew Johnson a years after the end of the civil war. That came when president johnson had many, many disagreements with the congress about how to reconstruct the country after the end of the civil war. That disagreement led to a big rift in the country. Johnson was so unpopular at the time that he not only was impeached, he was acquitted by one vote, so he wasnt removed from office. But he was impeached. In toese people wrote congress to say that we could just abolish the presidency altogether so that we wouldnt have to deal with anyone ever again the likes of Andrew Johnson. This document here has to do with an amendment introduced by senator Margaret Chase smith in 1971. Her proposed amendment addressed what she saw as problems in the senate with people who were not reporting to work. She proposed an amendment to the constitution that would expel any member of congress who was absent for more than 40 of the rollcall votes. And this was a petition sent in to the Senate Subcommittee on constitutional amendments to advocate in favor of the amendment. Not surprisingly, the other members of congress who might be expelled under this amendment did not vote for it, and it did not pass. We decided to include this document here in the gallery, because it shows how a specific event directly led to a constitutional amendment. In this case, the 12th amendment. It also shows most people dont know anything about the 12th amendment because it did such a good job of solving the targeted problem that we havent really needed to know anything else about it. It solved the problem and it never happened again. You can see the problem pretty clearly when you look at this. This is the Electoral College vote tally for the 1800 president ial election. Very quickly, you see here, the vote in the election was a tie vote. 7373. Between the two candidates of the democratic republican party, Thomas Jefferson, virginia, and aaron burr of new york. The reason why this happened in 1800 was because the candidates ran for this election differently than they have for any previous election. The Electoral College system that the founders created when they wrote the constitution, they thought it would work such that the candidates would all be running for president. Whoever came in first place would become the president , and whoever got the secondplace vote in the Electoral College would become the Vice President. That worked fine when everybody voted for George Washington in the first two elections, and it worked ok for john adams. In the 1800 president ial election, which was much more contested, it didnt work very well at all. The difference was that the candidates in this election ran for the first time as a party ticket. Thomas jefferson and aaron burr ran together as the Vice President ial and president ial candidate. When it came time for the Electoral College to vote, each votes, one foro president and one for Vice President. And so they voted as such. They cast one ballot for Thomas Jefferson and the other ballot for his running mate, aaron burr, which resulted in a tight tied vote. This election was not resolved until after 36 hours. They realized after this election with this tied vote, that would continue to keep happening, if candidates ran as a party ticket. Then they would keep tying. So, just in time for the next election in 1804, the 12th amendment to the constitution was ratified. Just tweaked the voting a little bit in the Electoral College so that each elector had to specify which of their votes was for president and which of their votes was for Vice President. In doing so, they insured there would not be a tied vote again and this would not happen, and that has worked. How the president is elected is probably one of the most common topics of proposed amendments to the constitution. This one right here is one that would simply abolish the Electoral College system altogether and replace it with a direct vote. This next one over here takes a much more interesting way of addressing that issue. Clearly the Electoral College was not liked by most people. This proposed amendment, which was introduced in the house in 1846, would have gotten rid of the Electoral College, but would have instead called for us to choose the president of the United States by lot by picking , a ball out of an urn that represents a candidate, and that is who our president would be. So, the person who introduced this amendment did not give a speech in congress, so we cant say with certainty what his goal was in doing this. But based on the research about this member of congress and the time period, we think this was a deliberate effort to randomize the presidency in a time period right before the civil war when the nation was breaking up into sections, those that favored slavery and those that favored abolition, or freedom for all. If the president of the United States was randomly picked, then neither the slave nor free states could say that they won and there was support for their agenda. So if we had chosen the president this way in 1846, perhaps the civil war would not have happened, at least not when it did. It may have delayed it. Here in the gallery we also decided to take a little bit longer look at the sort of absurdity behind this idea of selecting a president by picking a ball. We asked, what would happen if we did in fact elect the president of the United States by lot today . Urn. Made, not quite an we made a little container here, and we have the balls in it marked by the states. And when what we did was we worked with google to find the most googled person from each state, and we use that as our standin for who might be the most popular person who might be chosen as president of the United States if we did pick a ball out of a bowl to choose our president. The National Archives plays a role in the amending process as well, and we show that through this document right over here. After an amendment has been proposed by 2 3 vote of both houses and then also ratified by 3 4 of the states, those ratification documents get sent to the National Archives, and the archivist of the United States certifies that the amendment has concluded the constitutional amending process, and he certifies that that amendment is now part of the constitution. This is the certification document of the 27th and most recent amendment to the constitution, which was ratified in 1992. And we have a photograph right here as well of the archivists of the United States finding signing that ratification document. In addition to the certification, all of the state ratifications of amendments are stored here at the National Archives, and all kinds of other federal records that show how the amendment came to be, and also how the amendment was implemented afterwards. All of those are federal records that are stored here at the National Archives. For a final interaction that visitors can choose to participate in, we have created a poll where we are asking visitors to submit their own vote on what could be our next amendment. We have 27 amendments to the constitution currently, and Congress Every day is proposing new ones. And so we have put a multiplechoice selection of answers for visitors to simply text their opinions to the poll, and its a real time poll, so visitors will get to see their vote be added to the results. We also included an animated video in our exhibit here to explain the process of how an idea becomes an amendment. This is a really cute little animation we created in partnership with the History Channel that explains the twopart process of congress proposing an amendment, and then states ratifying it. This video is available on youtube for anybody to see and use as well. So, how exactly does the constitution get amended . When an idea has enough popular support, women ought to have the right to vote, for enough time, women still all to have the right to vote, a member of congress brings it to the floor of the house or senate. It is then assigned a committee for debate and refinement. If it makes it out of committee, the full chamber debates. If 2 3 of members vote for it, it passes. Then it becomes an amendment . No, it goes to the other chamber and repeats the process. Any differences are worked out in a conference committee, and then each chamber votes again. Oh, brother. Or sister if it passes congress, the National Archives than copies to each sense copies to each state. If 3 4 of states send back ratification, the archivist of the United States certified proper ratification, and the constitution is amended. You can learn more about this exhibit and the constitution by visiting archives. Gov amendingamerica. You can download a free ebook companion to the exhibit. This Holiday Weekend on cspan, here are some of our featured programs. Today we will take a look at farewell speeches and tributes for outgoing members of congress and the white house. Starting with senator Barbara Mikulski at 12 30, and at 2 00 p. M. , tributes and speeches for Vice President joe biden. Then christmas at the white house. Join First Lady Michelle Obama as she receives the christmas tree. Make christmas crafting projects with children of military visiting the white house, and finally the Tree Lighting ceremony on the national mall. At eight 40, hear from former House Speaker john boehner on the presidency at 8 40, hear from former House Speaker john boehner on the trump presidency. Speakers include hillary clinton, joe biden, and charles schumer. 12 30, we will hear from representative charles wrangle of new york. Shakespeare the theatre, we take you to the romeo and juliet wrongful death mock trial, where samuel alito serves as presiding judge. At 6 30, a look at the career of Vice President elect like pants and his role as Vice President. Cspan. Org,pan and and listen on the freeseas been radio app. Of thetary force is one things i think the American Public very often gets impatient about, because they really believe they have this trump card, this great military they can feed anyone but it is not true. Military,xtraordinary but it can only win in certain situations and it can only really destroy things. I cannot build a new order in its place. Danner talks about his career and challenges facing the u. S. War on terrorism in his new book. What we do not want to do is respond in such a way that will produce more of these militants, more militant organizations. They want us to overreact. They want us to occupy muslim countries so they can build their recruitment. Hey want us to torture people they want us to do things that is going to allow them to make their case against us. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspans q and a. Architectural historian barry lewis talks about the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge in the 1870s, and how transportation through the city changed at the turn of the 20th century. Here is a preview. The Brooklyn Bridge itself, very dangerous. This is an illustration. This is one of the caissons that would become one of the foundations of the bridge. They caisson was basically a huge breadbasket made out of wood, turned upside down. Inside the hollow caisson they pumped in high pressured out, soeep the water the men are all working with high pressured air. At the end of the job they would go to a deep contraction to, spend thought decompression to come and spend five minutes on it. They wanted to get home to their families. They were tired. The interior of the caisson on the left and the right are two different. You see one of the guys climbing into a decompression chamber. He will not be spending enough time. By the way, workingclass people, probably the immigrants, they were lucky because in 1873 the stock market crashed, we had a horrible depression. Depression noof a different than the 1930s, the best thing is to have a job on some big project like a dam or railroad system. Watch the entire program today at 4 55 p. M. Eastern time here on American History tv, only on cspan3. Week on cspan in primetime, monday night at 8 00 eastern, hear from some of the democrats vying to lead the party including ray buckley, chair of the New Hampshire democratic party, and representative Steve Harrelson from minnesota. In 2014 we hit a seven year low in voter turnout, 36 tiered the Democratic Caucus is smaller than any time since truman. This year we hit a 20 year low in the president ial turnout. 8 00,sday night at president obama and japanese Prime Minister shenzhen allday visit the naval base shenzhen abe visit theinzo site of the pearl harbor attack. A review of house and Senate Hearings from 2016 on toppings topics including the flint, michigan water crisis and wells fargo unauthorized accounts scam. Had opened 2they million accounts, fired thousands of employees for improper behavior, and cheated thousands of your own customers, and you did not even once consider firing her ahead of her retirement . We will remember some of the political figures that passed away in 2016, including former first Lady Nancy Reagan and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a. At eight, our in Memoriam Program continues with shimon peres, hamed ali, and john Glenn Mohammed ali, and john glenn. Join us on tuesday for the live coverage of the new congress. Watch the official swearingin of the reelected members of the house and senate and the election of the speaker of the house. For all they live coverage from capitol hill begins at 7 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan and cspan. Org, or listen to it on the free cspan radio app. Next on American History tv, three world war ii veterans talk about their experiences and u. S. Navy fighter pilots. This is part of a talk posted by the American Veteran center. We have three veterans of world war ii. To moderate the session i would like to welcome owen rogers from the veterans history project at the library of congress. We have worked with him closely
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