lateral nature some would say the tension built into the american governmental system. they are back hammer. meaning two rooms. and that's what we have here in the building. one of the interesting things about the inside of the building, is it was planned before the invention of plumbing and electricity. before our government headed far off to be so complex with many standing committees and agencies. so this state house was planned with very few committee rooms. very little office space. it's really a large ceremony shell for the legislative purpose. the major rooms are the lobby we're in, the library behind us, and the house of for the house of representatives. and the senate chambers. originally, there was almost nothing else. behind me is john calhoun. who is the many people would say the philosophical father of the success movement. the most prominent spokesman for southern political sentiment in the 1850s. the symbolism of this building really begins with the laying of the corner stone. if you were building a state house what would you put under the corner stone? the constitution? the bible? . newspapers of the day. that didn't happen in south carolina in 1850. the only thing put under the corner stone of this building was john calhoun's last speech in the u.s. senate. in 1850. recommending succession from the union. on the front of this building, there are two portraits. and only two. of robert and george mcduffy. who were senators from south carolina who in the 1830s advocated nullification of federal laws. by the states. they were the philosophical founders and promoters of the states rights movement. which led to succession. under the portraits there are war like eagles surrounded by 15 stars representing the 15 potential states of the confederacy. they hoped for. none of that of course came to pass. the people who planned this building in the 1850s, were very very ambitious. they intended a building that rivalled or betered the u.s. capitol. they hired the sculptor who was responsible for decorating the capitol in washington. henry brown carved in marble those images i have just mentioned. and planned for the pediment of the building an even more elaborate or symbolism of the political economy of this state. in the pediment of this building over the columns on the front, which of course faces north. henry brown planned images of slaves working in the rice and cotton. henry brown's skull churl composition i find tremendously moving. because it represented the will of the political elite on the one hand, and the horrific servitude of black enslaved fru agricultural labor on the other hand. the figures were produced by destroyed just as the system was destroyed when columbia was burned in the civil war. when the sculpture was destroyed, it was never replaced. and today, the pediment is blank. and has always been so. the state house itself was a stone and brick building. it had no roof, and no floor. when the city burned. and so the building itself did not burn. but all the materials that were stored on the ground in wood sheds were destroyed. beginning in the 1820s, people responsible for public buildings in america decided to build fireproof and permanent reflecting the permanence of the government. they hoped to create. so this building was planned to be absolutely fireproof with no structural wood. in the 1850s, that meant masonry. stone and brick. so the building was planned with ten to 12 foot thick granite and brick walls. and it was built that way in the 1850s. construction was interrupted by the civil war and when it began again, in the 1870s, fireproof systems had changed. and cast iron was in use. and the interior of the building is built on this later fireproof building method. and the library is the best example of that. the library is perhaps the most ornate room in the building. with wonderful german renaissance iron scroll work. beginning in paris in the 1850s, cast iron began to be used in a visible way for the first time in public buildings. and the reason for that was that it can stand terrific loads. libraries of course have very concentrated weights. in the new americans governmental buildings, libraries were functionally very important. because we are supposed to be a government of laws. and the books we might see are the intellectual foundation of the government. libraries took a central place in the way they never had before. this library represents that. both in structure and placement within the building. it's very prominent and very elaborately built. it was meant to celebrate as well as function. as a governmental foundation. one of the fascinating things about this state house is that it was the first major granite building in south carolina. there were no train stone cutters here. so the governor of the state at the time hired a man from baltimore, who was working on the smithsonian building in washington at the time. he came down and brought with him from baltimore, trained stone cutters. they the state then hired a team of slaves. ultimately they had just over 600 men working on this building. for a period of about five years. they opened granite quarries down by the river. created a rail way or a tram way to bring stone to the site. the stone was all slave cut. and then fine hamered or finished by skill crafts men from baltimore. they moved more than 24 single piece granite columns weighing over 30 tons a piece. the architect thought these were the largest single pieces of stone that had ever been cut or moved in the united states. the granite work is very, very impressive. and you'll see a whole room of granite columns like a fores of trees downstairs. the building was designed to be symmetrical. instead of a dome the original architect intended a square tower rising above the roof line. but you'll remember that the construction was stopped during the civil war. and the state after the war was not able to afford to build the foundations for that massive stone tower. so what we see now on the outside of the building is a pressed medal dome. on the inside of the building from the lobby we look up into what we think is the dome. in fact, it's architectural illusion. that two domes inside the original dome. because the exterior of the building and the interior floor plan are not symmetrical. on the outside the dome looks like perhaps the u.s. capitol dome. on the inside it's quite a bit smaller. and different in form. what we have really got are three domes like teacups. one inside the other. the movement for american public monuments was energyized by the sense of history of america as a on the world stage. frederick who created central park created something called the city beautiful movement. a coordinated planning of spaces and buildings and monuments. that was meant to be inspiring. socially inspiring. and columbia, south carolina was one of the cities that became very involved in this. and there was a burst of monument construction. after the world's fair in 1890. and we have several monuments on the grounds that directly reflect this. the monument to the partisan revolutionary generals is one. the monument to wade hampton is another. the monument to the women of the confederacy is a third. all of these were created by a sculptor named frederick wellington. from new york. who represented sfis kaised european training. the same level of competence and ambition that has been represented in the origin nam construction of the state house itself. it's interesting that one of the more recent monuments created was the monument to the african american experience. which takes us right back, doesn't it? . to the pedimental sculpture that was destroyed and not built. the african american monument here we might say is the equivalent of the new martin loouter king man yumt on the mall in washington. in both cases, a sculptural representation of significant experience of the american citizens. monuments because they are serious, often elicit controversy. on our grounds perhaps the monument to the confederate soldier and the confederate flag behind it represent controversy. deeply felt historical experience. and there are group of people who who cherish what they represent. and there are others who feel it's something dark that should be suppressed. my own feeling is it's part of history. and there it is. and we accept it for what it is. despite the long drawn out construction, and the changes in technology and social values. that have taken place over that time, it seems to me that the real lesson is that our government is resilient. our society is resilient. that we are able to incorporate and imbody change, and tension. and find a resolution. and forme, the state house and its grounds represents the stability of the american experience. here