Packet of essays we had to write to apply for the teachers and program. Our toure begin through concords history with a two or New Hampshire statehouse. A tour of the New Hampshire statehouse. So we are standing in the New Hampshire hollow. This room has been in our statehouse, in use since 1819. Our building first began being built on september 24, 1816. Our first cornerstone was laid , made out of granite. New hampshire is the granite state. By 1819 on the statehouse opened june 2, its doors. This room was just the hall. The only thing in the room were large wooden columns on granite bases. As time went on, it was a cooling area for legislators to come downstairs. It was a place where people would come and gather and meet when they were coming to the statehouse for business. Then came the civil war. 1861, New Hampshires men answered the call to arms. They left their homes and many came here to this building. They enlisted. They were given brand new flags and went off to what they hoped would be a short conflict. The flags that are in the case s here are the flags that were brought back by our men. 1865, when the war ended, what was left of our men, what was left of the flags came back here to this building. We have 88 civil battle were best battle flags inside these battle flags inside these cases. The flags have been in these cases for well over 100 years. Every one of these flags has a n amazing story and history behind it, and there is never enough time to tell the story of each and every flag. But there is a flag i love to tell the story of because it is so unique. This flag here is a 13th regiment flag, and was actually a flag that flew over the capital of richmond, virginia. The story is that a young man named Richard Forrester took the flag after it was tossed out after the richmond government , decided to secede from the union. He took the flag and put it under his cot, and kept it there until the New Hampshire 13th regiment came marching into richmond, virginia. He took the flag and put it up the pole. And our men saw that flag was going up and they went and met him. He was a free africanamerican who was working in the Virginia Legislature at the time. He left with the New Hampshire 13th regiment and came back to new england. In fact he finished out the rest , of his life here in new england. The flag he brought back state stayed with the 13th regiment flags and ultimately ended up in our case. So along with the fact that our men were off to war during the civil war, New Hampshire s legislature in our government was still Going Forward at this very dark time. The building had not had any renovations since it opened in 1819. But during the civil war, our legislature in our governor began discussing enlarging the building, adding a third floor and putting on embellishments. In 1864 begin the construction. Most of the men are at war and here we are dismembering the , back of our building to make it larger. The portico that you see today , this beautiful granite portico was added on during the civil , war. The dome was designed after a special hospital that is in paris. And that dome was added on during the civil war 1864. , part of the reason we made the wider was little because we were adding on such a large dome and removing a silo on the top of our building. We are in the members only anteroom. It is the best place to enter into our house of representatives because it allows you to see the full a effect of our very large chamber. New hampshires house of representatives has the oldest continuously used legislative chambers in america. And here is the room where the largest state legislature in the United States works and meets. New hampshire elects 400 each 400 state representatives every two years, and they enter into this room and sit in what is a unique style of seating for legislators. They sit in stadium seating, they are sitting in the same chairs that they have been sitting in since the 1950s. The seats in this chamber are all assigned seats. We have seat numbers on every seat. I will point out a bit of a quirk is that there is no seat 13 in the New Hampshire house of representatives. So no representative has to sit in that traditional bad luck seat. The members will, in, they the members will come in, they were here yesterday until near the end of the day in a room , where it legislators have been working and meeting since 1819. We have had a few changes in this room. We went from candlelight to gasoline and now today we have electric lights. The light fixtures that you see are the same light fixtures that were put in during the 1910 renovation. New hampshires early government wanted to have a house that would be representative of the people. And so they put into the constitution that there would be representation to represent as many people as possible. Today we are the best , represented people in the nation. Each of our 400 representatives represents approximately 3400 citizens. We call it a citizen legislature. This is a legislature that is close to the people they represent. I will point out that the 400 state representatives are volunteers in all essence, because in 1889, we established a salary cap for our legislators. New hampshires state representatives receive 200 per term. But New Hampshire house of representatives has five wonderful portraits on the walls. The centerpiece is george washington. And i will confess it is a copy of the Gilbert Stuart painting that hangs in rhode island. But we are unique in that we has a portrait of Franklin Pierce, the only president from the great state of New Hampshire and is to left of george washington. Pierce, he was 26 years old in the and was new 1830s hampshires speaker of the house. He went on to be the 14th president of the United States. To the left of Franklin Pierce is Daniel Webster. Webster was a great statesman. Webster was the defender of the constitution. New hampshire has a long looked up to Daniel Webster and so has the rest of the United States. To George Washingtons right is the newest painting out of the five. The portrait of Abraham Lincoln was painted in the 1920s. It was a project of schoolchildren who felt that lincoln should have his portrait on the walls of the statehouse. They did a penny fundraising and raised enough money to have Alexander James paint this wonderful painting. And on the far right is John Parker Hale. One of my favorite men on the wall and yet many have not heard , of senator John Parker Hale. He, like Franklin Pierce served , as speaker of the house in this chamber. He, like pierce was a lawyer and , even ran for president at the same time Franklin Pierce ran for president. But John Parker Hale ran on a platform that he wanted to end slavery. He was an abolitionist far before it was a popular thing to do. And john hale has the distinction of being the first u. S. Senator to speak out against slavery. We bring guests from other legislators from all over the world and other states and often they will make comparisons to the very austere chamber that you are in to all of their artwork and flourishes and embellishments in their chambers. Part of the reason this room is so plain is because this is how it has looked for well over 100 years. 200 years ago, it actually had a lot more paintings on the walls. But when they added hallways, we took some portraits out. There used to be paintings on the top of the columns up there. Today, it is a very austere room. It suits the New Hampshire values. This is the only state in the United States that does not have an income tax, that does not have a sales tax, and we do not like to spend a lot of money on embellishments and things that are not needed for the people. So at this point, we will leave the House Chamber and take a very short walk to the room next door, which is where our senate meets. We are probably the only state that our house and senate share a wall. It allows for quick messages being brought back and forth between the house and senate. This is the New Hampshire state senate. It is a huge contrast to the austere and giant size of the New Hampshire house. This small room seats only 24 state senators. We have elected 24 senators since the 1870s. Originally, there were only 12 senators sitting in this chamber. 1942 was a Pivotal Moment in the Senate Chamber. Thats because the four beautiful murals that you see behind me were placed on the walls. These murals were painted by very falconer of keene, New Hampshire. Barry faulkner of keene, New Hampshire. Each of the murals depict something important to New Hampshire. One of the goals was to educate indians in north country. It is to show that new includees values education. The next one is Daniel Webster. Mentioned,ter, as i was one of New Hampshires favorite sons of our state. He was born and raised here. Of drawn, about nine nine or 10 years old, with the constitution laid out in front of him. The mural over here highlights New Hampshires great contribution to the arts and natural science. Barry faulkner painted himself within the mural. He is the gentleman in the brown suit who looks like the youngest man in the portrait. Though it was found later he was friends in, like his the painting. On the far left with his legs crossed was Daniel Chester french. He was one of the greatest sculptors of all time, and sculpted the Lincoln Memorial in washington, d. C. On his laps birds and is giving a lesson in natural protective colored know today aswe camouflaged. It was a contribution to the arts and to science. And finally, there he is. Leaderark was our famous during the revolutionary war and , john stark wrote the famous motto of New Hampshire. Live free or die, for death is not the greatest of evils. 1940 five, sitting at these same tables and chairs, the New Hampshire oh legislators voted to make that our motto. See live free or die on our license plates even. This chamber, like the House Chamber, is one of the oldest continuously used legislative chambers in america. History has been made in this room many times over. One of the highlights in most recent history was in 2008 when New Hampshire voters elected more women to our senate than men, making this the first legislative body in america to have a female majority. We could not leave this chamber without visiting this historic piece of furniture. This desk is from the 1819 Senate Chamber and it is a , historic piece that is used to register our president ial candidates. Every four years, we put this desk on a dolly and put it to bring it down to our secretary of States Office , where the candidates all come forward and sign in. So we are leaving the original part of the statehouse and we are in the 1910 edition. Addition. This addition houses the hall of governors, all of the portraits you see on the wall are former governors of New Hampshire that we get to look at on our way to the executive Council Chamber and governors office. This way. So you are entering into our office of the governor. This first area is the governors reception area with the most recent portraits of governors, including the one that is so new that he has not even been hung on the walls. 15 years ago, governor craig benson was the governor of New Hampshire. Prior to that, the most recent portrait was our first elected female governor. As time goes on and new governors are elected, we add to the wall and remove governors into this hall of governors. Behind us is the New Hampshire executive Council Chamber. This room is where our governor holds his governor and council meetings. New hampshires unique form of government is our executive council. While, like other states, we elect our legislators and our governor, New Hampshire also lx executive counselors. Each of the five counselors represents 1 5 of our states population, and they have a very important function of a check and balance in the governors office. The paintings in the walls show some of the earliest governors of New Hampshire, including royal governors. Back in the day, a royal governor was able to appoint their friends to the judiciary and their friends would get the contracts to do the work. New hampshires executive council now takes that away. Our governor nominates the judiciary appointments, but the executive council approves. And so our governor can nominate commissioners, he can extend contracts for any item over 25,000, and the council will gather and meet and vote on that. They typically meet every other week, and the meetings are open to the public. We bring in folding chairs for the visitors and the people who want to visit and see what is happening in our government. The wooden chairs on the side are where the commissioners come and sit, but at this table, the same table since 1910, is where our governor and executive counselors hold their meetings. The governor presides at the head of the table, and our counselors sit in order of where , 2, 3,rve district 1 4, and 5. The additional seat at the table is for the secretary of state who handles all of the agenda , and minutes of the meeting. They still do things the oldfashioned way. And so just this week, when they came in and met each had a stack , of papers so high that they could not see each other across from the table. It is the end of the fiscal year , so all of those contracts that had not been attempted to be voted on needed to be voted on. So this is New Hampshires state house visitor center. This is a room where tourists and guests can come and will stop in on their way upstairs. But every four years, this becomes a very special and unique room. When New Hampshire has its first in the nation president ial primary, all of the candidates who are running for president come to our statehouse. Years ago, i started a small display of some buttons and bumper stickers to encourage some of the candidates to come into the visitor center. Over the last few elections, all of the candidates have been visiting. This is just a bit of a piece of some of those candidates who visited our state capital, including when barack obama visited and had his photo taken and donald trump, hillary , clinton, john mccain, chris christie, bernie sanders, all of the candidates for those who are extremely well known to those who may be only a New Hampshire know, like this man with a boot on his head. We embraced the president ial primary and we enjoy the excitement, and the unique opportunity to get up close and meet candidates. And so we invite them into this room along with our president ial primary display. We like to highlight that not only are we the first to vote for president , but we are a state of many firsts. We were the first state to declare independence from the british spirit. British. We were the first state to create a state constitution. Upstairs, we were the first i mentioned we were the first state to have a female majority in our legislative body in the senate. But prior to that, we were the first state to have a female instate leadership majority. We had a woman speaker and a woman Senate President and a woman governor. Later we went on to have the , first state to have an all federal female delegation and even today, all of new New Hampshire hires all of New Hampshires federal delegation are women. New hampshire is a state that does not have a professional sports team, but what we do have is politics. And we watch our politics, we embrace our politics. From our very large the largest , state legislature to our is anential process, this inclusive government. This is a place where politics is the past time. We are at the New Hampshire state house in concord where cspan is learning more about the areas history. Up next, we speak with governor chris sununu about the state of the past and the vision for its future. While in concord, we spoke with republican governor chris sununu inside his office at the New Hampshire statehouse. Governor sununu, thank you for joining us today. Gov. Sununu thanks for having me. Starting out, for what is New Hampshire bestknown . Gov. Sununu when you come up to New Hampshire, i think it is pretty obvious. Our state is kind of bound by the ocean to the White Mountain national forest. It is our environment. It is the foliage in the fall. Skiing in the winter. It is our beautiful oceans and lakes in the summer. So we are really a state that tries to enhance as much as we can and highlight all the good Outdoor Recreational activities