This Constitution; No. 1; The Federal City

<v Narrator 1>[opening theme music] This Constitution, funded in part by a grant from the National <v Narrator 1>Endowment for the Humanities, is a presentation of the International University <v Narrator 1>Consortium and Project 87. <v Narrator 2>[music plays] On September 18th, 1793, Brother George Washington, <v Narrator 2>the president of the United States and the worshipful master of the Masons, <v Narrator 2>led a solemn march from the banks of the Potomac to the site of the capital, <v Narrator 2>with music playing, drums beating and spectators rejoicing.

<v Narrator 2>Then the president laid the southeast corner stone of the capital of the United States <v Narrator 2>of America. And it was anointed with corn and wine and oil. <v Narrator 2>The right worshipful Grand Master Joseph Clark delivered an ingenious oration. <v Joseph Clark>Not alone nature, but providence hath mocked their intention to make <v Joseph Clark>this seat the super excellent emporium for politics, commerce, <v Joseph Clark>industry and arts. A city will if not superior to any <v Joseph Clark>in all the world. <v Narrator 3>Thus, was the federal city born. <v Narrator 3>In ancient Greece and Rome, the founding of a city was always a formal religious event. <v Narrator 3>Steeped as they were in the images that they were founding a new Rome, the Sons of the <v Narrator 3>Enlightenment laid the cornerstone of their great temple of democracy with due care. <v Narrator 3>But their Rome was to be a new Rome.

<v Narrator 3>A Rome built on reason and natural law. <v Narrator 3>A Rome based on a written social contract called the Constitution. <v Narrator 3>Its authors well understood that their experiment signified a new order <v Narrator 3>for the ages. For this contract was sealed not with a God or <v Narrator 3>an ancestral king, but with a new authority: the people. <v Narrator 3>And it's only binding force was to be a rule of law. <v Man 1>It seems to have been reserved to the people of this country to decide whether <v Man 1>men are really capable of establishing government from reflection and choice, <v Man 1>or whether they are forever destined to depend on accident and force. <v Man 1>The establishment of a constitution by the consent of a whole people <v Man 1>is a prodigy to the completion of which I look forward with trembling <v Man 1>anxiety. <v Narrator 3>The city of Washington and the District of Columbia is our country's first statement <v Narrator 3>of itself. The first embodiment of the dreams and aspirations

<v Narrator 3>of its founders. Thomas Jefferson wrote- <v Thomas Jefferson>Social meaning, not everyday activity, should determine the form of a public <v Thomas Jefferson>building. <v Narrator 3>And the federal city is a living expression of the principles of constitutionalism. <v Narrator 3>In the geometry of its streets, the very structure of our government is laid out for all <v Narrator 3>to see. Our effort to define and limit government is revealed <v Narrator 3>in the deliberate boundary we ?set? to the federal district. <v Narrator 3>And the competing tension in the Constitution between power <v Narrator 3>and liberty, between having both a strong government and a free people <v Narrator 3>is reflected here, in a city built as a symbol of government strength, <v Narrator 3>in a nation dedicated to an ordered liberty. <v Narrator 3>But the Constitution needed authority to carry it off. <v Narrator 3>In 1790, when Congress passed the Residents Act, establishing a separate <v Narrator 3>federal district, it helped legitimize federal power and strengthen Article

<v Narrator 3>6, which asserts the constitution shall be the supreme law <v Narrator 3>of the land. Most Americans were suspicious of federal power, <v Narrator 3>but equally did they fear the anarchy of revolution. <v Narrator 3>The Federalist stated it this way- <v Man 1>In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, <v Man 1>the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to <v Man 1>control the governed and ?in? <v Man 1>the next place to oblige it to control itself. <v Narrator 3>The Constitution reflects this twofold task. <v Narrator 3>In the preamble, the government is enjoined to establish justice, <v Narrator 3>ensure tranquility, provide for the defense, <v Narrator 3>promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty. <v Narrator 3>Yet just as clearly in the Bill of Rights, the government is prohibited from infringing <v Narrator 3>on the freedom of its citizens.

<v Narrator 3>And it is this tension between authority and liberty, between establishing <v Narrator 3>a legitimate legal power while protecting the rights of the individual that gives <v Narrator 3>the Constitution its enduring life. <v Narrator 3>For years, Congress had moved from town to town arguing over where to locate <v Narrator 3>the federal capital. <v Narrator 3>It was finally settled by a legislative compromise between the north and south. <v Narrator 3>The North got the federal government to assume its war debts and the South got the <v Narrator 3>national capital located on the Potomac near the Port of Georgetown. <v Narrator 3>To avoid any taint of sectionalism, Congress gave complete charge of the federal <v Narrator 3>city to George Washington and the three commissioners he was to appoint. <v Narrator 3>So the president became the spokesman for the nation as they set out to build a new city <v Narrator 3>in the wilderness, a new city for a new sovereign. <v Narrator 3>In 1791, Washington asked Pierre Charles L'Enfant

<v Narrator 3>to design the city. <v Narrator 3>The French engineers set to work immediately, studying maps of European cities <v Narrator 3>and conducting a minute survey of the land. <v Narrator 3>But he bridled when Washington sent him a sketch, which Jefferson had drawn. <v Pierre Charles L'Enfant>[in a french accent] ?Such a plan can only do on level ground?. ?inaudible? <v Pierre Charles L'Enfant>must be ?defective?. Such regular plans, indeed, however reasonable they <v Pierre Charles L'Enfant>appear on paper, must become at last tiresome and insipid. <v Narrator 3>But Jefferson's grid iron and streets, with its imposition of an ideal forum on natural <v Narrator 3>geography, epitomized the principles of the enlightened and distinguished the ideal <v Narrator 3>American city of his patrons. <v Narrator 3>The geometric precision of Philadelphia, Williamsburg or Savannah revived <v Narrator 3>a scheme of urban design not used since ancient Rome. <v Narrator 3>Its pragmatism provided better organization, public health and safety from fire. <v Narrator 3>But L'Enfant had grown up in the closed medieval circles of the city of Paris

<v Narrator 3>and he had studied art in the Baroque plan of Versailles, the ultimate expression of the <v Narrator 3>absolute power of the monarch. <v Narrator 3>He wanted to make something both wholly new, yet firmly rooted in the <v Narrator 3>precedents of the past. <v Narrator 3>On August 19, 1791, he presented Washington with his first <v Narrator 3>plan. <v Narrator 3>Here, the baroque arcs and vistas of Versailles are firmly <v Narrator 3>anchored in the gridiron of a Philadelphia. <v Narrator 3>The aspirations of power was strained by law, by reason, and logic. <v Narrator 3>The expression of a nation which wanted to be both powerful and free. <v Narrator 3>Unconsciously or not. L'Enfant's plan is a skeleton of the Constitution. <v Narrator 3>It repeats the organizational principles and even the ambiguities of the constitutional <v Narrator 3>plan of government. There is no one dominant center as at Versailles. <v Narrator 3>There are 16. <v Narrator 3>One for each state and three for the federal government.

<v Narrator 3>The pragmatic logic of the planner distributed several centers to balance growth, <v Narrator 3>just as the Constitution distributes authority among the three branches to balance <v Narrator 3>power. The first branch of government is housed in a single building. <v Narrator 3>The capital sits on the highest point in the city. <v Narrator 3>The executive mansion sits lower down, but has an expansive view of the surrounding <v Narrator 3>states. Around it are clustered the various departments of state. <v Narrator 3>Completing a triangle between them, L'Enfant proposed to place the monument to George <v Narrator 3>Washington, voted by Congress. <v Narrator 3>Connecting these points and other centers of the city- <v Pierre Charles L'Enfant>[french accent] Lines are avenues of communication have been devised to connect the <v Pierre Charles L'Enfant>separate and most distant object with the principal and to <v Pierre Charles L'Enfant>preserve through the ?inaudible? a reciprocity of sight at the same time. <v Narrator 3>The checks and balances of the Constitution are here in fact. <v Narrator 3>Each branch has a separate sphere of power, yet all share a <v Narrator 3>view of each other. But the judiciary was removed from the main flow of communication as

<v Narrator 3>if to recognize its unique character in the power structure. <v Narrator 3>For only the justices are not subject to election. <v Narrator 3>The government's accessibility to the people is underlined by Pennsylvania Avenue, <v Narrator 3>which unites the executive and the legislative and then goes straight to the edge <v Narrator 3>of the city to tie them to the rest of the nation. <v Narrator 3>But other than a canal L'Enfant made no provision for commercial development <v Narrator 3>or for defense. <v Narrator 3>Clearly then, the city was designed to exist only at the behest of the people <v Narrator 3>who chartered it. A people still suspicious of powerful government and <v Narrator 3>more comfortable with government at a distance and out of sight. <v Narrator 3>Like the framers of the Constitution, L'Enfant would not see the results of his vision. <v Narrator 3>Less than a year after he had presented his plan, he was dismissed for he would

<v Narrator 3>not compromise his vision of what the city should be. <v Narrator 3>The utter failure of the land sale scheme to finance the capital made the federal <v Narrator 3>city totally dependent on a penny pinching Congress. <v Narrator 3>When they arrived in 1800 to take up permanent residents, only one wing of the <v Narrator 3>capital was finished. The White House was finished but unplastered and there <v Narrator 3>was no building for the Supreme Court. <v Narrator 3>Rather than meet in the basement of the Senate, the court adjourned to a boarding house <v Narrator 3>across the street. <v Man 3>We want nothing here but houses, cellars, kitchens, well-informed men, <v Man 3>amiable women and other little trifles to make our city perfect. <v Man 3>In short, it is the best city in the world for a future residence. <v Narrator 3>The main core of L'Enfant City had been established and it influenced the growth

<v Narrator 3>of government just as surely as acts of Congress. <v Narrator 3>For years, the mile and a half journey between the White House and the capital was so <v Narrator 3>arduous that the two branches were, in fact, separate. <v Narrator 3>Members of the Congress having no homes to live in, stayed together in boarding houses, <v Narrator 3>which rapidly developed political affiliations and greatly influenced the growth of <v Narrator 3>the caucus system. <v Narrator 3>The federal city would have to wait another century for any centralized planning to <v Narrator 3>resume, for the government was far more concerned with learning how to work by the rules <v Narrator 3>it had set down for itself. <v Narrator 3>And if government by compromise and consensus was proving difficult, architecture <v Narrator 3>and city planning by the same means would prove more so. <v Narrator 3>Nowhere is this more evident than in the story of the United States capital. <v Man 4>We consult no oracle, but the Constitution. <v Man 4>We have built no temple but the capital. <v Narrator 3>It had been a style worthy of the first temple dedicated to the sovereignty

<v Narrator 3>of the people. Embellishing with Athenian taste, the course <v Narrator 3>of a nation looking far beyond the range of Athenian destinies. <v Man 5>It may be relied on that it is the progress of that building. <v Man 5>That is to inspire or depress public confidence. <v Narrator 3>It is difficult to overestimate the significance of the capital to early Americans. <v Narrator 3>In an early letter to L'Enfant, Thomas Jefferson wrote- <v Thomas Jefferson>Whenever it is proposed to prepare plans for a capital, I should <v Thomas Jefferson>prefer the adoption of one of the models of antiquity which you've had the approbation <v Thomas Jefferson>of thousands of years. <v Narrator 3>Jefferson's love affair with Roman architecture left its stamp on the nation. <v Narrator 3>It was he and the architect he brought to Washington, Benjamin Latrobe, who established

<v Narrator 3>the classical model which dominates Washington today. <v Narrator 3>But the original design for our nation's capital was not Latrobe's. <v Narrator 3>It was the result of a democratic competition in 1792. <v Narrator 3>In November, four months after the deadline, a design was submitted by Dr. William <v Narrator 3>Thornton of the West Indies. <v Narrator 3>Dr. Thornton's design was immediately accepted. <v Narrator 3>But unfortunately, Dr. Thornton was no architect. <v Narrator 3>Three architects and many mistakes later, Benjamin Latrobe took on the job. <v Narrator 3>He would remain until 1817, all the while chafing when Congress interfered <v Narrator 3>with what he considered professional decisions. <v Narrator 3>But for all that, the capital he'd built inspired awe and gratitude in all <v Narrator 3>who saw it. One of the most endearing results of his collaboration with Jefferson <v Narrator 3>are the tobacco and Indian corn capitals of the columns in the Senate wing.

<v Narrator 3>Latrobe wrote to Jefferson- <v Benjamin Latrobe>These capitals obtained me more applause from the members <v Benjamin Latrobe>of Congress than all the works of magnitude. <v Narrator 3>And rightly so. For these capitals called the capitals of the American order, <v Narrator 3>incorporate elements essential to the economy in a classical design, truly <v Narrator 3>embracing the simple agrarian values present in the Constitution. <v Narrator 3>In a deeper sense, the beauty of the capital was in its function. <v Narrator 3>For in the floor plan of the building itself is a blueprint for the workings of a <v Narrator 3>democratic government. <v Narrator 3>The architectural antecedents for two houses joined by a central court are many. <v Narrator 3>Philadelphia, Williamsburg, Annapolis, Boston. <v Narrator 3>As they wrote their constitution based on an experience <v Narrator 3>of self-government, so the Americans designed their Congress House based on real <v Narrator 3>precedents. The Senate chamber represents the interests of the states.

<v Narrator 3>The House of Representatives, the interests of the people and between <v Narrator 3>them is the rotunda, initially intended as a common <v Narrator 3>meeting ground, but rarely used as such. <v Narrator 3>Instead, it is here that we have placed our icons. <v Narrator 3>Here where we have painted our myths and ?beatified? <v Narrator 3>our heroes. <v Narrator 3>And above it rises the dome, reaching toward heaven and the immutable <v Narrator 3>principles of natural law. <v Narrator 3>The law, which recognizes the natural rights of man. <v Narrator 3>Rights that cannot be repealed. <v Narrator 3>Rights derived from the divine legislator of the universe. <v Narrator 3>The first dome was constructed by Charles Bullfinch.

<v Narrator 3>In 1851, the growing Congress decided to extend the capital and <v Narrator 3>build a higher steel dome. <v Narrator 3>The extensions were completed by 1859. <v Narrator 3>But the dome languished. <v Narrator 3>Henry Adams wrote- <v Henry Adams>[music changes] As in 1800, so in 1850 and 1860, the same <v Henry Adams>?rude? colony camped in the same forest with the same unfinished Greek temples <v Henry Adams>for workrooms, slews for roads. <v Henry Adams>The government had an air of incompleteness about it that went far to support <v Henry Adams>the right of secession in theory, as in fact. <v Narrator 3>Lincoln spoke of secession at his first inaugural. <v Abraham Lincoln>I hold that in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution, <v Abraham Lincoln>the union of these states is perpetual. <v Abraham Lincoln>Perpetuity is implied in the fundamental law of all national governments. <v Abraham Lincoln>Plainly, the central idea of secession is anarchy. <v Narrator 3>[drumming] [symbols crashing] When the war did come, the army suspended work on the dome,

<v Narrator 3>but Lincoln ordered it to continue. <v Abraham Lincoln>If the people see the Capitol going on, it is a sign we intend <v Abraham Lincoln>the union to go on. <v Narrator 3>The civil war was the ultimate failure of the system of compromise and consensus. <v Narrator 3>Yet it is within this context that Lincoln completed the great temple. <v Narrator 3>On January 1st, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation took <v Narrator 3>effect. On July 3rd, the North won the Battle of Gettysburg. <v Narrator 3>And on December 6th, thousands gathered to see the statue of armed freedom <v Narrator 3>hoisted to the pinnacle of the dome. <v Narrator 3>When the goddess stood complete, a flag was unfurled over her head <v Narrator 3>and a 35 gun salute roared back from the fort surrounding the city. <v Narrator 3>Finally, the great temple of democracy was complete and the stage was set for a <v Narrator 3>monumental city to surround it. <v Narrator 3>The civil war had torn the country apart.

<v Narrator 3>And when it was over, the population of the District of Columbia had nearly doubled. <v Narrator 3>The passage of the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing every citizen due process <v Narrator 3>under law and giving Congress the right to enforce it with appropriate legislation, <v Narrator 3>signified the ascendance of a national uniform conception of liberty and a new <v Narrator 3>attitude toward federal authority. <v Narrator 3>In 1893, many Americans saw planning on a grand scale for <v Narrator 3>the first time at the Great Columbian Exposition in Chicago. <v Narrator 3>[music plays] The country was caught up in the reform spirit of the progressive movement <v Narrator 3>and the ideal of the city beautiful, had replaced the agrarian ideals of Jefferson's day. <v Narrator 3>The United States was now becoming a world power whose foreign policy was moving

<v Narrator 3>toward imperial expansion. <v Narrator 3>Most Americans agreed when Frederick Olmstead claimed- <v Frederick Olmstead>Washington must now reflect the grandeur, ?our? <v Frederick Olmstead>dignified magnificence, which should mark the seat of government of a great <v Frederick Olmstead>and intensely active people. <v Narrator 3>In 1901, the ?McMillan? Commission under the direction of Frederick Olmstead was formed <v Narrator 3>to redesign the nation's capital. <v Narrator 3>Its members represented the talents responsible for the Colombian exposition and as well <v Narrator 3>a revival of classic forms in architecture called Beaux-Arts. <v Narrator 3>They unveiled an elaborate and unified design for the capital city, which they called a <v Narrator 3>revival of L'Enfant's plan. <v Narrator 3>L'Enfant would have not recognized the city they were proposing, but at least it was <v Narrator 3>a unified plan. <v Narrator 3>They wanted to create a formal mall.

<v Narrator 3>They called for a memorial to Lincoln and the pantheon to national heroes on the newly <v Narrator 3>reclaimed Potomac Flats. <v Narrator 3>They proposed to develop Pennsylvania Avenue in Lafayette Park. <v Narrator 3>Almost every proposal was met with outrage by one faction or another. <v Narrator 3>But it was realized to a great extent. <v Narrator 3>For the McMillan Plan, unlike L'Enfant's, was in the service of a world power government <v Narrator 3>caught up in the enthusiasm of the progressive movement. <v Narrator 3>A government that would soon pass an income tax amendment. <v Narrator 3>The story of the 20th century is the story of growth of the federal city in fact, <v Narrator 3>rather than in rhetoric and most of that growth has been in the federal bureaucracy. <v Narrator 3>The ratio of federal employees to the population in 1800 had been 1 in <v Narrator 3>2000. In 1900, it was 1 in 240. <v Narrator 3>By 1970, it would be 1 in 69. <v Narrator 3>In 1926, the Public Buildings Act took control of federal

<v Narrator 3>building from Congress and gave it to the Treasury Department along with 700 million <v Narrator 3>dollars. The first result was the Federal Triangle. <v Narrator 3>Public reaction to the massive office buildings was mixed. <v Narrator 3>The Public Building Commission underlined- <v Man 6>The need for a great single architectural composition to place Washington <v Man 6>in the forefront of the architecturally beautiful cities of the world and set an example <v Man 6>for the country as a whole in the matter of planning. <v Narrator 3>But now the critics of classicism as an appropriate forum for modern federalism <v Narrator 3>began to be heard. <v Man 6>Washington has deliberately set out to transform itself from the seat of <v Man 6>a democracy eh to the Rome of an empire. <v Narrator 3>The conflict in architecture paralleled the constitutional crisis brewing between <v Narrator 3>the executive and judicial branches. <v Narrator 3>FDR was convinced that it was the constitutional duty of the government to intervene <v Narrator 3>in the depression for the welfare of the country.

<v Narrator 3>And he was prepared to limit the court's right of judicial review should it interfere <v Narrator 3>with his new deal. <v Narrator 3>Ironically, at this point, the judiciary finally acquired the separate building reserved <v Narrator 3>for it in the original L'Enfant plan. <v Narrator 3>Up until the 30s, they've met in chambers in the capital. <v Narrator 3>It had taken a former president as Chief Justice, William Howard Taft, to get it done. <v Narrator 3>And at a time when classicism was being scorned, the great temple of justice <v Narrator 3>he had built makes no apologies for itself. <v Narrator 3>At the laying of the cornerstone, Charles Evans Hughes said- <v Charles Evans Hughes>The republic endures. And this is a symbol of its faith. <v Narrator 3>The same year the Supreme Court finally acquired its own building, it took a stand <v Narrator 3>against the New Deal and invalidated a provision of the National Industrial Recovery Act. <v Narrator 3>Although it would later modify that position. <v Narrator 3>The judiciary was now finally visible to all as a national power, and

<v Narrator 3>the court began to assume its modern role as the defender of individual liberty in the <v Narrator 3>face of growing government power. <v Narrator 3>The decline of classicism continued into the 40s. <v Narrator 3>After the war, modernism was embraced as the dominant style, reflecting <v Narrator 3>clearly how the role of government in our private lives was changing. <v Narrator 3>Each active presidency, Kennedy's, Johnson's, Nixon's, was followed <v Narrator 3>by a spurt of growth not only in the federal city but in federal buildings across the <v Narrator 3>nation. The plan for the year 2000 shows the arms of Washington's <v Narrator 3>spiraling out far beyond its original boundaries, ever more integrated <v Narrator 3>in the lives of the citizens it serves. <v Narrator 3>Would L'Enfant approve of his city today? <v Narrator 3>Would the framers approve of the way the prologue of the Constitution has been fulfilled?

<v Narrator 3>Overwhelming as this 20th century city might seem to someone from the 18th century, and <v Narrator 3>as incredible as the government's involvement in our lives might seem to a son of the <v Narrator 3>enlightened, the tension between power and liberty has not been lost. <v Narrator 3>We are still governed by compromise and consensus. <v Narrator 3>The great mall has been used not in princely entertainments, but as a place <v Narrator 3>where the people may come both to celebrate their country and to influence its policy. <v Narrator 3>The massive buildings are not palaces for solitary princes, but agencies <v Narrator 3>that dispense aid to dependent children. <v Narrator 3>When Thomas Jefferson acquired the Louisiana Purchase, he wrote- <v Thomas Jefferson>I stretched the Constitution until it cracked. <v Thomas Jefferson>Today, we have stretched the Constitution to provide for the needs of a modern society. <v Thomas Jefferson>It has not cracked, nor has its intention changed. <v Thomas Jefferson>And so long as it remains our only oracle, neither can the societies.

<v Thomas Jefferson>[music plays] <v Narrator 1>The preceding program was funded in part by a grant from the National

<v Narrator 1>Endowment for the Humanities. [program ends] <v Narrator 1>[intro theme plays] This Constitution, funded in part by a grant from the National

<v Narrator 1>Endowment for the Humanities, is a presentation of the International University <v Narrator 1>Consortium and Project '87. <v Narrator 1>[music plays] <v Narrator 4>At the center of the American experiment in constitutionalism is a unique idea. <v Narrator 4>That is that the power to rule can be divided between central and local governments <v Narrator 4>without destroying their effectiveness. <v Narrator 4>This notion of a divided sovereignty of a national government strong enough to <v Narrator 4>defend the people and state governments strong enough to protect their welfare

<v Narrator 4>was so new the framers didn't have a name for it. <v Narrator 4>So they gave an old word new meaning and called <v Narrator 4>it federalism. <v Narrator 4>It began as a strict division of power between two coequal authorities, <v Narrator 4>the states and the national government, a system which came to be called <v Narrator 4>dual federalism. <v Narrator 4>Today, that division of power has become a sharing of power. <v Narrator 4>A sharing dominated by the federal government and called co-operative <v Narrator 4>federalism. <v Narrator 4>But the centralization of power in Washington was not inevitable. <v Narrator 4>It was the result of a constant and often dramatic struggle. <v Narrator 4>For the framers left the exact relationship of the central and local governments <v Narrator 4>ambiguous [birds chirping]. <v Narrator 4>The establishment of which one was supreme was left to hard fought elections, <v Narrator 4>court decisions and legislative battles.

<v Narrator 4>And when these failed, tragically, a civil war. <v Narrator 4>Every state played a part in this struggle. <v Narrator 4>But perhaps none more dramatically than the sovereign state of South Carolina. <v Narrator 4>[music plays] In the beginning, <v Narrator 4>South Carolina was one of the central government's strongest supporters. <v Narrator 4>With the Port of Charleston second only to Philadelphia, with a proud history of <v Narrator 4>leadership in the revolution, and an established and rich society, <v Narrator 4>South Carolina had no fear of a strong national government. <v Narrator 4>Indeed, she wanted one. <v Narrator 4>Charles Pinckney was a young planter from Charleston. <v Narrator 4>As a delegate to Congress under the Articles of Confederation, he was one of the first to <v Narrator 4>call for a convention to revise the articles. <v Charles Pinckney>Congress must be invested with greater powers or the federal government <v Charles Pinckney>must fall.

<v Narrator 4>Under the federalism described by the Articles, most of the powers of government <v Narrator 4>had been reserved to the states. <v Narrator 4>When the convention was finally called, Pinckney wrote out his own revision to present. <v Narrator 4>[writing sounds] <v Charles Pinckney>A confederation between free and independent states is hereby <v Charles Pinckney>solemnly made, uniting them under one general superintending <v Charles Pinckney>government for their common benefit and for their defense. <v Narrator 4>Pinckney and his fellow delegates represented Charleston's established mercantile <v Narrator 4>interests. [seagull chirping] They wanted the federal government to be strong enough to <v Narrator 4>establish an effective financial and commercial policy. <v Narrator 4>Most of the other states had similar priorities. <v Narrator 4>So from its conception in Philadelphia, federalism was not only a legalistic <v Narrator 4>doctrine but a pragmatic system which affected the economic welfare of the <v Narrator 4>people. <v Narrator 4>Just what constituted that welfare was to lead to considerable disagreement among states <v Narrator 4>far more diverse than they are today. [water rushing] Most

<v Narrator 4>of the delegates were strong in their support of states rights as well. <v Narrator 4>For the states were considered necessary partners in making federalism work. <v Narrator 4>Pinckney spoke for many when he said- <v Charles Pinckney>The general government cannot effectively exist without reserving to the states <v Charles Pinckney>possession of their local rights. <v Charles Pinckney>[birds chirping] They are the instruments upon which the union must depend for the <v Charles Pinckney>support and execution of their powers. <v Narrator 4>It was also thought that the partnership of state and federal governments would allow the <v Narrator 4>national government to leave to the states issues too divisive to handle nationally. <v Narrator 4>This did not turn out to be true. <v Narrator 4>A case in point was slavery. [bugs chirping] [machines whirring] The <v Narrator 4>convention debates on the subject were heated.

<v Narrator 4>John Rutledge, the senior statesman of South Carolina, laid out the southern position <v Narrator 4>in no uncertain terms. <v John Rutledge>Religion and humanity have nothing to do with this question. <v John Rutledge>The true question is whether the southern states shall or shall <v John Rutledge>not be parties to the union. <v Narrator 4>The South and the North compromised finally. <v Narrator 4>The South kept the power to import slaves until 1808, but agreed to pay import <v Narrator 4>duties on them. <v Narrator 4>Such economic compromises between the two sections would return to haunt the South. <v Narrator 4>In many ways, the aristocrats of Charleston in the low country dug their own graves. <v Narrator 4>There was some talk of putting the state's rivers and cascades to work and establishing a

<v Narrator 4>textile industry to compete with New England's, but the propertied class never pursued <v Narrator 4>it. <v Narrator 4>Their commitment to the land, to agriculture and to an aristocratic <v Narrator 4>life dependent on slavery destined them to being outsiders <v Narrator 4>in the growing industrial economy. <v Narrator 4>By 1819, South Carolina's depleted soil couldn't compete with the rich <v Narrator 4>black loam of the new southern states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. <v Narrator 4>[horses running] The Panic of 1819, combined with the increasingly <v Narrator 4>bitter national fight over slavery, pushed South Carolina from being a strong <v Narrator 4>supporter of the central government to an adamant defender of states rights. <v Narrator 4>In the meantime, she'd sent her favorite son to Washington. <v Narrator 4>[music plays] John C. Calhoun served his country as congressman, senator, secretary <v Narrator 4>of state and war, and self proposed candidate for president. <v Narrator 4>But he also wrote the South Carolina Exposition in Protest, a polemic advancing

<v Narrator 4>the theory that a state could nullify a law of Congress if it found that law <v Narrator 4>to be unconstitutional. <v Narrator 4>The question arose over tariffs. <v Narrator 4>The main source of revenue for the national government. <v Narrator 4>There were also protectionist measures from northern manufacturing. <v Narrator 4>But for South Carolina and her sister cotton states, tariffs simply meant paying <v Narrator 4>more for the European goods they needed. <v Narrator 4>In 1828, a tariff was passed by the Congress, which came to be known <v Narrator 4>as the tariff of abominations. <v Narrator 4>Calhoun's South Carolina Exposition declared it was unconstitutional. <v Narrator 4>Calhoun derived his thesis from Thomas Jefferson's Kentucky Resolutions. <v Narrator 4>He maintained the federal union was one of sovereign states. <v Narrator 4>The people of any state had the right to nullify an unconstitutional law until <v Narrator 4>Congress either revoked a law or amended the Constitution to permit it. <v Narrator 4>If Congress did amend the Constitution, the aggrieved state could still choose

<v Narrator 4>to secede. <v Narrator 4>The theory of nullification asserted supremacy of the states. <v Narrator 4>In 1830, it was debated by Robert Haine and Daniel Webster on the floor of the <v Narrator 4>Senate. Vice president Calhoun, whose authorship of the <v Narrator 4>pamphlet was still a secret, moderated from his chair. <v Narrator 4>[gavel banging] <v Robert Haine>Constitution being a compact between sovereign states, each <v Robert Haine>of the parties has a right to judge as to its violation. <v Daniel Webster>The Constitution itself refutes that proposition. <v Daniel Webster>It declares that it is ordained and established by the people <v Daniel Webster>of the United States. <v Robert Haine>The creatin' power is in the states. <v Robert Haine>In the case of a difference of opinion between the parties to the compact, resort <v Robert Haine>must be made 'til they are common and superior. <v Robert Haine>Three fourths of the states. <v Daniel Webster>The people undertook to form a general government, not a league

<v Daniel Webster>nor a compact, but our constitution, a popular government <v Daniel Webster>directly responsible to the people themselves. <v Narrator 4>[chatter] At this point, our federal system was so new that the question of who had the <v Narrator 4>final authority on the Constitution was still a legitimate one. <v Narrator 4>The South Carolinians waited to hear what Andrew Jackson had to say about their theory. <v Narrator 4>They didn't have long to wait. <v Andrew Jackson>Their object is disunion. <v Andrew Jackson>Let us not be deceived by names. <v Andrew Jackson>Disunion by armed force is treason. <v Andrew Jackson>Later in debate with Calhoun, Webster asserted the union's supremacy. <v Daniel Webster>The truth is that the people of the United States are one people. <v Daniel Webster>A state could secede from the union, but only by right of revolution, <v Daniel Webster>not as a constitutional right. <v Daniel Webster>Nullification is no right at all.

<v Narrator 4>[birds chirping] [music plays] Calhoun was seeking a way for the South to remain in the <v Narrator 4>Union. Secession was clearly a last resort. <v Narrator 4>But the secession movement brewing in South Carolina used Calhoun's theory of <v Narrator 4>nullification to justify secession as a constitutional right, not <v Narrator 4>a revolutionary act. <v Narrator 4>Despite the fact that the Southern protest got the tariff modified, the nullification <v Narrator 4>crisis brought the potential conflict inherent in federalism to a head. <v Narrator 4>It lit a spark that eventually led to Fort Sumter. <v Man 7>It is time to calculate the value of the Union. <v Man 8>The Union is due to us. <v Man 8>Our honor and liberty are due. <v Man 9>South Carolina will defend the institution of slavery at any and every <v Man 9>sacrifice of their political relations with the federal government and the northern

<v Man 9>states. <v Narrator 4>On December 20th, 1860, South Carolina <v Narrator 4>became the first state to secede from the Union. <v Narrator 4>Four months later, the bombardment of Fort Sumter began. <v Narrator 4>[gunshots] Charleston was where the war was born, and she paid dearly <v Narrator 4>for the honor. <v Man 10>A city of ruins, of vacant houses, of widowed women, <v Man 10>of rotten wars and weed wild gardens.

<v Man 10>Of acres of pitiful and ?voiceful? <v Man 10>barrenness. <v Narrator 4>71,000 men had gone to war. <v Narrator 4>13,000 never came home. [bell tolling] Those who did found burned plantations and ruined <v Narrator 4>fields, the land worth less than half of what it had been. <v Narrator 4>Before the war, the per capita income of Charleston had been two and a half times that of <v Narrator 4>the rest of the country. It would never be that again. <v Man 10>It is difficult for those who are away to understand the utter pecuniary prostration <v Man 10>in which the war has left this part of the country. <v Man 10>The issues of every bank and of the government prove without value or effect, and <v Man 10>the people instead of currency find pieces of waste paper. <v Narrator 4>Reconstruction brought unity, but not healing to the Union. <v Narrator 4>In South Carolina, the legislative rule of scalawags, carpetbaggers and newly

<v Narrator 4>freed blacks was not accepted by the white population. <v Narrator 4>When it ended, Jim Crow emerged to reestablish the status quo. <v Narrator 4>Dispirited and having no resources with which to rebuild, Charleston and South <v Narrator 4>Carolina seemed to stand still. <v Narrator 4>But in the north, Washington was experiencing a period of centralization. <v Narrator 4>The bureaucracy grew. And for the first time, Congress began exercising <v Narrator 4>a national regulatory power. <v Narrator 4>[horses galloping] [city bustling] In the 20s, while the rest of the economy was booming, <v Narrator 4>Charleston and South Carolina were severely depressed. <v Narrator 4>The boll weevil all but destroyed the cotton crop. <v Narrator 4>The new textile mills up country paid their workers 40 percent of what workers in the <v Narrator 4>north were paid and Charleston had been cut off as a port when the railroads

<v Narrator 4>were reorganized at the turn of the century. <v Narrator 4>Franklin Roosevelt began visiting Warm Springs, Georgia, in the 20s and <v Narrator 4>was shocked at conditions in the South. <v Narrator 4>Later as president, he wrote that the South was the nation's number one economic problem. <v Narrator 4>Because the country was interdependent, the South's difficulties meant economic problems <v Narrator 4>for the entire nation. FDR asserted the urgent need to take a centralized <v Narrator 4>view of the national economy. <v FDR>[scratchy audio recording] This nation is asking for action and action now. <v FDR>[applause] Our greatest <v FDR>primary task is to put people to work. <v FDR>[applause] It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the government <v FDR>itself [applause]. <v Narrator 4>To combat the emergency, FDR's New Deal inaugurated a transformation <v Narrator 4>of American life.

<v Narrator 4>The increased federal regulation of business. <v Narrator 4>[footsteps on gravel] The establishment of regional planning. <v Narrator 4>The federalization of labor policy. The <v Narrator 4>management of agriculture. <v Narrator 4>And the expansion of the welfare system were combined with a Keynesian fiscal policy <v Narrator 4>and a modern tax structure to create what we now call cooperative federalism, <v Narrator 4>a system in which the states were important but the federal government was dominant. <v Narrator 4>[music plays]In upcountry South <v Narrator 4>Carolina, the New Deal meant unions and better wages at the mills. <v Narrator 4>For the farmers, it meant quotas, guaranteed prices and diversified crops. <v Narrator 4>In Charleston, the New Deal meant the WPA. <v Narrator 4>The Works Project Administration <v Narrator 4>rebuilt the Dock Street Theater and Fort Sumter and encouraged historical restorations. <v Narrator 4>It refurbished schools and began construction of the Santee-Cooper Hydroelectrical

<v Narrator 4>Plant. <v Narrator 4>It improved the shipbuilding facilities at the Navy Yard. <v Narrator 4>By 1936, Senator Burns reported that the state had received 242 <v Narrator 4>million dollars from various New Deal agencies and only paid back 10 million dollars <v Narrator 4>in taxes. <v Narrator 4>But by this time, many of the state's leaders had begun to turn against the New Deal. <v Narrator 4>The money was not free. Regulation and a sense of dependance came with it. <v Man 11>There has been a continuous decrease of state powers <v Man 11>because the states have not used 'em and the people want a government. <v Man 11>[music playing] <v FDR>It is not a case of a dream coming true. <v Narrator 4>The New Deal did much to help South Carolina survive the Depression. <v Narrator 4>But true economic recovery was to come from a different source, a <v Narrator 4>source in Charleston. [music plays] The Navy first located their base <v Narrator 4>in Charleston in 1902.

<v Narrator 4>By 1941, it was the largest industry in the area and the third largest <v Narrator 4>in the state. The 139 million dollars the Navy spent that year <v Narrator 4>in South Carolina not only built destroyers, it built hospitals, <v Narrator 4>schools and housing for base personnel. <v Narrator 4>On the base itself, thousands of WPA workers became workers <v Narrator 4>for the National Defense. Riveters, machinists, carpenters and mechanics. <v Narrator 4>Wartime Charleston boomed. <v Narrator 4>The growth of the naval base did not end with the war. <v Narrator 4>In 1964, it provided a third of the region's personal income. <v Narrator 4>Like other cities around the country, San Diego, Corpus Christi and Norfolk, Charleston <v Narrator 4>welcomed a permanent federal presence. <v Narrator 4>[shouting] In the 60s, however, the federal government expanded its role in the economy <v Narrator 4>and consequently in the daily lives of its citizens. <v Man 12>?inaudible? [scratchy audio] racial tension in Charleston. There's been a case of

<v Man 12>demonstrators against police. There has not been- <v Narrator 4>[shouting] Initially, the impulse came from the civil rights movement. <v Narrator 4>Not only did the federal government have to intervene to enforce the civil rights law, <v Narrator 4>but the law mandated federal involvement in education, housing and employment: <v Narrator 4>areas traditionally left to the states. <v Narrator 4>In South Carolina, the response to the civil rights intervention was bitter. <v Bryan Dorn>They have no confidence that the people at the local level can handle their schools. Can develop <v Bryan Dorn>theirr businesses without regulation, red tape, ?blanks? <v Bryan Dorn>to fill out. <v Strom Thurmond>The national government has no powers. It has no powers ?now? <v Strom Thurmond>except those that have been given to it by the state. <v Narrator 4>[shouting] Because many Southerners continually invoked the rights of the states <v Narrator 4>as a defense, state's rights became linked in the minds of many Americans with <v Narrator 4>white supremacy and racism. <v Narrator 4>At the same time, the federal government developed a new attitude to the states. <v Narrator 4>National leaders viewed them as inefficient and inadequate to the tasks of modern

<v Narrator 4>government. From Johnson through Nixon, the centralization went even further. <v Man 13>This administration declares unconditional war on poverty in America. <v Narrator 4>[music plays] The states became convenient conduits for programs designed, funded and <v Narrator 4>regulated from Washington. <v Narrator 4>Did federalism die along with state autonomy? <v Narrator 4>Some say yes. <v Narrator 4>The warning signals that come as early as 1939 when a leading liberal said <v Narrator 4>that the epic of federalism was over. <v Narrator 4>That it was inefficient and could not provide the necessary standards of uniformity. <v Narrator 4>By 1969, it was proclaimed- <v Man 14>The United States has evolved into a highly centralized, integrated community. <v Man 14>It no longer possesses federal characteristics. <v Narrator 4>Many question whether this development was good.

<v Man 15>Do we want a federalism in which the national government's powers are almost <v Man 15>unrestricted? Its ascendancy over the states indubitable? <v Man 15>It's important that we take careful stock of the constitutional values <v Man 15>that have been vitiated, as well as those which have been elevated to a new place. <v Narrator 4>Faced by massive deficits and a weakening welfare system, the Reagan White <v Narrator 4>House told the states that they must provide for themselves or do without. <v Ronald Reagan>The federal government has at great cost, been attempting to perform tasks that are <v Ronald Reagan>not its proper function. <v Ronald Reagan>So we're restoring the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, which says the federal <v Ronald Reagan>government will do only those things called for in the Constitution <v Ronald Reagan>and all others shall remain with the states or the people. <v Narrator 4>The problem is, once having intervened, once having set up the expectation <v Narrator 4>that it will be responsible for certain things, how does the national government give <v Narrator 4>back these functions to the states which have neither the tax base nor the resources

<v Narrator 4>to provide what the people have come to expect? <v Narrator 4>Joe Riley has been the mayor of Charleston for 10 years and he's convinced <v Narrator 4>that the federal state partnership must continue. <v Joe Riley>Cities have a uh national role. <v Joe Riley>We don't just provide services for the people that live <v Joe Riley>in our cities. Nor are cities self-contained. <v Joe Riley>The central city does something for everyone in the metropolitan <v Joe Riley>area. It may be two, three, four, five times as large as a central city. <v Joe Riley>The federal programs have been wisely a way of tapping that <v Joe Riley>federal tax base and sharing it some with the city. <v Narrator 4>[tools operating] Such a project is Charleston Place, an elegant hotel and convention <v Narrator 4>center designed to revitalize the old downtown of Charleston. <v Narrator 4>Using 18 million federal dollars as ?seed?

<v Narrator 4>money, 55 million was generated from private investors. <v Narrator 4>But some question whether such development is worth the price. <v Thomas Hartnett>The federal government has built golf courses, hotels. <v Thomas Hartnett>We've built resorts. We've built marinas. We've built things all over the country and <v Thomas Hartnett>certainly you'd have to say they've been good for the economy, but they might have been <v Thomas Hartnett>good for the economy of that one locale at the expense this year <v Thomas Hartnett>of a 200 billion dollar deficit and at the collective expansive over a <v Thomas Hartnett>two trillion dollar national debt. <v Joe Riley>The federal partnership is essential if <v Joe Riley>cities are to are to survive and be strong. <v Joe Riley>It is important to understand that I haven't- no mayor <v Joe Riley>has asked the federal government to develop our consensus force, <v Joe Riley>make the difficult decisions for us, do any of our jobs for us. <v Joe Riley>We haven't shirked or shied away any responsibility. <v Joe Riley>It is just in this very wealthy nation, to share

<v Joe Riley>some of that national wealth and those resources with <v Joe Riley>the cities that are so important to our country. <v Thomas Hartnett>I think the federal government should be there to assist cities and towns and states in <v Thomas Hartnett>the event of uh national disasters or catastrophes. <v Thomas Hartnett>But I think that the federal government should, as the Constitution said, leave to those <v Thomas Hartnett>states, all of those things that uh they can do for themselves to do, and cities also. <v Thomas Hartnett>The only powers of the federal government have or supposed to have by the constitution <v Thomas Hartnett>are those given to it by the states, not asked from the states for, <v Thomas Hartnett>but given to it by the states. <v Thomas Hartnett>And that's probably the way it should be. <v Narrator 4>[gavel banging] It's not just political conservatives who are seeking to reactivate the <v Narrator 4>old federalism. In recent decisions, the courts have made rulings deliberately <v Narrator 4>to reassert state autonomy. <v Narrator 4>In the words of a liberal California justice: encouraging <v Narrator 4>the 50 states to experiment to retain their historic individuality, <v Narrator 4>to seek innovative responses, may ultimately produce more of the answers

<v Narrator 4>in the years ahead than relying on the federal government. <v Narrator 4>After a long period of consolidation, it would seem that we're shifting back <v Narrator 4>somewhat to notions that the framers might recognize. <v Narrator 4>Now it is the federal government that's perceived as bloated and, if not corrupt, <v Narrator 4>hopelessly entangled by its size. <v Narrator 4>[music plays] The states, on the other hand, have become much more dynamic in the last 10 <v Narrator 4>years. They compete with each other for corporate investment, develop <v Narrator 4>statewide and city economic plans. <v Narrator 4>State legislators now are professional politicians. <v Narrator 4>Governors and mayors of major cities manage enormous budgets and have formed <v Narrator 4>national associations with their counterparts in other states. <v Narrator 4>Adelaide Stevenson once said that if our people did not have the states, <v Narrator 4>they would create them rather than centralize all the power at one point where a <v Narrator 4>congestion of authority would defeat democratic progress.

<v Narrator 4>That was the original idea. <v Narrator 4>In order to save the economy in the Depression and to uphold a <v Narrator 4>national ideal of liberty, the federal government in the last 50 <v Narrator 4>years has taken on great power and responsibility. <v Narrator 4>Now, perhaps it's time for the states to take some back. <v Narrator 4>[music plays] <v Narrator 1>The preceding program was funded in part by a grant from the National

<v Narrator 1>Endowment for the Humanities.