Concord NH and goodbyes to Pooh

Since Pooh arrived he has traveled to Concord NH with me every day (with the exception of when we were overseas of course). I thought as one of the last posts, I would post a little bit about Concord NH.



Concord is the state capitol of New Hampshire. It is the hub of New Hampshire government. Okay I have to put in a warning here... the following paragraph will be deemed boring, but I feel compelled to give a NH government lesson since I do work for the Governor. :-)

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New Hampshire has three branches of government. The Legislative Branch, know as the General Court, is composed of the state senators and representatives; the Executive Branch includes the Governor, Executive Councilors and State Agencies; and the Judicial Branch is made up of the courts. Each branch of government is separate from the others yet has some control over and is controlled by the other two. This is known as a system of checks and balances. All three branches derived their powers from the State's Constitution and the Constitution is controlled by the people of the state. The Governor is the supreme executive and is called His or Her Excellency. According to our the state’s constitution, the Governor is responsible for the "faithful execution of the law". He has the assistance of the Executive Council and state agencies. New Hampshire is unique because of the five member Executive Council who work with, advise and share the governor’s responsibilities. While a few other state have Executive Councils (Massachusetts for example), they exist in an advisory capacity only. In New Hampshire, the Executive Council has a strong check on the Governor’s power. Both the Governor and Councilors are elected to two year terms. This year is an election year. Governor John Lynch has been elected twice already and is campaigning for a third term. Consensus is he will be re-elected.

---- end boring part ----

That said, our state house is a beautiful building located downtown Concord. Most of the state capitol buildings are made of Granite. New Hampshire is nicknamed The Granite State because of all the granite formations and quarries. Our motto is Live Free or Die. It was not taken from the Bruce Willis movie, :-) it comes from a statement written by the Revolutionary General John Stark, hero of the Battle of Bennington.

The phrase comes from a toast written by General Stark on July 31, 1809. Poor health forced Stark, New Hampshire's most famous soldier of the American Revolutionary War, to decline an invitation to an anniversary reunion of the Battle of Bennington and to send his toast by letter:

Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.

From the above picture, you can see that the dome of the Capitol Building is gold (yes that is real gold). States can only have a gold dome on their State House if they had a person from their state become President. President Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States, serving from came from 1853 to 1857. He was a democrat from New Hampshire, and also considered a "doughface" (that is what they called Northerners with Southern sympathies). A few years later when the Civil War began, he declared support for the Confederacy. He died in 1869 due to complications from his alcoholism. It is not surprising he was considered one of the country's worst presidents. BUT - regardless, we get to have a gold dome! :-)





Saturday we are walking down to the lake, checking out the foliage. (Note: We never made the walk. :-( )

On Sunday, Pooh will continue his journey as we send him on his way to the next recipients. We will miss Pooh. We had so much fun with him. Thank you Karissa for letting us participate in the project.

Pooh is wearing a pin from every state he has been in so far, and the flag of Hungary. We were not able to get the German flag pin, but we are ordering it and will send it out to you to add to the rest.