this question about manifest destiny is that it was this ain americans were destined to expand from the east to the west and incorporate all those lands because americans were going to do with that land what was right. what no one ever really says is that the only reason manifest destiny would work is because you have powerless neighbors, powerless neighbors who can't prevent you from expanding. so when you look at this map as jefferson saw it, to the north, great britain was a powerful neighbor. to the west, native americans, not so powerful. in fact, you know, it's during jefferson's presidencies that zebulon pike writes a report -- remember what he call that is great area of the west? he calls it the great american desert. with that powerless neighbor there, when it's time to remove

them from the east -- area east of the mississippi river, move them to the west, where do we put them? in the great american desert. and ultimately the indians got the last laugh because they found oil in the early 20th century and they found casinos in the early 21st century. but jefferson understands that his vision of america, that it's going to have to have land. now, shortly after the war of 1812, he's writing to anntce ca john jacob astor. and he said that he looked forward with gratification to the time when the entirety of the pacific coast would be populated with free and independent americans. he believed it would be so. now, for jefferson and his supporters, what they saw was

the west and the abundance of land created the opportunity for this empire of liberty. now, you look at these beliefs that jefferson -- that he espoused. the acquisition of territory, satisfy the energet n governmenh chance -- or human farmer, the chance to purchase lands at minimal prices. he said farmers are god's chosen people. well, he truly believed that. and the revenues raised from those lands, well, you could sell those l, money, you could extinguish the debt. you wouldn't have to tax people as much. land was a panacea for all evils. and as president, look what happens. during his t term, you'll have ohio becoming the 17th sttennessee, kentucky, vermont and the original 13. indiana in becomes a territory. and then in december of 1803,

the united states would purchase louisiana. in fact, it would be general james preside over the transfer of that territory. and in march of 1804, captain amos stodard would go to st. louis and preside over the purchase of that territory. jefferson's empire of liberty was becoming a reality, becoming a reality. yet is it enough land for the 100th and 1,000th generation? jefferson still thinks so. we see that his secretary of war in the 1820s named james barber would comment that there would be enough land for 500 years. well, he didn't get it right either. in fact, we know that by 1890, the frontier vanishes.

so what jefferson sees is that over the course of 100 years or so, americans had crossed the appalachian mountains, they had moved down the mississippi valley, they had begun trickling into east and west florida. am the louisiana purchase, and now all eyes would focus to the west. and to the south. of course, that would be texas. now, while the acquisition of louisiana does momentarily satisfy this desire for expansion, it was only a moment. in 1810 -- now, i know this is texas history. so as i tell you this, i don't want you to be upset, i don't want to hear any hissing or booing. in september of 1810, there's

going to be a minor uprising. and of all places baton rouge, louisiana. now, let me tell you what happens here. there are a group of americans who are living in th north of the lake pontchartrain and north of new orleans. they had been there for more than a decade, many of them had. the spanish government longer able to meet their needs. and in september of 1810, these americans, they rise up, they storm the dilapidated fort there at baton rouge. in fact, there were gaps in the stockade that the men are running through. they capture the fort, they capture the govern. one spanish soldier dies. well, as soon as that conquest or that rebellion had been successful, they call a

convention, they draft a declaration, which looks eerily similar to the american documents, their constitution. and then they even created a flag. they called it a bonnie blue flag with a single star in it, the original lonestar republic. see, that's where i figured you guys would be hissing. but the reason i tell you about this little uprising, when it's mentioned in history books, it's called the west florida rebellion. rebellions generally they're not successful. revolutions imply they are successful. well, here you have a west florida rebellion that is successful. and for about 90 days, this is the republic of west florida.

president james madison in late october will finally annex this region in the united states and he doesn't do so as if he is annexing an independent country. he says, oh, no, this was part of the louisiana purchase, we're just now getting around to incorporating it. but what you have here in this west florida w exactly what jefferson had mentioned -- that americans would move into a territory, they would profess loyalty to that government and then when the opportuniteshey would rise throw off the shackles of foreign control and ask to be annexed into the union. well, what happens is this single star of the west florida flag will be incorporated into ths. now, at the same time this event

is going on, there's also -- you probably -- you may remember this guy here, father miguel hedalgo. he leads a at the same time this is happening, you have what's going i and after that, there is a filibuster attempt that leaves the united state leaves nacogdoches, louisia it's let by a man by the name of delotta. of another man. and there's a former american

army officer named agus us the william mcgee. they will set off from knack goeshs, cross into the neutral territory of texas, beginning in the summer of 1812, when they finally arrive at nacogdoches, the spanish garrison there surrender. they join the filibuster. and then they begin moving to the south toward labea. by the time they arrive there in august, they will siege that position for four months before the spanish finally surrender. and then they will move to the north and west against san antonio, even capturing san antonio. now, here is when the

gutierrez/delotta/mcgee expedition runs awry. there are ethnic divisions within these ranks. and once they capture antonio, the tejanos decide they're going to execute the governor. he will be executes and many americans will say, we didn't get iolold scores. we got involved in this to bring texas into the union. well, americans began leaving the rebellion. and within a mexican force coming from the south will defeat the revolutionaries at the battle o antonio. a young lieutenant that was on that exde pe decision from mexico is antonio lopez de

santa santana. it's his first taste of texas. in the days of thistion there are others that will see texas as a fertile ground just waiting to be taken. may know o privateer jean lapit. and his b create a settlement at galveston and they're having a wonderful time spanish and american ships, until 1819, the american government says, that's enough -- enough's enough. and they send a navy expedition over. they hang about nine pirates. it's amazing. nthat stopped it. literally all at once. well, at the same time lafit is there at galveston, there's also a group of french napoleanic

officers. they envisioned of liberating him from st. helena and he would have this empire along the gulf coast. well, napolean dies at st. helena. and the empire -- if ewe ever go out east into alabama, there's a place called demopolis, that was to be the foundation of napolean's empire here in north america. and it doesn't play out. in the aftermath of the war of 1812 this border land between louisiana and texas is a hotly contested area. and one of my favorite characters in all of american history -- it's not john smith -- lature.

how many of you guys have heard of le? my wife has. lature is an enigmatic figure. he lived in the shadows of american history. he's a frenchman. he makes it to louisiana in he'. he's an engineer. he had trained as a military engineer. well, by the time of the war 1812, he's a having a hard time making ends meet. so he joins andrew jackson to fight in this war of 1812.fact, who designed the defenses for le, jackson halmette. dismissed the army by march of 1815. lature is unemployed. he speaks fre speaks english.

so he's actually going to be hired by the spanish government to go on an expedition. he claims it's an expeditio of arkansas. yeah, you can actually find gold in arkansas if you're lucky. so he aia jean lafit will go up ithanfor eight months, th out of sight. when he return, being an architect/engineer, he drafts a map, he writes a pretty lengthy reportlly he had visits the headwaters of the arkansas, the colorado rivers, he had made it all the wayo sta fe. and when he write this is report, he gives a copy to the spanish government. it makes its way to the captain general of sent to all the governors of the

internal provinces. man, this report is revealing. he says, and, quote, the americans aspire to supremacy over the future republics of the new world. yes, they do. is founded on national interest rather than the liberality of ideas or the happiness of mankind territory for their own selfish means. and he says, the government works for this end. and the primary and fit of this plan was none other than mr. jefferson. lature was convinced that if the spanish don't put up a wall, they don't put up a wall, americans are going to flood into texas. in fact, he said, should spain not do something, the time will come and unfortunately is not

far off when the americans will pour myriads into mexico. so they won't even just go to texas, they'll make it all the says, because the americans have strength of character, they have courage, they havskf guns and their eyes are fixed on texas and mexico like the jews on the promised land. well, he insisted they would join any expedition, like they had done with the gutierrez/mcgee expedition. they would join any expedition even if it had little prospect of success because they had everything to gain and nothing to lose. well, what lature is telling them, you guys have got to do something here. americans are already gathering in arkansas and they're

beginning to trickletter of tim. and, of course, those reports are read by the governors of the internal provinces of mexico and they say, well,elg new. we know this. you've got to give us more men. you've got to give us more money. and until you do so, we can't build that wall there to keep them out. well, spanish don't give them the things they need. and, in fact, quincy adams in 1819 will adams/oneese line that created a southwestern border to the louisiana purchase. now, many americans chastised adams because he had given up texas. he had sacrificed texas. and by doing so, he got that toehold on the pacific northwest. by doing so, he made the united states a?

adams had read lature's report. he can give up -- he can make some concessions there because it's just a matter of time before those americans will find their way into texas and take it for themselves. well, some of my distinguished fellow speakers will tell you about how that really happened. but in a nutshell, ity here. and beginning in the early 1820s -- come on up, there we go. stephen f. austin, as you know, will begin leading settlers into texas. other impresarios will bring them into texas. by 1824, there were roughly 2,000.

by 1830, there are 30,000. by 1835, there were 35,000. someone has turned the spigot on and forgot to turn it off, just as jefferson and prophepro prophesied. you guys know what happens next. john wayne, lawrence harvey, sorry, steve, i prefer the original. but in any case, what's happening here is that it's exactly as had happened in the west florida rebellion. americans had moved into texas. they had not been completely happy with the situation in texas. so they began asking for concessions to reorganize reorg

that it is a separate state rather than parcelled. at the time they didn't realize that mexico had its own internal problems. there's a struggle between the centralists and the federalists. the americans in texas just get caught in that struggle. well, of course, the texas revellusion, you notice it is a revolution. it was not the texas rebellion. so it was successful, the texas revolution. and texas becomes a free and independent state. president andrew jackson wanted to annex texas. can't do so because of the slavery question. he does recognize it as a republic on his last day in office. s his successor martin van buren won't touch the texas question because of the slavery issue. it's not until the election of 1844 that james knox polk will

make the annexation of texas a political issue. and as he is being elected in the fall of 1844, john tyler will actually be responsible for the annexation of texas itself. he had tried to annex texas under a treaty. treaty needed two-thirds of both houses. well, a joint resolution simply needs a majority. pardon me, two-thirds of the senate. joint resolution needs a simple majority in each house. so by december of 1845, december 29th, 1845, texas would become the 28th state. and this 28-star flag would be a valuable flag. it remains in existence for only

one year before iowa became the 29th state in december of 1846. now, two days, two days before the official entrance of texas into the union john lewis o'sullivan, magazine "democratic review" ran an editorial in which he said, "the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and possess the whole of the continent which providence has given us for the development of this great experiment of liberty and federalive development of t. it is rights such as that to the tree to the space of earth suitable for the full expansion and prince principle of destiny and growth."manist d. and although it's 20 years after jefferson's death, jefferson's vision -- jefferson's vision has

become a reality. and in the yearsfollowed, the southwest, the pacific coast, the pacific northwest, just like jefferson had idea o liberty, they're synonymous, t americans wanted to possess this land and would take any opportunity short of war to do so. within a few years, the stars atlantic to the pacific, just as jefferson had predicted. thank you so much.estis? [ applause ] >> i don't think i ran over. we teachers havecy to

talk on ad nauseum. so i try to ke sweet. questions? you make them up and i'll make up answers. >> no one? hey, that's easy for me then. an >> thank you, dr. smith. if you ask your questions you can get on tv. oh, we do have a ma'am. >> i just wanted to know why the african-americans were not named as fighters in the 1812 war. because they did not all come here as slaves. thomas jefferson was an malato. >> i'm so glad you asked mecaus manuscript on african-american notice war. and i can tell you that there's

quite a few of them who participated in the war. >> i know it is. and they fought at the alamo and everything. we don't get credit for it. >> you're right. >> only thing they think of is slaves. >> well, and to me the wonderful story about the war of 1812 is how african-americans used that as a way to secure their freedom. now, one of the great stories -- >> they didn't come here as slaves. some of them came and helped discover america. >> you're right. some of them did. exactly. and yet what we see is that we tend to create in the narrative of american history we tend to put people in certain groups or categories. and we generalize those categories. we can say that within any group of people there are exceptions >> yes. >> and in the process of trying to make it a narrative flow that goes from point a to the end, we

talk generalizations rather than the exceptions. >> yeah. give credit where credit due. >> i agree. i agree. pl >> other questions >> hi there question about thom jefferson. >> okay. maybe i have an answer. >> okay. the phrase "separation of church and wer going to ask that. >> yeah. where does that come from? why is there such conflict over that phrase? >> well, i'm reason there's conflict is because of our who the founders were. now, most of the founders would have identified themselves as deists rather than as members of any established church.

what they saw there is that there was an ultimate being out there. and it's often described as the clockmaker. you know, you have the ultimate being out there that creates the clock, winds the clock up, and then pulls their hand away and the clock runs. well, the deists believed there was some ultimate creator out there. they couldn't explain what that creator was. but they saw this creator was not going to be involved in the daily affairs of the individual. and what they're concerned about, they had seen this happen in new england. they were concerned that the organized religions would gain control over every facet of everyday life. and they were scared to death about that. >> all right. got that. but bring us up to today. >> oh, gosh. >> yeah. that one, too. >> well, i mean, there's just such a big dividing line on this

particular phrase. >> you're right. there is. >> in politics today. could you explain what it really means and how it will -- >> well, what i can say in the first amendment of the constitution it calls for freedom of religion. and that's what the founding fathers believed in. freedom of religion. that means the freedom to worship or not worship as you see fit. now, over the past 200 plus years, we as an american society try to expropriate those ideals to satisfy our current needs. here in the early part of the 21st century i think we're a people that is really struggling to determine what our mission for america and our mission for the future might be. and anything that they can find that might have that hook to provide a credence for them, they're willing to grab onto that.

ultimately the debate -- the current debate over churcan is how much authority either entity is going to exercise. so that kind of answer your ere was it originally written? of that phrase?efferson the >> i'm not exactly su from. now, he does write a letter to the baptists in 1801 in which he talks about a separation of church and state. i don't remember the exact f he used that exact phrase "separation of church and state." >> i think he wrote aetanbury b connecticut. >> yes. >> saying they were concerned about the church of england. >> yes. >> owe prosing them. and the church of england, of course, was the established church in virginia. and that's why jefferson wrote his