opportunity there for the future. now, when you talk about manifest destiny, one of the things that always comes up in this question about manifest destiny is that it was this preordained belief that 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 presidency that zebulon pike goes on an

exhibition and writes a report. remember what he calls that 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 an acquaintance called -- named 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 energetic nature of our government, give people the chance -- or human farmer, the chance to purchase lands at minimal prices. you know, 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 lands. you could make money. could you 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 first term, you'll have ohio becoming the 17th state joining tennessee, kentucky, vermont and the original 13. indiana in 1803 becomes a territory. and then in december of 1803, the united states would purchase louisiana. in fact, it would be general james wilkinson that would preside over the transfer of that territory. and in march of 1804, captain amos stoddard would go to st. louis and preside over the transfer 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. america has secured the louisiana purchase, and now all eyes would focus to the west. and to the soutand to the sout 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 in baton rouge, louisiana. now, let me tell you what happens here. there are a group of americans who are living in this region, 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 was no 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 fortt. they capture the governor. 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. now, rebellions generally imply 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, god 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 rebellion was exactly what jefferson had mentioned, that americans would move into a territory. they would profess loyalty to that government, and then when the opportunity presented it self, they would rise up, 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 the constellation of stars and stripes. now, at the same time this event is going on, there's also -- you probably -- you may remember this guy here, father miguel hidalgo. you know, in 1810 he leads -- begins a revolution in mexico. it's going to last for about a year and a half before he's finally executed, but at the same time that this is happening, you have what's going on in baton rouge. and shortly after that, there is a filibuster attempt that leaves the united states, leaves nacogdoches, louisiana. it's led by a tejana but the name of max milian gutierrez delara. he's got the assistance of a

cuban revolutionary by the name of dubois. i wonder where he got the dubois part, and there's a former american army officer named augustus william magee. they will set off from nacogdoches, cross into the neutral territory into 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 a gutierrez delara/magee expedition runs awry. there are ethnic divisions within these ranks. and once they capture san antonio, the tejanos decide they're going to execute the spanish governor, man yell salsedo. he will be executed, and many americans will say we didn't get involved in this to settle old scores. we got involved in this to bring texas into the union. well, americans began leaving the rebellion. and within a few weeks, a mexican force coming from the south will defeat the revolutionaries at the battle of medina just outside of san antonio. a young lieutenant that was on

that expedition from mexico is . it's his first taste of texas. n the days after this that will see texas as a fertile ground just waiting to be taken. you may know of the famed privateer jean lafitte. jean and his brother peay will join with a french privateer. in 1817, he and his brother create a settlement at galveston and they're having a wonderful time plundering mexican and 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. you hang a few pirates and that stopped it.

literally all at once. well, at the same time lafitte is there at galveston, there's also a group of french napoleanic officers. they create a settlement and what they envisioned is that they would liberate napoleon from st. helena, and he would have this empire along the gulf coast. well, napoleon dies at st. helena, and the empire, well, there's that here, and if you ever go out east into alabama, there's a place called demopolis, which was founded by the french emigres. that was to be the foundation of napoleon'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 lature? my wife has. she's lived with me all these years. latour is kind of these enigmatic figures. he's lived in the shadow of the american history. he's a frenchman, as can you tell by the name. he makes it to louisiana in 1803, and he's an architect. he's an engineer. he had trained as a military engineer. well, by the time of the war of 1812, he's a having a hard time making ends meet. so he joins andrew jackson to fight in this war of 1812. and, in fact, he is the person who designed the defenses for jackson at shalmette. well, after the battle, jackson dismissed the army by march of

1815. latour is unemployed. he speaks french. he speaks spanish. he speaks english. so he's actually going to be hired by the spanish government to go on an expedition. he claims it's an expedition into the gold-producing regions of arkansas. yeah, you can actually find gold in arkansas if you're lucky. so he and jean lafitte will go up into the arkansas. and for eight months, they are out of sight. when he returns, being an architect/engineer, he drafts a map. he writes a pretty lengthy report. and ultimately he had visited the headwaters of the arkansas, the colorado rivers, and he had made it almost all the way to santa fe. and when he writes this report, he gave a copy to the spanish government.

it makes its way to the captain general of cuba, the vice royal of mexico, copies were 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. and this desire is founded on national interest rather than the liberality of ideas or the happiness of mankind. in other words, they want the territory for their own selfish means. and he says, the government works for this end. and the primary and first author of this plan was none other than mr. jefferson. latour 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, but they'll make it all the way to mexico. the reason, he says, because the americans have strength of character. they have courage. they have skill in the use of 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 de lara/magee 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 latour is telling

them, you guys got to do something here. you know, americans are already gathering in arkansas, and they're beginning to trickle over into texas. it's only a matter of time. and, of course, those reports are read by the governors of the internal provinces of mexico, and they say, well, tell us something new. you know, 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, john quincy adams in 1819 will negotiate this 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 continental nation. and guess what? adams had red latour'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, you know, some of my distinguished fellow speakers will tell you about how that really happened. but in a nutshell, jefferson's vision is coming to reality 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

americans into texas. how quickly were they coming? well, by 1824, there were roughly 2000. by 1830, there were 20,000, and by 1835, there were 35,000. someone has turned the spigot on and forgot to turn it off, just as jefferson and latour had prophesized. you know, jefferson was hoping 100,000. well, he was well on his way to getting that many people there. well, of course, you guys know what happened next. john wayne, richard widmark, 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. happy with the situation in

texas. so they began asking for concessions to reorganize the government so that it is a separate state rather than part of it. at the time they didn't realize that mexico had its own internal problems. there's a struggle between centralist and federalists. americans in texas just get caught in that struggle. the text rev laux was successful 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. his successor martin van buren

won't touch the texas question because of the slavery issue. it is not until the election of 1844 when 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. 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 2th 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, the u.s. magazine and democratic review ran an editorial in which they said the right of our man test 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 federal development of self-government entrusted to us. it is rights such as that of the tree to the space of air suitable for destiny and growth. this is manifest destiny.

although it is 20 years after jefferson's death, jefferson's vision -- jefferson's vision has become a reality and in the years that followed, the southwest, the pacific coast, the pacific northwest. just like jefferson had proph y propheci prophecied. so this idea of manifest destiny and jefferson's empire liberty, americans would take any opportunity short of war to poe tess this land. within a few years the stars an stripes will fly from the atlantic to the pacific just as jefferson had predicted. thank you so much. questions? questions?

i don't think i ran over. we teachers have a tendency to talk onned a ne ed a ad nauseamo keep it short and speak. you make them up and i'll make up answers. no one? hey. that's easy for me then. thank you so much. >> thank you, dr. smith. come on, be thinking of those. you can get on tv. oh, we do have a question. >> yes, 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 a malatto. >> i'm so glad you asked me that

question. i'm a scholar of the war of 1812 and i just finished a manuscript on african-americans in the war. i can tell through is quite a few of them. >> i know it is. i know it is. >> quite a few of them participated in the war. >> i know it is. they fought in the alamo and everything. we don't get credit for it. >> you're right. >> only thing you think ever 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 -- >> lot of them didn't come here slaves. a lot of them help america. >> you're right, some of them did, exactly. and yet what we see is we tend to create in the narrative 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

to those rules. >> yeah. >> and in the process of trying to make it a narrative flow that goes from point a to the end we talk about the generalizations rather than the exceptions. >> yeah. give credit where credit is due. >> i agree. i agree. other questions. >> hi, there. i have a question about thomas jefferson. >> okay. maybe i have an answer. >> okay. the phrase separation of church and state. >> i knew you were going to ask that. >> yeah. where does that come from? why is there suchphrase? >> well, i'm convinced the reason there's conflict is becae ng of 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 was 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 hands away and the clock runs. well, the deists believe there was some ultimate creator out there. they couldn't explain what that creator was but they saw that this creator was not going to be involved in the daily affairs of the individual. what they're concern about, they had seen this happen in new england. they were concerned that the organized religions would gain control over every facet of every day life and they wescare to death about that. >> all right. got that. but bring us up to today.

>> oh, my god. oh, 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. that's what the founding fathers believed i religion. worship as you reedom to see fit. now, over the past s,e as an amy try to expropriate those words and ideas to satisfy our current needs. and here in the early part of the 21st century, i think we're people that is really struggling to determine what our mission for ama d anhing that they can

that might have that hook to provide a credence for them, they'r to that. ultimately the debate, the current church and state i think is a debateho mucy is going to exercise. that kind of answer your s it originally written, and what did -- thomas jefferson the original author of that noph exactly s write a letter to icular d the baptists in talks about a separation of church and state. remember the exact quote so i'm not sure if he used thatseration of church . >> i think he wrote a letter to the danbury baptists in connecticut. >> yes. >> saying -- they were concerned about