diplomats to the united states to solicit donations for the texas cause. they did it by borrowing. the borrowing of those funds was thought to be the most expeditious way to raise large amounts of money, which it was. they did it by robbing. they granted letters of mark and reprisal to armed privateeers to go out in the gulf of mexico and sack mexican shipping in exchange for part of the loot. it was state-sponsored pirating. they did it by cheating. now, the cheating comes later in the story, which is the formation of a paper money system. but nevertheless, there was a lot of cheating going on in the republic of texas treasury. and they did it by stealing, the outright confiscation of any goods and services they could use that could be pressed into service for the war effort. so taxing, begging, borrowing, robbing, cheating, and stealing. this is how texas was really funded.

now, once the government faith was pledged, there's a variety of notes which begin to appear. this was gonzales, the 28th of november of 1835. and look at the serial number. serial number 1. the first obligation of texas. three days. please pay to the order of andrew-uponton the sum of $100 to pay expenses incidental on procuring supplies for the volunteer army of texas. signed by matthew caldwell. ponton was the treasurer of the municipality of gonzales. they were diverting money that had been paid in land dues toward the war effort. this is an iou by the provisional government to that municipality to eventually pay them back. look at this receipt. this is just a receipt for a rifle. some of these are very simple. received at san felipe delve austin december the 1st of 1835 of w. joshua fletcher.

a rifle gun valued at $22, which i promise to take in the service of the provisional government of texas and return the same upon my return from the army of the people in the government foresaid. that is a really poetic receipt for a gun. it was signed by george b. wilson. what made it bona fide was it was signed by william p. harris, one of the representatives from harrisburg after whom harris county is named, which established that as an obligation that they would make that good just in case that rifle wasn't given back. now, the provisional government needed to raise real money. so they had three commissioners -- stephen f. austin, william h. wharton, and branch t. archer, to a fund-raising mission to new orleans. they left the day after christmas of 1835, arrived there in january of 1836. and they had a meeting at the city hotel, which was in the french quarter because new orleans was the largest fund-raising center for the south. and at this meeting it was

chaired by a man named william christie. christie was an old veteran of the war of 1812. he was a long-time friend of sam houston's. and he was there as sympathetic a man they could ever find to chair this meeting. so the commissioners, austin, archer, and wharton, had this meet examining they tried to raise funds, and they had it in the ballroom of the hotel. and it probably wasn't much bigger than this room. and they had real estate speculators here. there were financiers there. some of these were just lodgers from the hotel who'd been following the texas cause and wandered in on the meetings. and austin and archer took turns railing against the mexican government. we have no representation in satulio. they have suspended the constitution. they put garrisons up at the borders. they're having these criminals coming in here. and they're collecting these tariffs. and we ought to be free. they suspended immigration. and they were sympathetic. we need to raise $250,000 in building a navy and outfitting an army. and they said wait a minute.

okay. that's like $20 million back then. that was a lot of money. and the idea of loaning that kind of money to three individuals who didn't even represent an organized government was received rather coolly at first, as you can mannin imagine. until they come up with the idea of why don't we get this loan and we'll pay it back with land in texas at 50 cents an acre. that's what they do. this is the texian loan. there were two loans. $100,000 loan. it was funded with 10% down. so they got 20,000 right up front. they bought the warships, the liberty, the independence, and they spent all this money within about 10 or 12 days. the remainder of the cash was going to be advanced upon ratification of terms of the texas government. this one here, it says received of robert triplett $32 is the first installment of the loan of $320. he was one of the financiers. and you see in the middle line it says the terms of interest at

8% per annum. but down here you see it says for the amount paid land in texas may be taken at 50 cents per acre. 50 cents per acre. if you look closely in the right margin you see vertically it says "640 acres of land pledged by the commissioners of texas, austin, archer, and wharton." this is a five-year convertible 8% bond that is convertible into land in texas. it's a hell of a deal. it was so popular they raised another $50,000 within just a few days. so to raise $250,000 they pledged 500,000 acres of land in texas for repayment. the only problem was texas didn't have title to the land. mexico had title to the land. and santa ana's army had just crossed the rio grande into texas with the goal of crushing

the rebellion and driving all the anglos across the sabine river at the point of a bayonet. so even at ubs where i work we would consider these loans to be speculative. but they weren't completely crazy. the second $50,000 loaned was full you why subscribed, but the money was held in escrow by two of the lenders, william fairfax gray and robert triplett, who were going to travel to the conventi convention, follow the events until they could get these ratified. so they got the first 20 right up front. so in the meantime the treasury continues to function in san felipe de austin. san felipe de austin was the epicenter of stephen f. austin's colony. this is where the treasury was operating of the provisional government. and now we've gone from serial number 1 to number 119. these all say to joshua fletcher esqui esquire. the treasurer 69 provisional governor of texas will pay to

araftis smith money out of the treasury not otherwise appropriated. this puts smith the famed texas count in san felipe de austin in january of 1836. but they needed to raise real money so they had agents fan across text from san augustin to nacogdoches to nagorda. this is a receipt for cannonballs. 46 six-pound cannonballs. it was signed at quintana january 24th, 1836 by james w. fannon jr., agent for the provisional government. james fannon signed this in his capacity as an agent for the provisional government the very day that he sailed from velasco down to copano bay and began the march to golead in which he would be dead two months later. it was his signature as an agent of the provisional government that bound the government to pay this receipt. mckinney and williams would have

turned this in after the war for whatever those 46 six-pound cannonballs were worth. fannon is often remembered as a martyr of the texas revolution. but he was an outstanding organizer. he was an outstanding agent who did a lot for texas in the short period of time that he was here. so now the government has moved from san felipe de austin to washington on the brazos. washington on the brazos was a little town outside of navasota. it's still a little town. there's not a lot there. there's wan outstanding museum and recreation area. but it was here in this little building in independence hall, which an old blacksmith's shop that was owned by a man named m.t. byers that the convention was held. it was in this little building that the declaration of independence was declared on march the 2nd of 1836. it was in this building that the convention -- that the constitution was written on the 16th.

it was in this building that david g. burnett was sworn in as the president ad interim on march the 17th. and its with in this building they began to write more promissory notes. now we're up to 399. once again, standard language. treasurer of the provisional government of texas will pay to thomas lobore, et cetera, et cetera. the date, february 29th, two days before texas independence was declared, tells us that the year of the texas revolution was a leap year. the next example, i find it interesting. now we're up to 473. this is made payable to james w. robinson, who is the acting governor of texas at the time. you'll see this little -- the triangle, which has been cut out, where they canceled it after the war when the government eventually paid this. but those folds that you'll see in this particular note indicate that this was probably folded up, put in james robinson's pocket, and when they put it -- he put it in his pocket and carried it with him to the

battle of san jacinto, there was no place to leave these, all these pieces traveled on these people until they could turn them in after the war and tried to get compensation for their services. curiously, it's dated march the 4th of 1836, two days after texas independence was declared, yet they still call it the provisional government of texas. speaking of the texas declaration of independence, there was no printing press at washington on the brazos. there was a printing press at san felipe de austin. so they literally had a little guy ride from washington on the brados all the way down to san felipe de austin. he blocked the handwritten document to gale borden, who was printing the newspaper the texas register. in the middle of the night print td it up. this is from the first printing of 100 copies. this is one of three original printed broadsides that are in private hands. and this is what the people needed to see.

this is what the government at washington on the brazos needed to see. this is what they sent to the united states to tell the world that texas had declared independence. and this is what the representatives from the lending group needed to see before they could advance the rest of the funds. because without a declaration of independence they would not have an organized government to collect the money from. david g. burnett was sworn into office about 4:00 in the morning on the 17th of march of 1836. washington on the brazos was in chaos. they had already received news a few days before that the entire garrison at san antonio had been wiped out, the alamo had fallen, a few surviving women on the road had been encountered, they'd given him the story, they knew santa ana's army was regrouping, they knew they were in danger of being killed, they knew they had to relocate. the convention -- right before it broke up, right before most of the members went and joined the army and the government relocated, there was a meeting

at washington on the brazos, and they brought robert triplett before the assembly and convention afterwards. triplett was one of the lenders of the lending group, and he was there and he addressed them. he said we believe in the texas cause. we're ready to advance our money. we want you to ratify the terms of these loans. we think texas could be free. we understand it's risky. we're willing to give that a shot. go ahead and ratify these terms. so somebody on the convention made a motion to defer the matter and let the executive branch deal with it. they adjourned the meeting. and william fairfax said they have blinked the question. so now the government gets out of there. they get nothing done at washington. burnett moves the government to harrisburg. well, now they've gone from san felipe de austin to washington on the brazos. the seat of government is now in harrisburg. a little sawmill town on a brunch of buffalo bayou but it offers them an escape route on

the water to the sea. they had a meeting at the home of john and jane harris. in this house was david g. burnett, the president lorenzo dezavalo, the vice president thomas j. rusk, who was the secretary of war. william fairfax gray was in that house. and also was robert triplett, the financier. so we're in their house, and they're trying to get this done, and finally rust comes out to triplett and says, well, we need to settle this loan business. and this is right at the end of march of 1836. he says, well, what's the terms that we can offer? and triplett says, huh, i was on my way over here and everybody was trying to get across the trail in sabine and get away from the mexicans and everybody was offering their land at 12 1/2 cents per acre. and rust says hey, that's not going to do it. we're not going to sell at 12 1/2 cents. he said, yeah, that may not do for you. he said but if i had my money and i had clear title, i could have bought all the land i wanted. but i'm willing to pay double. i'm willing to pay 25 cents an acre. and he backs off a little bit. and rust says -- and they went

back and forth. and russ says, is there no way for you to compromise for this matter? he said let's say you take 50 cents per acre for what you've paid in. how many acres of land will it take? he said, well, we paid in $20,000 in new orleans. i got about $46,000 here. i'll take 135,000 acres. and the government just reeled at that and they said you can't have that much land. and it was a sticking point. and the sticking point after lengthy negotiations. the most critical of which, what was the location of the lands that they were going to use to repay this loan? because the texas government, provisional government, had granted a 640-acre tract of land to every soldier for six months enlistment. and they wanted the lenders to subordinate their selection of lands behind that of the soldiers who were fighting for independence. so it was a sweetener to close the deal. the government says, look, we'll give you an additional 32

leagues of land, which is 142,000 acres, to be distributed pro rata amongst the lenders if you take this deal. and in exchange for the right of priority location. so that's 642,000 acres, divided by $250,000 total loan amount, that comes out to 38 cents an acre. and triplett says, well, i can't bind the lenders in new orleans on the other 90%, but i do have the authority to bind them. so i'll take it. so he funds this $50,000, the second loan to the provisional government. burnett takes the money. the cabinet's happy. they're signing all the agreements. they're getting everything inked. and then burnett comes out to triplett and says, hey, i need another $2,000. can you get it for me? and triplett says, well, i don't have it, but if you can get me land script and the authority to locate the tracts, he says, i think i can get the money. so he goes to his friends, he

gets $2,000, and they get three certificates of title. this is one of the originals. this is certificate number 2. it's a title to land. it was signed in harrisburg on the 1st day of april, on april fool's day, by david g. burnett. he said fine, you can have this. you can take whatever land that's not appropriated that you want. they got the 2 thousands. they get three of these. finally they go back and burnett calls him out and says, triplett, i like you, i trust you, and i want you to be an agent for texas. he swears him in as an agent for texas, gives him the $50,000 back, and says buy us, supply us. buy us munitions, purchase what we need, keep records, you can appoint a secretary. he said go on it. so that's what he does. so triplett and william fairfax gray and sterling neblitt go down to galveston to try to get some supplies. in the meantime they had gotten news of the massacre at golead.

so now they knew the second largest army in texas had already been destroyed, a few stragglers, a few survivors had come in, and things start going perilous. so these guys go down to galveston. so they sail from -- they ride from harrisburg all the way over here to -- this is a weak pointer. so san jacinto. they sail down to galveston. well, what's waiting in the harbor at galveston? there's a ship waiting there. well, what's on the ship? hundreds of tons of supplies. food, blankets, clothing, flour, tack. you know, everything they needed. so triplett boards them, gives them the payment, writes them a draft on the bank of new orleans, and says go drop these off. some went to anawac. some went to morgan's point. some went up here. he told them where to drop it off. they said hey, while we're down here, let's get out our field notes and a pocket compass and we'll survey our tracts of land. so they survey the whole eastern third of galveston island. they say, we're going to put two lower sections of galveston. so what these guys did, they

surveyed these tracts of land, and they take 1,280 acres of waterfront property on galveston island for a dollar an acre. so this is great. so these guys are down here surveying. then as they start back up towards lynchburg to get the contract signed harrisburg is falling apart. the runaway scrape is in full force. the government is down to just a skeleton crew, just the president and the cabinet, and these two cats pull up behind the harris home in buffalo bayou in a steamboat called the cayuga which was a wood-fired steamboat. these guys actually had a motorboat in 1836. i thought it was so great. william p. harris is piloting it, and his partner robert wilson was the mate on the ship. i often call him honest bob, which is a nickname he got. and that nickname was given to him by jane harris.

and jane harris said, well, honest bob is anything but honest because after john r. harris died in 1828 wilson and the other harris sued the estate of john r. harris and claimed part of his business as their own. but on this day they're all friends. they're all getting along. and they get on the steamboat. and as they pull away from buffalo mile the mexican advance scouts appeared and started shooting at them. so now you've got the government, which is one battle away from being in exile, chugging down the buffalo bayou, which is now the houston ship channel, escaping the mexicans. it was just -- it was about this close. so now the government is on this steamboat. in the meantime the land speculators arrive back in lynch's ferry. they took a boat all the way to lynch's. gray and triplett get out there. and sterling neblitt who's the one who advanced the money, he gets on his horse and he's riding straight to harrisburg. they said get your signature on

that contract, get the government to endorse this land that we just picked out on galveston island. so he is riding as hard as he can, straight toward harrisburg, and he is going to run smack into the front of an advanced part of the mexican army. and as he's riding down the road to harrisburg there's a point where the road touches the bend in the bayou. and he sees this puff of smoke from the steamboat coming by and he flags these guys down. they pull over to the bank and picked him up. he says i got on board the boat and the president and the cabinet were on board. now, but the account doesn't say what happened to the horse. either he set it loose or they got the horse on the boat with him. but it doesn't say what happened to the horse. so then he comes out, god, i've been looking for you guys. he goes, i need you to sign this. and burnett says, what is it?

well, we picked out our land. well, what is it in well, we got the eastern part of galveston island. and the government just blows ballistic. you can't have the eastern part of galveston island. yeah, we did. see in our contract. any land that's not otherwise appropriated. and they just have a fit. so they're just argue. and they're just going down trying to escape armageddon and they're complaining about this land deal. and finally, finally burnett says, look, gives it to hardeman. he says i will sign for one section that's all. these guys wanted this land. they knew some people were going to city in texas. they were going to flip this and make some money on it. finally bailey hardemann signs this, as secretary of state. he says no more, you're not going to get it, whatever. burnett gets off at lynch's ferry on the upper right. he gets on a horse. and he starts riding away. he tells the rest of the

government you guys meet me out here at new washington. meet me off the point from where my friend colonel james morgan has his plantation and i'll meet you there in a day or so because he has to ride with his wife and child. he has to get his family out there before they get into exile in galveston. i'm sure, they were going to relocate the capital temporarily to galveston. santa ana arrives at harrisburg. he's furious. he's absolutely furious. he just missed them. they were trying to cut off the head, kill all the government. it was like chasing al qaeda. they were just kill these guys. but he can't finally catch them. they throw the printing presses in the bayou and there's two frenchmen standing there printing the last texas telegraph newspaper. "texas shall be free." so they bring these guys, put guns on them, where'd they go? oh, i think you can catch them some now. you send some guys down to morgan's point, you ought to be able to find them. so he sends colonel juan amante

and an advance party of dragoons to go off and try to cut off the head of the government. burnett's down on the beach, loading a boat and one of the slaves saw the mexican cavalry way off in the distance and warned him. and this dramatic escape in galveston bay by burn sxet his wife was captured as a decorative vignette on a government of texas $10 bill which was issued in houston in 1838. they missed him again. now, ammante being the gentleman officer he was said he saw a woman on board and didn't fire. i personally think they were just out of rifle range. now the government goes off and they're going to go down to galveston. they wanted to just get out of the way. that delay cost santa ana's army. and the reason it cost them, there was a road that went from -- this road went from harrisburg to lynchburg. this road went from new washington to lynchburg. and the texas army captured

intelligence that santa ana was going to take the ferry. he wanted that ferry. he wanted that ferry crossing to secure it because he knew if he took that ferry crossing that is the furthest point east in that part of texas, which is now harris county, where you could move hundreds of men, supplies, wagons, artillery across that river. he could block reinforcements. he could go across it. they could push to louisiana. but houston was waiting in the woods when they got there. now, i learned in fourth grade texas history that the mexican army was taking a siesta. well, that's why they were asleep on the afternoon of april 21st. they weren't taking a siesta. they had had a 25-mile all-night forced march, and these guys were just dead tired and pretty soon they'd be dead because at 4:00 in the afternoon sam houston's army routed them. destroyed the largest and the strongest -- destroyed the strongest of the three armies in texas. but santa ana got away.

fortunately, he was captured the next day in my hometown of pasadena. and he was brought before the wounded sam houston. they say that sam houston was slumbering in the shade of a tree. he had a bullet wound which had shattered his ankle. he had taken some opium, which was the only available painkiller, to numb the excruciating pain. when they brought santa ana before the general there, was a great excitement in the camp. they brought lorenzo de zaval forward, who had served as a cabinet member at one point in time to possibly identify him. and houston was at first polite and then 'costed him for the massacres of the alamo. he accosted him for the massacres, the murders, the cold-blooded murders at golead and santa ana lost his composure. in fact, there were called right then and there to string him up, to hang him, to execute him on the spot and they say santa ana lost his composure. so houston offered him some opium to chew to calm his

nerves. which he took. and over the next couple of hours they had discussion and he said, well, you've got other troops in texas, there are about 4,000 troops south of the brazos river. they didn't know exactly how many. he said tell your armies to surrender. he said they're military men, they will not surrender, they will not lay down their arms and surrender to you. but if i give them an order to withdraw then they will withdraw. so that's what they come up with. it was a cease-fire. it was an armistice and an agreement to withdraw troops texas, which effectively ended the war. so the fate of texas was settled first on the battlefield, and then by two guys sitting under a tree, both of which, whom were stoned on opium. now, for some reason they left that out of the public school version of the events. i don't know why. but we'll have to see. okay. so where was the government? well, the government is in galveston now. okay. the cabin.

there's really no government. the cabinet's down here in galveston and they're hunkered down in the side of the old mexican customs house, which is now in triplett's property. and the independence and the brutus, two warships awaiting for this invasion that doesn't come. well, there's a boat that came down from san jacinto to give them the news. and we know they're in galveston because we have this receipt. it says "receives of messrs. horton and clements." 2 21 shovels and 13 spades for use of the republic of texas by order of the president. april 1836. which implies that it was signed on board of a boat. when i first saw this receipt, i was wondering why would there be a presidential order for shovels and spades? that's like something a quartermaster would issue. a friend of mine dated this.

he said jim, this is a duplicate. i said i know, because it says duplicate on the back. he said the original's in the texas state library. and the one in the texas state library at the top says "april the 26th, 1836." the rest of the language is exactly the same right down to the misspelling with republic with a k on the end of it. so we know it's the same one. one was signed first. one was signed second. april the 26th of 1836 would have been about the time that they received the news of the battle of san jacinto but before the cabinet boarded the steamboat yellowstone went back up the bay to san jacinto to see the carnage at the battlefield and the victory for themselves. now, one of those two men that came down in that boat to give the -- to give the government the news was robert j. calder. robert j. calder was the first sheriff of resoria county but at that point in time he was the commander of k company at san jacinto. there were nine boys that were killed on the texas side during

the battle. many were wounded. and there was over 600 mexicans killed. but of those nine men that were killed on the texas side, one of them had served in calder's company, and his name was benjamin rice brigham. and ben brigham was the son of asa brigham, who's the treasury official in galveston, who signed that receipt. and it's reasonable to assume that when they got to galveston the commanding officer would have had the conversation with the father, by the way, sir, your son was killed in the battle, there are many more wounded. you know they would have had to have that conversation. i mean, a lot of these guys knew each other. so what this receipt represents is a father using his official post in the government to secure 21 shovels and 13 spades for the use of the republic of texas to bury the dead at san jacinto, which included his son. so they take the shovels and spades, they put them on the steamboat yellowstone, they go all the way back up galveston bay to san