dr. gene allen smith. he's the professor of history at texas christian university at ft. worth. he is author or editor of seven books and numerous articles and reviews on american naval history. he also serves as director of studies at tcu and curator of history at the ft. worth museum of science and history. h please help me welcome dr. smith. [ applause ] >> thank you so much. it's a pleasure to be here today. i need something a little taller. my mom always told me i should be the first one to speak in the room. that way, if i said something that was out of place, there would be a chance for others to follow up and correct me. so hopefully i can get started today and i'll say a few things that you might think, well, that seems out of place. but fortunately the land commissioner's already told you many of the fireworks of my presentation because it's really about texas before it became anglo. and how certain people wanted i. one of the things i can tell you is that i'm an early american historian and i work on the era of thomas jefferson. and you may say that thomas jefferson r