Information about Texas Annexation

The Texas Annexation of 1845 was the voluntary annexation of the Republic of Texas by the United States of America as Texas, the 28th state, and additionaly the San Juan Mountains.

In 1837, the Republic of Texas, having just won its independence from Mexico, was voted to be annexed by the U.S. Initially, when the Texas minister (ambassador) in Washington, D.C., proposed annexation to the administration of Martin Van Buren in August 1837, the request was refused since the administration anticipated that it would lead to war with Mexico. Texas withdrew the annexation offer in 1838, and chose to exist as an independent nation, recognized by both the United States and United Kingdom. In 1843, Britain opposed annexation, but President John Tyler decided to support it. Despite the fact that Mexican dictator Antonio López de Santa Anna warned that annexation would be "equivalent to a declaration of war," Tyler signed the treaty of annexation with Texas in April 1844. The Senate overwhelmingly rejected it on June 8: 35 to 16. The Constitution requires a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate to confirm a treaty.

James Polk, a strong supporter of territorial expansion, won the Presidency in November, 1844. Tyler, knowing the Senate would not ratify the treaty, changed course and had his allies in Congress submit the annexation bill as a joint resolution in December. With President-elect Polk's quiet support, Congress approved the annexation on 28 February, 1845. The vote in the Senate was 27 to 25. Tyler signed the bill -- not a treaty -- on March 1.

After an extensive period of negotiation by the American chargé d'affaires to Texas, Andrew Jackson Donelson, nephew of former president Andrew Jackson, the Republic of Texas President Anson Jones, former Texas president Sam Houston, and the Texas congress consented to the annexation. Texas ratified the law on July 4. On 29 December, 1845, Polk signed into law Texas's admission to the Union as a state.

A factor in the background during the Texas annexation discussions in the United States was the realization of the northern states that the slave states would gain the representation of two new Senators when Texas was admitted as a slave state. Slavery already existed in Texas.

Mexico broke off diplomatic relations with the U.S. in 1845 over the issue, which eventually led to the Mexican-American war the following year.

On February 19, 1846, a ceremony was held to mark the official transfer of authority, and Texas President Anson Jones proclaimed: "The final act in this great drama is now performed. The Republic of Texas is no more."

Both the Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas and The Ordinance of Annexation contains this language providing the basis for forming up to four additional states from the present Texas:

New States of convenient size not exceeding four in number, in addition to said State of Texas and having sufficient population, may, hereafter by the consent of said State, be formed out of the territory thereof, which shall be entitled to admission under the provisions of the Federal Constitution.

Land from the Republic of Texas became major parts of New Mexico and Colorado, and also slivers of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming, but no complete contiguous states were ever carved from Texas.

The Texan government had established the border between Mexico and Texas at the Rio Grande. Mexico, however, set the border at the Nueces, giving Mexico more land. This territorial conflict did not matter to the Mexican government as much as that since Santa Anna wanted the whole of Texas back under his dictatorship. President James K. Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor to garrison the southern border of Texas, as defined by the former Republic: the Rio Grande. Taylor moved into Texas, ignoring Mexican demands that he withdraw, and marched south to the north bank of the Rio Grande, where he began to build the fort that would later be named Fort Brown, near the mouth of the Rio Grande on the Gulf of Mexico. Mexico's government regarded this location as part of Mexico's territory.

In the second half of the 20th Century, certain small rebellious groups in Texas have claimed that the Annexation of Texas by the United States was illegal which has created a controversy about the legal status of Texas. However, the U.S. Courts have always ruled in favor of the validity of the Annexation, noting the Ordinace of Annexation passed by the Texas congress, and the presence of and the consent of the Texas President at the transfer of authority ceremony of 1846. Ever since that point, Texas has been the American Lone Star State except for its foray into the Confederacy in 1861-65.

External links

• "ANNEXATION." The Handbook of Texas Online
• Narrative History of Texas Annexation by Jean Carefoot at Texas State Library and Commission
• Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas to the United States Approved March 1, 1845
• Ordinance of Annexation approved by the Texas Convention on July 4, 1845
• Address on the annexation of Texas, and the aspect of slavery in the United States, in connection therewith: delivered in Boston November 14 and 18, 1845
• Letters, Relating to the History of Annexation by Anson Jones
• How to Conquer Texas, Before Texas Conquers Us
• Proceedings of the Senate and Documents Relative to Texas, from which the Injunction of Secrecy Has Been Removed
• Thoughts on the proposed annexation of Texas to the United States
• Annexation of Texas. By Junius no. IX
• Texas and the Massachusetts Resolutions
• Anti-Texass Legion: Protest of some free men, states and presses against the Texass rebellion, against the laws of nature and of nations
• Address on the annexation of Texas, and the aspect of slavery in the United States, in connection therewith: delivered in Boston November 14 and 18, 1845
• Discourse on Slavery and the Annexation of Texas
• Appeal to the people of Massachusetts, on the Texas question. 2d edition
• The Avalon Project at Yale Law School: Texas - From Independence to Annexation

•  • [ e] Growth of the Continental United States
Concept: Manifest Destiny
Thirteen Colonies (1776) Treaty of Paris (1783) Louisiana Purchase (1803) Red River Cession (1818) Purchase of Florida (1819) Texas Annexation (1845) Oregon Country Cession (1846) Mexican Cession (1848) Gadsden Purchase (1853)

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