Texas Annexation

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Republic of Texas

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 additional land that later became major parts of the states of New Mexico and Colorado, where the headwaters of the Rio Grande exist in the San Juan Mountains.

In 1837, the Republic of Texas, having just won its independence from Mexico, voted to be annexed by the US. 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 continued to exist as an independent nation. In 1843, Britain opposed annexation, but President John Tyler decided to support it. Despite the fact that Mexican leader Antonio López de Santa Anna warned that annexation would be "equivalent to a declaration of war against the Mexican Republic," Tyler signed the treaty of annexation with Texas in April 1844. The Republic of Texas President, Sam Houston, and the Texas congress consented to the annexation. A factor, always 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.

San Antonio political science professor, Mario Salas, has argued that the establishment of Texas was in part the result of the Austin colonialists trying to escape the anti-slavery movement in many states, but when Mexico declared slavery illegal the Texas colonialists found a reason to begin an independence movement. Salas maintains that the Texas colonialists were "slavers and racists" that sought to create a slave empire in Texas which was the aim of the predescesor to the KKK, the Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC). Salas points out that John "Rip" Ford and many others belonged to this group which sought to create slave empires in Mexico, Cuba and South America. Salas argues that much of the hero status given to the Alamo defenders, for example, is false history created by racist Anglos and slave owning Tejanos. He cites Jim Bowie as a slaver whose father bought and sold slaves in New Orleans from pirates. Salas says that Texas' founding fathers are "undeserving of the name hero."

James Polk, a strong supporter of territorial expansion, won the Presidency in 1844, but before he took office, Congress approved the annexation on 28 February 1845. On 29 December 1845, Texas ceased being an independent nation and became a state as defined by the U.S. Constitution. 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 U.S. government claimed that the southern border of Texas was the Rio Grande; but Mexico still maintained it to be the Nueces River. President James K. Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor to place troops between the two rivers. Taylor crossed the Nueces, ignoring Mexican demands that he withdraw, and marched south to the Rio Grande where he began to build Fort Brown near the mouth of the Rio Grande on the Gulf of Mexico.

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, but 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 above-mention transfer of authority ceremony in 1846. Ever since that point, Texas has been the American Lone Star State, except for its foray into the Confederacy in 1861-65.

[edit] References

Salas, Mario Marcel. "Patterns of Persistence: Paternal Colonialist Structures and the Radical Opposition in the African American Community in San Antonio, Texas, 1937-2001." John Peace Library, University of Texas at San Antonio, Masters Thesis, 2002.