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, 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 Republic of Texas President, Sam Houston, and the Texas congress consented to the annexation. 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.

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 Texan government had established the border between Mexico and Texas at the Rio Grande River. 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 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 the country. Taylor moved into Texas, 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 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.