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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. The new state of Texas included all of present-day Texas, plus portions of New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Wyoming, and Colorado.

Origins

In 1836, the Republic of Texas, which had just won its independence from Mexico, voted to consent to annexation by the U.S. Initially, when the Texas minister (ambassador) in Washington, D.C., James Freeman, 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 the United States, United Kingdom, France and The Netherlands. In 1843, the United Kingdom opposed annexation, but President John Tyler decided to support annexation. Despite Mexican dictator Antonio López de Santa Anna warning 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 K. 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 annexation on 28 February 1845. The vote in the Senate was 27 to 25. Tyler approved the Joint Resolution, which called for annexation of Texas to be concluded by the end of December 1845, on March 1. However, as this was done via a Joint Resolution of Congress, some scholars believe it is not legal under international law.[1][2] This has led to questions about the Legal status of Texas.

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

A factor in the Texas annexation discussions in the United States was the realization of the northern states that there would be two new slave state Senators when Texas was admitted. Although Mexico had outlawed slavery completely years prior to Texas independence, slavery was allowed to continue in Mexican Texas, and continued to exist in Texas during its years as an independent Republic.

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. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war when the U.S. ratified the treaty on March 10, 1848. The annexation of Texas was highly controversial amongst the states and contributed to widening American sectionalism leading up to the Civil War.

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."

Borders and new states

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.[3]

Land from the Republic of Texas became major parts of New Mexico and Colorado, and smaller parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming. No additional states have ever been carved from the state of Texas.

The Republic of Texas 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 since Santa Anna wanted the whole of Texas back as part of Mexico. 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.

Original controversy

See also: Legal status of Texas

The original controversy about the legality of the annexation of Texas stems from the fact that Congress approved the annexation of Texas as a territory with a simple majority vote approval instead of annexing the land by Treaty, as was done with Native American lands. After the United States and The Republic of Texas were unable to reach a Treaty agreement, Congress passed a Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas to the United States [4]. The Republic of Texas' Annexation Convention then submitted the Ordinance of Annexation[5] to popular vote in October 1845 and the public approved the measure. This Ordinance of Annexation was submitted and approved by the House and Senate of the United States and signed by the President on December 29, 1845. While this was an awkward, if not unusual, treaty process it was fully accepted by all parties involved, and more importantly all parties performed on those agreements making them legally binding. (See Contract Law.) In addition, the United States Supreme Court decided in the case of DeLima v. Bidwell that annexation by a joint resolution of Congress is legal.[6]

Right to secede

Neither the Reconstruction Acts or relevant federal statutes governing the rebel states nor the document readmitting Texas to full statehood required that the governor of Texas sign a document reaffirming Texas' position as a state within the United States republic.[7] Texas has the same rights granted to it as any other state. In its 1868 decision in Texas v. White, the United States Supreme Court ruled that secession of Texas from the United States was illegal, writing "The Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union, composed of indestructible States." The court did allow some possibility of the divisibility "through revolution, or through consent of the States."[8][9]

Some secessionist arguments also call into question Texas' supposed right to form four new states out of its territory. The joint resolution of Congress which annexed Texas into the Union, however, allows for the formation of four new states out of the territory of the former Republic of Texas "in addition to the State of Texas." [10] This territory includes parts of modern-day New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, and Wyoming, as well as the entirety of the State of Texas. Additionally, Article Four of the United States Constitution prohibits the formation of states within other states.

Footnotes

  1. ^ O'Malley, E.S. (2001). Irreconcilable Rights and the Question of Hawaiian Statehood. 89 Georgetown Law Journal 501
  2. ^ Boyle, F.A. (1995). Restoration of the Independent Nation State of Hawaii Under International Law. St. Thomas Law Review 723
  3. ^ Section 3 of the March 1, 1845 joint resolution of Congress http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/texan03.asp
  4. ^ Peters, Richard, ed., The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America, v.5, pp. 797-798, Boston, Chas. C. Little and Jas. Brown, 1850
  5. ^ Journals of the Constitution Convention of Texas, 1845, pub. in Austin by Miner and Cruger, Printers to the Constitution, 1845, pp. 367-370.
  6. ^ De Lima v. Bidwell 182 U.S. 1 (1901). FindLaw.
  7. ^ [http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ref/abouttx/secession/index.html Narrative History of Texas Secession and Readmission to the Union] by Jean Carefoot, Texas State Library and Archives Commission, April 1997.
  8. ^ Aleksandar Pavković, Peter Radan, Creating New States: Theory and Practice of Secession, p. 222, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2007.
  9. ^ Texas v. White, 74 U.S. 700 (1868) at Cornell University Law School Supreme Court collection.
  10. ^ Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas to the United States Approved March 1, 1845: Article II (2)
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