Texas Annexation :: essays research papers

Narrative History of Texas Annexation, sezession, and Readmission to the UnionTexans voted in favor of appropriation to the unify States in the first election following independence in 1836. However, throughout the majority rule period (1836-1845) no treaty of annexation negotiated between the Republic and the United States was ratified by both nations. When all attempts to arrive at a formal annexation treaty failed, the United States Congress passed--after much argue and only a simple majority--a Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas to the United States. Under these terms, Texas would keep both its public lands and its public debt, it would become the power to divide into quaternion additional states "of convenient size" in the future if it so desired, and it would deliver all military, postal, and customs facilities and authority to the United States government. (Neither this joint resolution or the regulating passed by the Republic of Texas Annexation collection g ave Texas the right to secede.) In July 1845, a popularly-elected Constitutional Convention met in Austin to consider both this annexation design as well as a proposed peace treaty with Mexico which would end the state of war between the two nations, but only if Texas remained an independent country. The Convention voted to accept the United States proposal, and the Annexation Ordinance was submitted to a popular vote in October 1845. The proposed Annexation Ordinance and State Constitution were approved by the Texas voters and submitted to the United States Congress. The United States House and Senate, in turn, accepted the Texas state constitution in a Joint Resolution to admit Texas as a State which was write by the president on December 29, 1845 . Although the formal transfer of government did not occur until February 19, 1846, Texas statehood dates from the 29th of December. Opposition to Texas admission to the United States was particularly gruelling in the North during thi s period. If a challenge to the constitutionality of the move could have been made successfully at that time, there is little doubt that the leaders of the opposition would have instituted such a suit in the Supreme Court. Sixteen years later, in January 1861, the Secession Convention met in Austin and adopted an Ordinance of Secession on February 1 and a Declaration of Causes on February 2. This proposal was approved by the voters, but even before Texas could become "independent" as provided for in the text of the Ordinance, it was accepted by the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America as a state on March 1, 1861.