if you are ever near Shreveport,La. or Carthage,Tx take Texas state hwy 31 and at what is now the Texas/Louisiana border stands a boundary marker. on the east side of the marker it says "boundary of the united states of america" on the west side it says" boundary of the republic of Texas"
REPUBLIC OF TEXAS. In the fall of 1835 many Texans, both Anglo-American colonists and Tejanos, concluded that liberalism and republicanism in Mexico, as reflected in its Constitution of 1824,qv were dead. The dictatorship of President Antonio López de Santa Anna,qv supported by rich landowners, had seized control of the governments and subverted the constitution. As dissension and discord mounted in Texas, both on the military front and at the seat of the provisional governmentqv of the Consultationqv at San Felipe, the colonists agreed that another popular assembly was needed to chart a course of action. On December 10, 1835, the General Councilqv of the provisional government issued a call for an election on February 1, 1836, to choose forty-four delegates to assemble on March 1 at Washington-on-the-Brazos. These delegates represented the seventeen Texas municipalities and the small settlement at Pecan Point on the Red River. The idea of independence from Mexico was growing. The Consultation sent Branch T. Archer, William H. Wharton, and Stephen F. Austinqv to the United States to solicit men, money, supplies, and sympathy for the Texas cause. At New Orleans, in early January of 1836, the agents found enthusiastic support, but advised that aid would not be forthcoming so long as Texans squabbled over whether to sustain the Mexican constitution. They then proceeded to Washington and separated: Wharton remained in the capital, Archer went to Richmond, and Austin headed for New York City.
after a period of time
Great Britain and France became concerned. The British Foreign Office, with French support, advised Ashbel Smith,qv the Texan agent to Great Britain and France, that a "diplomatic act" was needed to force Mexico to make peace with Texas and recognize its independence. They wanted the United States to join their efforts to end Texas-Mexican hostilities. Pakenham, however, opposed the plan, and the matter was dropped. Houston favored a "diplomatic act," but Anson Jones, the president elect, balked. Jones wanted annexation and thought that the threat of an alignment with England, connected with the cotton trade, was the key to achieving it. In June 1844 the United States Senate voted thirty-five to sixteen to reject the treaty.
The annexation of Texas also became a major issue in the United States election of 1844. The Democrats ran James K. Polk, of Tennessee, for president with the campaign slogan "the Re-Annexation of Texas and the Re-Occupation of Oregon," hoping to capture the expansionists' vote both North and South. The Democrats won by a large vote. Tyler viewed Polk's election as a mandate for immediate annexation. In his annual message on December 2, he urged Congress to approve annexation by a joint resolution, which Congress passed on February 28, 1845, and Tyler signed on March 1. He then dispatched Andrew Jackson Donelson,qv a nephew of Andrew Jackson, to Texas with instructions to press for its acceptance. The terms were generous. Texas would be annexed as a slave state rather than as a territory. She would keep her public lands and pay her own public debts. She could divide herself into as many as four additional states. The terms of annexation had to be accepted by January 1, 1846. In May 1845, the United States dispatched a fleet of warships to protect the Texas coast.
The British chargé d'affaires and the French minister asked President Jones to postpone action on the annexation agreement for ninety days because they wanted to arrange a settlement of matters between Mexico and Texas. Jones agreed to do so on March 29. The British and French emissaries reached Mexico City in mid-April. Luis G. Cuevas, minister of foreign relations, placed their proposals before the Mexican Congress, and in late April Mexico recognized Texas independence. The British minister handed a copy of the document to Jones on June 4, and he immediately announced a preliminary peace with Mexico. On the same day Jones signed a peace treaty with the last Comanche chief whose tribe had been at war with Texas, thus ending Indian hostilities for the republic.
President Jones issued a call on May 5 for a convention to be elected by the people to meet in Austin on July 4. At his call, the Texas Congress assembled on June 16 in special session at Washington-on-the-Brazos and rejected the Mexican offer for peace. They accepted the annexation agreement and approved elections for a convention. The convention met in Austin on July 4 and passed an ordinance to accept annexation. It then drafted the Constitution of 1845qv and submitted both the annexation agreement and proposed constitution to a popular vote. On October 13 annexation was approved by a vote of 4,245 to 257, and the constitution by a vote of 4,174 to 312. The United States Congress approved the Texas state constitution, and Polk signed the act admitting Texas as a state on December 29, 1845. The fledgling republic, whose existence had spanned nine years, eleven months, and seventeen days, was no more. In a special election on December 15, Texans had elected officers for the new state government. The First Legislature convened in Austin on February 19, 1846. In a ceremony in front of the Capitol, President Jones gave a valedictory address, the flag of the republic was lowered, and the flag of the United States was raised above it. The ceremonies concluded with the inaugural address of the newly elected governor, J. Pinckney Henderson. By annexation Texas received the protection of a powerful country and the assurance of a bright future.
So the treaty was proposed but never approved. The myth is laid to rest.
dragonreborn
USA
OLD SKOOL
AUG 04, 2004 06:25 PM