The Final Round

Negotiations for annexation of Texas went smoothly until 1844.  John Calhoun became Secretary of State and said that the US had a duty to annex Texas to protect the South against a British plot to end slavery.  All of a sudden, antislavery factions saw Texas as proof of a conspiracy of slaveholders.  Northern support vanished and on June 8, the annexation treaty was defeated in the Senate 35 to 16. 

In the Presidential campaign of 1844, Van Buren thought annexation would lead to war with Mexico which cost him the nomination.  The new president, James Polk, was a Tennessee expansionist, and clearly expansionism had won the day.

Outgoing President Tyler wanted the credit for adding Texas to the Union, so he requested that Congress approve annexation by joint resolution (not requiring 2/3 majority).  The resolution passed in February 1845, signed by Tyler on March 1, three days before he left office. 

The resolution required Texas to adopt a state constitution to be submitted to the President no later than 1845. On December 29, 1845, Texas officially became a part of the United States.  Ceremonies in Austin in February 1846, included Anson Jones, the last president of the Republic, formally turning over power to J. Pickney Henderson, the first governor of the state of Texas.  Jones said "the Republic of Texas is no more."

In the past three centuries  six flags have flown over Texas - Spanish, French, Mexican, Confederate, but only two represented Texas - the Lone Star flag (first Republic flag), and the Stars and Stripes.

Next time...moving west to the Pacific
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Today in Pioneer History:  On November 14, 1851, Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville about the voyage of the whaling ship Pequod, is published by Harper & Brothers in New York.

Road Bump in the Pioneer Plans

Time for John Calhoun, Secretary of War under James Monroe to enter the picture with his plans to limit westward expansion of the United States.  Past the line of the Louisiana Purchase, no white settlement or any activity except that of government sanctioned fur trappers/traders was allowed.

Reason for Calhoun's plans?
* ecologically and politically it would encourage the American Fur Trade Company competing with the British, believing the Indians would be easier to trade with without white settlers interfering.

* provided a place eastern Indians could relocate to  Since the whites had little use for the land, the government could bargain with the Indians for it.  (how conveniently that was forgotten in the next 50 years!)

*  to satisfy a growing opinion of the East -  wealthy, cultural New England and Mid Atlantic residents - that Indians needed protected from the white settlers and their disgraceful treatment.

*  The lower class was restless and their desire to move west was seen as disturbing and threatening.  The leap land depressed the Eastern real estate prices and kept wages high due to the agricultural and industrial workers heading off for free land - THERE is your REAL reason!

*  Many Americans believed in a "Little America" where migration would be slowed and the country expanded a section at a time in a civilized manner.

Calhoun's plan had a snowball's chance in hell of ever becoming a reality or even controlling the westward expansion even if it did.  Although it did slow it down for a year or so, it was because of the natural boundaries between the woodlands (which we comfortable and experienced), and the vast prairies (which were unknown and inexperienced) that the expansion slowed, not Calhoun's plan.

Next time...Military trading posts...