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TEXAS BECOMES A STATE

On April 12, 1844 the Texas government signed a treaty with the United States which
annexed Texas as a territory of the United states but on June 8 th the U.S. Senate
rejected the treaty because Texas still practiced slavery. This put the situation squarely
into the Presidential campaign which caused problems for the two front runners Henry
Clay and Martin Van Buren. Neither could make up their mind and while they were
deciding what to do a virtual unknown, James Knox Polk of Tennessee, who was a
friend of Sam Houston, made annexing Texas a campaign issue and won the Presidency
in 1844.

Now, in 1845 after the United States had coolly put Texas off for almost a decade
became desperate to annex Texas. But Texas decided to play it cool, themselves. They
wanted to be a full state. They wanted ownership of all public lands by the state and
not the federal government. They wanted permission to divide Texas into four more

states with slavery banned in the Northern parts. Those provisions were passed by
the U.S. Congress February 26, 1845.

Some of the annexation promised were impossible to keep under agreements the U.S.
had with Mexico and some European nations. However, during these times President
Santa Anna was replaced by General Herrera.Herrera was convinced Mexico’s
previous attitude toward Texas was wrong and in May 1845 he offered a treaty to
Texas which recognized them as an independent republic provided they did NOT join
the United States.

That decision was too late because the United States acted fast and made a better offer
to Texas. The Texas Congress met at Washington-on-th-Brazos on July 4, 1845 where
they rejected Mexico’s treaty and accepted the United States’ treaty. However, the

deal with the United States included several unusual provisions which later became the
law in Texas.

One of the unusual provisions was the anticlerical provision which stated that no
minister of the gospel could serve in the Texas legislature. There was also a provision
guaranteeing separate property rights for married women and a provision establishing
a prohibition of the foreclosure of a homestead. There was an anti-corporation
provision which made it difficult to form a corporation in Texas; it took a two thirds
vote of the Texas House to do so and under no circumstances could a bank for a

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