why was the annexation of texas popular in the south?

[127], The same Senate that had rejected the Tyler–Calhoun treaty by a margin of 2:1 in June 1844[128] reassembled in December 1844 in a short lame-duck session. ", Freehling, 1991, p. 441: "Both Whig Senator Ephraim Foster ... who wrote Brown's amendment, and Whig Congressman Alexander Stephens ... who helped guide the measure through the House ...". He envisioned Texas as a corridor through which both free and enslaved African-Americans could be "diffused" southward in a gradual exodus that would ultimately supply labor to the Central American tropics, and in time, empty the United States of its slave population. "[185], On May 5, 1845, Texas President Jones called for a convention on July 4, 1845, to consider the annexation and a constitution. [137] Both northern Democratic and southern Whig Congressmen had been bewildered by local political agitation in their home states during the 1844 presidential campaigns. Crapol, 2006, p. 22: "... the Monroe Doctrine [was] a restatement of the Madisonian/Jeffersonian faith in territorial expansion ..." also see p. 205. [187] On July 4, the Texas convention debated the annexation offer and almost unanimously passed an ordinance assenting to it. Texas formally joined the union on February 19, 1846. Freehling, 1991, p. 365: "... On April 21, 1836, General Sam Houston ambushed Santa Anna at San Jacinto ...", Malone, 1960, p. 544: "... the Texas Declaration of Independence of March 2, 1836 ...", Freehling, 1991, p. 365, Merk, 1978, pp. Become a Study.com member to unlock this William Ellery Channing, pastor of the Federal Street Church in Boston, wrote to Henry Clay on the issue in August 1837: ", Crapol, 2006, p. 218: "Tyler explained ... that the third-party ploy worked because it made Democrats realize that a '[Pro-]Texas man or defeat was the only choice. ", Crapol, 2006, p. 176: "... the Adams-Onis Treaty ... also known as the Florida treaty ...", Dangerfield, 1952, p. 152: "On February 22 [1819], the great Transcontinental Treaty was signed and sealed. [75], Texans were hesitant to pursue a US-Texas treaty without a written commitment of military defense from America, since a full-scale military attack by Mexico seemed likely when the negotiations became public. ", Merk, 1978, p. 270: "The Texan revolt was the result primarily of the initial Mexican error of admitting into the rich prairies of Texas a race of aggressive and unruly American frontiersmen who were contemptuous of Mexico and Mexican authority. [145][146], Southern Whigs in the Congress, including Representative Milton Brown and Senator Ephraim Foster, both of Tennessee, and Representative Alexander Stephens of Georgia[147] collaborated to introduce a House amendment on January 13, 1845,[148] that was designed to enhance slaveowner gains in Texas beyond those offered by the Democratic-sponsored Tyler-Calhoun treaty bill. Six months after the congress of the Republic of Texas accepts U.S. annexation of the territory, Texas is admitted into the United States as the 28th state. 108). 797). 1. Texans claimed instead that their empire sprawled 100 miles further south, to the Rio Grande; [this] would swell [Texas] thousands of square miles" into Mexico. Anglo-American immigrants, primarily from the Southern United States, began emigrating to Mexican Texas in the early 1820s at the invitation of the Texas faction of the Coahuila y Texas state government, which sought to populate the sparsely inhabited lands of its northern frontier for cotton production. The idea of annexing Texas was popular in the South, but widely opposed in the North. Tyler, isolated and outside the two-party mainstream, turned to foreign affairs to salvage his presidency, aligning himself with a southern states' rights faction that shared his fervent slavery expansionist views. Why was the annexation of Texas popular in the South? [188] The convention remained in session through August 28, and adopted the Constitution of Texas on August 27, 1845. [104] Secretary of the Treasury John C. Spencer was alarmed at the constitutional implications of Tyler's application of military force without congressional approval, a violation of the separation of powers. Texas played an important part in American history during the 19th century. He believed that the origins of the war were "unconstitutional." ", Brown, 1966, pp. newspaper editor John O'Sullivan. As a part of the Mexican Republic Texas had been free soil but, as the climate was well suited to production of the cotton plant, and it would surely be admitted as a slave state. [33] Texans, now de facto independent, recognized that their security and prosperity could never be achieved while Mexico denied the legitimacy of their revolution. [73], Van Zandt, though he personally favored annexation by the United States, was not authorized to entertain any overtures from the US government on the subject. [112] However, less than a week after debates opened, the treaty, its associated internal correspondence, and the Packenham letter were leaked to the public. ", Crapol, 2006, p. 199: Uphsur denied "any knowledge of US-Texas negotiations to Minister Almonte ...", Crapol, 2006, p. 203: "... Upshur ... inform[ed] Texas officials that at least forty of fifty-two senators were solid for ratification ...", Crapol, 2006, p. 199: "It was the prudent thing to do if he hoped to retain the trust of the Texans and keep them at the negotiating table. The pro-annexation Democrat Polk narrowly defeated anti-annexation Whig Henry Clay in the 1844 presidential election. [186] On June 23, the Texan Congress accepted the US Congress's joint resolution of March 1, 1845, annexing Texas to the United States, and consented to the convention. As the leading Democratic candidate heading into the election of 1844, Van Buren didn't dream that the Texas issue would be his undoing. The South had wanted to spread its slavery empire westward into Texas through the annexation. [93][94], A variation of the Tyler's "diffusion" theory, it played on economic fears in a period when slave-based staple crop markets had not yet recovered from the Panic of 1837. [67] Face-to-face negotiations commenced on October 16, 1843. Anti-Texas Whigs controlled the Senate narrowly, 28–24. The South was very supportive regarding the annexation of Texas. Texas would be a slave state since slavery existed in Texas. ", Sellers, 1966, p. 186: "Texas was still far more a party question than a sectional question. [144] Facing congressional and gubernatorial races in 1845 in their home states, a number of Southern Whigs sought to erase that impression with respect to the Tyler-Texas bill. The Democratic Party was by then unequivocally committed to Texas annexation, and Tyler, assured by Polk's envoys that as president he would effect Texas annexation, urged his supporters to vote Democratic. Yet the status of Texas as an independent nation made it necessary to stipulate terms with regard to her public property, lands, and debts, to say nothing of the extent of states that might be created from her territory and the status of slavery in them", Sellers, 1978, p. 168: "Particularly objectionable to the Benton–Van Buren men was the provision that the US become responsible for the inflated Texas debt, speculators in which had been most active lobbyists for annexation." It was going to be another slave state, so of course the North was going to hate it and the South was going to love it. ", Crapol, 2006, pp. Treaty of 1819 between Mexico and US, said that US would not attempt to take American land 3. Merk, 1978, p. 286: "Texas ... admitted as a territory subject to the same constitutional provisions as other territories ...". When the documents were submitted to the U.S. Senate for ratification, the details of the terms of annexation became public and the question of acquiring Texas took center stage in the presidential election of 1844. [116] By running as a third-party candidate, Tyler threatened to siphon off pro-annexation Democratic voters; Democratic party disunity would mean the election of Henry Clay, a staunchly anti-Texas Whig. ", Sellers, 1966, p. 221: United States envoy to Texas Donelson "was now told [by Polk] to warn the Texans that the United States Congress might not accept ... amendments, and to urge that they accept the terms unconditionally. ", Crapol, 2006, p. 176: "... the Sabine River ... today is the boundary between [the states of] Louisiana and Texas." ", Meacham, 2008, p. 315, Ray Allen Billington, Malone, 1960, p. 543: "Stephen F. Austin ... the chief promoter of colonization [in Texas]" and "... the basic reason for the migration of Americans" was the "liberal colonization law under which a league [7 square miles] of land was made available to each married settler ... for less than $200. [110] In doing so, Tyler and Calhoun sought to unite the South in a crusade that would present the North with an ultimatum: support Texas annexation or lose the South. I will give you a rough outline: 1. The formal controversy over the legality of the annexation of Texas stems from the fact that Congress approved the annexation of Texas as a state, rather than a territory, with simple majorities in each house, instead of annexing the land by Senate treaty, as was done with Native American lands. And "[Calhoun] ... believed the "British were determined to abolish slavery ... throughout the continent ... a disaster," and he would "lead a campaign of propaganda on behalf of annexation. In June 1844, the Senate, with its Whig majority, soundly rejected the Tyler–Texas treaty. Sellers, 1978, p. 173: Democratic "annexationists seiz[ed] upon the opportunity [and] took up the proposition of the surprised southern Whigs at the 'first hop' and passed it January 25 with their support. And "[Upshur] ... a devotee of strict construction and ... the beneficence of Negro slavery." How did Americans justify westward expansion? [35] American citizens who considered migrating to the new republic perceived that "life and property were safer within the United States" than in an independent Texas. [142], Anti-Texas Whig legislators had lost more than the White House in the general election of 1844. He also wanted to force a slave issue confrontation within the country ... if that confrontation should split the Union, Texas would add luster and power to an independent South. ", Finkelman, 2011, pp. The solitary American fur trappers that blazed trails westward were known as. On the contrary, [Senator] Benton and others maintained that if Texas were admitted as a state, without any stipulation of terms, this would be a treaty requiring the assent of two-thirds of the Senate. Not only would Texas represent another slave state, but the nature of Texas society did not appeal to cultivated New Englanders. ", Sellers, 1966, p. 170: "[Texas] agitation ... had shaken both northern Democrats and Southern Whigs" during the 1844 elections.". [76] Because only Congress could declare war, the Tyler administration lacked the constitutional authority to commit the US to support of Texas. [82], The Tyler-Texas treaty was in its final stages when its chief architects, Secretary Upshur and Secretary of the Navy Thomas W. Gilmer, died in an accident aboard USS Princeton on February 28, 1844, just a day after achieving a preliminary treaty draft agreement with the Texas Republic. [72] Texas-Mexico treaty options under consideration included an autonomous Texas within Mexico's borders, or an independent republic with the provision that Texas should emancipate its slaves upon recognition. Freehling, 1991, p. 152: "The Thomas plan angered some Southerners. Texas ratified the agreement with popular approval from Texans. Thirty-seven slave state congressmen opposed it, white thirty-nine voted for it ..." a harbinger that the opposition would "in due time rectify the Thomas Proviso.". 8, enacted March 1, 1845, 5 Stat. The nature of the Tyler-Texas negotiations caused a national outcry, in that "the documents appeared to verify that the sole objective of Texas annexation was the preservation of slavery. ", May, 2008, p. 123, Holt, 2005, pp. The Spanish constructed chains of missions and presidios in what is today Louisiana, east Texas, and south Texas. Texas claimed the Rio Grande as its border based on the Treaties of Velasco, while Mexico maintained that it was the Nueces River and did not recognize Texan independence. What was an effect of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842? 282–283: "On August 18, 1843 ... Lord Aberdeen was questioned in the House of Lords as to what the [British] government was doing regarding the trade in slaves to Texas and ... war between Mexico and Texas" he said that "an armistice had been arranged ..." and that "the British government hoped to see slavery abolished in Texas and everywhere else in the world" and to see "peace between Mexico and Texas. [79] In tandem with moving forward with Texas diplomats, Upshur was secretly lobbying US Senators to support annexation, providing lawmakers with persuasive arguments linking Texas acquisition to national security and domestic peace. On March 1, 1845, President Tyler signed the annexation bill, and on March 3 (his last full day in office), he forwarded the House version to Texas, offering immediate annexation (which preempted Polk). [91] This scheme for racial cleansing was consistent, on a pragmatic level, with proposals for overseas colonization of blacks, which were pursued by a number of American presidents, from Jefferson to Lincoln. Merk, 1978, p. 284: "Van Zandt ... favored annexation ..." but had been instructed "to take no action on the matter ... and declined Upshur's invitation to enter" into talks. '", Crapol, 2006, p. 219: "In November Polk narrowly defeated Henry Clay in the popular vote by just over 38,000 out of 2.7 million votes cast ...", Holt, 2005, p. 12: "The Democrats' triumph in the 1844 elections [the Polk victory] increased the odds of Texas annexation ... [and with] their heavy majority in the House, Democrats could easily pass the resolution containing the same terms as Tyler's rejected treaty.

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