The Annexation of Texas

Author(s): Sam Houston

Source: The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Oct., 1897), pp.
79-86
Published by: Texas State Historical Association
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 THE QUARTERLY
OF THE

TEXAS STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.

Vol. I. OCTOBER, 1897. No. 2.

The Publication Committee disclaim responsibility for views expressed by contributors

to the Quarterly.

THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

SAM HOUSTON.

[The following letter from General Houston to Major A. J.

Donelson, United States charge d'affaires in Texas, is reprinted
from the Texas Banner (published at Huntsville) of May 26, 1849.
It appeared also in Niles' Register, vol. 75, and was later published
in the National Intelligencer.- G. P. G.]

HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS, 9th April, 1845.

My Dear Major: In accordance with my promise on yesterday,
I will now communicate to you some of my views on the question
of annexation. I regret that my time will not allow me to go as
fully into an examination of the subject as would be desirable,
where so much of interest to both countries is involved in the meas-
ure. The overture is now made by the United States to Texas; and
by an act of the Congress of the former, conditions are proposed by
which the latter may be admitted as a part of the Union. I will
not discuss the policy of the measure, but allude only to the man-
ner of its consummation.
I am in favor of annexation, if it can take place on terms mutu-
ally beneficial to both countries. I have on all occasions evinced
the most anxious solicitude touching the matter, and have withheld
[79]

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80 Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
no means in my power towards its completion. As it now stands,
I regard our relation to it in this light:
We are to merge our national existence in that of the United
States, whenever the measure may take place. Then it seems to
me that we should have something to say as to the terms of the
union. By Mr. Brown's resolutions,* the terms are dictated and the
conditions absolute. They are of a character not to have been ex-
pected by any one who regarded annexation as a compact between
two nations, where each had substantial and acknowledged sov-
ereignty and independence. Texas is required to surrender her
sovereignty and merge her independence. In the surrender of her
rights, or any portion of them, she should have the privilege of
assisting in the adjustment of the conditions; and they should be
so defined and understood as that no discontent or misapprehen-
sion could thereafter arise as to her true situation. To arrive at a
point so desirable, it appears to me that negotiations, conducted by
commissioners on the part of each government, should take place.
To me, the necessity is most obvious; for the reason that Texas
may, in after times, when she recurs to the circumstances and con-
sequences of the measure, be satisfied that the terms on which she
had been received were in part, at least, of her own devising, and
that she, from some strong impulse, had not acted without due
deliberation, and a full discussion of the terms, by persons whose
minds had been called to act upon the subject, under the most
calm and considerate motives.
Commissioners appointed by the two governments could accom-
plish all this, and define and settle by negotiation and agreement
what might hereafter arise calculated to disturb the future har-
mony of the United States, and perhaps injure Texas.
The amendments to Mr. Brown's resolutions appear to me to
afford the only means to obviate the objections to their provisions.
Their terms seem to me, to say the least of them, to be rigid; be-
cause they require of us to pay a tribute, or bonus, to the United
States, for leave to surrender our sovereignty and national inde-
pendence-and this, too, in a most summary manner. We are
required to "cede" to the United States "all public edifices, fortifica-
tions, barrackcs,ports, harbors, and navy, and navy-yards, dockcs,
* The House resolutions for annexation in their final form were based on
those offered by Milton Brown, of Tennessee. See Benton's Abridgment of
the Debates of Congress, Vol. XV, p. 196.-G. P. G.

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 The Annexation of Texas. 81
magazines, arms, armaments, and other property and means pertain-
ing to the public defence belonging to the said Republic of Texas."
It ought to have been considered that these enumerated means and
property have occasioned a large portion of our national debt, and
remains to be paid for by Texas. They have probably cost this na-
tion not less than one million of dollars; and to admit that they are
now worth only half that sum, would fix their value at a half mil-
lion, which would be of great service in organizing a new govern-
ment or governments, and in cleaning out rivers and improving
our facilities for transporting produce to market by means of roads.
If Texas shall be required to surrender her property, without re-
ceiving any remuneration for the same, it can only be regarded in
the light of a payment or tribute for our admission into the Union.
If the resolutions of Mr. Brown are to form the basis of our admis-
sion, this objection can not be removed, but must remain as a re-
buke to us, in future days, for our hasty and inconsiderate action.
By assuming the amendment as a basis, many objections can be
obviated; and by negotiation, terms less exceptionable may be
adopted. If the President of the United States should appoint
commissioners, and they should be met by corresponding commis-
sioners on the part of Texas, they could come to an agreement
upon such terms as would be honorable and just to both parties.
The terms thus agreed upon could then be submitted to the people
of Texas in their popular capacity, and their votes taken thereupon,
at the September election for members of our Congress. If they
were approved by their voice, then our Congress could act upon
the expression given by the people, and wait for the action of the
government of the United States. If that government should ac-
cord in the action of this, then Texas could more safely proceed
to frame a constitution adapted to her circumstances. The rea-
sons for this course, to my mind, are important, and, I may add,
indispensable, in our present condition.
The conditions prescribed in Mr. Brown's resolutions leave us no
alternative, and I am satisfied would not have been adopted by the
Congress of the United States, apart from the amendment. By the
amendment, the President of the United States was allowed an al-
ternative as to the mode of presenting the subject to the govern-
ment and people of Texas for their consideration and action. But
as the alternative chosen might very materially affect the interests

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82 Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
of Texas, it is to be hoped and expected that its government will be
consulted as to which should be adopted. By the action proposed
in the plan of Mr. Brown's resolutions, Texas is denied all option
as to the mode of annexation, and is driven into servile submission,
and is required to pay a price for her humiliation. If Texas were
to accept the conditions as they are now presented to the govern-
ment of Texas by the government of the United States, it would
derange her present form of government, and shake her institu-
tions to their foundation, if her constitution should not be accepted
by the Congress of the United States; and my own opinion is, that
our admission by Congress would be very doubtful if we were to
act upon the first and second sections of the resolutions, without
reference to the third.
If the work of annexation is to be consummated, my great desire
is to see it done in a manner that may not only be harmonious at
present, but so that each party may hereafter, on a review of the
whole matter, have nothing to regret or to reproach itself with.
It seems to me, also, that the conditions as to the time to which
the action of Texas is limited is too short to enable her to give the
subject all the consideration which its importance demands. The
Congress of the United States will, doubtless, not adjourn its next
regular session before the month of July, 1846. Then it will have
ample time to extend the period for the action of Texas until her
government and people could carry out their action upon the
plan which I propose, and the same that was contemplated by the
amendment. If the original resolutions are insisted upon as the
basis and the only one, I entertain the most serious doubts as to our
ever being admitted, or forming a part of the American Union.
Texas has so long been a suppliant, that I am fearful the govern-
ment of the United States has presumed upon what they suppose
to be our necessities, and therefore have been induced to lay such
hard conditions upon us. Heretofore the difficulties have all ex-
isted on the part of the United States, as to our admission into the
Union; nor do I yet regard them as all obviated. If I am right in
this, it would be too perilous for Texas to act upon the basis pro-
posed, and subject herself to have the constitution which she might
at present submit rejected by the Congress of the United States.
It would not only be destructive to the future prospects and wel-

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 The Annexation of Texas. 83
fare of Texas, but convulse the Union to a far greater extent than
ever did the tariff or "Missouri question."
The wish of every American statesman should be to preserve
the concord and union of the States; and the desire of every
Texan, to cede such rights and privileges to the Union as would
be just and proper. We should, however, retain all which would
be necessary to us as an equal member of the Confederacy, and
part with none which we should require in our new position with
a hope of regaining them at a future day. Should we entertain
such a hope it might prove fallacious, and be productive of serious
and lasting discord. Texas, if annexed, will become a part of the
United States in opposition to the wishes of a large portion of the
people of the Union, and encounter a strong political opposition.
If they are vanquished, they will retain a strong prejudice against
the cause or object of their defeat. The party favorable to the ad-
mission of Texas may or may not long retain power in the Union.
While they retain power, Texas might do well; but if it once passed
into the hands of the Opposition, she would in all probability fare
equally bad.
For these reasons, I wish that whatever rights Texas has or might
be entitled to, should be defined, and understood, and retained by
her on her admission to the Union; and this can only be done
through the action of the commissioners indicated by the amend-
ment, and without which I feel fully satisfied the bill would not
have become a law.
The "consent of the existing government" of Texas, referred to
in one portion of the act-and that recognizes some option in our
Executive as to the mode by which the affair (so far, at least, as
Texas is concerned) should be conducted-is necessary to give va-
lidity to the measure. If any commotion should arise in Texas, or
a disregard of the constitutional authority, in consequence of the
basis proposed not beina accepted, I should deem it most unfor-
tunate for the fame and quiet of the President of the United
States, by thus furnishing a ground for his enemies to charge him
with producing the evil resulting from withholding the choice of
the alternatives contained in the law from the Executive of this
country.
You may find some who will express the wish or intention even
to resort to revolution to secure annexation, without knowing one

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84 Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
of the conditions imposed, or anything more than that "it is some-
thing about annexation." If by any irregular mode, or by exciting
sedition in the country, the expression of the popular voice could be
had, and should be unanimous in favor of the measure, it would be
good cause for the Congress of the United States and the President
to resist any such action.
They would surely not be willing to inflict such a scandal upon
the present enlightened age as the encouragement or sanction of
such a course would be.
Another may, by some persons, be suggested to you, and that
is-if the President has chosen his position, in declining the propo-
sition as presented, to drive him from his position, and appeal to the
people. Of such suggestions, I pray you beware; for I can conceive
of no course or curse so fruitful of evils to free government, and
subversive of all rule among men, as this would be. It would soon
produce its effects, even in the U. States. The President might
desire to execute the law; but if occasion prompted, seditionists
would quote the act of Texas as a warrant and example for their
resistance to the federal authorities.
Nevertheless, there are individuals in Texas who would willingly
adopt any course, or pursue any measure, which they might believe
to be adverse to my opinions, or that would prostrate the present
administration. They would do this, though it should destroy the
country. They are men who wish to live upon the means of the
government, without labor, and feast and riot upon the substance
of the people. Without merit, such men are like vermin in the
dead carcass: they can live only in corruption.
Now, my dear friend, for the sake of human liberty,-for the
sake of the future tranquillity of the United States-and for the
prosperity of Texas, whose interests, prosperity and happiness are
near to my heart, and cherished by me above every political con-
sideration, I conjure you to use your influence in having presented
to this government the alternative suggested by the amendment to
Mr. Brown's bill, so that commissioners can act in conjunetion
upon the points which it may be proper to arrange between the two
countries, before it is too late, and while there is a remedy. The
newspaper press, with, I believe, the organ of the government
of the United States, expect the alternative amendment to be pre-

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 The Annexation of Texas. 85
sented to Texas, that she may exercise some choice as to the con-
ditions of her entry into the Union.
I can not say what would be proper for the commissioners to
agree upon. But I would suggest that Texas, if admitted into the
Union, should enjoy full equality and community with the other
States of the Confederacy; that the United States should receive
and pay Texas a liberal price for the public property which has
been acquired for national purposes, and that the amount should
be paid to the State of Texas, so soon as it should be organized and
admitted as a State.
That Texas should retain her public lands, and if the United
States should hereafter vary her boundary or limits, as at present
defined, by contracting or reducing them, that in that case they
should indemnify the citizens of Texas, by payment for any lands
which they may hold, by locations under the laws of Texas, in the
territory abandoned by the United States, at the minimum price
of the government lands at this time in the United States.
That the government of the United States may at any time pur-
chase the vacant lands of Texas, at a price to be stipulated by the
commissioners; and in the event of their purchasing our lands, that
they should not (without the consent of the State of Texas) sell to,
or permit to settle within the present limits of Texas, any nation,
people, or tribe of Indians.
That Texas should pay the national debt.
That the United States should remunerate the citizens of Texas,
whose lands fell within the United States in running the boundary
lines, in the same manner, and with the same liberality, that Texas
did those of the United States, or that they (the United States)
pay them for their lands, which had been located on valid titles,
issued by the government of Mexico, and at a time when it was be-
lieved the limits of Texas would embrace the locations previous to
running the line.
And I would recommend that an article be inserted in the agree-
ment, stipulating, expressly, that Texas should not form a part of
the Union until her Constitution is accepted by the Congress of the
United States.
I candidly conceive that these stipulations are necessary and
proper to secure Texas and her citizens, as well as to enable the

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86 Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
United States to maintain peace with all the Indians on our bor-
ders.
I have thus hastily written you a long letter, subject to fre-
quent interruptions. You may therefore find my meaning, in some
things, obscure. I have not even glanced at the general policy of
the measure of annexation, but have given my views as to the mode
of its execution, and what appears to me necessary to be done by
the parties. I must confess that I have not been free from em-
barrassment on the subject. I have felt so deeply for my venerated
and highly valued friend, the Sage of the Hermitage, that nothing but
a most sacred regard for my adopted country could have induced
me again to thus express my opinions on this subject. The feelings
of Gen. Jackson are so much absorbed in the subject of annexa-
tion, arising from his views of the importance of the measure to
the United States, that he has, very naturally, not been fully able
to regard Texas as forming a separate community, and with inter-
ests not entirely identical with those of that government. Never-
theless, I know and feel that Gen. Jackson believes that Texas, an-
nexed on any terms, would be equally benefited with the United
States, and thereby perpetuate free institutions, and extend the
sphere of representative government. Annexation would be cer-
tainly beneficial to the United States. On the part of Texas, it is
an experiment, which I pray God, if it takes place, may result in
enduring happiness and prosperity to a united community.
I am, truly your friend,
SAM HOUSTON.
Maj. A. J. Donelson, &c., &c.

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