The Pros And Cons Of The Annexation Of Texas

Southern territorial tensions linked to slavery in the mid 1800's. (Doc D) Opposition to annexation of Texas occurred because of avoidance to the problem of Texas being a free or slave state. The Wilmot Proviso provoked huge controversy about the status of the land gained after the Mexican War, the bill would be called upon and debated on furiously for decades to come. Popular sovereignty began to appear in some alternate plans for deciding slavery in the Louisiana Territory. Polk's plan, which proposed to extend the slavery line in the Missouri Compromise to the pacific, aroused further debates for the North and the South. California and New Mexico raised even more questions about the implementation of

Throughout the late 1830s and early 1840s, political controversy broke out over the annexation of Texas into the United States claiming that it was the destiny of the country to expand through the Manifest Destiny. Many Americans saw the potential addition of Texas as an essential component in Westward expansion, however, war with Mexico was an unavoidable risk and would create even more problems with slavery. Northern and Western regions of the Unites States opposed annexation because while the South wanted to add Texas into the Union to expand the slave industry. Annexation of Texas was also seen as revenge for the vast amount of American deaths during the Alamo and Goliad. Politicians battled back and forth on whether or not Texas should be in American control or not. I believe that the annexation of of

While Manifest Destiny and territorial expansion created conflict with foreign nations, including the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), and within the United States, it worked to unify the United States from 1830 to 1860 by strengthening the nation as a whole, creating economic opportunities for people from all different walks of life, and expanding the United States through the annexation of Texas and the acquisition of California from Mexico.

In August 1859, the citizens of Texas elected Sam Houston as their governor. The result of this election placed the Unionists in control of the state, but in just eighteen months’ individual events or circumstances allowed the secessionists to regain power. Following the 1859 Gubernatorial election, the secessionists sought to restore political and social power in Texas over the Unionists. Texas’ one party system continued to support the other Southern states ideologically in dealing with slavery despite cultural and economic differences between the Upper and Lower South. Sam Houston’s continued popularity among Texas citizens temporarily outweighed his support for Unionist views, but the Southern Democratic propaganda machine eventually led to his defeat. Texas became the only state to bring a vote of secession to the people of the state and historians continue to debate the voting returns from the referendum on the Ordinance of Secession, 1861. The secession movement in Texas became a hotly debated topic as past, and present historians determined how the secessionists obtained enough power to overcome the Unionist-controlled government.

There was much division among Americans regarding what should be done with Texas. Some argued that it should join the other states so that there could be peace between them and Texas (Document F) and that it would make the slaves more comfortable by providing them with more land and support (Document C.) However, others argued that annexing Texas would create a dangerous imbalance of slave and free states. In Document B, Reverend William Ellery Channing claimed that “By annexing Texas, we shall not only create [slavery] where it does not exist, but breathe new life into it, where its end seemed to be near.” In other words, by including Texas as a free state, slavery would only continue to spread for a longer amount of time than it would have originally. This would, of course, extend the entire conflict of whether or not slavery was just. This controversy over Texas greatly divided the states amongst themselves.

This research assignment goes through the idea of Texas seceding from the United States. The introduction goes through a thorough explanation of the history of Texas and the many difficult challenges the territory had to face in becoming a state. The first idea implemented is how many times Texas has seceded and the reasons for seceding. The next follows information on why Texas would be better off seceding from the United States and why it should have stayed as a Republic. In contrast, the similar idea develops advantages and disadvantages of having Texas seceded from the Union. As a result, it then transitions into another idea, is Texas better off with staying with the United States after all. In that slide it also talks about how the Texas

“Imbecile and distracted, Mexico never can exert any real governmental authority over such a country’’ (Sullivan 323). That America Really thought that this was for the greater=good and will be better all around if there was just America. “Polk was a strong supporter of Manifest destiny.” (Roden 317). This can help understand the new president's reasons for including Texas. America was growing in population with the “yearly millions”(Sullivan 323). This information shows: America needed the space, and Texas already wanted to become one. manifest destiny is a term used to describe a belief that iu is God’s will to expand America. ( Roden 317). This Information shows: this what some of the people who elected Polk for president voted for, this is what the belief for America was. It was in the best interest of the U.S and the Manifest Destiny belief to expand. When in the process expansion the United Stated were very passion it to it due to Manifest

For fear of the northerns’’ and abolitionists, neither Jackson or Van Buren dared to push hard for annexation. Though the reasons for ending slavery were not their prime concern. If Texas was admitted into the union the new slave state would wreck the hard won balance of slave and free states in the Senate. Thus giving the south an advantage over the north. The abolitionists believed that this would eventually lead to the south pushing for laws inferior of their ways of life, being new slave laws, and disunion in the country.(Haley) Once Texas is annexed its territory could become as many as 11 new slave states with 22 new pro-slavery senators. This would be a political nightmare for the north’s anti-slavery politations.

Why did the annexation of Texas cause political, military, economic, cultural, and moral controversy in the United States?

The Mexican War of 1846-1848 was one of major importance to U.S. history, but has since fallen into annals of obscurity. It was the nation’s first war fought on foreign soil: a war that advocated the concept of “manifest destiny”, the United States God-given right to claim territory for the establishment of a free democratic society (Stevenson 2009). Even though many historians claim the war was forced on Mexico by slaveholders greedy for new territory, President John Polk viewed the war as an opportunity to defend the annexation of Texas, establish the Rio Grande as its border, and to acquire the Mexican territories of California and New Mexico (Stevenson 2009).

Opponents declare that with the annexation of Texas, the slave states will have more power and even worst it may be create conflict with Mexico and Britain. The Mexican American War was the war between the U.S. and Mexico over the territories of the North of Mexico, the war took the life of Americans and also money, opponents stating that was not constitutional. Even if the U.S. won the war, the North called for Civil Disobedience in order to illustrate that not all American were in favor of the war (Document

The Texas population wanted to protect their state’s rights. They believe that the state can be loyal to the south. The south had to pay a great amount of cash to get imported goods from the Union. During this war state’s rights mostly focused on whether the federal government had to right to regulate or remove slavery from a state. Sectionalism was divided the country into two parts for example the north and the south. Document D says, “Tell him not to enlist till just before they go to draft him and only enlist for Texas service.” This is from John Rabb who was writing a letter for his son. In document b it says, “... were established exclusively by the white race for

Why was the annexation of Texas such a controversial policy? The tension grew over slavery and whether Texas should be slave-holding states. At this time it was democrats and whigs however whigs held the majority of seats and were able to fight the annexation. Texas joined the United States Dec 29, 1845 the last day president Tyler was in office.They passed a Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas to the United States. The UK didn't want the US to become any bigger they tried to join Texas and scheme on Mexico to keep them from joining the union. This set off several small wars between the US and England.

Many southern states wanted Texas to be apart of the US. Northern states feared the adding of Texas would throw off votes in Congress and lead to an overall majority for slavery in the country. Because of Tyler's poor relations with both parties and “Secretary of State John C. Calhoun's linking of slavery to the annexation, the Senate rejected the treaty in June.” (Deal) As a parting call from his presidency, Tyler signed a joint resolution to annex Texas.

In an attempt to gain support for expansionism from both northerners and southerners, O’Sullivan claimed that slavery “had nothing to do with” the annexation of Texas. He goes so far as to say that annexation would lead to the discontinuation of the institution. He expects it to be voluntarily “drained off” in order to expel African Americans from the continent, as he also seems to believe firmly in the idea that whites are of a superior race and therefore, should be the only occupants of North America.