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Part Nine: The Annexation of Texas
While it's not as much as I usually do in an update, here's a little something to show that I'm still working on this and tide y'all over until the weekend. :)

Part Nine: The Annexation of Texas

Annexation of Texas:
After his inauguration, President Polk set out to accomplish the first goal that he set out during his election campaign; to bring the Republic of Texas into the Union. Polk sent Joel Roberts Poinsett as the United States consul to Texas to negotiate the terms of the annexation in June. By August, the Congress of Texas voted in approval the annexation and the motion gained the approval of David Crockett, then President of the Republic. Meanwhile, Polk gathered support from Congress to support bringing Texas into the United States.

Polk and many of the Democrats spent the majority of the summer of 1845 garnering support in Congress for the annextion of Texas. While many northern senators initially opposed the idea of bringing more slave states into the Union, especially one as big as Texas, some were won over by a compromise to bring the remainder of Pembina Territory in within the remainder of Polk's term. Still, a two thirds majority could not be reached in the Senate at the next vote. At the next Senate meeting, however, president pro tempore John Tyler managed to bring some of the Whigs opposing annexation to ratify the treaty, and in September, Texas was brought into the Union.

Texas was initially brought into the United States as a territory, but its more populated areas quickly became states. In March of 1846, the area of the Republic of Texas was divided into three parts. Tejas and Houston, separated by the Colorado River, were admitted that month. Samuel Houston became governor of Tejas and David Burnet became governor of the state of Houston. David Crockett, president of Texas at the time of annexation, was elected as one of the first senators from the state. The admission of Tejas and Houston brought in two more slave states, although the states tried to remain neutral on the issue when it was brought up.

The states of Houston and Tejas hold a number of interesting facts in their early history. During the four months the Tejas state capitol building in San Antonio was being constructed on the west side of Alamo Plaza, the legislative sessions were held across the plaza in the chapel of the Alamo mission, which had seen a minor battle during the Texan War of Independence. The admission of Houston to the United States is an interesting note in history, for it marks the only time a President has had a state named after him before holding his office as President.

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