What if the US Congress rejects the Texan bid for statehood and Texas remains independent. Obviously the American Civil War or Mexican American War does not occur original timeline. However, Mexican incursions into Texas probably don’t stop, perhaps another Texas vs. Mexican conflict breaks out with the US supporting Texas and still ending up with more of the West. Slavery continues to be a thorn in the side of the Union. How then does having an independent, Anglo, slaveholding state in North America that is sympathetic to the cause of the South change things?