The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 50, July 1946 - April, 1947 Page: 251

Digest of Cogressional Action
on the AHlileatioH of exnas
December, 1844, to
'1arch, 1845
SARAH ELIZABETH LEWIS
T HE QUESTION of the annexation of Texas had been before
the people of the United States seven years when Congress
convened in December of 1844. Texas made the first offer
of annexation in 1837 but was informed that the United States
was not ready to consider the matter, and until the latter part
of 1842 the question of the annexation of Texas had small place
in newspaper discussion or official communications. In 1843
President John Tyler entered into negotiations for a treaty
with Texas, and in April, 1844, a treaty was signed by John C.
Calhoun, secretary of state for the United States, and Isaac
Van Zandt and J. Pinckney Henderson on the part of Texas.
The treaty provided for the annexation of Texas as a territory
of the United States. In June the treaty was considered in the
Senate and, on June 8, rejected. President Tyler immediately
sent in a message to Congress recommending that Texas be
annexed by law. Congress adjourned, however, without con-
sidering the question. In the presidential campaign of 1844
the annexation of Texas played an important r61le, and as a
result of the November election, James K. Polk, who had cam-
paigned on a platform favoring annexation, was elected Presi-
dent.
When the second session of the Twenty-eighth Congress as-
sembled in December, 1844, President Tyler sent in a message
in which he reviewed the circumstances connected with the
treaty. He said that the chief objection which had been urged
against the ratification of the treaty was that public opinion
had not been expressed in favor of annexation. However, since
April, 1844, when the treaty was made, the decision of the
American people had been decisively manifested in the Novem-