The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946 Page: 283

Notes and Documents

negotiate the treaty of annexation. He was successful in his
negotiations in that the President of the United States and his
secretary of state signed the treaty with him; but, as has hap-
pened in modern instances, the Senate of the United States
failed to ratify it. Whereupon, annexation became the leading
issue in the presidential campaign which was just opening.
Returning to Texas, General Henderson resumed the prac-
tice of law. When the annexation of Texas was consummated,
by a joint resolution passed by the two houses of Congress
instead of by a treaty ratified by the Senate, and a constitutional
convention was called in Texas to frame a state government,
he was elected a member and played a conspicuous part in the
deliberations and writing of the constitution of the new state,
a document which has been acclaimed a model of its kind.
Upon the admission of Texas as a state in the American
Union, General Henderson was elected the first governor of
the new commonwealth and was inaugurated February 19, 1846.
Soon, a requisition was made upon Texas, in consequence of
the Mexican War, for troops to aid General Zachary Taylor.
The troops of Texas were called out, and, by a resolution of
the legislature, Governor Henderson was authorized to assume
their personal command at the battle front, which he did. He
served with distinction and was commissioned major general
in the United States Army. For conspicuous gallantry in the
Battle of Monterey, the Congress of the United States gave him
a vote of thanks and awarded him a jewelled sword of honor,
the prized possession today of his great-grandson. Following
the battle of Monterey, he was named by General Zachary
Taylor one of three commissioners on the part of the American
army to negotiate the articles of surrender of the Mexican
army under General Ampudia, the other commissioners being
General Worth, for whom the Texas city of Fort Worth was
named, and Colonel Jefferson Davis of the First Mississippi
regiment.
Upon his return from the war, General Henderson resumed
the duties of governor, rendering a service of far-reaching
consequence in that early day of beginnings. Declining a second
term, he again resumed the practice of law and through the
years by his ability and eloquence, his high integrity and mag-
netic personality, won the undisputed leadership of the Texas
bar.
In 1857 Henderson was elected, by the unanimous vote of

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