426
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 184-5
1n 1836, the subject of annexation ·was submitted to the popular will, and received almost an unanimous vote. I gave it my cordial support, then, and not an hundred votes were given adverse to the measure. I was soon afterwards inducted into the office of Chief Magistrate of the Republic. It became my duty to propose the measure to the government of the United States. It was done by sending a minister to that government with instructions made out by the Hon. Stephen F. Austin, then Secretary of State, under my directions, and one additional minister was then sent to Washington. The proposition for annexation was rejected by the United States but our independence was acknowledged. The proposition was not withdrawn but remained before the government until all hope of its success ceased. Its being rejected, and still remaining in that situation was believed to operate prejudicially upon pro- posed negotiations with other governments, for the re·cognition of ou1· Independence, and I directed it to be withdrawn in 1838, which act was sanctioned by a resolution of Congress. If we were doomed to remain a separate Republic, it was unnecessary and injurious to us, I conceived, for the proposition to remain as it was, and I believed that by withdrawing it for the present, that it would awaken new and more lively apprehensions, on the part of the U. States, as to the importance of such an acquisition to their security and power, and that they would soon evince a willingness to accept the proposition, if it 8hould be renewed. My successor came into office, December of the same year, and in his inaugural address of many pages, not only denounced the measure of annexation, but adduced many reasons against the policy. From that time it slumbered until December, 1841, when I was again inducted into the Executive office. Immediately thereafter I despatched a Charge d'Affaires to Washington City, who bore instructions with him embracing the subject of the "'annexation of Texas to the United States." This was the revival of the subject of annexation.-The measure was not regarded by the United States, as I had fondly hoped it would have been. Nevertheless, it was not withdrawn. Our Minister, Mr. Reily, returned to Texas, and Mr. Van Zandt, his successor, was appointed and referred to the instructions of his predecessor. He renewed the application to that Government and found an utter disinclination, on the part of the Secretary of State, to take any action upon the subject. Matters remained in this situation until the armistice was proposed to Texas by Mexico, and that matter was proclaimed to the world. Some
Powered by FlippingBook