How Texas Became a State

A One-Vote Oddity

Freeman Clark, Daniel Kelso and Texas!

(see the back story in Day 7 and 8 posts)

 

Texas won her independence from Mexico at the Battle of San Jacinto in April of 1836. Most of the citizens of Texasassumed that the region would be annexed into the United States. But it was to be a long and circuitous battle for statehood for Texas.

Wooed by both France and Britain to remain an independent Republic and tossed by the political winds of the brewing battle over slavery, Texas was not easily brought into the Union.¹⁸ The election of 1844, brought James Polk into the Presidency in a landslide. Polk had run on a campaign to bringTexas in to the Union. Outgoing President John Tyler saw the election of Polk as a mandate. With the English still courtingTexas, Polk made a novel suggestion: Annex Texas not by treaty but by a joint resolution of Congress.

This procedure had two benefits. One, it was much faster than a treaty and two, it could be done by a simple majority in both houses rather than a two-thirds majority required for a treaty. The Texans loved the new proposal and procedures started.

The measure sailed through the House of Representatives (132-75) but support wavered in the Senate. Finally, a vote was taken. Texas became a state by a Senate vote of 27-25. It would eventually have to be ratified by the Texas Congress and voters, but that slim margin of victory in the Senate in late February of 1845, is what led to the annexation of Texas with the transfer of power taking place on February 19, 1846.

How do Freeman Clark, and Daniel Kelso and Edward A. Hannigan play into the story? Freeman Clark was the vote that put Daniel Kelso in the Indiana Senate. It was Daniel Kelso’s vote that put Edward Hannigan in the U.S. Senate, and it was Hannigan, the pro-annexation of Texas Senator from Indianawho cast the deciding vote for annexation. Without Hannigan the Senate vote to admit Texas as the 28th state in the Unionwould have deadlocked at 26-26. That one vote was the difference.

Maybe your vote will be the difference in an election this year.

 

FootNotes:

16. Harris, R. Laird; Harris, Robert Laird; Archer, Gleason Leonard; Waltke, Bruce K.: Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. electronic ed. Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1999, c1980, S. 752

17. BreakPoint with Charles Colson, “The Crime of Conviction: The Crime of Morality,” March 15, 2007.

18. For a fascinating and an entertaining history on Texasstatehood see, www.humanities-interactive.org/texas/annexation/annex_essay.htm.