[Texas]. Collanur, I.

[Autograph Letter, Signed, Concerning the Contemporary Debate Over the Annexation of Texas]

Washington DC: Jan. 13, 1845. [1]p. Original mailing folds, light foxing, short closed tear to top edge, left edge reinforced with linen. Very good. Item #1555

A brief but impactful contemporary dispatch from the Nation's Capital concerned with the debate over the annexation of Texas in early 1845. Here, a "Washington City" correspondent reports on the state of the Texas annexation issue in Congress. The preponderance of the letter reads: "The annexation of Texas is now the engrossing topic here. The result cannot now be determined but I think it will pass the house in some form but I do not think it will pass the Senate this winter. I however fully concur with you in the opinion that Texas will be annexed either this or the next congress, and I think too it will be annexed without any restriction against slavery." The letter was sent to an unknown location to "Hon S. Elliot."

The present letter highlights the central controversy around the Texas annexation debate: slavery. The Tyler-Texas treaty of 1844 attempted to annex Texas without any mention of slavery, but the issue swiftly surfaced and sparked a national debate. Anti-slavery forces argued that allowing Texas into the Union would result in a vast expansion of slavery in the United States, and in the political influence of slaveholding powers. The debate raged throughout 1844 and into the Spring of 1845; the present letter was written just after a special lame-duck session in December 1844 failed to gain traction on the annexation issue. After massive political maneuverings in the following two months, involving Southern Whigs, Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton, and both outgoing President Tyler and President-Elect Polk, the annexation of Texas was passed by Congress and signed into law in late-February and early-March 1845. Texas entered the Union as a slave state, and did so as the prescient author of the present letter put it, "without any restriction against slavery."

Price: $950.00