After the Senate rejected the Texas annexation treaty, proponents of annexation decided to gain Texas by a joint resolution of Congress, which required only a majority vote in each house. Passed by the House (120–98) and Senate (27–25) in 1845, the resolution was later challenged but upheld by the Supreme Court.
Congress doth consent that the territory properly included within and rightfully belonging to the Republic of Texas may be erected into a new State, to be called the State of Texas
Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives and Records Administration
H.J. Res. 46, A joint resolution for annexing Texas to the United States, January 27, 1845
The Annexation of Texas
For much of the first half of the 19th century, there was a balance in Congress between Northern free states and Southern slave states. In 1836 Texas, which permitted slaveholding, declared independence from Mexico and sought annexation to the United States. Mexico threatened war over U.S. annexation of Texas, and in Congress the issue of annexation inflamed debate regarding slavery’s expansion. After the Senate rejected an annexation treaty, Congress annexed Texas in 1845 by a joint resolution and declared war with Mexico the following year.
After the Senate rejected the Texas annexation treaty, proponents of annexation decided to gain Texas by a joint resolution of Congress, which required only a majority vote in each house. Passed by the House (120–98) and Senate (27–25) in 1845, the resolution was later challenged but upheld by the Supreme Court.
Congress doth consent that the territory properly included within and rightfully belonging to the Republic of Texas may be erected into a new State, to be called the State of Texas
Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives and Records Administration
