April 9, 2024 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, here to tell the second part of his Texas anthropology series is Monte Monroe, the official Texas State Historian. Today Monte shares with us how Texas joined the Union, and how the spirit of Texan "independence" became a thing.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we returned to our American stories. Up next history story.
In eighteen forty five, Texas joined the Union as a country,
the only state in our nation to do so. It
was a long road to get to that point. Texas
first had to fight a war for independence, which they
managed to gain against all odds after the Battle of
(00:32):
San Jacinto. Here to tell the rest of the story
is Monte Monroe, the Texas state historian. Take it away, Monty.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
The first National Texas election was a contest of personalities
rather than politics, and Sam Houston was elected president over
Steven F. Austin and Henry Smith by an eighty percent vote.
That was quite a bit. Houston would dominate Texas in
this era in the same way that Lyndon Bain's Johnson
did in the twentieth century. He was an imposing figure.
(01:04):
He was a close friend of Andrew Jackson. He had
been a congressman governor of Tennessee. He ran on a
platform of annexation, like George Washington after the American Revolution,
Houston would draw his cabinet from members of both revolutionary factions.
He appointed Stephen F. Austin as the first Secretary of State,
(01:26):
but Austin Unfortunately, the so called Father of Texas died
in December of eighteen thirty six, cutting short his valuable career.
There was actually a thirty day period of mourning for him.
Henry Smith became the Secretary of the Treasury. Thomas J. Rusk,
(01:47):
another important Texas revolutionary name, would become Secretary of War,
and Maribeau b Lamar, who would become the second President
of Texas, was elected as vice president. He was the
chief political of Sam Houston during all of this. There
were many issues that were problematic during the first Houston administration.
(02:08):
The frontier was one of those. There was always fear
a future Mexican invasion. Indeed, that happened. Houston viewed a
standing army as a problem. He was afraid that they
would be agitating to invade Mexico. He didn't want that
to happen because the Republic of Texas was a fragile
state at that time. So he offered land to those
(02:31):
who would agree to a discharge or he was going
to disban the volunteers and ship them back to New Orleans. Ultimately,
there would be Texas Ranger companies that would be organized
to deal with the various Indian threats, particularly the Comanche
and the Caiwas. Houston's inclinations to Indian relations tended to
(02:54):
run contrary to the will of general population in Texas.
He signed a treaty with them, guarantee them land in
exchange for their neutrality with Mexico, but the Texas Senate
refused to ratify that treaty. The Republic of Texas always
had monetary problems, and this would be a problem even
for the state of Texas. During Houston's first term, the
(03:15):
public debt suppressed two million dollars, which was a lot
of money back in those days. I don't know what
the equivalent would be now, but it would be in
the billions. Tariffs, custom duties at the ports, and land fees,
business taxes. All of these were imposed, but they were
generally low, and the problem was most people didn't have
hard currency or specie, so they paid in kind. Many
(03:40):
times I've said they paid with chickens or whatnot, but
they paid with their crops, and so he Houston literally
had to depend on his own personal credit to fund
army supplies and some government operations. Paper money was used,
but it ultimately the constitute. The Texas Constitution barred him
(04:02):
from running for a second term, so he became the
Republic's principal ambassador of the United States Marribeau b Lamar
became the second president. He was opposed to annexation, unlike
his predecessor, and he tried to make peace with the Mexico,
but he wasn't successful. Lamar drove the Indians from Texas
(04:23):
and resettled them to parts of Texas, and he was
able to open up rich lands, particularly in East Texas,
for sale and settlement, and it gave pioneers a bit
of security, but it was costly. It took another two
and a half million dollar toll on the treasury, and
(04:43):
so he issued what they called redbacks, and they ultimately
plummeted to twelve cents on the dollar. And so when
the next president, Sam Houston, who returned for a second term,
comes into office, he is fac are confronted by crippling
debt and he drastically cut offices. He has a very
(05:06):
frugal second term, spending little money. He had a very
generous land policy. He gave four thousand, over four thousand,
six hundred acres of land to families and then single
individuals could gain up to fourteen hundred acres of land,
and all of this led to a flood of immigration
(05:27):
into Texas. The Republic gave away during its time forty
one million acres between eighteen thirty six and eighteen forty five.
By eighteen forty six, the western edge of the Texas
Frontier reached Dallas and Waco and Corpus Christie, almost along
(05:50):
what is today Interstate thirty five. The population climbed from
forty thousand in eighteen thirty six to one hundred forty
two thousand eighteen forty seven, so by that time, because
most of the immigrants came from the American South, by
eighteen forty five, Texas resembled the southern States of the
(06:13):
United States for all purposes. Most settlers coming from the
South grew cotton, corn, sugarcane, and many brought slaves. As
the last act of his presidency in eighteen thirty seven,
Andrew Jackson grants diplomatic recognition of the independence of Texans.
(06:36):
Texans immediately sought annexation, but they were rebuffed because of
this interest in maintaining good relations with Mexico and because
of anti slavery opposition in Congress. Consequently, talk about annexation
would languish By eighteen forty three, however, things are starting
to change. The United States President John Tyler rever lives
(07:01):
the annexation issue because he starts to fear a growing
British interest in Texas, which is a whole different story.
In eighteen forty four, Texas emissaries and the US Secretary
of State then John C. Calhoun a hammer out a
treaty of annexation that would have established Texas as a territory.
(07:23):
The treaty was defeated in the US Senate because again
of anti slavery opposition during an election year. Despite that fact,
Texas did become a major election issue in eighteen forty
four because the Democratic candidate at that time, James K. Polk,
openly favored annexation and ran on a strong expansionist platform.
(07:48):
He claimed that he would bring in Oregon, Texas, and
California into the Union. In response to these mounting sentiments
in the United States, a so called manifest destiny, this
notion that Americans were God's chosen people and that they
were to spread their culture and religion across the North
(08:11):
American continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific. These notions
were fanned in the American press at the time, and
Polk capitalized on that sentiment. He was elected by an
overwhelming majority. And Poke's election in that mandate allows President
Tyler Or encouraged him to prompt Congress to pass a
(08:36):
joint resolution on February the twenty eighth, eighteen forty five
simple majority resolution to annex Texas, and that happened. Anson
Jones becomes the last president of the Republic of Texas.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
And you're listening to Texas State Historian Monte Monroe tell
one heck of his story about how Texas became a state,
and my goodness, what a land grim between eighteen thirty
six and eighteen forty five, forty one million acres. Of course,
Southerners came, mostly Southerners, with their blaves, many of them,
(09:10):
and it was cotton and it was sugar that they
would be farming. The story of how Texas became a
state continues here on our American story, and we returned
(09:40):
to our American stories and the story of how the
Republic of Texas became a state. When we last left off,
Monte Monroe, the Texas State Historian, was telling us about
the challenges the Republic of Texas. Faced with crippling debt
and constant threats of invasion, most Texans supported annexation into
the United States, but it was a long road to
(10:01):
get there. Nevertheless, in eighteen forty five, President Polk saw
Texas welcomed into the Union and it would be up
to his Minister to Mexico, John Slidell, iron out the details.
Let's get back to the story. Here again is Monty Monroe.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
The provisions of the annexation resolutions allowed that Texas would
enter the Union as a state because it had been
an independent nation, and keep her public lands, and that
would be important, particularly in the twentieth century when the
United States is trying to carve out national park lands.
(10:41):
Texas was unique in that it possessed all of its
public lands, and so it made it a little bit
easier to create national parks in Texas. The US, on
the other hand, would decide all boundary questions, and that's
going to be critical. Texas was to surrender all of
(11:02):
her forts in military equipment to the US, but Texas
could retain its navy, and to this day, the governor
can appoint admirals of the Texas Navy which is an
honorary position. With the agreement of Texas citizens, Texas could
be split into four additional states aside from the state
(11:23):
of Texas. Any new state that would be established from
Texas could permit slavery, and this is always going to
be a problem. The state Constitution of eighteen forty five
provided for a bicameral legislature of two year terms for
House members and four year terms for senators that still
(11:43):
exists today. The legislature was to meet every two years.
There are reasons for that, and the reasons were that
there was this concern to impose restrictions on the legislature
because there was a fear of government, a big government.
They had just gone to this whole period of Mexican
centralist government, and so this was very cognizant in their minds.
(12:07):
The meeting time of the legislature is limited, there were
low pay for legislators. They didn't want people sitting in
the legislature spending tax money all the time. The governor
would be the chief executive. There was a lieutenant governor,
which in today's terms is probably even more politically powerful
because he controls he is the head of the Senate
(12:29):
than the governor. The Texas Constitution of eighteen forty five,
and there have been subsequent constitutions, was influenced by Jacksonian thought.
There were strict prohibitions against state banks because many Jacksonians believed,
as did these Texans of the time, that bankers were thieves.
(12:51):
There were also prohibitions against establishing big business corporations, especially monopolies.
There were strict prohibitions against any minister of the gods
holding public office. Nobody who had been in a duel
could hold public office. And most importantly for women. Today
women could own property in their own name, and this
(13:13):
didn't happen throughout the United States at that time in
their own name, especially married women, and this notion was
unique to Texas and was probably part of our Texas
Spanish legacy. J. Pinkney Henderson was elected the first governor
of the state. Sam Houston and Thomas Jefferson Rusk, two
of the great revolutionaries of the Republic era, became the
(13:37):
first US senators from Texas. So Texas becomes a state.
But what was one of the problems that that might
bring about. Mexico was against annexation. Mexico was certainly against
Texas becoming a state of the United States. Mexico had
(14:01):
said that the annexation of Texas would lead to war,
and this was the most important cause. Also, there was
another reason that led to the so called US Mexican War.
Mexico refused to pay debt claims to Americans for losses
(14:22):
and debts of property and various things of that nature.
France in Britain used their influence to collect their debts,
but the United States could not, and there was much
political instability in Mexico at this time. This was the
period of the Cordellos, where military strong men were constantly
coming in, building an army, overthrowing the central government. In
(14:44):
the United States, you have this sense of manifest destiny.
There's a fear by the Mexican governments of land hunger
of the Americans because of manifest destiny and this desire
to acquire California. The US wanted California for its natural
heart ros. They believed it would make the United States
a strong Pacific power and open Asian markets to the
(15:06):
United States. There were some attempts at diplomacy. There's no
need to go into all of that. At this time
with John Slidel President Pope knew that Mexico had severe
financial problem, so he sent slide L to try and
purchase California, which only had about three thousand Mexican citizens
living there at the time. He met with the current
(15:27):
Mexican president at that time, Jose Herrera, who stated that
Texas was the key issue. If the US would return
Texas to Mexico, Mexico might consider selling California the US.
That didn't happen, and it couldn't happen. Slydale returns to
the US convinced that military versus diplomatic means was the
only way for the US to achieve its goals, particularly
(15:50):
in relation to the Mexican owned and controlled what would
become the American West. When Polk learned of Slidell's he
immediately sends General Zachary Taylor, old, rough and ready to
move to the Rio Grand. So he goes down and
he starts building fortifications on the Texas side of the
(16:13):
Real Grand. Mexico claimed that Taylor's move was an invasion
of Mexican territory, and ultimately they positioned Mexican troops across
the river from Taylor, and on October twenty fourth, President
Peedies declares a defensive war against the US and Mexican troops.
(16:34):
Skurmish with Taylor's troops, and Taylor wires Polk that war
exists and ultimately would end in the Treaty of Velasco.
After the United States is victorious in the war with Mexico.
(16:54):
In the Treaty of Hidalgo says more or less the
following that Texas is recognized as a state of the
United States, with the boundary at the Rio Grande River,
California and the New Mexico Territory, which encompassed at that
time Arizona and what would become Nevada. The Mexican Session
(17:19):
was ceded to the United States in return for fifteen
million dollars. The US also assumes three and a quarter
million in debt claims against Mexico by American citizens. And
of critical importance to Texas, the boundary description allowed Texas
(17:42):
to retain control over its tide lands ten miles out
into the Gulf, and after World War II that would
become a major issue, or during World War two, become
a major issue, particularly because of oil development in the
post war era in the Gulf of Mexico. This would
be a great windfall when offshore oil production takes place
(18:06):
in the Gulf of Mexico following the war, and as
a consequence of the border now being secure, settlement increases
dramatically in Texas, and of course that will cause a
problem with the issue of slavery and ultimately leading to
the Civil War, which Texas of course will join the Confederacy.
(18:30):
And that is beyond the purview of our discussions today.
And I hope in this little brief talk that you
have gotten a thumbnail sketch of the five hundred year
history of Texas. Texas brings that legacy to the United States.
(18:53):
It is today because of many things that have happened
since Texas became a state and after the Civil War,
in returning to the Union during reconstruction, is now. If
it was an independent nation today it would be the
fourth largest economy in the world. But Texas contributes mightily
(19:21):
to the nation. During World War II, it sent over
seven hundred and fifty thousand Texans to the war effort.
The oil production during the war fueled the arsenal of
democracy and led to our ultimate victory in World War Two.
(19:41):
So Texas has an interesting history and it continues to
contribute mightily to the United States.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
And a terrific job on the storytelling in production by
our own Monty Montgomery, and a special thanks to Monte Monroe,
the Texas State Historian. And my goodness, how the Mexican
American War started when we learned a lot more about
a subject that was at best really boring when we
learned about it in high school. The story of how
Texas became a state. Here on our American Story
And we returned to our American stories. Up next history story.
In eighteen forty five, Texas joined the Union as a country,
the only state in our nation to do so. It
was a long road to get to that point. Texas
first had to fight a war for independence, which they
managed to gain against all odds after the Battle of
(00:32):
San Jacinto. Here to tell the rest of the story
is Monte Monroe, the Texas state historian. Take it away, Monty.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
The first National Texas election was a contest of personalities
rather than politics, and Sam Houston was elected president over
Steven F. Austin and Henry Smith by an eighty percent vote.
That was quite a bit. Houston would dominate Texas in
this era in the same way that Lyndon Bain's Johnson
did in the twentieth century. He was an imposing figure.
(01:04):
He was a close friend of Andrew Jackson. He had
been a congressman governor of Tennessee. He ran on a
platform of annexation, like George Washington after the American Revolution,
Houston would draw his cabinet from members of both revolutionary factions.
He appointed Stephen F. Austin as the first Secretary of State,
(01:26):
but Austin Unfortunately, the so called Father of Texas died
in December of eighteen thirty six, cutting short his valuable career.
There was actually a thirty day period of mourning for him.
Henry Smith became the Secretary of the Treasury. Thomas J. Rusk,
(01:47):
another important Texas revolutionary name, would become Secretary of War,
and Maribeau b Lamar, who would become the second President
of Texas, was elected as vice president. He was the
chief political of Sam Houston during all of this. There
were many issues that were problematic during the first Houston administration.
(02:08):
The frontier was one of those. There was always fear
a future Mexican invasion. Indeed, that happened. Houston viewed a
standing army as a problem. He was afraid that they
would be agitating to invade Mexico. He didn't want that
to happen because the Republic of Texas was a fragile
state at that time. So he offered land to those
(02:31):
who would agree to a discharge or he was going
to disban the volunteers and ship them back to New Orleans. Ultimately,
there would be Texas Ranger companies that would be organized
to deal with the various Indian threats, particularly the Comanche
and the Caiwas. Houston's inclinations to Indian relations tended to
(02:54):
run contrary to the will of general population in Texas.
He signed a treaty with them, guarantee them land in
exchange for their neutrality with Mexico, but the Texas Senate
refused to ratify that treaty. The Republic of Texas always
had monetary problems, and this would be a problem even
for the state of Texas. During Houston's first term, the
(03:15):
public debt suppressed two million dollars, which was a lot
of money back in those days. I don't know what
the equivalent would be now, but it would be in
the billions. Tariffs, custom duties at the ports, and land fees,
business taxes. All of these were imposed, but they were
generally low, and the problem was most people didn't have
hard currency or specie, so they paid in kind. Many
(03:40):
times I've said they paid with chickens or whatnot, but
they paid with their crops, and so he Houston literally
had to depend on his own personal credit to fund
army supplies and some government operations. Paper money was used,
but it ultimately the constitute. The Texas Constitution barred him
(04:02):
from running for a second term, so he became the
Republic's principal ambassador of the United States Marribeau b Lamar
became the second president. He was opposed to annexation, unlike
his predecessor, and he tried to make peace with the Mexico,
but he wasn't successful. Lamar drove the Indians from Texas
(04:23):
and resettled them to parts of Texas, and he was
able to open up rich lands, particularly in East Texas,
for sale and settlement, and it gave pioneers a bit
of security, but it was costly. It took another two
and a half million dollar toll on the treasury, and
(04:43):
so he issued what they called redbacks, and they ultimately
plummeted to twelve cents on the dollar. And so when
the next president, Sam Houston, who returned for a second term,
comes into office, he is fac are confronted by crippling
debt and he drastically cut offices. He has a very
(05:06):
frugal second term, spending little money. He had a very
generous land policy. He gave four thousand, over four thousand,
six hundred acres of land to families and then single
individuals could gain up to fourteen hundred acres of land,
and all of this led to a flood of immigration
(05:27):
into Texas. The Republic gave away during its time forty
one million acres between eighteen thirty six and eighteen forty five.
By eighteen forty six, the western edge of the Texas
Frontier reached Dallas and Waco and Corpus Christie, almost along
(05:50):
what is today Interstate thirty five. The population climbed from
forty thousand in eighteen thirty six to one hundred forty
two thousand eighteen forty seven, so by that time, because
most of the immigrants came from the American South, by
eighteen forty five, Texas resembled the southern States of the
(06:13):
United States for all purposes. Most settlers coming from the
South grew cotton, corn, sugarcane, and many brought slaves. As
the last act of his presidency in eighteen thirty seven,
Andrew Jackson grants diplomatic recognition of the independence of Texans.
(06:36):
Texans immediately sought annexation, but they were rebuffed because of
this interest in maintaining good relations with Mexico and because
of anti slavery opposition in Congress. Consequently, talk about annexation
would languish By eighteen forty three, however, things are starting
to change. The United States President John Tyler rever lives
(07:01):
the annexation issue because he starts to fear a growing
British interest in Texas, which is a whole different story.
In eighteen forty four, Texas emissaries and the US Secretary
of State then John C. Calhoun a hammer out a
treaty of annexation that would have established Texas as a territory.
(07:23):
The treaty was defeated in the US Senate because again
of anti slavery opposition during an election year. Despite that fact,
Texas did become a major election issue in eighteen forty
four because the Democratic candidate at that time, James K. Polk,
openly favored annexation and ran on a strong expansionist platform.
(07:48):
He claimed that he would bring in Oregon, Texas, and
California into the Union. In response to these mounting sentiments
in the United States, a so called manifest destiny, this
notion that Americans were God's chosen people and that they
were to spread their culture and religion across the North
(08:11):
American continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific. These notions
were fanned in the American press at the time, and
Polk capitalized on that sentiment. He was elected by an
overwhelming majority. And Poke's election in that mandate allows President
Tyler Or encouraged him to prompt Congress to pass a
(08:36):
joint resolution on February the twenty eighth, eighteen forty five
simple majority resolution to annex Texas, and that happened. Anson
Jones becomes the last president of the Republic of Texas.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
And you're listening to Texas State Historian Monte Monroe tell
one heck of his story about how Texas became a state,
and my goodness, what a land grim between eighteen thirty
six and eighteen forty five, forty one million acres. Of course,
Southerners came, mostly Southerners, with their blaves, many of them,
(09:10):
and it was cotton and it was sugar that they
would be farming. The story of how Texas became a
state continues here on our American story, and we returned
(09:40):
to our American stories and the story of how the
Republic of Texas became a state. When we last left off,
Monte Monroe, the Texas State Historian, was telling us about
the challenges the Republic of Texas. Faced with crippling debt
and constant threats of invasion, most Texans supported annexation into
the United States, but it was a long road to
(10:01):
get there. Nevertheless, in eighteen forty five, President Polk saw
Texas welcomed into the Union and it would be up
to his Minister to Mexico, John Slidell, iron out the details.
Let's get back to the story. Here again is Monty Monroe.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
The provisions of the annexation resolutions allowed that Texas would
enter the Union as a state because it had been
an independent nation, and keep her public lands, and that
would be important, particularly in the twentieth century when the
United States is trying to carve out national park lands.
(10:41):
Texas was unique in that it possessed all of its
public lands, and so it made it a little bit
easier to create national parks in Texas. The US, on
the other hand, would decide all boundary questions, and that's
going to be critical. Texas was to surrender all of
(11:02):
her forts in military equipment to the US, but Texas
could retain its navy, and to this day, the governor
can appoint admirals of the Texas Navy which is an
honorary position. With the agreement of Texas citizens, Texas could
be split into four additional states aside from the state
(11:23):
of Texas. Any new state that would be established from
Texas could permit slavery, and this is always going to
be a problem. The state Constitution of eighteen forty five
provided for a bicameral legislature of two year terms for
House members and four year terms for senators that still
(11:43):
exists today. The legislature was to meet every two years.
There are reasons for that, and the reasons were that
there was this concern to impose restrictions on the legislature
because there was a fear of government, a big government.
They had just gone to this whole period of Mexican
centralist government, and so this was very cognizant in their minds.
(12:07):
The meeting time of the legislature is limited, there were
low pay for legislators. They didn't want people sitting in
the legislature spending tax money all the time. The governor
would be the chief executive. There was a lieutenant governor,
which in today's terms is probably even more politically powerful
because he controls he is the head of the Senate
(12:29):
than the governor. The Texas Constitution of eighteen forty five,
and there have been subsequent constitutions, was influenced by Jacksonian thought.
There were strict prohibitions against state banks because many Jacksonians believed,
as did these Texans of the time, that bankers were thieves.
(12:51):
There were also prohibitions against establishing big business corporations, especially monopolies.
There were strict prohibitions against any minister of the gods
holding public office. Nobody who had been in a duel
could hold public office. And most importantly for women. Today
women could own property in their own name, and this
(13:13):
didn't happen throughout the United States at that time in
their own name, especially married women, and this notion was
unique to Texas and was probably part of our Texas
Spanish legacy. J. Pinkney Henderson was elected the first governor
of the state. Sam Houston and Thomas Jefferson Rusk, two
of the great revolutionaries of the Republic era, became the
(13:37):
first US senators from Texas. So Texas becomes a state.
But what was one of the problems that that might
bring about. Mexico was against annexation. Mexico was certainly against
Texas becoming a state of the United States. Mexico had
(14:01):
said that the annexation of Texas would lead to war,
and this was the most important cause. Also, there was
another reason that led to the so called US Mexican War.
Mexico refused to pay debt claims to Americans for losses
(14:22):
and debts of property and various things of that nature.
France in Britain used their influence to collect their debts,
but the United States could not, and there was much
political instability in Mexico at this time. This was the
period of the Cordellos, where military strong men were constantly
coming in, building an army, overthrowing the central government. In
(14:44):
the United States, you have this sense of manifest destiny.
There's a fear by the Mexican governments of land hunger
of the Americans because of manifest destiny and this desire
to acquire California. The US wanted California for its natural
heart ros. They believed it would make the United States
a strong Pacific power and open Asian markets to the
(15:06):
United States. There were some attempts at diplomacy. There's no
need to go into all of that. At this time
with John Slidel President Pope knew that Mexico had severe
financial problem, so he sent slide L to try and
purchase California, which only had about three thousand Mexican citizens
living there at the time. He met with the current
(15:27):
Mexican president at that time, Jose Herrera, who stated that
Texas was the key issue. If the US would return
Texas to Mexico, Mexico might consider selling California the US.
That didn't happen, and it couldn't happen. Slydale returns to
the US convinced that military versus diplomatic means was the
only way for the US to achieve its goals, particularly
(15:50):
in relation to the Mexican owned and controlled what would
become the American West. When Polk learned of Slidell's he
immediately sends General Zachary Taylor, old, rough and ready to
move to the Rio Grand. So he goes down and
he starts building fortifications on the Texas side of the
(16:13):
Real Grand. Mexico claimed that Taylor's move was an invasion
of Mexican territory, and ultimately they positioned Mexican troops across
the river from Taylor, and on October twenty fourth, President
Peedies declares a defensive war against the US and Mexican troops.
(16:34):
Skurmish with Taylor's troops, and Taylor wires Polk that war
exists and ultimately would end in the Treaty of Velasco.
After the United States is victorious in the war with Mexico.
(16:54):
In the Treaty of Hidalgo says more or less the
following that Texas is recognized as a state of the
United States, with the boundary at the Rio Grande River,
California and the New Mexico Territory, which encompassed at that
time Arizona and what would become Nevada. The Mexican Session
(17:19):
was ceded to the United States in return for fifteen
million dollars. The US also assumes three and a quarter
million in debt claims against Mexico by American citizens. And
of critical importance to Texas, the boundary description allowed Texas
(17:42):
to retain control over its tide lands ten miles out
into the Gulf, and after World War II that would
become a major issue, or during World War two, become
a major issue, particularly because of oil development in the
post war era in the Gulf of Mexico. This would
be a great windfall when offshore oil production takes place
(18:06):
in the Gulf of Mexico following the war, and as
a consequence of the border now being secure, settlement increases
dramatically in Texas, and of course that will cause a
problem with the issue of slavery and ultimately leading to
the Civil War, which Texas of course will join the Confederacy.
(18:30):
And that is beyond the purview of our discussions today.
And I hope in this little brief talk that you
have gotten a thumbnail sketch of the five hundred year
history of Texas. Texas brings that legacy to the United States.
(18:53):
It is today because of many things that have happened
since Texas became a state and after the Civil War,
in returning to the Union during reconstruction, is now. If
it was an independent nation today it would be the
fourth largest economy in the world. But Texas contributes mightily
(19:21):
to the nation. During World War II, it sent over
seven hundred and fifty thousand Texans to the war effort.
The oil production during the war fueled the arsenal of
democracy and led to our ultimate victory in World War Two.
(19:41):
So Texas has an interesting history and it continues to
contribute mightily to the United States.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
And a terrific job on the storytelling in production by
our own Monty Montgomery, and a special thanks to Monte Monroe,
the Texas State Historian. And my goodness, how the Mexican
American War started when we learned a lot more about
a subject that was at best really boring when we
learned about it in high school. The story of how
Texas became a state. Here on our American Story
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