Previously published in Yoakum Herald-Times on Feb. 17, 2021.
Friday, Feb. 19 marks the 175th year since the last Texas president formally transferred authority in Texas to the first Texas governor.
Texas declared independence from Mexico in March 1836, about five months into the Texas Revolution. A month later, on April 21, 1836, the Texas Revolution ended with the Treaties of Velasco.
The following road into becoming a state was full of political turmoil. Following Texas’s independence, United States President Martin Van Buren opposed the annexation while many Texans supported it. In 1838, Texas President Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar opposed the annexation during his administration.
In the early 1840s, United States President John Tyler and Texas President Sam Houston supported the measure, but the Whig Party, which was anti-slavery, largely opposed it in Congress. On April 12, 1844, Tyler signed the Tyler-Texas Treaty. However, it failed ratification in the United States Senate by a vote of 16 to 35.
In the 1844 election, annexation was one of the central themes. The Whig Party was still against annexation while the Democratic Party supported it. This election saw James K. Polk become the President that would bring Texas into the nation. Tyler continued pressuring Congress to accept the annexation, stating in his final State of the Union Address that the election results indicated that “it is the will of both the people and the States that Texas shall be annexed to the Union promptly and immediately.”
The Senate ultimately approved the annexation and sent the resolution to Texas for approval. In October 1845, Texans voted in support. On Dec. 29, 1845, Polk signed the resolution, making Texas the 28th state.
“Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the State of Texas shall be one, and is hereby declared to be one, of the United States of America, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever,” stated the resolution.
On Feb. 19, 1846, Texas President Anson Jones gave his final farewell to Texas and transferred power to the first US Governor of Texas James Pinckney Henderson.
In addition to the milestone of the state, DeWitt County is also celebrating its 175th anniversary with events throughout the county, including Yoakum, this year.
Kait Mae 
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