Westward extension, 1841-1850, by George Pierce Garrison.

TEXAN NEGOTIATIONS

it9

serting that the British government had given no
provocation that would justify the measure. A
few days later Calhoun closed the correspondence
with a rejoinder reiterating what he had already
affirmed, and stating that the United States would
shun no fairly imputed responsibility for annexation.
The terms of the treaty were less favorable than
Texas might have desired. It provided that Texas
should be annexed to the United States as one of
its territories, "subject to the same constitutional
provision with their other territories." This, of
course, would have left it possible for Congress to
prohibit slavery in the whole or a part of Texas, or
to make an anti-slavery constitution a condition of
statehood. Of the other provisions, the most important were that Texas should surrender its public
lands, and that the United States should assume
the Texan indebtedness to an amount not exceeding ten million dollars.
The treaty was signed April I2, I844, and ten
days later it was transmitted to the Senate with a
message from Tyler strongly urging its adoption.
The negotiation had been conducted with great
secrecy.1 March i6, references to it appeared in
the National Intelligencer and in Niles' Register, and
the fact of its having been signed was announced in
1 For an explanation, see the letter of William Penn in the
Madisonian, April 2$, i844, quoted by Tyler in Tylers, II.,
278, n. 2.