Whereas, the Congress of the United States of America has passed resolutions providing for the annexation of Texas to that Union, which resolutions were approved by the President of the United States on the first day of March, 1845; and whereas, the President of the United States has submitted to Texas the first and second sections of the said resolution, as the basis upon which Texas may be admitted as one of the States of the said Union; and whereas, the existing government of the republic of Texas has assented to the proposals thus made, the terms and conditions of which are as follow:
"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That 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, with a republican form of government, to be adopted by the people of said republic, by deputies in convention assembled, with the consent of the existing government, in order that the same may be admitted as one of the States of this Union.
"2. And be it further resolved, That the foregoing consent of Congress is given upon the following conditions, and with the following guarantees, to wit: First. Said State to be formed, subject to the adjustment by this government of all questions of boundary that may arise with other governments; and the constitution thereof, with the proper evidence of its adoption by the people of said republic of Texas, shall be transmitted to the President of the United States, to be laid before Congress for its final action, on or before the first day of January, 1846. Second. Said State, when admitted into the Union, after ceding to the United States all public edifices, fortifications, barracks, ports, and harbors, navy and navy yards, docks, magazines, arms and armaments, and all other property and means pertaining to the public defence belonging to the said republic of Texas, shall retain all the public funds, debts, taxes, and dues of every kind which may belong to or be due and owing to the said republic; and shall also retain all the vacant and unappropriated lands lying within its limits, to be applied to the payment of the debts and liabilities of said republic of Texas; and the residue of said lands, after said debts and liabilities, to be disposed of as said State may direct; but in no event are said debts and liabilities to become a charge upon the government of the United States. Third. New States of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, in addition to said State of Texas, and having sufficient population, may hereafter, by consent of said State, be formed out of the territory thereof, which shall be entitled to admission under the provisions of the federal constitution; and such States as may be formed out of that portion of said territory lying south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, commonly known as the Missouri compromise line, shall be admitted into the Union, with or without slavery, as the people of each State asking admission may desire; and in such State or States as shall be formed out of said territory north of said Missouri compromise line, slavery, or involuntary servitude, (except for crime,) shall be prohibited:"
Now, in order to manifest the assent of the people of this republic, as required in the above recited portions of the said resolutions, we, the deputies of the people of Texas in convention assembled, in their name and by their authority, do ordain and declare that we assent to and accept the proposals, conditions, and guarantees contained in the first and second sections of the resolution of the Congress of the United States aforesaid.
Done in convention at the city of Austin, republic of Texas, July 4, 1845.
THO. J. RUSK, President
| Phil. M. Cuny H. G. Runnels Robert M. Forbes Sam. Lusk Jno. Caldwell Jose Antonio Navarro Geo. Wm. Brown Gustavus A. Evarts Lemuel Dale Evans J. B. Miller R. E. B. Baylor J. S. Mayfield R. Bache James Love Wm. L. Hunter John D. Anderson Isaac Parker P. O. Lumpkin Francis Moore, jr. Isaac W. Brashear Alexander McGowen Isaac Van Zandt S. Holland Edward Clark Geo. W. Smyth James Armstrong Francis M. White James Davis George T. Wood G. W. Wright H. R. Latimer |
John M. Lewis James Scott Archibald McNeill A. C. Horton Israel Standefer Jos. L. Hogg Chas. S. Taylor David Gage Henry J. Jewett Cavit Armstong James Power Albert H. Latimer Wm. C. Young J. Pinckney Henderson Nicholas H. Darnell Emery Rains A. W. O. Hicks James M. Burroughs H. L. Kinney William L. Cazneau A. S. Cunningham Abner S. Lipscomb John Hemphill Van. R. Irion Volney E. Howard E. H. Tarrant W. B. Ochiltree Oliver Jones B. C. Bagby Chas. Bellinger Stewart. |
The foregoing constitution was unanimously adopted by the deputies of the people of Texas, in convention assembled, at the city of Austin, on the twenty-eighth day of August, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and forty-five, with the consent of the existing government, and was submitted to the people for ratification or rejection at polls opened in the established precincts of the several counties of this republic, on Monday, the thirteenth day of October ultimo, at which time the said constitution was ratified, confirmed, and adopted by the people of Texas themselves, in accordance with the "joint resolution for annexing Texas to the United States," and in order that Texas might be admitted as one of the States of that Union.
[L.S.] |
In testimony whereof, I have caused the great seal of the republic to be hereunto affixed. Done in duplicate at the city of Austin this tenth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-five, and of the independence of the republic the tenth. ANSON JONES. |
By the President:
JOSEPH C. ELDREDGE,
Acting Secretary of State.