1845—June 18 the Texas Congress, convened in special session to consider the offer of the United States, unanimously rejects the treaty with Mexico and votes for annexation. October 13 the Texas people, in general election, enthusiastically endorse the action of their congress.
1845—July, the American Army of Occupation, under General Zachary Taylor, is ordered to enter Texas and advance to the Rio Grande River.
1846—Hostilities by force of arms open: by the United States to establish the claims of Texas to the Rio Grande River boundary; by Mexico, to retain possession eastward to the Nueces River.
1848—By the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed February 2, closing the war, Mexico definitely loses Texas to the United States.
1850—By protest from the people of New Mexico, following the close of the war, the state of Texas, whose southwest and west boundary was assumed to the Rio Grande River from its mouth to its source, is rebounded and confined to practically its present generous limits.
Released from Mexican misrule, free to turn its arms against the marauding Indians, and by the payment of $10,000,000 by the United States soon made financially independent, the great State of Texas, 800 miles long, 750 miles wide, has prospered abundantly. The spirit of the Lone Star Republic still lives in the words, always proudly spoken: “I am a Texan.”
SAM HOUSTON
THE BUILDER OF TEXAS
March 2, 1793, born at Timber Ridge Church, near Lexington, Rockbridge County, Virginia, of Scotch-Irish ancestry.