Standing alone the republic faced many difficulties. Mexico had by no means accepted the independence declaration and threatened continual hostilities. There were troubles with the various Indian tribes. The public debt mounted and the Texas paper dollar fell in value to about 2 cents. It was generally admitted that the United States desired to annex Texas, but the question was bound up with that of slavery over which the Union was divided. In March 1845 Congress passed a joint resolution offering Statehood to Texas, and this the Texans gladly accepted. The United States was to settle all questions of boundaries with foreign countries, while Texas was to retain all its vacant and unappropriated public lands. The formal admission occurred in Dec. 1845. Texas had claimed the Rio Grande to its source as its western boundary, although as a political division of Mexico its limits had never extended farther west than the Nueces and the Medina. The United States asserted the Rio Grande claim and prepared to de fend it at the same time the Mexican Government considered the annexation, regardless of the boundary question, a declaration of war by the United States. In the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) which ended the war Mexico accepted the Rio Grande boundary. Texas also included then the eastern half of present New Mexico (that portion east of the Rio Grande) and Colorado, a corner of Wyoming (the boundary running north from the source of the Rio Grande to the 42 parallel), south-western Kan sas and the arm of Oklahoma north of the Panhandle. By the Compromise of 1850 all of this territory not included in Texas to-day was ceded to the United States for $10,000,000.
Texas was a slave State from the first. Its climate and soils, especially in the section first settled, made its industries similar to those of the older Southern States, while most of its settlers were natives of the slave States east of the Mississippi. A strong Unionist influence was exerted by the considerable German ele ment which had settled in the State from 1845-60, but neither this nor the influence of Sam Houston, then governor, could pre vent a convention which met at Austin, Jan. 28, 1861, from draw ing up and adopting articles of secession. Houston was deposed and the lieutenant-governor, a secessionist, held office in his place. The State, luckily, was not the scene of active military operations during the Civil War, although it is interesting to note that the last battle of the conflict was fought on its soil at Palmito, near Palo Alto, on May 13, 1865, more than a month after the sur render of Appomattox. In conformity with President Johnson's plan of reconstruction, a Constitution recognizing the abolition of slavery, renouncing the right of secession and repudiating the war debt was adopted in 1866 and a Unionist Democrat was elected governor. When in 1867, the congressional plan of reconstruction was substituted, Texas was joined to Louisiana to constitute the fifth military district, and Gen. P. H. Sheridan was placed in command. A new Constitution was adopted in 1869. In Feb. 1870, the legislature ratified the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Federal Constitution, and in March it was readmitted to the Union. But the State remained under the rule of negroes and
carpet-baggers, supported by U.S. troops, until the inauguration of Governor Coke in 1874. A legislature responsive to the people had also been elected, so that the people were again in control. The Constitution of 1869 containing many obnoxious provisions was replaced by the present Constitution adopted in 1876.
After 1876 there was rapid recovery from the effects of the war and reconstruction, and the history of the State becomes chiefly a record of agricultural and industrial expansion. Cotton production, which in 1859 amounted to 431,645 bales, slumped heavily during the Civil War and it was 1870 before production again reached the 400,00o mark. In 1878 it went above i,000,000 bales for the first time. In 1891 it first passed 2,000,00o bales and in 1894 it passed 3,000,000 bales. A further increase followed the settlement of the fertile lands of middle-west Texas which began in the early '9os. After the Indians were driven from southern and western Texas, the herds of wild cattle began to increase rapidly so that, after the Civil War, they crowded the ranges. A good market in the Middle West inaugurated the practice of rounding up these cattle and driving them north over cattle trails that soon became well-defined. The trail-driving era continued until the middle '8os when the extended railways began to inter cept the drive. During the years of reconstruction, much violence and disorder became prevalent, and on the frontier where there was almost no protection, this condition was not checked. Or ganized gangs of land and cattle thieves often controlled whole neighbourhoods and worked their will. Furthermore the Indians were restless and menacing. The situation was met by the or ganization, in 1874, of the famous Texas Rangers, a State con stabulary force, which succeeded soon in controlling the situation.
Another troublesome matter was the strife between ranchman and settler, or "nester," which found vent largely in the cutting of the barbed-wire fences which were beginning to spread over the plains. A special session of the legislature was called to deal with this problem in 1884 and drastic legislation to stop the practice was enacted. With the extension of the railways there developed also widespread abuses in their operation, especially various forms of discrimination. The demand for their control culminated in the hotly contested political battle of 1892 which the radicals won. The victory resulted in the establishment of a railway commis sion to fix the rates and investigate complaints. In 1899 and in 1902 there were destructive floods on the Brazos river, which led to the building of levees to protect the lands from overflows. In 1900 a great tropical hurricane swept the coast country of Texas, doing tremendous damage, especially at Galveston. The loss of life was estimated at 6,000. The result was the building of the Galveston sea wall. Out of the disaster, also, the commission form of city government was born at Galveston.