Excerpt from The Republic of Texas: A Brief History of Texas From the First American Colonies in 1821 to Annexation in 1846When the Austins came in 1821 and opened the way for people from the States, Texas history had its real beginning. Fifteen years later San Jacinto was fought and won and for ten years more Texas was a Republic. Then after one of the greatest political battles in American history, it became a State. This twenty-five years is the heroic period of Texas history.When the Democrats met in convention in Baltimore in 1844, the Whigs had nominated Henry Clay and declared against the annexation of Texas and ignored the acquisition of Oregon. Powerful forces among the Democrats, led by Van Buren and aided by Benton, worked to commit the party to the same course. But the Southern leaders seized the machinery of the convention, overthrew Van Buren, and named James K. Polk, of Tennessee, and boldly declared for the annexation of Texas and the acquisition of Oregon. The election of Polk committed the American people to both propositions. The advent of Texas into the Union was followed not only by all the country west to the Pacific, but North to the present Canadian border. San Jacinto set the tide of Saxon supremacy toward the Pacific and was indeed one of the decisive battles of the world.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.