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of the United States. He informed Pakenham that Texas and the United States had completed an annexation treaty, which was "the most effectual, if not the only, means of guarding against the threatened danger, and securing their permanent peace and welfare." 24 Calhoun might have stopped there, but he did not. He continued, arguing that evidence showed that in states that had ended slavery, the condition of African Ameri- cans "had invariably sunk into vice and pauperism, accompanied by the bodily and mental inflictions inci- dent thereto—deafness, blindness, insanity, and idiocy, to a degree without example; while, in all other States which have retained the ancient relation between the races they have improved greatly in every respect—in number, comfort, intelligence, and morals…." In Mas- sachusetts, the state where the "greatest zeal" for aboli- tion existed, their condition was "the most wretched," while in the Southern states slaves enjoyed "of a degree health and comfort" that compared favorably with the "laboring population of any country in Christendom." 25 These astounding assertions were based on faulty data compiled in the 1840 United States census report. Critics pointed out flaws in the methodology of the census that skewed the findings—John Quincy Adams repeatedly called for a House investigation of the census methods— but the administration defended the results. 26 Tyler submitted the treaty to the Senate on 22 April 1844. Tyler expected that the treaty would be debated by the Senate in executive session, but instead, anti- slavery Senator Benjamin Tappan, an Ohio Democrat, leaked the document to the press. The papers included Calhoun's incendiary letter to Pakenham. The injunc- tion of secrecy was formally removed and the resulting publicity led to a heated national discussion over adding more slave territory to the nation. The disclosures were a death blow to the treaty, which went down to defeat in the Senate by a vote of 35 to 16 on 8 June 1844. 27 That fall Democrat James K. Polk, of Tennessee, who had supported Texas annexation, was elected president. During the lame-duck period between the election and the inauguration, Tyler used Polk's victory as justifica- tion to proceed with annexation by another means. In his last annual message of 4 December 1844, Tyler announced that Polk's victory showed that it was the will of the people that Texas should be "annexed to the Union promptly and immediately." He recommended Texas annexation by act of Congress, which required a simple majority rather than a two-thirds vote. Though critics attacked the measure as unconstitu- tional, the House and the Senate approved annexation on 26 February 1845, and Tyler signed the measure three days later. 28 On 3 March 1845, only a few hours before the moment Tyler would turn over official duties to James K. Polk, the outgoing president dispatched Andrew Jackson Donelson, the nephew of Old Hickory, to Texas with the offer of annexation. Within a week of Donel- son's arrival in Texas, popular demonstrations sup- ported annexation. At the last moment, Mexico, with British encouragement, proposed a permanent peace treaty with Texas on the condition that the Republic would remain independent of the United States. But it was too late for such measures. 29 Thereafter, events moved quickly. A convention met at Austin on 4 July 1845 and approved the offer of annexa- tion to the United States. In October the annexation offer and the new state constitution were formally submitted to the people of Texas; approval was unanimous. On 29 December 1845, President James K. Polk signed a bill admitting Texas as a state in the United States. On 19 February 1846 in Austin, Anson Jones, the last presi- dent of Texas, lowered the flag of Texas at a ceremony at the capitol. On that notable occasion he said: "The lone star of Texas, which ten years since arose amid clouds over fields of carnage, and obscurely shone for a while, has culminated, and following an inscrutable destiny, has passed on and become fixed forever in that constellation which all freemen and lovers of freedom in the world must reverence and adore—the American union…. The final act in this great drama is now per- formed. The Republic of Texas is no more." 30 KENNETH STEVENS is professor of history at Texas Christian University. He is currently writing a diplo- matic history of the Republic of Texas, 1836-1845. 46 THE CAPITOL DOME