Sam Houston to Andrew Jackson Donelson, April 9, 1845

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Sam Houston to AJ Donelson, April 1845

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the [sic] event of their purchasing our lands that they should not

(without the consent of the State of Texas) sell to, or permit to

settle within the present limits of Texas, any nation, people or

tribe of Indians.

That Texas should pay her national debt.

That the United States should remunerate the citizens

of Texas whose lands fell within the United States boundary

in running the line, in the same manner and with same

liberality that Texas did those of the United States—or that

they (the United States) pay them for their lands which had

been located on valid titles issued by the Government of

Mexico, and at a time when it was believed the limits of

Texas would embrace the locations previous to running the

line.

And I would recommend that an article be inserted in

the agreement, stipulating expressly, that Texas should not

form a part of the Union, until her constitution is accepted

by the Congress of the United States.

I candidly conceive that these stipulations are ne-

cessary and proper to secure Texas and her citizens, as

well as to enable the United States to maintain peace

with all the Indians on our borders.

I have thus hastily written you a long letter, sub-

ject to frequent interruptions. You may therefore find my

meaning in some things obscure. I have not even

glanced at the general policy of the measure of annex-

ation; but have given my views as to the mode of its

execution, and what appears to me necessary to be done

by the parties. I must confess, that I have not been free

from embarrassment on the subject. I have felt so deeply

for my venerated and highly valued friend, the sage of

the Hermitage, that nothing but a most sacred regard for

my adopted country could have induced me again to thus

express my opinions upon this subject. The feelings of Gen.

Jackson are so much absorbed in the subject of annex-

ation, arising from his views of the importance of the

measure to the United States, that he has, very naturally,

not been fully able to regard Texas as forming a separate

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Sam Houston to Andrew Jackson Donelson, April 9, 1845. Andrew Jackson Houston Papers #3627, Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

Page last modified: April 5, 2011