Sold – Future President Zachary Taylor Pledges That the U.S. Will Pay the Republic of Texas

Texans voted in favor of annexation to the United States in the first election following independence in 1836. However, throughout the Republic period (1836-1845), no treaty of annexation was ratified by both nations. The first concrete step towards that goal was the Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas to the United States, which was approved by Congress on March 1, 1845.

In July a popularly-elected Constitutional Convention met in Austin to consider this annexation proposal and voted to accept. At that point Pres. Polk sent Gen. Zachary Taylor and his army to occupy the Republic of Texas and defend it against a threatened Mexican invasion (as the Mexicans were by no means reconciled to losing Texas). Taylor sailed from Louisiana to Corpus Christi on July 23, establishing a camp on the south bank of the Nueces River.

The Annexation Ordinance and State Constitution were submitted to a popular vote of Texans in October 1845 and approved. These documents were then submitted to the U.S. Congress, which accepted the Texas State Constitution in a resolution to admit Texas as a state. This was signed by Pres. Polk on December 29, 1845. Two weeks later, Polk directed Taylor’s army to advance to the Rio Grande, a movement the Mexican government viewed as an act of war.

On April 25, 1846, Mexican troops at Matamoros crossed the river and ambushed an American patrol. Polk seized upon the incident to secure a declaration of war on May 13 on the basis of the shedding of “American blood upon American soil.”

Document Signed by Taylor as commander of the Army of Occupation in Texas, circa November 14, 1845, 2 pages large 4to. The document is a bond in the amount of $957.87, representing import duties due to the Republic of Texas for goods landed at the port of Corpus Christi by Lloyd Tilghman, sutler of the U.S. Army, “said merchandise being intended for sale to the Officers, Soldiers and Attachees of the Army aforesaid.” The monies were payable within four months of November 14, 1845, “unto the President of the Republic of Texas and to his successors in office.”

The bond is signed by Tilghman, who may be the man of the same name who later served as a Confederate general in the Civil War and was killed in action. Beneath the bond is a statement that “So far as the emoluments of the sutler who is bounden in the foregoing bond come within the control of the paymaster of the army under my command, I will see that the said bond be fulfilled.” It is signed “Z. Taylor, Bt. Br. Genl., U.S.A. Comdg.”

This is the first document we can recall seeing where the U.S. pledges to pay the Republic of Texas, and that obligation is confirmed by a future president. This bond was created after Texans had voted to join the U.S., but before Congress approved Texas statehood, and was set to mature on March 14, 1846. By that time the transfer of government had taken place, Texas was a state, and the bond was void. It is interesting and somewhat ironic that the obligation to pay Texas arose because the U.S. was supplying an army sent to defend Texas.