Colonel William Preston Johnston, The Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston : His Service in the Armies of the United States, the Republic of Texas, and the Confederate States.

[128] presidency, Rusk, Burleson, and Lipscomb, then the three most prominent candidates, would unite their influence for him. Dr. Starr, in 1844, spoke of him “as the only man suited for the presidency.” Clay Davis wrote that nine-tenths of the voters of the west wanted him for President. The narrowness of his private fortune forced him to refuse to enter the lists. Love, urging him strongly to return to Texas, in 1844, he replied: “My fortunes are such that I am determined to remain in Kentucky for the present, or until my affairs wear a brighter complexion, unless the men of Texas are needed for her defense. In that event I will not, if alive, fail to be with you.” Seventeen years later he crossed the continent to keep this promise, and sealed it with his blood.

Although General Johnston took no further part in the public affairs of Texas, yet the annexation of that country to the United States was so important an event to all its citizens that a recapitulation of the chief facts that led to it seems necessary and proper. Though not politically connected with these events, General Johnston was a deeply-interested spectator, and rendered all the aid he could in producing the result. The liberties which Texas had achieved by the sword had received the sanction of time, and were now rendered secure by the large immigration of a warlike and wealthy population. Her increased power and productive capacity gave her importance in the eyes of the great powers which, having at first stood selfishly aloof, now jealously contended for the control of the councils of the rising republic. Finally, the United States, actuated less by sympathy with Texas than by jealousy of Great Britain, offered such terms as Texas could accept; and the free republic exchanged her independence for sisterhood in the family of States from which her people had sprung.

In the United States, annexation, which seemed impending in 1836, was not accomplished until after a series of severe political struggles. The President, Mr. Tyler, and the people of the South and West, favored it strongly; but Mr. Clay, Mr. Van Buren, and the more prominent leaders of both parties, were anxious to ignore it, as a question fraught with peril to its advocates and opponents alike. Under some sort of understanding, they all declared against it. In 1844 President Tyler forwarded the plan of annexation by treaty; but the Whigs, under the discipline of Mr. Clay, voting against it, it was defeated. “The question,” however, was stronger than the politicians, and at the Democratic Convention in 1844 a new man, Mr. Polk, was nominated for President, and annexation made the main issue in the canvass. His election practically settled the question, and Congress passed a joint resolution March 1, 1845, admitting Texas into the Union. Whether justly or unjustly, it was feared in Texas that the Texan Administration was averse to annexation, and would throw obstacles in its way. The popular enthusiasm,