The Texas annexation had both its positive and negative impacts on the United States. First the negatives. Because Texas clearly favored slavery, it threatened the balance in congress between free and slave states, a very hot topic at the time. To throw congress out of balace would mean almost certainly slavery would forever be a part of the US. Not only that but Texas had recently beaten Mexico to declare its independence, and many were worried this would spark tensions between the US and Mexico. Not to mention the still disputed boundaries of the new border. In the end, James K. Polk annexed Texas, thinking the good outweighed the bad.8 Unfortunately, this did lead to a war with Mexico. The very heavily disputed border was the cause. A US military unit advanced to the mouth of the Rio Grande where Texas claimed its border was. Mexico, thinking it was further back, crossed the Rio Grande, and this was seen as an invasion. Congress declared war on Mexico. There were positives to come out of this war though. The US would win and acquire a huge plot of land through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, as well as the Gadsden purchase in 1854. This land would eventually become Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming from Guadalupe Hidalgo and extra parts of Arizona and New Mexico from the Gadsden Purchase.7 This would lead to the reduction of Mexico by over half its land. While the territories won provided more land for the US, it brought about very heated debates about who should be a slave state and who should be free, and eventually the Civil War broke out.
On June 23, 1845, a joint resolution of the Congress of Texas voted in favor of annexation by the United States. The leaders of the republic first voted for annexation in 1836, soon after gaining independence from Mexico, but the U.S. Congress was unwilling to admit another state that permitted slavery. Sam Houston, commander of the Texas army during the fight for independence from Mexico and the first president of the Republic of Texas, was a strong advocate of annexation. In 1845, the political climate proved more favorable to the request for statehood. On December 29, 1845, Texas officially became the twenty-eighth state in the Union although the formal transfer of government did not take place until February 19, 1846. A unique provision in its agreement with the United States permitted Texas to retain title to its public lands. Further, Texas was annexed as a slave state. Texas is divided into various regions characterized by distinct cultures and climates. East Texas includes the forested area known as the “Big Thicket” and some of the wet, coastal marsh area. The region produces cotton, rice, and sugar cane, and its economy is centered on the Gulf Coast’s petrochemical and shipping industries. The eastern part of Texas continues to be culturally tied to the Deep South. West Texas includes the Davis Mountains, the northern High Plains of the Panhandle, and some of the Hill Country. Cattle and sheep ranching continue to thrive in the legendary land of the cowboy. Near the national border, Mexican culture remains particularly influential.
One of the more than 400 Texans interviewed in American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936 to 1940, early settler Mrs. Emma Falconer, described the state’s natural beauty:
Robert Louis “Bob” Fosse was born in Chicago, Illinois, on June 23, 1927. Over the course of an almost fifty-year career as a performer, director, and writer, Fosse emerged as one of the finest choreographers to work in American musical film and theater. Fosse, whose father worked in vaudeville, was half of the Riff Brothers dance act by the age of thirteen. He enlisted in the Navy after high school and served two years. He then began his career as a dancer. By age twenty-one, Fosse was hoofing in road companies and, soon after that, on Broadway. After a brief stint in Hollywood, which included an appearance in Kiss Me Kate (1953), Fosse returned to Broadway where his choreography career accelerated. In 1955, he won his first Tony Award—for choreography of The Pajama Game. Fosse won eight Tonys—for The Pajama Game (1954), Damn Yankees (1956), Redhead (1959), Little Me (1963), Sweet Charity (1966), Pippin (1973), Dancin’ (1978), and Big Deal (1986). He also won Drama Desk Awards as choreographer and director for some of the same productions. Fosse returned to Hollywood as a choreographer and director. His films included Cabaret (1972), Lenny (1974), and All That Jazz (1979). Fosse was the first director in history to win Oscar (Cabaret), Tony (Pippin), and Emmy (Liza with a Z) awards in the same year (1973). Fosse’s frequent collaborator and leading lady was the dancer, actress, and singer, Gwen Verdon. In 1956 Miss Verdon won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Lola in Damn Yankees; Fosse received a Tony for Best Choreography. Fosse and Verdon also worked together in New Girl in Town (1957), Redhead (1959), Sweet Charity (1966), and Chicago (1977). They married in 1960 and while they were separated when he died on September 23, 1987, they remained friends. Verdon was the artistic advisor to the Tony Award-winning musical Fosse (1999), a musical and dance revue. The Library of Congress is the repository of the Bob Fosse/Gwen Verdon Collection, a comprehensive assemblage documenting the achievements of both Fosse and Verdon. This collection provides a rich portal into the lives of these two extraordinarily talented individuals through which scholars, artists, and students of dance can construct a rich picture of the dancer’s world on Broadway and on film. The paper, manuscript, and photographic components of these collections, which are not online, are available in the Library’s Performing Arts Reading Room; the video and film materials are available in the Moving Image Research Center; and the audio materials are available at the Recorded Sound Research Center.
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