<P> The same Senate that had rejected the Tyler--Calhoun treaty by a margin of 2: 1 in June 1844 reassembled in December 1844 in a short lame - duck session . (Though pro-annexation Democrats had made gains in the fall elections, those legislators--the 29th Congress--would not assume office until March 1845 .) Lame - duck President Tyler, still trying to annex Texas in the final months of his administration, wished to avoid another overwhelming Senate rejection of his treaty . In his annual address to Congress on December 4, he declared the Polk victory a mandate for Texas annexation and proposed that Congress adopt a joint resolution procedure by which simple majorities in each house could secure ratification for the Tyler treaty . This method would avoid the constitutional requirement of a two - thirds majority in the Senate . Bringing the House of Representatives into the equation boded well for Texas annexation, as the pro-annexation Democratic Party possessed nearly a 2: 1 majority in that chamber . </P> <P> By resubmitting the discredited treaty through a House - sponsored bill, the Tyler administration reignited sectional hostilities over Texas admission . Both northern Democratic and southern Whig Congressmen had been bewildered by local political agitation in their home states during the 1844 presidential campaigns . Now, northern Democrats found themselves vulnerable to charges of appeasement of their southern wing if they capitulated to Tyler's slavery expansion provisions . On the other hand, Manifest Destiny enthusiasm in the north placed politicians under pressure to admit Texas immediately to the Union . </P> <P> Constitutional objections were raised in House debates as to whether both houses of Congress could constitutionally authorize admission of territories, rather than states . Moreover, if the Republic of Texas, a nation in its own right, were admitted as a state, its territorial boundaries, property relations (including slave property), debts and public lands would require a Senate - ratified treaty . Democrats were particularly uneasy about burdening the United States with $10 million in Texas debt, resenting the deluge of speculators, who had bought Texas bonds cheap and now lobbied Congress for the Texas House bill . House Democrats, at an impasse, relinquished the legislative initiative to the southern Whigs . </P> <P> Anti-Texas Whig legislators had lost more than the White House in the general election of 1844 . In the southern states of Tennessee and Georgia, Whig strongholds in the 1840 general election, voter support dropped precipitously due to the pro-annexation excitement in the Deep South--and Clay lost every Deep South state to Polk . Northern Whigs' uncompromising hostility to slavery expansion increasingly characterized the party, and southern members, by association, had suffered from charges of being "soft on Texas, therefore soft on slavery" by Southern Democrats . Facing congressional and gubernatorial races in 1845 in their home states, a number of Southern Whigs sought to erase that impression with respect to the Tyler - Texas bill . </P>

What was the impact of the annexation of texas