<P> When President Polk took office on March 4, he was in a position to recall Tyler's dispatch to Texas and reverse his decision . On March 10, after conferring with his cabinet, Polk upheld Tyler's action and allowed the courier to proceed with the offer of immediate annexation to Texas . The only modification was to exhort Texans to accept the annexation terms unconditionally . Polk's decision was based on his concern that a protracted negotiation by US commissioners would expose annexation efforts to foreign intrigue and interference . While Polk kept his annexation endeavors confidential, Senators passed a resolution requesting formal disclosure of the administration's Texas policy . Polk stalled, and when the Senate special session had adjourned on March 20, 1845, no names for US commissioners to Texas had been submitted by him . Polk denied charges from Senator Benton that he had misled Benton on his intention to support the new negotiations option, declaring "if any such pledges were made, it was in a total misconception of what I said or meant ." </P> <P> On May 5, 1845, Texas President Jones called for a convention on July 4, 1845, to consider the annexation and a constitution . On June 23, the Texan Congress accepted the US Congress's joint resolution of March 1, 1845, annexing Texas to the United States, and consented to the convention . On July 4, the Texas convention debated the annexation offer and almost unanimously passed an ordinance assenting to it . The convention remained in session through August 28, and adopted the Constitution of Texas on August 27, 1845 . The citizens of Texas approved the annexation ordinance and new constitution on October 13, 1845 . </P> <P> President Polk signed the legislation making the former Lone Star Republic a state of the Union on December 29, 1845 (Joint Resolution for the admission of the state of Texas into the Union, J. Res. 1, enacted December 29, 1845, 9 Stat. 108). Texas formally relinquished its sovereignty to the United States on February 14, 1846 . </P> <P> The joint resolution and ordinance of annexation have no language specifying the boundaries of Texas, but only refer in general terms to "the territory properly included within, and rightfully belonging to the Republic of Texas", and state that the new State of Texas is to be formed "subject to the adjustment by this (U.S.) government of all questions of boundary that may arise with other governments ." According to George Lockhart Rives, "That treaty had been expressly so framed as to leave the boundaries of Texas undefined, and the joint resolution of the following winter was drawn in the same manner . It was hoped that this might open the way to a negotiation, in the course of which the whole subject of the boundaries of Mexico, from the Gulf to the Pacific, might be reconsidered, but these hopes came to nothing ." </P>

Who gained the most from the entry of texas into the us