On this date in 1845 Texas was admitted to the Union. Sixteen years later on February 1, 1861, Texas seceded from that same Union. After the war was over, Texas was readmitted to the Union along with the other states that had been in rebellion. Amazingly enough there is a group of people in Texas who claim that Texas was never properly readmitted to the union or never properly annexed in the first place, and therefore the Texas Legislature is illegitimate and Texas itself is a free and independent nation. We actually know one guy who associated with this group and who refuses to pay taxes to the US government. He’s had a bit of trouble getting a job lately because he doesn’t want to pay Social Security taxes and doesn’t want his employer to withhold income taxes.

I am, however, proud to be a Texan and an American. And taxes are a necessary evil.

Texans voted on a revised state constitution in November 1869 and elected a state government. Once convened, the legislature voted to ratify the 14th and 15th amendments to the U.S. Constitution (the 13th amendment having already been fully ratified) and elected two U.S. Senators, thereby completing the requirements for reinstatement. President Grant signed the act to readmit Texas to Congressional representation on March 30, 1870, and this federal act was promulgated throughout Texas by a general order issued by General Reynolds on April 16, 1870.

No requirement exists — either in the Reconstruction Acts governing the rebel states or in the document readmitting Texas to full statehood — for the governor of Texas to sign a document reaffirming Texas’ position as a state within the United States republic. The only ongoing requirement of Texas government was that no constitutional revision should deny the vote or school rights to any citizen of the United States —Texas State Library