Annextion of Texas
For Better or For Worse
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny was the belief that it was a God-given right of the United States to expand all of the way across North America. Annexing Texas brought the Americans one step closer to California and that dream, but many Midwesterners and Northerners also considered Manifest Destiny to be a convenient excuse for spreading slavery and opposed it.
Slavery
A major issue with annexing Texas was slavery. Those in the north were worried that Texas would be a slave state and throw the states out of balance, giving the slave states an upper hand. Also, free black Texans felt threatened by the idea of them possibly losing their freedom. If not their freedom, at least their rights as business owners.
War with Mexico
The vast majority of annexation-opposing Americans did just that because they knew that Texas was having border disputes with Mexico and didn't want to have a war with them. While they were Mexican by blood, the Tejanos had no lingering loyalties with them. The Mexicans refused to recognize the Treaties of Velasco and that cut any Tejano ties that still remained.