On the day he took office, Harrison gave a long speech in which he said it was wrong for anyone to try to make slavery illegal in states where it was legal. Harison said that if the people who opposed slavery continued to do that, the result would be "disunion, violence, and civil war, and the ultimate destruction our free institutions."
John Tyler (at left), Whig/Independent fom Virigina, became President in April after Harrison died of penumonia.
Invites Texas to Join the United States as a Slave State
Tyler, who held seventy African-Americans captive as salves on his Virginia farm, wanted to increase the number of states that allowed slavery, so he encouraged the Congress to invite Texas to join the United States. The Mexican Congress said the document that said Texas was an independent country was invalid because their President, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, was a prisoner of war when he signed it, and the Mexican Congress never approved it. In their eyes, Texas was still a part of Mexico. The leaders of Mexico said if the U.S. tried to take over Texas, they would consider it an act of war. In spite of this, in the spring of 1845, in one of his last acts as President, Tyler signed a document welcoming Texas to join the United States as a state where slavery was legal.
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