The legal authority to annex Texas cities, the reasons why Texas has been a liberal annexor, and why the pace of annexation has slowed since 1970 are numerous. In retrospect, this paper will discuss and bring to the table some of the finer points of these claims. Annexation was, for a long time, a typical procedure in Texas. Everything from anthropomorphic ideologies to governmental needs are typically discussed among the municipalities and councils that govern and manage Texas cities as to why a specific place should be annexed. In the early days, this country was founded by Masonic people who firmly believed in a tenant called E pluribus Unum, meaning out of many one. As this statement suggests, we were the creation of many states in a coherent union. Annexation works in much the same way, in that a larger body envelops and consumes the smaller one, so that the larger one can thrive. As you might say of residents in our city of Houston, Bellaire was only recently annexed, to the dismay and objection of its citizens. This would preclude the ideology of Thomas Aquinas, as he discussed Veritatis Splendor Aterna Infernum, meaning that the splendor of truth is an eternal hell. The truth is that the residents of Bellaire had no coincidental choice in the matter, and so they had to live through the hell of Houston politics as an example of Texas annexation. The end result of this meant for them that their police department, waste disposal and fire departments would now be governed by Houston as a whole. In the 1970s, Texas laws changed once again, not allowing anyone to annex larger amounts of land and thus resulting in a significant setback in governing bodies. During the 1970s, Texas cities maintained their tax base through land annexation, and later, as the free flow of taxes began to stop, the cities began to decay, much like the decay of the North. Furthermore, a primary consequence for government here in Texas (at both the state and local levels, respectively), has been to preserve the health of the state's major cities in the face of economic and demographic change. With this in mind, during that time our views were redirected toward the completion of our cities and, in turn, allowed Texas cities to grow and be reborn..