[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 67 (Wednesday, April 25, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H3563]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS--THE REPUBLIC OF FRANCE

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, just a stone's throw away from the 
Champs-Elysees and the Louvre in Paris stands the Hotel de Vendome, the 
former home of the official embassy of the Republic of Texas.
  In fact, France was the first nation to recognize Texas as an 
independent nation in 1836, when a treaty was signed between the two 
countries. Today, a marker denotes the building where the Texas embassy 
was in France.
  In turn, France had an embassy in Austin, Texas, not far from our 
current Texas Capitol Building.
  Notably, Texas also once belonged to France before Spain reclaimed 
Texas.
  Explorer La Salle planted the French flag in Texas in 1685 and 
established a settlement in Matagorda.
  Texas later became a sovereign republic and 9 years later joined the 
United States.
  So on this day when French President Macron addressed Congress, Texas 
remembers and appreciates that Texas was not only an independent 
country France first recognized, but was once a part of France.
  And that is just the way it is.

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