From the Annals of the Senate – In 1850,  five years after Texas was admitted to statehood, Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri introduced a bill that would have divided Texas into two states and ceded additional land to the U.S. for $15 million.  The measure failed to gain any traction.  This was but one of several efforts to divide Texas into multiple states.  Later proposals included dividing the state into East and West Texas along either the Brazos or the Colorado, or selling off the land west of the Pecos to the federal government.  Various proposals to divvy up the state have continued to erupt.  The latest came in 1991, when Rep. David Swinford submitted a House bill to make the Panhandle into the state of “Old Texas.”  The bill was not considered. Texas remains intact today.