The Mexican-American War: The History of the Controversial War that Resulted in the Annexation of the Southwest and California by Charles River Editors

Author:Charles River Editors
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Charles River Editors
Published: 2016-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

A picture of Lincoln in the 1840s

To prevent Whig opposition from gaining steam or adopting any other such anti-war measures, Polk had the declaration of war added to an appropriations bill that dedicated much needed funds to Taylor’s army, now within the sights of the advancing Mexican forces, forcing the opposition to refuse funding for the troops if they wished to oppose the war. Only 14 congressmen and 2 senators did so.[86]

In Polk’s speech to the nation announcing the war, he asserted, “We have tried every effort at reconciliation...But now, after reiterated menaces, Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil. She has proclaimed that hostilities have commenced, and that the two nations are at war. As war exists, and, notwithstanding all our efforts to avoid it, exists by the act of Mexico herself, we are called upon by every consideration of duty and patriotism to vindicate with decision the honor, the rights, and the interests of our country.”[87]

The Polk administration intended to use the war to justify territorial gains. This, combined with the infighting and lack of stability in the Mexican government, meant that Polk would direct his officers, General Taylor and Colonel Kearney, with instructions to occupy as much territory as possible. If the Mexican government saw the impossibility of recovery of their territory, they might concede American victory faster and bring an end to the war more quickly.[88]

Throughout the conflict, the Whigs continued to question Polk’s motives in war, although they largely praised the commitment and the victories of the soldiers and their Whig commanders, Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. By the time Colonel Kearney had claimed California and New Mexico as territory of the United States, the Whigs had begun to accuse Polk of simply expanding territory for the sake of slavery. As several key Whig leaders wrote in 1847, “[I]t was, from its inception, a war of aggression and rapacity; a war of the strong, confident in their strength against the feeble, because they were feeble; a war prompted by the coveting of our neighbor’s possessions, and by the consciousness that his covetousness might be here indulged with greater impunity than would have followed the gratification of the same lawless cupidity in reference to ‘the whole of Oregon or none,’ or at an earlier day, in reference to the northeastern boundary. A very elaborate attempt indeed is made in the message, at the opening of the present session of congress , to prove that Mexico, and not the United States, commenced the War, that she was the bloodthirsty wolf that muddied the water upstream, for the innocent lamb of the United States, and then threw the blame upon the innocent; and that it was only with reluctance, and after much tribulation and patient suffering, that we, the people of this model republic, turned upon our nearest American neighbor with fire and sword —not to conquer her territories, nor extend our own; but, ‘to conquer peace!’ The common sense of mankind, however, revolts at the absurdity.

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