Documents for the Debate on going to war with Mexico

 

Concerning the Annexation of Texas

 

Document 1

 

Henry Clay, Raleigh Letter to editors of the National Intelligencer

April 17, 1844

 

               Annexation and war with Mexico are identical.  Now, for one, I certainly am not willing to involve this country in a foreign war for the object of acquiring Texas. I know there are those who regard such a war with indifference and as a trifling affair, on account of the weakness of Mexico, and her inability in inflict serious injury upon this country.  But I do not look upon it thus lightly.  I regard all wars as great calamities, to be avoided, if possible, and honorable peace as the wisest and truest policy of this country.

 

               …I do not think that Texas ought to be received into the Union, as an integral part of it, in decided opposition to the wishes of a considerable and respectable portion of the confederacy.  I think it far more wise and important to compose and harmonize the present union, as it now exists, than to introduce a new element of discord and distraction into it…

 

               It is useless to disguise that there are those who espouse and those who oppose the annexation of Texas upon the ground of the influence which it would exert, in the balance of political power, between two great sections of the Union.  I conceive that no motive for the acquisition of foreign territory would be more unfortunate than that of obtaining it for the purpose of strengthening one part against another part of the common confederacy.  Such a principle, put into practical operation, would menace the existence, if it did not certainly sow the seeds of a dissolution of the Union.

 

               Annexation would be to proclaim to the world an insatiable and unquenchable thirst for foreign conquest or acquisition of territory.  For if today Texas be acquired to strengthen one part of the confederacy, tomorrow Canada may be required to add strength to another.  Finally, the part of the confederacy which is now weakest, would find itself still weaker from the impossibility of securing new territory for those peculiar institutions (slavery) which it is charged with being desirous to extend…

              

               I consider the annexation of Texas, at this time, without the assent of Mexico, as a measure compromising the national character, involving us certainly in war with Mexico, probably with other foreign powers, dangerous to the integrity of the Union, inexpedient in the present financial condition of the country, and called for by any general expression of public opinion.

 

 

Document 2

 

John L. O'Sullivan on Manifest Destiny, 1839 in the Democratic Review

America is destined for better deeds.... We have no interest in the scenes of antiquity, only as lessons of avoidance of nearly all their examples.  The expansive future is our arena, and for our history.  We are entering on its untrodden space, with the truths of God in our minds, beneficent objects in our hearts and with a clear conscience unsullied by the past.  We are the nation of human progress, and who will... set limits on our onward march.  Providence is with us....

The far-reaching, the boundless future will be the era of American greatness.  In its magnificent domain of space and time, the nation... is destined to manifest to mankind the excellence of divine principles; to establish on earth the noblest temple ever dedicated to the worship of the Most High ­ the Sacred and the True.  Its floor shall be a hemisphere ­ its roof the firmament of the star-studded heavens, and its congregation and Union... comprising hundreds of happy millions... governed by God ís natural law of equality, the law of brotherhood....

Yes, we are the nation of progress, of individual freedom, of universal enfranchisement.... [All of] this is our high destiny... we must accomplish it. All this will be our future history, to establish on earth the moral dignity and salvation of man....For this blessed mission... has America been chosen.
 

John L. O’Sullivan an the Annexation of Texas in the Democratic Review (1845)

 [I am ] in favor of now elevating this question of the reception of Texas into the Union... up to its proper level of a high and broad nationality, it surely is to be found, found abundantly, in the manner in which other nations have undertaken to intrude themselves into it... in a spirit of hostile interference against us, for the avowed object of thwarting our policy and hampering our power, limiting our greatness and checking the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions....

It is wholly untrue, and unjust to ourselves, the pretense that the Annexation [of Texas] has been a measure of spoliation, unrightful and unrighteous ­ of military conquest... ­ of aggrandizement at the expense of justice.... This view of the question is wholly unfounded....

California will, probably, next fall away from [the Federation of Mexico].... Imbecile and distracted, Mexico never can exert any real governmental authority over such a country.... The Anglo-Saxon foot is already on [Californiaís] borders.  Already the advance guard of the irresistible army of Anglo-Saxon emigration has begun to pour down upon it, armed with the plow and the rifle, and marking its trail with schools and colleges, courts and representative halls, mills and meetinghouses.... [All this will happen] in the natural flow of events, the spontaneous workings of principles.... And [the Californians] will have a right to independence ­ to self-government ­ to the possession of the homes conquered from the wilderness by their own labors and dangers, sufferings and sacrifices ­ a better and a truer right than the artificial title of sovereignty in Mexico a thousand miles away....The day is not distant when the Empires of the Atlantic and the Pacific would again flow together into one....

 

Document 3

 

TO:  United States Congress                                                      July 1, 1845

 

FROM:  Abel Upshur

              Secretary of State

             Republic of Texas

 

Honorable Congressman:

 

               In answer to your questions about our boundaries and our status as an independent nation, let me respectfully submit the following information:

 

               We are an independent nation and have been so since the defeat of General Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836.  At that time the Mexican president signed the Treaty of Velasco with General Houston recognizing the Republic of Texas.  He also agreed to stop all hostility against Texas and to remove his remaining troops south of the Rio Grande.  Presidente Santa Anna after his return to Mexico City disavowed this agreement, but we view it as binding on Mexico.

 

               Several months after the battle, a delegation was sent to Washington, D.C. to negotiate with President Jackson's Administration and bring about annexation or at least American recognition of Texas.  Your Congress refused to consider our annexation; but in March, 1837 the United States recognized the Republic of Texas as an independent country.  Since that time, Great Britain, France, and most of the sovereign nations of Europe have recognized our independence.

 

               Your concern over the Transcontinental Treaty of 1819 with Spain is unfounded.  The Treaty does not relinquish the United States' claim to Texas.  Spain's hold on this territory had always been limited to a few hundred settlers and a dozen Indian missions.  Moreover, Mexico inherited Texas from Spain in 1821 making the treaty void.  For the past nine years we have been self-governing.  Our present population consists of more than 135,000 people of which 93% are Anglo-American.  The remainder is of Latin American or Indian descent.

 

               News of the Joint Resolution of March 1st, proposing annexation of Texas to the Union, was received with widespread celebration.  The Congress of the Republic of Texas approved the annexation on June 23rd by a wide majority with almost no opposition.  We are presently framing a state constitution and a special election has been set for October before the end of this year.

 

               Our relations with Mexico have been very stormy in the past two months.  Their government is very agitated over the possibility of our joining the Union.  President Herrera and a large majority of the people of Mexico City view the annexation as a declaration of war.  It appears Mexico may take military action to prevent our joining the Union.

 

(Text adapted in Involvement 2, by David Sischo, 1994)

 

Document 4

 

TO:  Vice President Alexander J. Dallas

        President of the United States Senate

 

FROM:  Private Secretary of Andrew Jackson

              Hermitage, Tennessee

 

Honorable Sir:

 

               As you know, General Jackson died in June of last year.  Death came to him slowly and with dignity. During his last days he had time to set his house in order and bid us all farewell.  He was very concerned with our relations with Mexico and he directed me to inform you of certain secret negotiations which had been carried on in the last few years.

 

               You are probably aware that during his presidency,  General Jackson met with the President of Mexico, shortly after Santa Anna had been captured by the Texans at the Battle of San Jacinto, in 1836.  At that time President Santa Anna agreed to withdraw the Mexican army south of the Rio Grande and to stop all hostilities with Texas.  General Jackson had always contended that the Rio Grande was the southern border of Texas.  After Santa Anna returned to Mexico secret negotiations were carried on for the purchase of all Mexican lands north of the Rio Grande.  Regretfully, the President's representative blundered badly and all negotiations ceased.

 

               Four years ago, friends of General Jackson uncovered a British plot to seize San Francisco Bay and occupy Spanish California.  Dispatches from Sir George Simpson of the Hudson's Bay Company were intercepted.  In one dispatch he said, "California would require very little encouragement to declare their independence of Mexico and place themselves under the protection of Great Britain."  Since that time the British Pacific fleet has been sighted numerous times off the coast of California.

 

               Shortly before General Jackson died, he received a letter from a friend in Mexico City.  He was very agitated when he learned that the British were negotiating with the Mexican government for California.  The British have proposed to cancel Mexican debts for the transfer of that territory to them.  Mexican newspapers are speculating that the transfer will take place early this summer.

 

               The day General Jackson received this information we talked for over an hour.  I can remember him sitting up in bed, shaking his head, and saying, "By God, James Polk had better act now!  The mortgage on California is about to be foreclosed."  General Jackson was sure that the moment hostilities are threatened with Mexico, the British will move to annex California.  British control of the Pacific and our western border will stifle our growth as a nation.  General Jackson felt, that if war comes, California must be occupied by American forces within the month.  In fact he recommended that troops be sent now.

 

               I hope this information is valuable to you in your efforts to persuade the Senate to take immediate action.

 

(Text adapted in Involvement 2, by David Sischo, 1994)

 

Document 5

 

José Joaquin de Herrera, acting President of the Republic of Mexico. A proclamation denouncing the United States' intention to annex Texas.

 

PROCLAMATION

 

The minister of foreign affairs has communicated to me the following decree: José Joaquin de Herrera, general of division and president ad interim of the Mexican Republic, to the citizens thereof.

 

Be it known: That the general congress has decreed, and the executive sanctioned, the following:

 

The national congress of the Mexican Republic, considering:

 

That the congress of the United States of the North has, by a decree, which its executive sanctioned, resolved to incorporate the territory of Texas with the American union;

 

That this manner of appropriating to itself territories upon which other nations have rights, introduces a monstrous novelty, endangering the peace of the world, and violating the sovereignty of nations;

 

That this usurpation, now consummated to the prejudice of Mexico, has been in insidious preparation for a long time; at the same time that the most cordial friendship was proclaimed, and that on the part of this republic, the existing treaties between it and those states were respected scrupulously and legally;

 

That the said annexation of Texas to the U. States tramples on the conservative principles of society, attacks all the rights that Mexico has to that territory, is an insult to her dignity as a sovereign nation, and threatens her independence and political existence;

 

That the law of the United States, in reference to the annexation of Texas to the United States, does in nowise destroy the rights that Mexico has, and will enforce, upon that department;

 

That the United States, having trampled on the principles which served as a basis to the treaties of friendship, commerce and navigation, and more especially to those of boundaries fixed with precision, even previous to 1832, they are considered as inviolate by that nation.

 

And, finally, that the unjust spoliation of which they wish to make the Mexican nation the victim, gives her the clear right to use all her resources and power to resist, to the last moment, said annexation;

 

IT IS DECREED

 

1st. The Mexican nation calls upon all her children to the defense of her national independence, threatened by the usurpation of Texas, which is intended to be realized by the decree of annexation passed by the congress, and sanctioned by the president, of the United States of the north.

 

2d. In consequence, the government will call to arms all the forces of the army, according to the authority granted it by the existing laws; and for the preservation of public order, for the support of her institutions, and in case of necessity, to serve as the reserve to the army, the government, according to the powers given to it on the 9th December 1844, will raise the corps specified by said decree, under the name of "Defenders of the Independence and of the Laws."

 

JOSÉ JOAQUIN DE HERRERA.

 

Palace of the National Government,

City of Mexico, June 4, 1845.

 

On hostilities with Mexico

 

Document 6

March 23, 1846

 

TO:  General Zachary Taylor

        United States Army

 

FROM: Office of the Governor of the Northern District of Mexico

             State of Tamaulipas

 

Sir,

 

Although the pending question respecting the annexation of the department of Texas to the United States is subject to the decision of the supreme government of Mexico, the fact of the advance of the army, under your excellency's orders, over the line occupied by you north of the Nueces River at Corpus Christi, places me under the necessity, as the chief political authority of the State of Tamaulipas, being justly alarmed at the invasion of an army, which without any previous declaration of war, and without announcing explicitly the object proposed by it, comes to occupy a territory which never belonged to the insurgent province Texas, they (the citizens of this state) protest, in the most solemn manner, that neither now nor at any time do they, or will they consent to separate themselves from the Mexican republic, and to unite themselves with the United States, and that they are resolved to carry this firm determination into effect, resisting, so far as their strength will enable them, at all time and places, until the army under your excellency's orders shall recede from the Rio Grande and occupy its former position (north of the Nueces River); because so long as it remains within the territory of Tamaulipas, the inhabitants must consider that hostilities have been openly commenced by your excellency, the lamentable consequences of which will rest before the world exclusively on the heads of the invaders.

 

                                                                                                         Jenes Cardenas

                                                                                                    Governor of Tamaulipas

 

Document 7

 

TO:  Senor General Don Pedro De Ampudia                                     April 12, 1846

 

FROM:  General Zachary Taylor

               Commander of the United States Army in Texas

              Matamoroa, Texas

 

Senor:

               I have had the honor to receive your note of this date, in which you summon me to withdraw the forces under my command from their present position on the Rio Grande, and beyond the river Nueces, until the pending question between our governments, relative to the limits of Texas, shall be settled.

 

               I need hardly advise you that, charged as I am, in only a military capacity, with the performance of specific duties, I cannot enter into a discussion of the international question involved in the advance of the American army.  You will, however, permit me to say, that the government of the United States has constantly sought a settlement, by negotiation, of the question of boundary; that an envoy was dispatched to Mexico for that purpose, and that up to the most recent dates said envoy had not been received by the actual Mexican government, if indeed he has not received his passports and left the republic. In the meantime, I have been ordered to occupy the country up to the left bank of the Rio Grande, until the boundary shall be definitely settled.  In carrying out these instructions I have carefully abstained from all acts of hostility, obeying, in this regard, not only the letter of my instructions, but the plain dictates of justice and humanity.

 

               I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

 

                                                                                          Zachary Taylor

 

Document 8

 

April 12, 1846

TO: Speaker of the House of Representatives

 

FROM: James Buchanan

              Secretary of State

 

CONCERNING THE MISSION OF JOHN SLIDELL TO MEXICO AS A SPECIAL ENVOY OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

 

               On November 10, 1845, John Slidell was appointed envoy extraordinary to the Republic of Mexico.  His instructions from President Polk were to discuss with the Mexican government the adjustment of a permanent boundary between Mexico and the United States.  Mr. Slidell was authorized to offer $20,000,000 for the disputed territory in Texas, if the Rio Grande Del Norte were the boundary from its mouth to El Paso.  For the territory north of a line from El Paso west to the Pacific Ocean the United States was also prepared to pay $20,000,000; this territory would include Upper California and New Mexico.

 

               On December 6, 1845, Mr. Slidell reached Mexico City.  Upon his arrival the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Manuel de la Pena, informed our envoy that the government itself was well disposed, and ready to proceed with negotiations, but that if the affair were commenced now, it would endanger the existence of the government of Mexico.  He informed us that a rumor had spread through the city that the United States planned to bribe certain officials in the Mexican government.  Secretary Pena feared that the appearance of our envoy at this time would produce a revolution.  As a result any negotiations were postponed.

 

The expected revolution against President Herrera's government came on December 29, the day on which Texas entered the Union.  General Paredes took control of the government without firing a shot.  President Herrera offered no resistance.  He simply resigned the presidency and departed from Mexico City.

 

               On January 28, 1846, Mr. Slidell reported that the government of Mexico continued to refuse to receive him, and he had exhausted every honorable means of conciliation.  On March 1846, the Mexican Government officially informed our envoy that they would not receive him.  Mr. Slidell immediately asked for his passport and returned to the United States.

 

               The Mexican Government cannot shift the responsibility of war upon the United States, by assuming that we are the aggressors.  A plain, unanswerable fact is that they refused to meet with our envoy, who was present in Mexico and clothed with the full powers to settle all the questions in dispute between the two nations.

 

               I have recommended to the President that he submit the whole case to Congress, and call upon the nation to assert its just rights, and avenge its injured honor.

 

(Text adapted in Involvement 2, by David Sischo, 1994)

 

Document 9

 

May 11, 1846

POLK'S WAR MESSAGE

 

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

 

The existing state of the relations between the United States and Mexico renders it proper that I should bring the subject to the consideration of Congress. In my message at the commencement of your present session, the state of these relations, the causes which led to the suspension of diplomatic intercourse between the two countries in March, 1845, and the long-continued and unredressed wrongs and injuries committed by the Mexican Government on citizens of the United States in their persons and property were briefly set forth….

 

The strong desire to establish peace with Mexico on liberal and honorable terms, and the readiness of this Government to regulate and adjust our boundary and other causes of difference with that power on such fair and equitable principles as would lead to permanent relations of the most friendly nature, induced me in September last to seek the reopening of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Every measure adopted on our part had for its object the furtherance of these desired results…. But though present on Mexican soil by agreement between the two Governments, invested with full powers, and bearing evidence of the most friendly dispositions, his mission has been unavailing. The Mexican Government not only refused to receive him or listen to his propositions, but after a long-continued series of menaces have at last invaded our territory and shed the blood of our fellow-citizens on our own soil…

 

Thus the Government of Mexico, though solemnly pledged by official acts in October last to receive and accredit an American envoy, violated their plighted faith and refused the offer of a peaceful adjustment of our difficulties. Not only was the offer rejected, but the indignity of its rejection was enhanced by the manifest breach of faith in refusing to admit the envoy who came because they had bound themselves to receive him….

 

In my message at the commencement of the present session I informed you that upon the earnest appeal both of the Congress and convention of Texas I had ordered an efficient military force to take a position "between the Nueces and Del Norte." This had become necessary to meet a threatened invasion of Texas by the Mexican forces, for which extensive military preparations had been made. The invasion was threatened solely because Texas had determined, in accordance with a solemn resolution of the Congress of the United States, to annex herself to our Union, and under these circumstances it was plainly our duty to extend our protection over her citizens and soil.

 

This force was concentrated at Corpus Christi, and remained there until after I had received such information from Mexico as rendered it probable, if not certain, that the Mexican Government would refuse to receive our envoy.

 

Meantime Texas, by the final act of our Congress, had become an integral part of our Union. The Congress of Texas, by its act of December 19, 1836, had declared the Rio del Norte to be the boundary of that Republic. Its jurisdiction had been extended and exercised beyond the Nueces. The country between that river and the Del Norte had been represented in the Congress and in the convention of Texas, had thus taken part in the act of annexation itself, and is now included within one of our Congressional districts. Our own Congress had, moreover, with great unanimity, by the act approved December 31, 1845, recognized the country beyond the Nueces as a part of our territory by including it within our own revenue system, and a revenue officer to reside within that district had been appointed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. It became, therefore, of urgent necessity to provide for the defense of that portion of our country. Accordingly, on the 13th of January last instructions were issued to the general in command of these troops to occupy the left bank of the Del Norte. This river, which is the southwestern boundary of the State of Texas, is an exposed frontier. From this quarter invasion was threatened; upon it and in its immediate vicinity, in the judgment of high military experience, are the proper stations for the protecting forces of the Government. In addition to this important consideration, several others occurred to induce this movement. Among these are the facilities afforded by the ports at Brazos Santiago and the mouth of the Del Norte for the reception of supplies by sea, the stronger and more healthy military positions, the convenience for obtaining a ready and a more abundant supply of provisions, water, fuel, and forage, and the advantages which are afforded by the Del Norte in forwarding supplies to such posts as may be established in the interior and upon the Indian frontier.

 

The movement of the troops to the Del Norte was made by the commanding general under positive instructions to abstain from all aggressive acts toward Mexico or Mexican citizens and to regard the relations between that Republic and the United States as peaceful unless she should declare war or commit acts of hostility indicative of a state of war. He was specially directed to protect private property and respect personal rights.

 

The Army moved from Corpus Christi on the 11th of March, and on the 28th of that month arrived on the left bank of the Del Norte opposite to Matamoras, where it encamped on a commanding position, which since been strengthened by the erection of fieldworks….

The Mexican forces at Matamoras assumed a belligerent attitude, and on the 12th of April General Ampudia, then in command, notified General Taylor to break up his camp within twenty-four hours and to retire beyond the Nueces River, and in the event of this failure to comply with these demands announced that arms, and arms alone, must decide the question. But no open act of hostility was committed until the 24th of April. On that day General Arista, who had succeeded to the command of the Mexican forces, communicated to General Taylor that "he considered hostilities commenced and should prosecute them." A party of dragoons of 63 men and officers were on the same day dispatched from the American camp up the Rio del Norte, on its left bank, to ascertain whether the Mexican troops had crossed or were preparing to cross the river, "became engaged with a large body of these troops, and after a short affair, in which some 16 were killed and wounded, appear to have been surrounded and compelled to surrender.

 

The grievous wrongs perpetrated by Mexico upon our citizens throughout a long period of years remain unredressed, and solemn treaties pledging her public faith for this redress have been disregarded. A government either unable or unwilling to enforce the execution of such treaties fails to perform one of its plainest duties.

 

Our commerce with Mexico has been almost annihilated. It was formerly highly beneficial to both nations, but our merchants have been deterred from prosecuting it by the system of outrage and extortion which the Mexican authorities have pursued against them, whilst their appeals through their own Government for indemnity have been made in vain. Our forbearance has gone to such an extreme as to be mistaken in its character. Had we acted with vigor in repelling the insults and redressing the injuries inflicted by Mexico at the commencement, we should doubtless have escaped all the difficulties in which we are now involved.

 

Instead of this, however, we have been exerting our best efforts to propitiate her good will. Upon the pretext that Texas, a nation as independent as herself, thought proper to unite its destinies with our own, she has affected to believe that we have severed her rightful territory, and in official proclamations and manifestoes has repeatedly threatened to make war upon us for the purpose of reconquering Texas. In the meantime we have tried every effort at reconciliation. The cup of forbearance had been exhausted even before the recent information from the frontier of the Del Norte. 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 now 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….

 

In further vindication of our rights and defense of our territory, I invoke the prompt action of Congress to recognize the existence of the war, and to place at the disposition of the Executive the means of prosecuting the war with vigor, and thus hastening the restoration of peace.…

The most energetic and prompt measures and the immediate appearance in arms or a large and overpowering force are recommended to Congress as the most certain and efficient means of bringing the existing collision with Mexico to a speedy and successful termination.

 

In making these recommendations I deem it proper to declare that it is my anxious desire not only to terminate hostilities speedily, but to bring all matters in dispute between this Government and Mexico to an early and amicable adjustment; and in this view I shall be prepared to renew negotiations whenever Mexico shall be ready to receive propositions or to propositions of her own.

 

NOTE:  The War vote was taken at 6:30 p.m., May 13th, 1846.  On the final vote, after two days of debate, 174 Congressman supported the war and fourteen, chiefly northern antislavery Whigs led by John Quincy Adams, voted nay.  Twenty members abstained.

 

Document 10

 

Editor Horace Greeley

New York Tribune

May 12, 1846

 

Our Country, Right or Wrong!

 

This is the spirit in which a portion of the Press, which admits that our treatment of Mexico has been ruffianly and piratical, and that the invasion of her territory by Gen. Taylor is a flagrant outrage, now exhorts our People to rally in all their strength, to lavish their blood and treasure in the vindictive prosecution of War on Mexico.  We protest against such a course….

 

We can easily defeat the armies of Mexico, slaughter them by the thousands, and pursue them perhaps to their capital;  we can conquer and ‘annex’ their territory; but what then?  Have the histories of the ruin of Greek and Roman liberty consequent on such extensions of empire by sword no lesson for us? Who believes that a score of victories over Mexico, the ‘annexation’ of half her provinces.  Will give us more Liberty, a purer morality, a more prosperous Industry, than we now have?…Is not Life miserable enough, comes not Death soon enough, without resort to the hideous enginery of War?

 

People of the United States! Your Rulers are precipitating you into a fathomless abyss of crime and calamity! Why sleep you thoughtless on its verge, as though this was not your business, or Murder could be hid from the sight of God by a few flimsy rags called banners? Awake and arrest the work of butchery ere it shall be too late to preserve your souls from the guilt of wholesale slaughter!

 

Document 11

 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

May 23, 1846

 

The United States will conquer Mexico, but it will be as the man who swallows the arsenic which brings him down in return. Mexico will poison us.

 

Document 12

 

President Polk’s diary

Saturday, 30th May 1846

 

A plan of the campaign against Mexico and the manner of prosecuting the war was fully considered.  I brought directly to the consideration of the Cabinet the question of ordering an expedition of mounted men to California.  I stated that if the war should be protracted for any considerable time, it would in my judgment be very important that the US should hold military possession of California at the time peace was made, and I declared my purpose to be to acquire for the US, California, New Mexico, and perhaps some of the Northern Provinces of Mexico whenever a peace was made.  In Mr. Slidell’s secret instructions last autumn these objects were better…In these views the Cabinet concurred.

 

Document 13

Walt Whitman

Brooklyn Eagle, 1846 

What has miserable, inefficient Mexico -- with her supersitition, her burlesque upon freedom, her actual tyranny by the few over the many -- what has she to do with the great mission of peopling the new world with a noble race? Be it ours to achieve that mission!

 

Document 14

 

Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan’s speech supporting appropriations for the war with Mexico

February 10, 1847

 

We do not want the people of Mexico, either as citizens or subjects.  All we want is a portion of territory which they nominally hold, generally uninhabited, or, where inhabited at all, sparsely so, and with a population which would soon recede, or identify itself with ours

 

Document 15

 

Thomas Corwin, Against the Mexican War (1847)

 

What is the territory, Mr. President, which you propose to wrest from Mexico? It is consecrated to the heart of the Mexican by many a well-fought battle with his old Castilian master. His Bunker Hills, and Saratogas, and Yorktowns are there! The Mexican can say, "There I bled for liberty! and shall I surrender that consecrated home of my affections to the Anglo-Saxon invaders? What do they want with it? They have Texas already. They have possessed themselves of the territory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande. What else do they want? To what shall I point my children as memorials of that independence which I bequeath to them, when those battlefields shall have passed from my possession?"

 

…Sir, look at this pretense of want of room. With twenty millions of people, you have about one thousand millions of acres of land, inviting settlement by every conceivable argument, bringing them down to a quarter of a dollar an acre, and allowing every man to squat where the pleases. . . .

 

There is one topic connected with this subject which I tremble when I approach, and yet I cannot forbear to notice it…I allude to the question of slavery. Opposition to its further extension, it must be obvious to everyone, is a deeply rooted determination with men of all parties in what we call the nonslaveholding states. ...Gentlemen of the South may call it prejudice, passion, hypocrisy, fanaticism. I shall not dispute with them now on that point. You and I cannot alter or change this opinion, if we would. These people only say we will not, cannot consent that you shall carry slavery where it does not already exist. They do not seek to disturb you in that institution as it exists in your states. Enjoy it if you will and as you will. This is their language; this their determination. How is it in the South? Can it be expected that they should expend in common their blood and their treasure in the acquisition of immense territory, and then willingly forgo the right to carry thither their slaves, and inhabit the conquered country if they please to do so? Sir, I know the feelings and opinions of the South too well to calculate on this. Nay, I believe they would even contend to any extremity for the mere right, had they no wish to exert it. I believe (and I confess I tremble when the conviction presses upon me) that there is equal obstinacy on both sides of this fearful question.

 

If, then, we persist in war, which, if it terminates in anything short of a mere wanton waste of blood as well as money, must end (as this bill proposes) in the acquisition of territory, to which at once this controversy must attach--this bill would seem to be nothing less than a bill to produce internal commotion. Should we prosecute this war another moment, or expend one dollar in the purchase or conquest of a single acre of Mexican land, the North and the South are brought into collision on a point where neither will yield…Why, then, shall we, the representatives of the sovereign states of the Union--the chosen guardians of this confederated Republic, why should we precipitate this fearful struggle, by continuing a war the result of which must be to force us at once upon a civil conflict? Sir, rightly considered, this is treason, treason to the Union, treason to the dearest interests, the loftiest aspirations, the most cherished hopes of our constituents. . . . Let us abandon all idea of acquiring further territory and by consequence cease at once to prosecute this war. Let us call home our armies, and bring them at once within our own acknowledged limits. Show Mexico that you are sincere when you say you desire nothing by conquest. She has learned that she cannot encounter you in war, and if she had not, she is too weak to disturb you here. Tender her peace, and, my life on it, she will then accept it. But whether she shall or not, you will have peace without her consent. It is your invasion that has made war; your retreat will restore peace. Let us then close forever the approaches of internal feud, and so return to the ancient concord and the old ways of national prosperity and permanent glory. Let us here, in this temple consecrated to the Union, perform a solemn lustration; let us wash Mexican blood from our hands, and on these altars, and in the presence of that image of the Father of his Country that looks down upon us, swear to preserve honorable peace with all the world and eternal brotherhood with each other.

 

Document 16

 

Spot Resolution, United States House of Representatives

 

Abraham Lincoln

 

Congressman from the State of Illinois

 

Whereas the President of the United States, in his message of May 11th, 1846, has declared that "The Mexican Government not only refused to receive his envoy, or listen to his propositions, but, after a long continued series of menaces, have at last invaded our territory, and shed the blood of our fellow citizens on our soil."

 

And whereas this House desires to obtain a full knowledge of all the facts which go to establish whether the particular spot of soil on which the blood of our citizens was so shed, was, or was not, our own soil, at that time; therefore

 

Resolved by the House of Representatives, that the President of the United States be respectfully requested to inform this House --

 

First: Whether the spot of soil on which the blood of our citizens was shed, as in his messages declared, was, or was not, within the territories of Spain, at least from the treaty of 1819 until the Mexican revolution

 

Second: Whether that spot is, or is not, within the territory which was wrested from Spain, by the Mexican revolution

 

Third: Whether that spot is, or is not, within a settlement of people, which settlement had existed ever since long before the Texas revolution, until its inhabitants fled from the approach of the US Army.

 

Fourth: Whether the People of that settlement, or a majority of them, had ever, previous to the bloodshed, submitted themselves to the government or laws of Texas, or, of the Untied States, by consent, or by compulsion, either by accepting office, or voting at elections, or paying taxes, or in any other way.

 

Fifth: Whether our citizens, whose blood was shed, as in his messages declared, were, or were not, at that time, armed officers and soldiers, sent into that settlement, by the military of the President through the Secretary of War...

 

Lincoln's resolution was read before the House of Representatives, but "laid on the table." Congress took no action on it. Lincoln was defeated in the next election.

 

 

Document 17

 

The Organization of the Mexican Army

A Conversation With William DePalo, Jr.

The University of New Mexico

 

The Mexican army of 1846 rostered 18,882 permanent troops (permanentes) organized into 12 infantry regiments (of two battalions each), eight regiments and one separate squadron of cavalry, three brigades of artillery, one dragoon brigade and one battalion of sappers. Supplementing the permanentes were 10,495 active militiamen (activos) apportioned into nine infantry and six cavalry regiments. Commanded by permanent army officers, the militia was supposed to be activated only in times of emergency; in reality, however, most units were retained on active duty indefinitely. Posted along the northern periphery, presidial companies (presidiales) reported 1,174 additional troops. Poorly trained and inadequately outfitted, these frontier units were too far removed to affect the correlation of forces in the main theaters of war.

 

These standing formations were allocated among five territorially delineated military divisions and five commandancies-general. A general staff was in place to coordinate the concentration of brigade and division-size units to practice the linear tactics necessary for conventional battlefield success. The regional dispersal of forces, however, impeded centralized military authority and abetted localism. Proposals to regroup scattered permanent army formations into single garrison divisions where units could train routinely under the supervision of experienced officers were not realized before the outbreak of hostilities with the United States.

 

This regional force distribution scheme compelled the war ministry to confront foreign aggression with extemporaneous armies assembled from the most readily available formations. Generally, the ranks of these hastily assembled composite armies were filled with conscripts impressed into service via the detested levy (leva). Prone to desertion, mutiny and larceny, such draftees were difficult to train and discipline, but fought reasonably well when led resolutely. The repetitive creation of improvised armies kept Mexican units from acquiring the cohesion and esprit necessary to persevere under trying circumstances. On battlefields where small unit leadership and individual initiative were keys to success, such melded organizations were decidedly disadvantaged.

 

Document 18

 

The American Army in the Mexican War: An Overview

A Conversation With Richard Bruce Winders

Historian and Curator, The Alamo

 

The U.S. Army was unprepared for war. While Congress had authorized a strength of 8,613 men and officers, the actual number of soldiers in uniform was fewer than 5,500. Many of the regimental commanders had entered the service before the War of 1812 and were too elderly and infirm for active duty. Companies were far below their authorized strength of forty-two privates with many carrying only half that number on their rolls. Reacting to the poor state of the army once war broke out, Congress increased the number of privates within individual companies to one hundred. It also created a company of the U.S. Engineers as well a new regiment of U.S. Mounted Rifles. These measures turned out to be stopgaps at best.

 

The presence of a large number of graduates from the United States Military Academy worked in favor of the U.S. Army. These officers, mostly lieutenants and captains, formed a tight knit corps whose leadership ability and training helped offset the initial shortage of manpower. Historians point out that their ranks included men such as George G. Meade, Ulysses S. Grant, George B. McClellan, P.G.T. Beauregard, Braxton Bragg, Joseph E. Johnston, and Robert E. Lee, officers who later went on to command the great armies of the Civil War.