“The USA will conquer Mexico, but it will be as the man swallows arsenic…Mexico will poison us.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson 1846

• Chronicle the USA’s expansion through the west under Polk’s Presidency

• Evaluate the causes of the Mexican-American War

• Analyze the effects of Westward expansion on the United States by 1848

a. 1844 Democratic National Conv is split…

– Unpopular frontrunner was Van Buren

– Polk = Dark Horse– Someone helps advise Polk

on how to get the nomination

– Polk after being picked…• http://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=H9SvJMZs5Rs

“I’ll give you one term…”

1. Annex Texas (it is still its own country)

2. Reach Settlement on Oregon Territory w/GB

3. “Obtain” California

4. Economic stuff

• America was in favor of…–Expansion!! Manifest Destiny!!

Let’s Do it! Ehhhh.

I’m not sure.

1. Annex Texas (it is still its own country)

2. Reach Settlement on Oregon Territory w/GB

3. “Obtain” California

4. Economic stuff

1. Tyler & Congress annex Texas…Feb 1845

USA on the “playground”

• Polk picks the easier fight…Mexico• Missouri Senator Thomas Benton

asked why the USA won’t go after Canada as resolutely as Mexico…– “…because Great Britain is powerful,

and Mexico is weak.”

a. Dispute w/GBb. “54-40 or Fight!”

means – Some in USA

wanted war if it didn’t get 54° 40' latitude line

c. Does Polk “fight?”– No…makes a

deal for 49th Parallel in 1846

a. USA wants…– Port of

San Fran!

b. Mexico still bitter about…

1.

2.

Polk tries two tactics to get California

• General Zachary Taylor and 4K troops ordered to go up to Rio Grande…why?– What can we

claim now?– When have we

done something like this before?

• April 25, 1846, Mexican troops cross the Rio Grande and fire on General Taylor’s army.

• May 13, 1846, the USA declares war on Mexico. (who declares war?)

Upon the pretext that Texas, a nation as independent as [Mexico], thought proper to unite its destinies with our own [Mexico] 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 [Rio Grande]. 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.

- James K. Polk 1846 Address to Congress

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

Therefore,

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

1st. Whether the spot on which the blood of our citizens was shed, as in his messages declared, was or was not within the territory of Spain, at least after the treaty of 1819, until the Mexican revolution. 

2d. Whether that spot is or is not within the territory which was wrested from Spain by the revolutionary Government of Mexico….

- Abraham Lincoln Speech before the House of Representatives…December 22, 1847

Mexico calls this war…

• February 1848• You are Polk…

what are your demands (terms) when you sit at the bargaining table?

• “The United States will conquer Mexico, but it will be as the man swallows arsenic… Mexico will poison us.”–Ralph Waldo

Emerson

• Introduced 3 times by Congressman David Wilmot (Dem) of PA...

• What did it say?

• Passed the House every time but not the Senate… why?

• Title = Why people move• What are some reasons people leave certain

places in the USA and go to others? What pushes and pulls people to certain places? Where do you want to move to? Why?

• Push Factor– Reasons to leave the

place you currently live in• Pull Factor

– Reasons that make you want to migrate to a new location

• What were the reasons back then? They haven’t changed much!!

1. Missionary2. Thief3. Chinese Immigrant4. South American Immigrant5. Free Black6. Slave7. Doctor8. Fur Traders9. Frontiersman10. Single Man11. Family Man12. Denim Salesman13. Loggers14. Farmer15. “Indian Hunters”16. Saloon owner17. Single woman18. Launderer19. Vigilante20. Australian Immigrant

• Less populated– Difficult “Oregon Trail”

• Indians wiped out by disease• Frontiersmen “blend in”

• Gold Discovered in 1848… who comes next?

• Population swings• Indians slaughtered

and enslaved

• Early Birds cashed in• Gold Rush Songs…

– Oh Sussanna– Oh my Darling, Clementine