The Mexican War Essay Research Paper The — страница 3

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country [Mexico] the Idea of America – that all men are born free and equal in rights, and establish there political, social and individual freedom. But to do that we must first make real those ideas at home.” ( DeVoto, 205 ) I agree with Parker that the war was not our destiny, it was a result of our greed. We wanted land and power. He realized we weren’t superior to Mexico in the least and should concern ourselves with not conquering them, but bettering ourselves. Dwindling support for the war was also due to Polk’s shortcomings, he didn’t measure up to the needs of public leadership. As discontent was spreading through the masses, the Whigs enacted the last phase of Webster’s plan: blame the President. On January 3, 1848, the House of Representatives adopted a

resolution that decided the war had been “unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun by the President.” (DeVoto, 448) Mexico was dealt its final defeat by Major General Scott. Polk was reluctant to let Scott lead any expedition because he was a Whig. “I do not desire to place myself in the most perilous of positions,a fire upon my rear from Washington, and the fire in front from the Mexicans.” ( DeVoto, 198 ) Scott was aware of Polk’s doubts and lack of trust in him, but still, he labored at planning a victory. Polk finally allowed Scott to take control, but warned him a defeat would be all his own, while a victory would belong to the administration. Scott, being an honorable soldier, accepted the risk and followed his orders – to defeat Santa Anna. Soon after the

success of his mission, he was relieved of duty. Polk replaced him with General Butler, a Democrat. Scott chose to remain in Mexico to help Commissioner of Peace Trist to negotiate a treaty. Trist tried, as Polk had, to arrange a peace with bribes and, as Polk had, failed. After this blunder, Polk revoked Trist’s power to negotiate a treaty. Still, Trist negotiated and signed the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo on February 2, 1848. The Mexican government would recognize the Rio Grande as their northern border and cede the already conquered lands of New Mexico and California. The U.S. Would pay a $15 million indemnity and absorb all prior debts. Some Congressmen still wanted to hold out for more land, but the majority stood firmly against this. Congress didn’t think we should pay

any indemnity, after all, we won. It can be said that we paid just to be fair; we had the land we had offered to pay $15 million for previously. I, and other cynics, believe that we paid the indemnity to relieve our guilty consciences. We had provoked Mexico into a war and then ’stole’ half of her territory. We realized the idea of Manifest Destiny was a farce and were trying to make up for being imperialistic. On March 10, 1848, Congress ratified the treaty, including the pay-off. Fifteen days later, the Mexican government ratified the treaty. We had achieved our goals with a both bloodshed and money. Manifest Destiny exists only in theory. Our nation wanted land, and we took it by force. Billing it as destiny, or a mission from God, was a way to disguise our true motives.

We wanted an empire, and now we had it. None of the immediate causes of the Mexican War were beneficial to the Union. Congress and the political parties were in shambles. They were an accurate reflection of our nation as a whole, which was in chaos. DeVoto summed up the outcome of the Mexican War well, “The fact of the Mexican War is infinitely smaller than the fact, the complex of facts, which now had to be faced by the Congress and the people of the United States.” ( DeVoto, 477 ) The affairs of nations are shaped by the actions of men. The actions of Polk, Scott, Davis and others shaped our nation’s affairs in so much as they made the Civil War inevitable. “The United States will conquer Mexico,” Ralph Waldo Emerson said,”but it will be as the man swallows the

arsenic which brings him down in turn. Mexico will poison us.” ( DeVoto, 476 ) The Mexican-American War was not a result of Manifest Destiny. I believe I have proven that it was a self-serving war motivated by well disguised imperialistic ideals. Abraham Lincoln accurately described what we had achieved by the Mexican War: an internal domestic empire. (DeVoto, 480 ) ? ? Works Cited DeVoto, Bernard. The Year of Decision *1846*. Boston: Little, Brown and Company , 1943 Fehrenbacher, Don E. The Era of Expansion: 1800-1848. New York: Wiley, 1969 Lawson, Don. The United States in the Mexican War. New York: Abelard-Schuman, 1976 Nevin, David. The Mexican War. Alexandria, Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1978