Manifest Destiny
Texas and the Mexican War (1803-1853)
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4.
How does Polk address the issue of sectionalism?
How does Polk justify U.S. expansion into Texas?
How does Polk justify U.S. expansion into Oregon?
If you had listened to Polk deliver the address would
you have agreed with his expansionist views? Explain.
James K Polk Inaugural Address
March 4, 1845
• Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821
• In 1821 there were only 4000 Tejanos in Texas to defend
the province
• Mexico decided to encourage American expansion into
Texas in hopes that Americans would provide an
economic boost to the region and help Tejanos defend
against Native Americans.
• In return for cheap land grants, Americans had to agree to
three things:
• Americans had to agree to become Mexican citizens
• Americans had to worship as Roman Catholics
• Americans had to accept the Mexican constitution, which
banned slavery
Texas
• Led by empressarios (land grant agents) like Stephen F.
Austin, Americans began to settle as far east as San Antonio
• By 1835, 30,000 Americans (Anglo-Texans) lived in Texas.
Outnumbered Tejanos 6-1.
• Tensions quickly rose between Americans and the Mexican
government
• In 1834, general Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and his
followers took control of Mexico; favored strict,
authoritative government rule over Mexico (&Texas)
• In 1835, Texans rebelled against this rule and a year later
declared independence from Mexico as the Lone Star
Republic
Texas
• To crush the rebellion, Santa Anna led Mexican army north
into Texas
• March 1836 attacked small Texas military garrison in San
Antonio, known as the Alamo
• After 12 days of cannon fire, Mexican troops overran the
Alamo and Santa Anna ordered all of the defenders of the
Alamo killed. Victims included Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett
• “Remember the Alamo”
• Sam Houston led Texas resistance after the Alamo
• April 1836, Mexican Army defeated by Texans at Battle of San
Jacinto; 630 killed to only 32 Texans; 730 Mexicans captured,
including Santa Anna
Texas
• Santa Anna forced to sign
treaty that granted Texas
independence
• Border between Texas
and Mexico became huge
debate for the next ten
years.
• Texas claimed the Rio
Grande River as
southern/western border;
Mexico insisted the
Nueces River
• Texas would become a
state in 1845
Texas
• First "dark horse" President
• Born in Mecklenburg County, North
Carolina, in 1795.
• graduated with honors in 1818 from the
University of North Carolina.
• Served in the Tennessee legislature, and
became a friend of Andrew Jackson.
• In the House of Representatives, Polk
was a chief lieutenant of Jackson in his
Bank war.
• Served as Speaker between 1835 and
1839, leaving to become Governor of
Tennessee.
James K. Polk
• In 1844 both Martin Van Buren, who was
expected to win the Democratic
nomination for President, and Henry Clay,
who was to be the Whig nominee,
disagreed with the idea of expansion
• Polk said that Texas should be "reannexed" and all of Oregon "re-occupied."
• James K. Polk, campaigned on the idea of
"Fifty-four forty or fight"
• The Democrats chose Polk and "Manifest
Destiny” when he was nominated on the
ninth ballot
• Polk defeated Clay by a thin margin in the
general election
Presidential Election of 1844
1.
2.
3.
4.
How does Polk address the issue of sectionalism?
How does Polk justify U.S. expansion into Texas?
How does Polk justify U.S. expansion into Oregon?
If you had listened to Polk deliver the address would
you have agreed with his expansionist views? Explain.
James K Polk Inaugural Address
March 4, 1845
• Texas had been independent for a decade and Mexico had
made no attempt to reconquer it.
• Mexico broke off diplomatic relations with U.S. when the
United States annexed Texas and it became a state in 1845.
• Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor into Texas to defend
the border. But the location of the border was in dispute.
• Texas claimed the Rio Grande; Mexico insisted that the
boundary was the Nueces River, which emptied into the
Gulf about 150 miles to the north.
• Taylor reached the Neuces in July 1845 with about 1500
troops and crossed into the disputed territory.
Mexican War
• In November 1845, Polk sent an envoy, John Slidell, on a
secret mission to Mexico to try to obtain the disputed
territory by negotiation.
• Polk authorized Slidell to forgive Mexican debt in return
for recognition of the annexation of Texas and acceptance
of the Rio Grande boundary.
• The president also authorized Slidell to offer $30 million
if Mexico would sell the U.S. all or part of New Mexico
and California.
• Mexico refused to see Slidell
Mexican War
• By late March 1846, American forces had grown to 4,000
and had taken up position near the Mexican town of
Matamoros.
• The Mexicans crossed the river on April 25 and attacked an
American mounted patrol. When news of the fighting
reached Washington, Polk asked for a declaration of war.
• Many northerners feared that the war would lead to the
expansion of slavery. Others, including Abraham
Lincoln, felt Polk had mislead the public and Congress in
the cause of this war. As more northerners saw the United
States as the aggressor, the war became “Mr. Polk’s War”.
Mexican War
• Create a political cartoon that demonstrates a point of
view that is either pro-war with Mexico or anti-war with
Mexico
• Create symbols and captions that demonstrate this point
of view. Your creation should use at least two facts to
justify your position in the cartoon.
Manifest Destiny
Cartoon
• “The government itself, which is only the
mode which the people have chosen to
execute their will, is equally liable to be
abused and perverted before the people can
act through it. Witness the present Mexican
war, the work of comparatively a few
individuals using the standing government
as their tool; for, in the outset, the people
would not have consented to this measure.”
Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience”
Mexican War
• From the first battle, the outcome of the war was never in
doubt.
• At Palo Alto, north of the Rio Grande, 2,300 Americans
scattered a Mexican force twice that number.
• 1,700 Americans routed 7,500 Mexicans at Resaca de la
Palma. Fewer than 50 American soldiers lost their lives;
while Mexican losses were over 1000.
• Within a week, Mexican forces had retreated across the
Rio Grande, and General Zachary Taylor’s forces had
firmly established ground on the southern bank of the river.
Mexican War
• The Mexican army was poorly equipped and
poorly led.
• The well supplied American forces had a
hard core of youthful West Pointers eager to
make their reputations ( P. G. T. Beauregard,
William Tecumseh Sherman, Ulysses S. Grant,
George McClellan, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson,
Robert Anderson, Robert E. Lee) and regulars
trained in Indian warfare
• But, Mexico was a large, rugged country
with few decent roads.
Mexican War
• Polk’s war plan had three major parts:
• First, he would clear the Mexicans from Texas and occupy the northern
provinces of Mexico.
• Second, he would take possession of California and New Mexico.
• Finally, he would march on Mexico City.
• Campaign against Mexico City was most difficult. General
Winfield Scott put in charge of the invasion.
• Scott landed his army south of Veracruz, Mexico on March 9,
1847, laid siege to the city, and obtained its surrender in less
than three weeks with the loss of only a handful of his 10,000
men.
• September 14, 1847 Scott took Mexico City.
• In every engagement, his troops had been outnumbered, yet
they always exacted a far heavier toll from the defenders.
Mexican War
• The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war:
Mexico accepted the Rio Grande as the boundary of
Texas and ceded New Mexico and Upper California to
the United States. In return the U.S. agreed to pay
Mexico $15 million
• The relatively easy military victory made some people
ashamed that their country was crushing a weaker
neighbor. Abolitionists, led by William Lloyd Garrison,
called it “an invasion…waged solely for the detestable
and horrible purpose of extending and perpetuating
American slavery.”
Mexican War