Mexican American War Dbq Research Paper

The Mexican–American War can be blamed on the United States presidential election of 1844 between Democratic Candidate James K. Polk and Henry Clay, the Whig Party Candidate. A Campaign that was fought on foreign policy, with Polk favoring the annexation of Texas and Clay opposed. James K. Polk who campaigned on a platform that embraced American territorial expansionism, an idea soon to be called Manifest Destiny by John O’ Sullivan won the election. “At their convention, the Democrats called for the annexation of Texas and asserted that the United States had a “clear and unquestionable” claim to “the whole” of Oregon, (Zinn Chap 10). Having now being sworn in as President, he ordered General Taylor to move troops to the Rio Grande which became a …show more content…
Who will stay the march of our western people,” (Zinn, Chap 8). By the spring of 1846, the army had taken their forward location waiting for order from President Polk. In April of 1846 Colonel Cross was beheaded, and General Taylor blamed it on Mexicans and following the burial of Cross, Taylor’s soldiers were surrounded and attacked and killed. The Mexicans had fired first shot. “But they had done what the American government wanted, according to Colonel Hitchcock.” Polk’s cabinet advised him to ask Congress for a declaration of war. Polk's address to Congress was indignant: “The cup of forbearance had been exhausted even before the recent information from the frontier of the Del Norte 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. As war exists, 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.” (Zinn Chap 8). Polk spoke of the dispatch of American troops to the Rio Grande as a necessary measure of

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