Essay On Mexican American War Dbq

The antiwar opponents with the Mexican-American War, were on one side, Polk accused those who doubted him of treason. On the other side of the isle, Abraham Lincoln and other members of Congress strongly condemned Polk’s war with Mexico. It all started when Polk ran for office, he ran as the pro-annexation candidate (Regent, Word Doc). Exclaiming that he would annex Texas into the Union and buy California from Mexico. But, when Mexico refused to hold talks with a U.S. diplomat over the sale of California. Polk sent General Zachary Taylor into disputed U.S. Mexican Territory (Regent, Word Doc). By then, Polk started preparing a declaration of war to present with Congress. Shortly thereafter, Polk received news of an incident between the Mexicans and the Americans forces. Polk used the timing of the incident to present his declaration of war to Congress. Polk exclaimed that Mexico has at last invaded our territory and shed blood on American soil. Causing Congress to declare war on Mexico. However, suspicions grew whether Polk sent the army to provoke a confrontation to annex California or whether the confrontation even took place on American soil. …show more content…
Manifest Destiny (given by John O’Sullivan, a magazine editor) were known that the U.S. was God’s given destiny to expand its territory across the west coast for economic, social, and political reasons. The Southerners wanted more land for goods and Northerners thought that new territory would help population stress in the crowded areas of the Northeast. While, some Americans opposed the manifest destiny because Mexican and Great Britain already owned these lands. These Americans believed that the expanded nation would be too large to govern (Regent, Word Doc), and Abolitionists believed that new expansion of territory would spread more to