Antebellum Westward Expansion

1.
One government after another began to
promote limitedly-private enterprise in North
America (the governments gave monopolistic
privileges to certain companies in return for 1/5
of profits taxed) regarding trade in otter and
beaver pelts that sold as fashionable articles of
clothing or adornment in every continent for up
to 160% profit. For example, by the 1660s Sieur
des Medard Chouart des Groseillers had first
received permission by the French and then the
British king to establish fur-trading posts in
Northeast Canada and the Great Lakes region
reliant, however, upon the Huron to have
subjugated tribesmen catch the animals so they
could sell the pelts to the French. Regarding the
business along the Pacific Coast of present-day
California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia
and Alaska, by the 1770s the Spanish, the
English and the Russians had fur-trading
posts, and hired Americans as well as publicized
accounts spread news to the newborn states
regarding the money to be had! For example,
the British dominated Nootka Sound and
Vancouver Island, predominantly run by the
Hudson Bay Company (which had been chartered
by King Charles II in 1670). The Spanish held the
coast of California tenuously and Alonso

Decalves published account New Travels to the

Westward, or, Unknown Parts of America
inadvertently (supposedly he wanted fame)
invited British and Russian competition along the
Oregon coast. In fact, British company leaders
like Robert Gray, John Meares, John Kendrick and
Alexander Mackenzie not only pushed the
Spanish out of Oregon, but they even named it
as well as the famously tough but profitable
Columbia River from within. As for the Russians,
Vitus Jonassen Berings sea expedition from
Siberia to Alaska in 1728 resulted in the Bering
Strait being named after him, Catherine the
Greats patronage of Russian fur-trading
companies (The Fur Trading Company, Company
of Muscovy, etc.) in the 1760s, and Russian posts
on Kodiak Island (where grizzly bears still eat
people!) the
Oregon and Northern
California coasts.

Although meant for the enrichment of kingdoms

and but of a few, this fur rush so-to-speak was
almost grudgingly permitted after publication of
profits invited free competition and ushered in a
new era of popular migration to the Pacific
Coast. For example, Alexander Mackenzies
published diary of having crossed the continent

by foot was read by thousands of Americans,

including Thomas Jefferson who frequently cited
it in asking Congress to send exploratory
expeditions across the interior before it was
taken by rival European powers and
entrepreneurs. George Washingtons
administration tried to nationalize this industry
(Americas first truly subsidized and run
industry) by passing Congressional acts for the
establishment of not only governmental trading
posts for catching or buying otters and beavers,
but also factories in which their pelts would be
prepared for consumption. According to the
author of The Oregon Trail, these posts were
inadequately funded (they kept only about 120
employees at a time) and terribly mismanaged.
Congress and presidents would send official
military/scientific expeditions across the interior
(Lewis & Clark in 1803, Zebulon Pike in 1806,
John C. Fremonts famed expeditions in the
1840s), ostensibly to gather data and discover
an efficient route for commerce and migration;
however, it seemed as if the written word could
not hold back private settlers and entrepreneurs
from wanting to enter the fray in Oregon, then in
Mexican/gringo California. For example, French
immigrant J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeurs
Letters from an American Farmer was the most
widely read tract in the 1780s, states historian

John Mack Faragher, and its message that the

American Dream was easily attainable for the
poor and that westward expansion would
revitalize and support republican government
may not have fallen on deaf ears. German
immigrant John Jacob Astor responded to this
propaganda in obtaining permission by the U.S.
and British governments to establish the
American Fur Trading Company in 1808, which
eventually moved its headquarters from
Mackinac Island in Lake Huron to Fort Astoria in
Oregon, where he rose from rags to riches as a

fur pelt tycoon.

School teacher Hall Jackson Kelley evidently
made a career out of trying to sell the Oregon
idea to Americans with a combination of Whig &
racist rhetoric concerning a need to save
Oregon from corrupt, foreign population. His
Oregon Colonization Society received much
money in donations and boasted many members.
In 1836, after Methodist Reverend Jason Lee had
publicized his missionary church in the
Willamette Valley of Oregon, Methodist and
Presbyterian missionary couples Marcus &

Narcissa Whitman and Henry and Eliza Spalding

highly publicized their missionary program to
that region. They had terrible relations with the
Natives (they officially baptized only twenty
Natives of the region, and after a measles
epidemic they would be murdered by them in
November of 1847). Nevertheless, such was
their apparent appeal to non-religious settlers
that in 1843, they accompanied over 1,000
migrants back across 2,000 miles of an overland
trail in return to Oregon Territory (this was
known as the Great Migration of 1843, and
recall that Oregon Territory included present-day
Washington State and Idaho).

In the 1790s, fur trading employers and

employees began writing complaints of
American infiltration into their regions and
industry. Lewis and Clarks eight volumes of
written accounts popularly conveyed tips, maps
and the hope that the arduous journey was
worthwhile. Shortly thereafter, Eastern
Seaboard churches began public financial drives
to fund missionaries in Oregon, and the fact that

the government felt compelled to establish the

Pony Express Mailing System (posts stretched
from thirty to one hundred miles apart traversed
by a relay of mail-carrying horse riders), that St.
Louis and Independence Missouri were made
over as towns for providing overland settlers
highly-priced goods and services for the trek,
and that Mountain Men became the
contemporary idols of their day (Kit Carson,
Jedediah Smith, Manuel Lisa and Tom Bridger,
etc.) in providing detailed maps or even
chaperoned guidance through North Americas
interior may attest to the popularity of westward
migration despite specifics on numbers prior to
the California Gold Rush in 1849.
2.
Andrew Jacksons ascent began under unlikely
circumstances: with no capital, connections to
established, coastal elites, or particular skills,
his parents squatted upon the western frontier
backcountry of the Carolinas, as did many ScotsIrish folk, whose reputation for humble
socioeconomic status and political defiance
rendered many without social acceptancemuch
less a helping hand. Making matters worse,
Jacksons father died in an accident before he
was born, and his brothers and mother died
during the War for Independence. The only
source of help that was left him, an Irish uncle,

allegedly abused him to such an extent that he

left on his own with only a modest sum from an
aunt and his own drive & ambition. Taking
advantage of circumstances in developing,
frontier Kentucky & Tennessee territory
(English official requirements for practicing as
attorneys were dropped, and lands from
Shawnee & other Native American tribes were
conveniently bought by Iroquois conquerors
and made available either via cheap sale through
the land surveyors office or even free via
squatting) young Andrew Jackson apprenticed
himself to a locally prestigious attorney &
politician who took a liking to him; consequently,
he soon began practicing law, land speculating
(purchasing land cheaply & selling it when its
value greatly increasesusually via
development), courting well-to-do women and
engaging in ornery entertainment (tipping
latrines & pulling other pranks, engaging in fistfights, and occasionally even pistol duals). He
earned a reputation for diligence, honesty &
toughness (proverbial frontier qualities
apparently highly-esteemed at this time of
westward expansion), and he soon became a
state politician, a judge, and a Congressman.
Just a few years later, French aristocratic visitor
Alexis de Tocqueville would describe his
contemporary United States with the following

famous quotes in his later-published classic

Democracy in America: Among the novel
objects that attracted my attention during my
stay in the United States, nothing struck me
more forcibly than the general EQUALITY OF
CONDITION among the people.And The
striking characteristic of the social condition of
the Anglo-Americans is its ESSENTIAL
DEMOCRACY. (pp. 3, 46)
Property ownership requirements for citizenship
were dropping in nearly every state (certainly
the western states), and although local or statelevel campaigns entailed some degree of elitism
regarding the image of candidates, many
national-level politicians (especially in western
states) found themselves courting votes as
Self-Made Men via conveying an image of poor
origins, frontier characteristics and down-toearth experience. This phenomenon can be
detected in the presidential campaigns of
Jackson & Harrison (they defeated their
opponents largely via depicting them as
snobbish, pampered aristocrats aloof from the
people), LOG CABIN CAMPAIGNS-Congressional campaigns of Davy Crockett &
Sam Houston, and De Tocquevilles quotes
regarding what he saw to be the tyranny of the
majority in which people of wealth, unearned
connections & education or intellect were

frightened of displaying or utilizing such

advantages for fear of the wrath of commoners
intolerant of putting on airs. (Plutocracy vs.
Populism) When Jackson threatened into
submission a notorious criminal as a judge, when
he took a bullet in the chest in one of his
multiple duals, and when former-president John
Quincy Adams wife commented good God, the
mob has entered Washington (supposedly, a
throng of hundreds of dirty-faced, bare-foot,
drunk, celebrating commoners followed
Jackson into the White House after his
inauguration and pilfered & destroyed much of
its furnishings in drunken celebration of their
man), such instances only enhanced his
popularity as the leader & spokesman for the
common man. As president, Jackson
participated in the replacement of the
nomination of national-level candidates by selfappointed Senators (caucuses) to the Party
Convention system (local party members
arrange meetings in which any citizen can be
nominated, and those with the most votes move
to the regional or state-level conventions, where
those with the most votes ascend to nationallevel ballots), and he even fought to end the
presidential electoral point-system and have it
replaced by popular voteto no avail. His
Democratic Party also rejoiced over the Charles

River Bridge Case, in which a group of

uneducated, poor farmer, would-be
entrepreneurs received both a loan & a state
business license to build a bridge over the
Charles River, adjacent to a long-standing bridge
run by Ivy League-educated entrepreneurs. The
latter had taken them to court, claiming that
their previous charter implied a monopoly in
that area, and Supreme Court Chief Justice Taney
explicitly statedin favor of the poorer latecomersthat this was a land of OPPORTUNITY in
which educated elitists were to enjoy no legal
privileges over those of lower socio-economic
status eager to compete with them.
A. Andrew Jackson killed the National
Bank & fed local & state banks (Wildcat
Banks)
B. Populism? (Scots-Irish: Kentucky, Tenn.,
Southwest vs. French, Native Americans,
Hispanic occupants, Slaves)
3.
Democracy & meritocracy rang hollow in
the ears of women, Native Americans & African
Americans. It would be decade later before state
courts would begin democratically chipping away
at the English system of patriarchal domination
whereby a woman could not sue in court, was
not eligible for citizenship much less political
participation, and while able to inherit property
from her father, had to surrender such property

to her husband upon marriage (coverture) and

the estate to her son or sons upon his death
even if they were mere children. Jacksons party
did not lobby for a redress of this political
marginalization of women, nor did they attack
the Separate Spheres argument that involved
the assumption that women are more virtuous
but also more fragile than menwhich excused
them being confined in the home or private
sphere.
Lord Chesterfield popularly espoused
these beliefs in pamphlets for years, and only a
few characters--such as Benjamin Franklin &
Mary Wollstonecraftseemed to challenge such
an assumption during the early republic. In
addition to this political invisibility & social
condescension, women began to be offered job
opportunities that primarily led to their burden
and to societal disdain. Supposedly, expansion
in credit institutions, infrastructure (Erie Canal
of 1825 opened up lucrative trade opportunities
between New York & the Ohio Valley), port cities
development (New York City exploded in
population with increasing lenders, traders, links
across the Atlantic & Appalachians, laborers,
etc.) and the rudimentary beginnings of
assembly line work & mass production, artisans
of Jacksons Era began to feel compelled to
subcontract their work to as many people as
possible for as little pay in salaries as possible

all in order to keep up with their expanding

competition. Consequently, many master
artisans began hiring out women & children to
produce finished products under a single roof or
largely in the case of womenwithin their own
homes, as they were to be paid a mere pittance
for each piece produced & picked up by the
boss. As bartering & regional isolation gave way
to widespread use of paper currency and trade,
many women felt compelled to augment/add to
their domestic chores with performance of homeproduced products like clothing for necessary
additional family incomeonly to be blamed
during times of economic crisis for taking mens
& skilled workers jobs.
Andrew Jacksons likeness on the Twenty-Dollar-Bill
has not been protested by Native American groups
for trivial reasons. Many Scots-Irish immigrants
lately settling into frontier regions of future
states Kentucky & Tennessee had literally fought
their way into such territory, and treaties such as
Fort Stanwix (in which Iroquois leaders unfairly sold
to Virginia such Delaware, Shawnee & territory
belonging to other tribes under the pretext of
having originated from such area) gave a semblance
of legality to this theft. During the War of 1812,
Tecumsehs call for inter-tribal unity had fostered
the Duck Creek Massacre by Shawnee & Delaware

warriors upon Anglo American farming families in

the newly-established state of Tennessee;
consequently, young Andrew Jacksons insistence,
They must be punished culminated in the Creek &
Seminole Wars, which ended in the American
governments victory with the brutal massacre of
Creek Red Sticks at Horseshoe Bend. Only seven
years later, Jackson would be responsible for
invading & militarily confiscating Spanish Florida,
after Seminole attacks upon Georgian farmers.
While Spain would cede Florida to the U.S. in 1819,
the Seminole people would be primarily pushed
west of the Mississippi (in Americas burgeoning
reservation system) after success in the Second
Seminole War in the mid 1830swhich ended with
the arrest of Seminole Chief Osceola under the false
pretenses of a white surrender flag. As for the
Native Cherokee & Choctaw allies of Tennessee
against the Creek, their attempts at assimilation
(they developed writing, a constitution, adopted
Christianity & learned the English language,
published their own newspapers, and developed
sedentary farming) within Georgia & the Carolinas
were to no avail, as the state legislatures of such
states passed popularly-supported laws demanding
the sale of their lands to the states & their physical
relocation to west of the Mississippi River.
Cherokee in Georgia secured the legal aid of famous
attorney William Wirt, and in their second attempt

to have the Supreme Court invalidate Georgias law

(the first rested upon the Constitutional
representation clause as defining Natives as a
foreign nation within the U.S.which failedwhile
the second focused upon Georgias merely statelevel laws nullifying FEDERAL treaties that had
recognized such land for the Cherokee), the
Supreme Court did declare such Georgia laws
unlawful (Worcester Case); however, President
Andrew Jackson declared that as the Ward of the
State under the McIntosh Case of 1820s, the Natives
were to be protected by the military, and as
Commander-in-Chief he thought it necessary for
their survival to be removed from racist, landhungry Anglos whose customs, institutions & way of
life were incompatible with those of the Natives and
would only lead to the latters annihilation.
Therefore, Jackson militarily assisted such a
removal to present-day Oklahoma (meaning dirty
water), and thousands of Natives died of frostbite
or hypothermia, exhaustion, disease, etc. on the
trek popularly known as the Trail of Tears.

4.
Simon Bolivar, a privileged Venezuelan of
Spanish blood born into an hacendado family,
found himself leading the first Latin American
War for Independence (allegedly, the influence of
his Enlightened & egalitarian tutor Ramon
Rodriguez, the early death of his beloved wife,
and time spent with revolutionaries in France
rendered him swearing an oath to fight against
Spanish oppression in Latin America). However,
despite his military tactical genius, losses to
Spanish forces (in Venezuela, he betrayed his
mentor Francisco de Mirandawho had tried to
foment Enlightened ideals throughout Latin
Americawhen the Spanish cornered them, while
in modern-day Columbia, his loss to Spanish
forces sent him into exile in Jamaica) as well as
losses to domestic forces of ethnically-mixed or
indigenous American, poor Latin Americans
fighting under CAUDILLOS like JOSE TOMAS

BOVES, convinced him to write in his famous

JAMAICA LETTERS that unified, Enlightened,
ethnically diverse republics in places such as
Venezuela would NOT WORK. Where people of
certain ethnicities, regions or classes had been
oppressed, exploited, marginalized (left out),
inexperienced with economic self-sufficiency and
uneducated, he contended, representative
government would not work. Their years in a
subordinate status, Bolivar contended, had likely
only fostered within them class & ethnic hatred
or ferocity, ambition and vengeance, as well as a
tendency to follow personal
leaders/demagogues/CAUDILLOS to provide for
them rather than AUTONOMY. He pointed to the
Native & mixed-blood LLANERO (plains
cowboyslike the gauchos) loyal followers of
Jose Tomas Boves and their ferocity against
Venezuelan property-owners as a case-in-point.
Where so many differences of ideology and selfinterest prevailed from region-to-region, classto-class, or ethnic group-to-ethnic group, he
contended, federalism or confederacies would
not workonly powerful, central governments
(unitary). Do not adopt the best system of
government, he avowed to Latin American
leaders, but the one most likely to succeed.
(181) In Costa Rica, Brazil & Chile, stable
governments were established quickly &

successfully, and the Liberals (wanting to end

colonial institutions privileges and give
constitutional rights, economic opportunities, &
local autonomy to the people) & Conservatives
(wanting to preserve/conserve the older social
order & institutions, and replace monarchs with
powerful central governments made up only
partially of elected representatives) managed to
avoid civil war. However, in Mexico and Peru,
civil wars, coups & multiple revolutionslargely
between Conservatives & Liberalswracked their
countries, deepened their debts, retarded their
economic & commercial growth, and promoted
militarism & caudilloismdeemed by many to
lead to authoritarianism (even on the Left like
Bonaparte, Simon Bolivar). Conservatives &
Liberals would do away with the others
established written constitution when coming
into power eight times in early-to-mid nineteenth
century Ecuador, eight in Peru, seven times in
Columbia, and nine times in Bolivia. (Marshall
Eakin pp. 209) The chaos that ensued, the
fearful jealousy each leading faction had when in
power, and the distrust both Liberals &
Conservatives developed for the poor,
marginalized, exploited Native & mixed-blood
citizens supposedly encouraged the
establishment of dictatorships. A list of Latin
American nations early near-despotic (having

incredible personal power & influence) rulers

include: Santa Anna of Mexico, Rafael Carrera of
Guatemala, Santander in Columbia, Jose Paez in
Venezuela, Flores in Ecuador, Belzu in Bolivia,
Castilla in Peru, Bernardo OHiggins in Chile,
Rosas in Argentina, Artigas of Uruguay, and
Rodriguez de Francia in Paraguay as a few
examples of caudillo men on horseback who
attainedat timesnearly absolute power.
Historian Marshall Eakin suggests that this
political instability and authoritarianism, the
economic bad start that ensued, as well as
authoritarian leaders propensity to discourage
bourgeois, middle/mercantile class development
as a potential threat to their hold on power, led
to Latin American leaders decision to avoid
attempting competition with United States or
European industrialism and stick to raw
materials or cash crops in high demand
(competitive advantage) by those countries
(coffee, sugar, bananas, cacao, copper, silver,
wheat, beef, etc.). As the United States
Southern states would complain of their
Northern counterparts, this would render Latin
American nations as virtual economic COLONIES
of the Western Powers. The aforementioned
facts led, many historians contend, to a
PATERNALISTIC relationship between the United
States and what she soon perceived to be the

hot little mess of Latin America. This

perception, as well as an early tendency of
American leaders to think globally of strategic
spots deemed imperative to have influence or
even control in case of war with a European
Giant, rendered Latin America high on the U.S.
priority list. Hence, Latin America geo-politically
(as if on a chess board to be played against
European nations) became known as OUR
BACKYARD. Hence, our government declared
the Americas off-limits for European powers in
1823 (at the time it was a joke, as Britain stayed
in Honduras & British Guiana, and we even had
to ask Britain to help us enforce this decree
against Spain, France & the Netherlands)known
as the MONROE DOCTRINE. Sadly, however, this
paternalistic setup would digress into an
imperialist relationshipespecially after Teddy
Roosevelts Corollary (Addition) to the Monroe
Doctrine: this justified American intervention in
Latin America if these nations behaved in ways
that encouraged European powers to intervene
in these Latin American countries affairs. For
example, Teddy Roosevelt would demand that
Latin American countries could no longer be
financially irresponsible in defaulting on loans
from European bankers/creditorswhich he
claimed only led to Gunboat Diplomacy (the
European powers would send Naval squadrons to

key ports, demanding repayment of their loans.

Should the Latin Americans prove unwilling or
unable, the said European powers forcefully took
over Latin American customs offices that
controlled tax revenue, or even took over
Treasury Departments of these Latin American
countries until they received the money due
their bankers). Secondly, Roosevelt would forbid
political instability, as he claimed coups, civil
wars, & revolutions only invited European
nations to invade or take advantage of Latin
American nations while they were divided &
hence vulnerable. Should either type of
misbehavior occur, the U.S. would
paternalistically invade the Latin American
countries, and either secure peaceful elections
or repayment of loansostensibly to prevent
European powers from doing so. We havent
even mentioned the U.S. big corporations & later
C.I.A. involvement in Latin Americano wonder
many resent the Yanquis.

5.
Within Mexico, between its independence in
1821 and the end of the Mexican-American War
in 1848, the nation had experienced at least six
constitutions, nearly two dozen administrations,
four coups & attempted foreign invasion twice.
The liberal Constitution of 1824 declared political

equality & citizenship rights for ALL men, an end

to tribute demands, local autonomy and elective,
republican government. Generous colonization
laws were established to populate Mexicos
northernmost frontier which granted
extranjeros/foreigners opportunities to receive
over 2,000 acres of free land provided that they
cultivate it for five years, conduct business &
public transactions in the Spanish language,
adopt Roman Catholic Christianity, and follow
Mexicos laws. Adelantado-like positions
(empresario) were even available for a few
Norteamericanos (like Moses & his son Stephen
Austin), whereby they were given not only
administrative, executive, judicial & military
authority in their respective regions, but also up
to 30,000 acres of land and authority to make
land grants to others. Known as the Long Knives
to Natives, many inhabitants of the
Kentucky/Tennessee or lower Mississippi &
Alabama regions shared Scots-Irish heritage and
a reputation for that which such a heritage
entailed (rebelliousness, ambition to escape
poverty & frontier qualities explained above in
Jacksons Era). Many of these men & some of
their families moved into Stephen Austins
territory, but even more came in illegally near
present-day Houston in the eastern sector of
Spanish Tejas y Coahuila (the two were joined

together as a territory with representative

government permitted)squatting, refusing to
fulfill Mexicos requirements for citizenship &
legal ownership of property, and openly defying
Spains orders not to trade directly with
American Louisiana nor bring or use slaves
(slavery had been definitively outlawed in Mexico
by 1829). The Spanish government sent up
small, inquiring expeditions such as that of Tier y
Miran, which concluded that Americans were too
numerous, too defiant, too ambitious &
industrious and too foreign in custom &
allegiance NOT to be seen as a threat to Mexico.
Therefore, Bustamante established the April 6th
Law of 1830, which banned Anglo immigration,
stamped down on Anglo smuggling, reinforced
Mexicos intolerance of slavery, and ordered
more Mexican settlers & military troops in that
northern region. While Stephen Austin was
imprisoned for over a year in pleading for an end
to the April 6th law (while threatening the
consequences), Santa Anna took over from
Gomez-Farias, and he relapsed into a very
conservative constitution (Bases Organicas y
Siete Leyes), whereby provincial governors were
to be hand-picked by the federal government,
and such governors were to hand pick local
leaders, while local representative democracy,
Tejas y Coahuilas representation in the Mexican

Congress/Diputacion was denied, new property

requirements for citizenship disenfranchised
60% of the citizens of Mexico, and regional
militias were to be incorporated into Santa
Annas national armed forces. Sam Houston,
William Travis & other Anglo leaders began
organizing meetings of protest, preparing for
armed conflict but officially claiming that they
only desired a return to the liberal 1824
constitution & an end to the April 6th law. When
Santa Anna crushed the Zacatecas governments
resistance, word spread that he was headed next
to Tejas. Santa Anna brother-in-law, De Cos,
was to ensure that no military actions in defiance
to the federal government were made, and when
he asked primarily Anglo rebels to return stolen
Mexican cannon near Goliad, they refused & fired
upon him. Sam Houston began organizing an
army near the Louisiana border, but famous Davy
Crockett, William Travis (who wrote a dramatic
letter to Americans asking for assistance in the
name of liberty-loving Anglo civilization
against a Latin tyrant) and just over 100 rebels
decided to stay within an abandoned mission &
presidio in San Antoniothe Alamo. After a
couple days of bombardment in March of 1836,
Santa Annas forces breached a weak wall (made
of brush, as opposed to an actual wall) and killed
nearly every able-bodied male within (he had

given them a chance to surrender, and legend

states that Davy Crockett returned such an offer
with a shot at Santa Annas shoulder). Travis
letter, Houstons popularity, racism & greed for
new land rendered nearly one thousand
Norteamericano volunteers arriving into Tejas;
consequently, when Santa Anna was lulled into
putting his guard down in meeting three other
contingents of his armed forces at San Jacinto,
he was captured, his forces were defeated, and
in exchange for his life he granted Tejas to these
Anglo rebels. Santa Anna came as a prisoner to
President Jackson (who loved this charming
man!), but Mexicos new government made it
clear that should the United States annex/add
this newly independent republic of Texas, it
would mean war!

6.
Having once been named the Warhawk
generation of Congressmen (Calhoun, Clay,
Crockett, Houston, etc.) and presidents (Jackson,
Harrison), this generation of aging leaders

continued to host debates, make nominations,

committees or treaties relating in some manner
to the acquisition of western land. Lieutenant
Charles Wilkinson (sent on a government
exploring expedition) would publish glowing
accounts of the Far West, as would Methodist
missionaries, employees of John Jacob Astors
Pacific Fur Company, migrants (Bidwell-Bartleson
group of early 1820s, Thomas Farnham who
had published Travels in the Great Western
Prairies in 1841--, Californias Dr. John Marsh and
actual liaison to U.S. government Thomas
Larkin), and pro-expansionist journalists like
Horace Greeley. The characters & travels of
professional mountain men like Jedediah
Smith, Kit Carson & John C. Fremont (sort of!)
allegedly led to a great popular interest in the
Far West, and Richard Henry Danas glowing
account of a beautiful, isolated Mexican
California was read broadly. While neither
President Jackson nor Martin Van Buren would
touch the Texas & Mexico issue, the tenth
president John Tyler (the ninth, Harrison, was
only shortly in office with pneumonia and died)
endorsed & encouraged Congress to annex/add
Texas into the Union. Mexican Ambassadors had
made it clear that such a gesture would likely
lead to war. Santa Anna had a bronze statue
made of himself, pointing upwardly toward Texas

in anticipation of regaining it, and he sent troops

into the Rio Grande River area to readily repel
any Texan incursions. Not publicly supporting
the re-conquest of lost Texas was tantamount to
political suicide in Mexico, according to
historian Timothy Henderson (A Glorious Defeat:
Mexico & Its War with the United States ). Van
Burens administration almost went to war with
the Republic of Texas concerning an Arkansas
alleged border and Texan military expeditions to
disrupt traffic along the Santa Fe Trail. However,
lame duck President Tyler and his successor
unabashedly favored annexation of Texas, even if
it meant war. Upcoming Democrat black horse
candidate James K. Polk would run on a monofaceted campaign (one term only to secure the
Far West: 54/40 Latitude above an American
Oregon Territory, Texas & California), and he was
elected president. He too was of Scots-Irish
origin, and primary source accounts tend to
describe him as quiet, small in stature, somber
and sickly, yet his eyes & expression were
described by many as indicative of fierce
concentration, intelligence, resolve and
intensity. He used the patronage of Andrew
Jackson as well as the refusal of his oppositional
candidates to endorse annexation of western,
Mexican, English & Native American territory
(Van Buren, despite claiming moral scruples, was

denounced by his Southern, Democrat-Party

brethren as a Hamiltonian industrialist unwilling
to see the cash crop/planter faction gain allies
in the West, and Henry Clay admitted to such) to
gain popular votes of a vast constituency
considerably in favor of western conquest; after
all, it was the United States Manifest Destiny to
do sobringing economic prosperity, as well as
social & political egalitarianism or democracy.
Optimistic humanism could be found in many
corners of the United States: utopian
communities were established at New Harmony,
Indiana & Brook Farm, New York to host
perfect societies optimizing health, unity,
happiness, prosperity & cultivation;
Transcendentalists were combining Romantic
notions of truth & genius emanating from Godgiven intuition, habit & emotion; health gurus
like Sylvester Graham of the modern-day Graham
cracker were advocating consumption of
particular ingredients to greatly prolong life,
Native-influenced leaders stressed acupuncture
& sweat houses, and phrenologists (today
considered quack science) were measuring
craniums and contending that those of AngloSaxon bloodline possessed the greatest capacity
for invention, success, benevolence, etc.;
Antebellum Reformers vehemently fought
consumption of alcohol, sexism against women,

mistreatment of prisoners and the mentallydisabled, andvery provocativelyslavery; and

an American Renaissance ensued via writers
like Hawthorne, Melville, Twain, Dickinson, Poe,
Whitman and others that fostered patriotic
pride. This patriotic and humanistic optimism,
however, was tempered by Democrats
especially those in western frontier states of
Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, etc.with a
heavy dose of what would later be coined
POPULISM in the 1890s: an almost phobic
disdain for entrenched elites aloof from the
people (Polk would ride on the 1824 alleged
Corrupt Bargain between John Quincy Adams
and Henry Clay in beating Clay for the
presidency); an almost phobic fear of the
monied classes (big bankers, industrial
entrepreneurs, merchants, lawyers, etc.)
receiving partial support from or even business
agreements with the central government; and an
idealized veneration for the common man and
his ties to Gods land, his virtue, honesty, work
ethic and sagacity. Many in this camp claimed
that only in capturing western land could the
Democratic party ensure that the Hamiltonian
Whigs as well as the monied class they
favored would not corrupt or ruin the alleged
Jeffersonian republican origins intended by the
Founding Fathers. One could perhaps argue

that the expansionist Polk was catapulted into

office by the growing democracy starting in
western states and the ugly populism & tyranny
of the majority which Alexis de Tocqueville
warned could easily result from such popular
participation in government.
7.
Mexico would have her own problems. Santa
Anna, accused of using public revenue for lavish
private living, of stifling opposition in the press,
of confiscating Church property & wealth
allegedly for military spending, of failing to pay
salaries to many bureaucrats, of nullifying the
Congressional liberal Constitution of 1842 and
replacing it with an ultra-conservative Organic
Bases Constitution, and of using the armed
forces to disband Congress after Congressional
elections rendered many seats opened to liberal
representatives, was chased out of Mexico in
June of 1845 via the Three-Hour Revolution.
(130-132) His successor, General Joaquin de
Herrera, was known as a moderate conservative
and man of practical common sense. He argued
that Mexico was not economically or militarily
ready to risk war with the U.S., and that France
& Britain had already refused to ally themselves
with Mexico should war with the northern bully
neighbor ensue. When his offer of recognition of

the Republic of Texas with the condition of no

annexation to the U.S. was turned down by the
Texan Congress (55 to 1 in favor of annexation to
U.S.), he was portrayed in liberal newspapers
like La Voz de la Gente as a coward and traitor.
In December of 1845, he was overthrown by an
ultra conservative military General, Mariano
Paredes y Arrillaga.

8.
President Polk sent John Slidell as a U.S.
Minister to Mexico with instructions to take
advantage of Herreras desire to avoid war via
offering $25 million for essentially the land that
would be soon taken by conquest. Although
Paredes y Arrillaga played the patriot card, he
too apparently did not want war according to
historian Timothy Henderson. Nevertheless,
President Polk encouraged Slidell to give a twoweek ultimatum to accept the American offer as
well as her claim to Texas border stretching to
the Rio Grande, and he ordered General Zachary
Taylor to move deeper into the disputed
territory between the Nueces & Rio Grande
Rivers. Simultaneously, Polk had a Naval
Squadron arrive just outside Mexican national
waters, near the port city of Veracruz. According
to Henderson, Paredes could not appear
cowardly if he wanted to stay in power; instead,

Paredes ordered the Mexican squadron in the

disputed territory to issue an ultimatum for
American troops to return beyond the Nueces.
Whigs (Federalists had imploded) at all levels of
government claimed that this was clearly an
imperialist war intended to augment the
territory & Congressional numbers of the
Democrat Agrarian-based faction, young
Abraham Lincoln among them. Also,
Transcendentalists, Antebellum Reformers and
other leaders of the intelligentsia openly
opposed the provocation of war with Mexico, but
they were often silenced or criticized in the
press, subjected to public ridicule (namely, as
unpatriotic cowards), or ignored
(Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau refused
to pay taxes that contributed to Fugitive Slave
Laws and the military effort against Mexico, and
he embraced his arrest in hope of garnering
attention for his cause as a martyr. He also felt
compelled by these circumstances to write On
Civil Disobedience). Instead, articles such as
John OSullivans regarding MANIFEST DESTINY
were widely read & quoted to justify the
imperialist conquests still to come. When a
skirmish broke out between the disputed
territorial rivers and a handful of American
soldiers lost their lives (sixteen casualties) on
April 25, President Polk followed President

Madisons precedent (Madison had first

personally addressed joint Congress with a
formal speech petitioning the representatives to
DECLARE WAR & WHY) and sought a
Congressional declaration of war that ended
with:
The cup of forbearance had been exhausted
even before the recent information from the
frontier of Del Norte (Rio Grande). But now,
after reiterated menaces, Mexico has passed the
boundary of the United States, has invaded our
territory and shed American blood on American
soil. She has proclaimed that hostilities have
commenced, and that the two nations are now at
war.

9.
Credit must be given where it is due:
Zachary Taylor (in charge of the northern army
against Mexico), Winfield Scott (in charge of the
subsequent southern invasion of Mexican
Veracruz), and a myriad of North American Anglo

officers and soldiers praised the Mexican

soldiers courage, physical strength (they were
often depicted as bravely fatalistic mentally and
on averageshorter but stouter physically) and
at timestactics. Apparently, Zachary Taylors
initial, relatively easy victories in northern
Mexico in quick succession (Resaca de la Palma,
Saltillo, Palo Alto, and Matamoros), led to his
dose of humble pie at BUENA VISTA: after having
half of his troops taken from him to assist in the
southern invasion of VERACRUZ under Winfield
Scott, Taylor kept his men in Saltillo awaiting
Santa Anna and likely fully aware that the
latters Mexican troops outnumbered his 3:1.
When he was outflanked by Santa Annas army
and driven from three of his four trench works,
he reportedly cried in gratitude and humility
when Santa Anna evacuated his army south to
San Luis Potosi as Taylors army and position
was hanging by a thread. (Fire & Blood by T.R.
Fehrenbach pg 398) Evidently, it was an
emotional decision to refrain from having so
many of his soldiers killed by the Americans upto-date & deadly ARTILLERY and a logistical
concern that his men were almost literally out of
ammunition and food that led Santa Anna to
miss such an opportunity to destroy one of the
two American armies in Mexico. Santa Annas
decisions were not any less disadvantageous for

the Mexican cause in southern Mexico. He

awaited Scotts mere 10,000-man armys arrival
from Veracruz at CERRO GORDO, evidently in an
advantageous geographical position of the high
ground overlooking a narrow pass that seemed
the only way for the invaders to traverse.
However, he did not take into account Winfield
Scotts West Point engineers and advisors like
the young George McClellan, who used steel
ramps and other devices to get heavy artillery up
an adjacent hill of even higher ground. As the
barrage from atop this hill began to decimate
Santa Annas troops, they felt compelled to
break ranks and flee downhill, where other
American forces had devised mines and caught
them in a cross-fire. As the American Army
under Scott symbolically and publicly took
Hernan Cortes old route toward Mexico City, its
soldiers caught more breaks. In the Yucatan
Peninsula (especially Merida & Campeche), a
Caste War erupted from Native, poor, landless &
marginalized mobs against the official Mexican
government. Three more coups would put
Anaya, Gomez-Farias, then Manuel de la Pena y
Pena in charge of Mexico, and three northern
Mexican states declared their neutrality and
even sent diplomats to the U.S. for separate
treaties. As U.S. troops arrived at Contreras &
its neighbor Churubusco, Mexican officer

VALENCIA refused to combine forces and grant

ammunition to Anaya and his men (allegedly
over a past insult & political rivalry);
consequently, historian Fehrenbach and many
others contend that Scott was able to defeat
both neighboring enemies separately, but could
have possibly been repelled if both had
combined (Anaya had the men, Valencia the
ammunition. When Anaya surrendered and was
subsequently asked if he had any ammunition to
hand over, he angrily retorted, If I still had
ammunition, you wouldnt be here!) At Puebla,
Santa Anna reportedly quit the fight prematurely
despite his heroic bravery elsewhere, and three
separate factions competed in taking over the
capitalnone in favor of Santa Anna. As
American forces neared Mexico City, they were
gallantly opposed by young, military cadet
students of CHAPULTEPEC, but the students were
so outmanned that they only received fame for
the heroic deaths of the Six Heroes who
refused to surrender and fought hand-to-hand
atop the castlethe final student reportedly
draping himself in the Mexican flag and diving
off the castle to his death. When Mexico Citys
urban poor and homeless rose up during the
arrival of Scotts troops, they reportedly looted,
raped and attacked the Mexican well-to-do and
rarely the foreign invaders! Scott supposedly

ran with this, as he went to great links to

convince the Mexican population that he only
momentarily opposed their governmental
leaders: he made his men attend Mass with him,
he publicly hanged any American soldiers
convicted of raping Mexican women, he publicly
declared Amnesty/Mercy for the deaths of over
two dozen American soldiers, whose bodies had
been found on Mexico Citys streets or in her
taverns. Luckily for Scott and his army,
President Pena sued for peace and had a
commission sign the TREATY OF GUADALUPE
HIDALGO on February 2, 1848, and he and his
men quickly evacuated Mexico before
succumbing to the rising tide of guerilla warfare
(over 1/3 of his supplies and reinforcements
were taken or killed before reaching him from
Veracruz!).
a.
Americans Promise in Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo that Mexican Vecinos/Citizens in land
taken by U.S. have their citizenship and
property rights protected by U.S.
government.