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Chapter 2
The Mexican War and Early American Period, 1846-1848
Kemnants of disagreements and political ugli- ness marred relations between Mexico and the United States, now including Texas, until a mechanism was contrived to bring about a violent decisive confrontation. Proponents of Manifest Destiny justified the desire for additional land as ordained from a higher source. The contrived con- frontation in southeast Texas gave way to a full- blown American invasion, by land and sea, of Mexican-held territory by various contingents of United States military (and paramilitary) forces.
The Army of the West was assigned the task of securing New Mexico and California from the Mexican empire. Part of this major force, a Bat- talion composed of forceably displaced Mormons, augmented by a handful of United States Regulars, was to cross the barren Southwest and establish a wagon road to the coast of the still-to-be-won addi- tion to the American Republic. This they ac- complished. But, in the diplomatic maneuverings of the settlement orchestrated by various bureaucratic envoys, the new boundary was unfortunately defined in a manner that allowed strong-willed Mexican rep- resentatives to claim a major portion of the desired area and thereby hatch another stumbling block to peaceful coexistence.
The Army of the West
Hostilities were smoldering between the United States and Mexico following the establishment of the Republic of Texas as a sovereign nation in 1836. In 1840 an international arbiter, the King of Prussia, had adjudicated American citizens’ claims against Mexico for losses during Mexico’s revolution to the sum of $2 million of which only a few minor install-
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Although the Mexican Government warned of war if Texas were annexed by the United States, this action in 1845 did not, in
itself, trigger hostilities. There were also the failure
commercial negotiations and a minor dispute over a small strip of land claimed by Texas, but these too were insufficient to provoke either side to war."
To complicate matters many influential people in the United States, in the North and South, were looking to the West for territorial expansion. The administration in Washington was interested in ac- quiring part or all of California before the British expanded southward from the jointly held Northwest Territory. In addition, there was still the disputed territory in southeastern Texas, and the northern provinces of Mexico were very enticing, especially when the advantages of Pacific ports were to be considered. In the autumn of 1845, President James Knox Polk, an ardent expansionist, sent John Slidell to negotiate with Mexico for California up to about the latitude of San Francisco. Slidell was authorized to pay up to $25 million and to assume
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Mexico’s outstanding debts to the United States. Unfortunately, Mexico’s government was in the midst of continuing turmoil. Santa Anna had been disgraced and many citizens were still smarting over the loss of the major buffer between themselves and the United States with the annexation of the Texas Republic. Early in 1846, General Mariano Paredes unseated the government led by Jose Herrera and
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Paredes was even more vehement than his predecessor and refused to discuss the issue of the Texas boundary or the sale of more Mexican soil. Polk took exception to the affront and proceeded to push the issue in
another way.
Several factors caused Paredes to take such an
inflexible position toward the United States’ offer. Paredes and the rest of the Mexican Government thought that war between the United States and Great Britain over the Oregon issue was inevitable, and the Americans could surely not risk fighting on two fronts with such powerful adversaries. Also it
ments had been paid.
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of
installed himself as the head of state.