Okla-homey
2/2/2009, 07:48 AM
February 2, 1848: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/7856/guadalupehidalgoxh9.gif
Territory ceded by Mexico to the US by the treaty
161 years ago on this day in 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed, ending the Mexican-American War in favor of the United States. The Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo added an additional 525,000 square miles to United States territory, including the area that would become the states of Texas, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, as well as parts of Colorado and Wyoming.
Controversy during and after the war pitted President James K. Polk n a political war against two future presidents: Zachary Taylor nd Abraham Lincoln.
Polk, a Democrat, ignited the Mexican-American War when he sent his Commanding General of the Army Zachary Taylor and his troops to claim territory along the Rio Grande River between the U.S. and Mexico.
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/5365/polk8342325cz5.jpg
James K. Polk was the 11th president of the United States. He was the president during the Mexican-American War. Polk obtained more land in with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo than the United States obtained at any other point in history. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo exceeded the Louisiana Purchase and is responsible for close to half of the contiguous 48 states today. He was also the last US president who sported a mullet.:D
Polk insisted Mexico had invaded the U.S. when an earlier skirmish between American and Mexican troops erupted over the ill-defined territorial boundaries of Texas. In truth, Polk sent Taylor and his army to the border to pick a fight. When it began, the action was immediately denounced by Abraham Lincoln, then a leading Whig member of Congress, who described the resulting war as illegal, unnecessary and expensive.
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/1096/polzacharytaylorui7.jpg
General Zack Taylor. His military success would propel him to the White House, assisted by the efforts of Congressman Lincoln and Lincoln's fellow Whigs.
While Taylor performed his military duty in Texas, Polk wrestled with Congressional opposition led by Lincoln in Washington.
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/2374/polscottentersmexicocitqb9.jpg
US forces occupy Mexico City
Polk was a firm believer in America's "Manifest Destiny" of increased U.S. territorial expansion in order to bring democracy and Protestant Christianity to a "backward" region.
Lincoln and his cohorts protested not so much expansionism itself, but Polk's justification of the war. Although the war ended favorably for the U.S., Lincoln continued to attack Polk after the signing of the treaty for his lack of an exit strategy that clearly defined citizenship and property rights for former Mexican citizens.
Lincoln called the president "a bewildered, confounded, and miserably perplexed man." Although Polk's war was successful, he lost public support after two bloody years of fighting during which the U.S. lost 1,773 men and spent a whopping $100 million.
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/4222/polabrahamlincolnautojv1.jpg
Congressman Lincoln's opposition to the Mexican War were, briefly, that 1) the President had sent Taylor into an inhabited part of the country belonging to Mexico, and not to the U.S. and thereby had provoked the first act of hostility - in fact the commencement of the war; 2) that the place, being the county bordering on the East bank of the Rio Grande, was inhabited by native Mexicans, born there under the Mexican government who had never submitted to, nor been conquered by Texas, or the U.S. nor transferred to either by treaty; 3) that although Texas claimed the Rio Grande as her boundary, Mexico had never recognized it, the people on the ground had never recognized it, and neither Texas nor the U.S. had ever enforced it; 4) that there was a broad desert between that, and the country over which Texas had actual control - that the country where hostilities commenced, having once belonged to Mexico, must remain so, until it was somehow legally transferred, which had never been done; 5) the act of sending an armed force among the Mexicans, was unnecessary, inasmuch as Mexico was in no way molesting, or menacing the U.S. or the people thereof; 6) and that it was unconstitutional, because the power of levying war is vested in Congress, and not in the President
Meanwhile, Taylor earned national popularity for his heroic actions during the war and for the camaraderie he shared with even his lowliest subordinates. When the war ended, Taylor decided to run for the presidency. One of his political mentors happened to be Abraham Lincoln, who wrote a note to Taylor after the war ended advising him of what he ought to say regarding the Mexican-American War and the question of slavery in any newly won territories.
Lincoln and his fellow Whigs in Congress scored major popularirty hits on Polk who chose not to run again for the presidency. Taylor barely won the popular vote in a race that included former President Martin Van Buren and Democratic nominee Lewis Cass.
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/637/insane7zoao4.jpg
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/7856/guadalupehidalgoxh9.gif
Territory ceded by Mexico to the US by the treaty
161 years ago on this day in 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed, ending the Mexican-American War in favor of the United States. The Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo added an additional 525,000 square miles to United States territory, including the area that would become the states of Texas, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, as well as parts of Colorado and Wyoming.
Controversy during and after the war pitted President James K. Polk n a political war against two future presidents: Zachary Taylor nd Abraham Lincoln.
Polk, a Democrat, ignited the Mexican-American War when he sent his Commanding General of the Army Zachary Taylor and his troops to claim territory along the Rio Grande River between the U.S. and Mexico.
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/5365/polk8342325cz5.jpg
James K. Polk was the 11th president of the United States. He was the president during the Mexican-American War. Polk obtained more land in with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo than the United States obtained at any other point in history. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo exceeded the Louisiana Purchase and is responsible for close to half of the contiguous 48 states today. He was also the last US president who sported a mullet.:D
Polk insisted Mexico had invaded the U.S. when an earlier skirmish between American and Mexican troops erupted over the ill-defined territorial boundaries of Texas. In truth, Polk sent Taylor and his army to the border to pick a fight. When it began, the action was immediately denounced by Abraham Lincoln, then a leading Whig member of Congress, who described the resulting war as illegal, unnecessary and expensive.
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/1096/polzacharytaylorui7.jpg
General Zack Taylor. His military success would propel him to the White House, assisted by the efforts of Congressman Lincoln and Lincoln's fellow Whigs.
While Taylor performed his military duty in Texas, Polk wrestled with Congressional opposition led by Lincoln in Washington.
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/2374/polscottentersmexicocitqb9.jpg
US forces occupy Mexico City
Polk was a firm believer in America's "Manifest Destiny" of increased U.S. territorial expansion in order to bring democracy and Protestant Christianity to a "backward" region.
Lincoln and his cohorts protested not so much expansionism itself, but Polk's justification of the war. Although the war ended favorably for the U.S., Lincoln continued to attack Polk after the signing of the treaty for his lack of an exit strategy that clearly defined citizenship and property rights for former Mexican citizens.
Lincoln called the president "a bewildered, confounded, and miserably perplexed man." Although Polk's war was successful, he lost public support after two bloody years of fighting during which the U.S. lost 1,773 men and spent a whopping $100 million.
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/4222/polabrahamlincolnautojv1.jpg
Congressman Lincoln's opposition to the Mexican War were, briefly, that 1) the President had sent Taylor into an inhabited part of the country belonging to Mexico, and not to the U.S. and thereby had provoked the first act of hostility - in fact the commencement of the war; 2) that the place, being the county bordering on the East bank of the Rio Grande, was inhabited by native Mexicans, born there under the Mexican government who had never submitted to, nor been conquered by Texas, or the U.S. nor transferred to either by treaty; 3) that although Texas claimed the Rio Grande as her boundary, Mexico had never recognized it, the people on the ground had never recognized it, and neither Texas nor the U.S. had ever enforced it; 4) that there was a broad desert between that, and the country over which Texas had actual control - that the country where hostilities commenced, having once belonged to Mexico, must remain so, until it was somehow legally transferred, which had never been done; 5) the act of sending an armed force among the Mexicans, was unnecessary, inasmuch as Mexico was in no way molesting, or menacing the U.S. or the people thereof; 6) and that it was unconstitutional, because the power of levying war is vested in Congress, and not in the President
Meanwhile, Taylor earned national popularity for his heroic actions during the war and for the camaraderie he shared with even his lowliest subordinates. When the war ended, Taylor decided to run for the presidency. One of his political mentors happened to be Abraham Lincoln, who wrote a note to Taylor after the war ended advising him of what he ought to say regarding the Mexican-American War and the question of slavery in any newly won territories.
Lincoln and his fellow Whigs in Congress scored major popularirty hits on Polk who chose not to run again for the presidency. Taylor barely won the popular vote in a race that included former President Martin Van Buren and Democratic nominee Lewis Cass.
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/637/insane7zoao4.jpg