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The Influence Of Abraham Lincoln On The Mexican American War

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Abraham Lincoln opposed the Mexican American War, since he argued it was unnecessary and unconstitutional. He questioned the U.S. president’s honesty and even accuses the president’s justification to be “from beginning to end, the sheerest deception.” Furthermore, he criticizes the president for supporting the war with arguments and not facts. He also bashes on the president’s mentality on a personal level. Moreover, Abraham Lincoln argues that President Polk is lying about the initial cause of the war in which the casualties took place. 2) What evidence does Lincoln use to support his anti-war argument? First and foremost, Lincoln is skeptical about Mexicans shedding American blood on American soil. He examined the president’s war …show more content…

Pekka Hamalainen and Benjamin H. Johnson (Boston: Cengage Learning, 2012), 284-291. 1) Thesis (What is the author’s main argument in the article). Gregg Cantrell informs the reader that Stephen F. Austin is a very complex individual who is taken out of context. Stephen F. Austin is a human being who is misunderstood by many and is seen as a racist, invader of land, and a white supremacist, since he was a proponent of the Manifest Destiny. Furthermore, he believed that his mission was to spread the American ways such as enterprise and intelligence. People mistook his declarations and blew them out of proportion. For this reason, he was also seem as pro-American chauvinism when he made a negative statement about the Catholic Church. However, when a person views Stephen F. Austin whole story, it is very different from the one they acclimated to. Austin, served as a political and cultural mediator between Anglo Texans and Mexicans. Furthermore, he was a person who wanted personal success, but also had a strong sense of public responsibility. 2) Evidence (What evidence does the author use to support the thesis of the article.) Stephen F. Austin’s title was empresario, which means entrepreneur, a person who has been granted to recruit settlers, issued land titles, enforce the laws and take responsibility for new settlers. Austin learned to speak fluent Spanish, conducted business in Spanish, and was personally acquainted with a host of major Mexican leaders.

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