How Did James K. Polk To Fight Mexico

He was a strong believer in popular sovereignity. Since he felt so strongly about it, he agreed that popular sovereignity would decide whether or not Kansas and Nebraska would be free states or slave states. This decision caused a huge disagreement between the North and South because this would allow slavery north of the Mason-Dixon dividing line created in the Missouri Compromise. The president at the time, Franklin Pierce, supported Douglas’ bill and passed it on May 30th, 1854.

James K. Polk was the eleventh President, from 1845 to 1849. James K. Polk had said in his inaugural address on March 4, 1845, “ The world has nothing to fear from military ambition in our government. “ He basically is saying that we as citizens and people in the world should not have any fear in military ambition from our government. Polk’s presidency reflected this statement by achieving his four main goals he set out to achieve during his presidency. The four main goals were to cut tariffs, reestablishing an independent U.S Treasury, securing the Oregon Territory, gaining the territories of California and New Mexico from Mexico. In ways that didn’t reflect the statement was that he caused war with Mexico for three years.

The United States became further united due to the continuous desire and procurement of new territories. In President James Polk’s 1845 Inaugural Address, he shared his opinion of the “danger to [the nation’s] safety and future peace” if Texas remained an independent

Consequently, Polk conceded on demands for expansion deep into Canada and set about instead to negotiated a more reasonable American-Canadian border. The Oregon Treaty, signed with Great Britain in 1846, allowed the U.S. to acquire peacefully what is now Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Reasonably certain that war in the Northwest could be avoided, Polk concentrated on efforts to claim the Southwest from Mexico… He tried to buy the territory, and when that failed, he

A final reason why the Mexican War was justified was that President Polk sent a message to the Senate to explain about going to war with Mexico. “I had ordered an efficient military force to take a position between the Nueces and Del Norte.” (Polk 325) This quote shows that the U.S. army marched and stayed between the Nueces and Del Norte to fight the Mexican soldiers. “Polk was a strong supporter of Manifest Destiny.” (Roden 317) This quote shows that Polk was in agreement in accepting and accomplishing the plan of God. Paraphrased information: Polk was elected in late 1844 and did not want just Texas, he also wants California, too. (Roden 317) This information shows that Texas isn’t the only state America should own. The United States had

The point of the protective tariffs was that the Northern states would manufacture their own products to avoid benefitting foreign countries. This was a disadvantage for the South as they had no benefits from it. Polk had appointed his Secretary of the Treasure, Robert J. Walker, to lower the tariff rates of products to a standard rate, this was known as the Walker Tariff. It lowered the taxes on items that were a necessity, and increased for luxury items. The political effects of the Walker Tariff was political conflict between the North and the South. The North was against such a law because it provided less profit from the South. The South benefitted in a way that they did not have to pay too much on exports of foreign countries. This benefitted the United States economically because it encouraged the South to trade and export their extra crops to countries abroad. As a result, relations among America and Britain had improved because the Walker Tariff encouraged free trade between them. It also allowed Britain to import the grains produced in

In 1846 the Walker Tariff became law and it “moved rates downward to revenue-only levels and dropped the policy of an ad valorem rate in favor of a set rate regardless of the value” (Miller Center of Public Affairs)3. This ended up being one of the lowest tariffs in American history and it greatly increased international trade, which also happens to be another one of his great accomplishments. Polk also accomplished his goal to reestablish the U.S. Treasury by reinitiating the Independent Treasury Act put in place originally by Martin Van Buren. This “established independent treasury deposit offices separate from private or state banks to receive all government funds” (Miller Center of Public Affairs)3. This gave the government full control over all of their funds which reduced the risks of losing money to the other banks, and also was supposed to stop the treasury’s influence over the market. In 1845 the annexation of Texas was also completed and it became the twenty eighth state on December twenty ninth. This was soon followed by the Mexican- American war in 1846-1848 because of disputes over where the border of Texas should lie. In the end, the United States won after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in 1848. The treaty effectively recognized the Rio Grande as the Natural border of Texas and it also gave the United

The first reason the United States was justified in going to war with Mexico is because we had rights. “Polk was a strong supporter of manifest destiny.” This shows that Polk would have agreed to what people had to say about gaining land. “When word arrived

Mexican President Jose Herrera refused to negotiate (Stevenson 2009). After failed negotiations with Mexico, Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor to position his troops in the disputed territory, north of the Rio Grande River. Mexico, seeing this as an act of aggression struck first and killed several of Tyler’s men. After receiving word of the skirmish, President Polk petitioned congress, claiming Mexico “has invaded our territory, and shed American blood upon the American soil” (Tindall & Shi 2010, p. 401). In response, congress unanimously passed the resolution and on May 13, 1846, the United States declared war (Tindall & Shi 2010).

President Polk wanted to bring in California and New Mexico into the Union. Polk wanted to go to war, but did not want to be the start of the war so decided to anger Mexico into starting a war so that he would not be blamed. During the Mexico and American war, Mexican troops attacked Taylor's troops killing nine Americans. The United States forces were far more superior than the Mexican forces, they could easily take areas such as what is known as New Mexico today. Mexico refused to surrender in the United States had to invade

Not only was the southern border under dispute, the northern border between Canada and the U.S. was under dispute as well. The Treaty of 1818 called for a temporary solution- joint occupation. James K. Polk was elected in 1844 and claimed the entire Oregon Territory for himself. He wanted to claim the entire region and go to war with the British. The Mexican-American War helped us gain new states for short amounts of time.

In Mexican territories of California, New Mexico, and Texas, American settlers won independence from Mexico in 1837 and petitioned to join the union as a slave state. The U.S. hesitated to admit because the annexation of Mexican territories promised to break the balance hardly built by the Missouri Compromise. After enthusiastic expansionist James Knox Polk was elected to the presidency, Texas joined the union as a slave state in 1846. In the same year, Oregon joined as a free state after negotiations with Great Britain. Every time new states joined the union, Americans carefully tried to keep the balance between the slave and free states not to arouse conflicts between the North and

Started worrying about the politics when he turned 27 years old. James Polk graduated with top honors in mathematics. James polk was born in mecklenburg county North Carolina. He later lived in and represented tennessee. James Polk was the 13th speaker of the house of representatives. The 11th president was often referred to the first “dark horse”, James Polk was the 11th president from 1845 to 1849, the last strong president until the Civil War.

Polk was strongly in favor of expanding the United States to the Pacific. This opinion won him the election of 1844. That year Henry Clay, a well known and loved figure in American politics, ran and was expected to blow, little known, Polk of the charts. The only problem was Clay was nervous about territorial expansion. He did not want was with Mexico and was unsure of the constitutionality of expanding. Polk won because the majority of the public believed in Manifest Destiny.

James Knox Polk was born November 2, 1795 in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. James was the son of