The US Colonial Times to 1877 - Assignment Example

I was elected President of the United States in 1844, I had a bit of a mess to clean up in Texas. At that time, it was still its republic. My predecessor, President John Tyler, tried unsuccessfully to get the Senate to agree to an annexation treaty, but they refused. I am a firm believer in Manifest Destiny myself, so when I got elected, I joined Tyler to form a joint resolution. This resolution declared that Texas would be admitted to the union as long as it agreed to annexation by January 1, 1846.

Six days before I took over the office of President, on February 26, 1845, the joint resolution passed in Congress. I guess all Tyler needed was someone to add a little more political power to the mix. Texas President Anson Jones and the Texas residents approved the annexation agreement eight months later, and in December 1845, I was able to sign the official documents that made Texas a state (Texas Annexation, 2010). This helped by adding a slave-holding state in the South to balance out the newly acquired non-slave-holding state of Oregon.

I felt this was necessary to keep the cotton growers happy since they contributed so much capital to the national economy. It would have been silly to alienate them. Why was I so intent on obtaining Texas for the United States? For one thing, the Texans were tired of being under the power of the Mexican government. Just a decade before, the Texans had fought a war to gain independence from Mexico. After some major Texan victories, Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna launched a successful counter-attack on the Alamo Mission in San Antonio in February 1836.

The two armies were very unevenly matched. Santa Anna’s army had about 2,400 Mexican soldiers against about 200 Texans who remained at the mission after many had been ordered to leave. After a two-week battle, the Alamo fell to Santa Anna’s forces on March 6, 1836. The tragic defeat of the Alamo sent more Texan men running to join the resistance army than ever before. For the remaining battles, the battle cry was often, “Remember the Alamo!” Santa Anna’s forces were no match for this group of angry Texas men, and he was ultimately forced to surrender on April 21, 1836 (Battle of the Alamo, 2010).

Anti-Mexican sentiment ran high after this war of independence, so I felt that the time was right to make the Republic of Texas part of the United States of America. That way our country could have powerful allies against the Mexicans should we end up needing them, and it turns out we did. A few weeks after Texas became part of the U.S., Mexico cut off all foreign trade with us. In September 1845, I sent John Slidell to the Mexican border to negotiate an ongoing border dispute concerning Texas.

I also wanted him to purchase the Mexican territories of New Mexico and California for $30,000,000. This would give me the ability to extend the United States to the Pacific Ocean, which would enable me to establish better trade agreements with Pacific nations. Can you believe that the Mexican President refused to meet with Slidell? I thought this affront was reason enough to go to war with Mexico, so I sent General Zachary Taylor and some troops to occupy the disputed area between the Nueces and the Rio Grande.

A few months later, I found out that Mexican troops crossed the Rio Grande and attacked Taylor’s troops. American soldiers had been killed on American soil. This was reason enough to go to war, and I said as much to Congress in May 1846. They unanimously approved the declaration of war (History.com, 2009). The war itself lasted less than two years. The Mexican forces were no match for the U.S. Army. On February 2, 1848, Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo with us.

This treaty forced Mexico to cede almost all the territory now included in the states of New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California, Texas, and western Colorado for $15,000,000. The nation expanded by more than 500,000 square miles. My mission of Manifest Destiny was ultimately successful.