alternatehistory.com

As news of the outbreak of hostilities between Mexico and the United States of America led to an official declaration of war between the two powers in May of 1846, an outbreak of cholera occurred in Washington, D.C. The disease spread quickly with little regard for the political power-brokers of the national capitol, quickly taking the life of Secretary of State James Buchanan. As May turned into June and the oppressive summer heat overtook the city, President James K. Polk passed away, leaving the reigns of a nation at war to his Vice President, George Mifflin Dallas, who was quickly sworn in as the 12th President of the United States on June 13th, 1846.



An avid believer in Manifest Destiny and American expansion, President Dallas had proclaimed that all of Mexico should be taken and incorporated into the United States when the Mexican American War initially broke out and he was still Vice President.
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