THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR
Background:
The Californias (comprising of
Alta and
Baja California) were a region that saw very little activity during the colonization of the Americas. It was charted and explored, and claimed as Spanish domain since the early 17th century, but was scarcely settled. A majority of the settlements in the Californias during its time under New Spain were the result of religious missions (mostly Jesuits and Franciscans), a trend that continued until the recognition of Mexico's independence by Spain. From then on, the Californias was administered as a territory of Mexico, where the populace was misrepresented by governors chosen by Mexico City. These governors tended to focus mainly on the major populated areas -- the couple cities of which a majority of the sparsely populated territory's population resided.
By the 1840s, settlements had begun to appear throughout the coast of California, spurred by the concept of better representation in light of increased urbanization: as such, former missionary settlements seemingly exploded with population overnight. There was an exodus of persons from the interior of the territory to the Pacific Coast, and with that came new settlements among the rivers of California.
In 1851, a team of laborers were working on constructing yet another house in yet another settlement that would soon be abandoned. One of these men, relaxing by a river in the shade for a quick break, saw something glisten in the water. He quickly waded through it, and grabbed some gold sitting in the river bed. This, probably fictitious, account is often stated as being the beginning of the
California Gold Rush.
The Scent of Gold:
American advertisement for a clipper ship to California for gold.
The discovery of gold in California led to a massive exodus of Mexicans and Americans wishing to make a fortune off of the supposedly large sources of untouched gold in the territory. However, Americans soon became frustrated by the process of entering California -- if one wanted to travel safely, they would have to by sea, a process which would take months and thousands upon thousands of miles (a trip from New York City to San Francisco could take as long as thirteen thousand miles before the Nicaragua Canal's completion). Further, there were lengthy legal processes in this emigration that made such trips undesirable. In the cases of private companies breaking the law, and sending travelers out to smaller settlements to sneak through the legal processes (called "Sneak Cities"), the voyages boasted with them incredibly high fares. The only other methods were across land, across so-called "Gold Trails" which were brutal and often deadly.
The Declaration:
Davy Crockett, first President of the Republic of California
The first Americans to reach the shores of California were oftentimes wealthy or otherwise important -- some of these including military men or even politicians. Among these were Davy Crockett, the King of the Frontier. Seemingly always on the quest of new land and new adventures, he eventually explored his way to California. A charismatic man with many stories to tell, he eventually climbed his way through the social ladder in
Alta California and formed the American Society, a group of American emigrants who proposed the ascension of California into the United States. On the Fourth of November, 1853, the Society issued
The Californian Declaration of Independence (and Proclamation of Statehood), a several-page pamphlet urging the people of California to "unilaterally recognize the faults of the Mexican government in the administration of the Californias, and further recognize that the government of the United States of America would let the people of California live a free, prosperous life that is well-represented within the legislature, and well-understood by said legislature."
These arguments did have some effects. Despite the majority of the
Statehood Regiments being White Americans, there was a substantial minority of
Californios who also took up resistance against the Mexican government. Whether or not the United States would react to the California War of Independence was an unknown, but it was a risk that the Society was willing to take.
The Slaveholders War:
Back in the USA, there was much astir about the situation in Mexico. President Buchanan, following his advisers, proposed that the United States intervene in the affair on the side of the Californians. His petition was met with general positive responses, and by February the United States agreed to assist the Californian revolutionaries. However, due to the inappropriate timing, most of the Northern states were still thawing off from the near-ending winter, leading to the hotter South beginning to mobilize first.
In an ironic twist of fate, the winter weather began one of the worst sectional flare-ups in American history, as the South began to go all-in. Streetside politicians made boisterous claims of "All of Mexico for the Glory of America!" and other such things. These speeches often exploited the anti-Catholic sentiments at their unfortunate peak in American culture, and as such were wildly popular in both the North and South.
However, this was not the status quo throughout the course of the war. What changed the near-universal support of the Mexican War was the speech orated by Mississippi senator Jefferson Davis, which a section goes as follows:
"It is of critical importance that the economically-minded
men of Congress -- and here I refer to those enterprising
minds within these walls, as well as the slaveholders of my
fellow Southern States -- be recognized and addressed. Fi-
rstly among these is the industrial importance of Mexico. Her
coasts are pristine, her rivers are rich, and her people cry for
freedom. And freedom we shall give! For freedom is what our
Union of States stands for! For freedom is what brings us pr-
osperity! Her northern portions are as ripe for labor as the
valleys of Alabama and Mississippi -- as rich for cotton as
thereabouts, also. Her southern portions are rich with cof-
fee, and the rest of her is also filled with crops of abundance.
With the Providence of God we shall own these lands, and wit-
hin His Providence we shall succeed in utilizing all of her abundance."
The connotations of the Mexican-American War helping slaveholders had been a lurking beast behind the scenes, but those in the mostly abolitionist Northern United States had instead chosen to focus on the more decidedly egalitarian and pleasurable matters of the war -- the liberation of the democratic California being the most prominent in these interpretations. However, with Davis' speech (and a numerous amount of speeches made in the Halls of Congress similar in meaning and language as Davis'), this more ugly aspect of war reared its ugly head, and finally the slightly more war-hesitant North started to fight back.
The Yanks Back Out:
Protest to the Mexican-American War was originally obscure, but still present. Pages defaming the war effort were occasionally seen in abolitionist newspapers at the time, but these hardly were in the public's mind at the time. "I am dismayed," wrote prominent freedman Frederick Douglass, "to see that many a man will continue his life as though this war is not abominable and misguided."
Following Davis' speech, finally public outcry poured in. It came from writers -- like writer Henry David Thoreau, who refused to pay his taxes in an act of rebellion: "I have heard some of my townsmen say, 'I should like to have them order me to help put down an insurrection of the slaves, or to march to Mexico -- see if I would go'; and yet these very men have each, directly by their allegiance, and so indirectly, at least, by their money, furnished a substitute," he described in his pamphlet,
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.
The pamphlet, and Thoreau's practices, caught on in a minority of Northerners, nicknamed "Disobedients." These Disobediants acted through public and private protest, some following in Thoreau's footsteps by refusing to pay taxes, while others formed citywide marches in protest. The most important acts of defiance came from the political world, however.
It is a breezy September afternoon in Philadelphia. The Congress is in session, and addressing Congress is Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner.
"Are we already so far gone from our principles
that we have begun to become the very thing
that inspired us into creating these United St-
ates? Have we so soon become corrupted by
evil men and corrupting forces who, like Anti-
christs of the Holy Book, appear before us and
whisper cruel lies into our ears? who twist our
powers and abilities into the powers of evil? Nay,
says I, nay we are not yet. For so long as this C-
ongress has power: so long as the Rights of the
People are respected: and so long as we have the
rights to call out these evil actions as the evil acts
that they truly are.
...
In this war of conquest, of restless national glutt-
ony, we have become driven by the slaveholders,
like horses by coachmen. These wicked men are d-
riving us to rape the virgin earth of Mexico, to try to
spread the evil seeds of slavery onto the nation. Th-
ese men are almost infatuated by slaveholding, as l-
usting as slovenly drunkards towards innocent maidens."
Eventually, the lengthy speech ends. It is met by a minority of cheers and polite applause, and a majority of hateful boos and rudeness. The following afternoon, after yet another day of little progress, Congress had been dismissed. The ladies left first, as was customary. As the last flowing dress left the building, the Congressmen started to stir, including Charles Sumner. As he got up, he found another intruding his path -- a Southern representative. "Ay," spat the disgusted Southerner, his walking cane gripped in a hand. "You filthy cross-breeder wants to preach to the choir about the unholiness of slavery and of war, for what? Reckon we have a darkie-lover in our midst," he said. By this point, most of the Congress remained seated, deathly silent as they waited for something to happen.
"Sir, get out of my--" spoke Sumner, only to be interrupted by a meaty slap, as the walking cane was swept across his face. The dazed Sumner tripped, landed on hands and knees, and was battered by the angry representative. Every contact of cane and body was met by a groan by the New Englander. Some fellow Congressmen finally stood, and headed by the lanky Illinois representative Abraham Lincoln. "Gentlemen, stop this squabble at once!" cried the shrill voice of the calmly Midwesterner, to which the assailant heeded no mind, as another Congressmen spoke for him: "Leave yourself out of this matter -- you have no business in this conflict, nor do I."
Cartoon displaying the attack on Sumner
After a painful few minutes further, the attacker eventually slowed and stopped, leaving the bloodied Sumner to slowly get to his feet. The half-conscious Massachusettsian leaned on the moderate Kentucky senator John J. Crittenden as he left the Halls of Congress, and was almost immediately thereafter admitted to a nearby hospital.
Getting Out of the War:
While the Northerners were getting beaten in Congress, the Southerners were getting beaten by Mexicans. Northern armories provided a majority of weapons in war, and with the North trying to leave the war, it made fighting in foreign land relatively hard. By 1857 -- four years into the Mexican-American War, progress into Mexico had stalled significantly, going only far enough to conquer the Californias and some adjacent land.
President Crockett of California was himself in a dilemma. Inheriting a role that was meant to be an interim in wait of American annexation, he began to fear what American annexation meant -- if it held that the freedom-loving Crockett's project would become yet another place for slaveholders and exploiters. Due to this, Crockett retracted his call for annexation to the United States, leaving the USA to occupy the northern half of the Californias -- approximately drawing the line at the 37th Parallel North.
Meanwhile, Northerners continued to protest the war. The recovered Sumner, risking his life once more, continued to preach the evils of slavery, and helped build the case for Northern states not supplying arms or troops. The Mutual Defense Clause, it was argued, applies solely to defensive wars -- meanwhile, the war with Mexico was an invasion, and not a defense, therefore making the Mutual Defense Clause not come into affect. Finally, in the early months of 1858, the three involved parties of Mexico, California, and the United States, agreed to meet.
The
Treaty of Veracruz ended the long, unwanted war. America got ceded the lands she had occupied (becoming the states of Shasta and Utah), while paying financial compensation for damages to the army and for the land occupied, and both America and Mexico recognized Crockett's independent Republic of California.
The War proved to bring out the worst of sectionalism within the United States, as well as being one of the most noteworthy nationwide considerations of abolition in the country's history, making it an important (if unseemly) war. Further, it represented the worst period of Mexican-American relations, and the only time in which both of said nations were in conflict against one-another.
Flag of the Republic of California
![rdJmoM2.jpg[IMG]](https://i.imgur.com/rdJmoM2.jpg[IMG])
