Why Was The Mexican American War Unjust

The United States war with Mexico continues to be a diverse topic because of the many acts that were considered logical and unforgivable. The Mexican-American War was a battle that went on from 1846 to 1848. The war was one of the first to be fought over greed and a presidential lie. Manifest Destiny, the belief of America spreading from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast, was one of the main reasons for this clash. Despite the United States war against Mexico resulted in the gaining of America’s most valuable land, the war itself was unjust because of Texans’ actions, the U.S. Government actions, and the expansion slavery. To begin with, the Texans caused the inexcusable war because of their greedy actions. For instance, in the magazine

was needless due to the inexcusable actions made by the U.S Government. To clarify, in the Creating America textbook, page 408, the text states, “...Polk sent a rousing war message to Congress, saying, ‘Mexico has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon American soil.’ Two days later, Congress declared war… However, American had mixed reaction to Polk’s call for war. Illinois representative Abraham Lincoln questioned the truthfulness of the president’s message and the need to declare war.” To put differently, the U.S. Government’s, mostly President Polk’s, decisions were inexcusable. Many people, such as future U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln, thought the war did not have any purpose, and did not have to be declared. Another piece of evidence to support the claim is in John L. O'Sullivan Democratic Review, he wrote, “It is wholly untrue and unjust to ourselves, the pretence that the Annexation [of Texas] has been a measure of unrighteousness…” For this reason , the annexation of Texas, made by the U.S. Government, created one of the largest tensions between Mexico and America. When this happened, Mexico claimed the land of Texas to belong to them, yet the U.S. believed the land belonged to

According to Joshua Gidding’s debate with Congress about the war with Mexico. He spoke, “... for the purposes of conquest; with the design to extend slavery; in violation of the Constitution...” The main goal of conquering the land of Texas was just to expand slavery in the United States. Before the annexation of Texas, the land was slave free, but the slave owners who resided in Texas converted the land to slavery, relating to our next piece of evidence. An also important piece of evidence to take in mind is Benjamin Lundy’s pamphlet, The War, it is written, “The immediate cause and main goal of this war… has been to grab the large and valuable territory of Texas from the Mexican Republic, in order to re-establish the SYSTEM OF SLAVERY; to open a vast and profitable SLAVE MARKET…” Certainly, as explained in this piece of evidence, the slave owners who came to colonize Texas, were not pleased of the law that there could not be any slaves in Texas. Since they were unpleasant about this rule, they decided to rebel and constantly ask the U.S. to accept them as the 28th state, so they could turn Texas into a slavestate, and own slaves once