Mexican War Protest
Cinco de Mayo has me thinking about James Polk, the Mexican War and the "Spot Resolution."
Here's the deal. After Texas was admitted to the Union as a state in the dying days of John Tyler's administration, James K. Polk turned his mind to acquiring more land from Mexico. At first he tried to negotiate for the purchase of Mexican land. In 1845, he sent diplomat John Slidell to Mexico to purchase California and New Mexico for between 20 and 30 million dollars. Slidell's arrival caused political turmoil in Mexico after word leaked out that he was there to purchase additional territory and not to offer compensation for the loss of Texas. The Mexicans refused to receive Slidell, so in January 1846, to increase pressure on Mexico to negotiate, Polk sent troops under General (and future President) Zachary Taylor into the area between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande—territory that was claimed by both the U.S. and Mexico.
Polk regarded this treatment of his diplomat as an insult and an "ample cause of war" and he was about to ask Congress for a declaration of war. In the meantime, Taylor had crossed the Rio Grande River and briefly occupied Matamoros. Taylor caused a blockade, preventing ships from entering the port of Matamoros. Just days before Polk intended to request Congress for a declaration of war, he received word that Mexican forces had crossed the Rio Grande area and killed eleven American soldiers. Polk then made this the "casus belli" (grounds for declaring war) and in a message to Congress on May 11, 1846, he stated that Mexico had "invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil."
Some in Congress thought that this was bogus. Among them a past president (John Quincy Adams) and a future president, then Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln, who made a motion called the "spot resolution". On 22 December 1847 Lincoln, by a resolution in the House, requested President Polk to provide Congress with the exact location (the "spot") upon which blood was spilled on American soil, as Polk had claimed in 1846 when asking Congress to declare war on Mexico. Lincoln was so determined in pushing his "spot resolutions" that some began referring to him as "spotty Lincoln."
According to Lincoln biographer David Herbert Donald, "nobody paid much attention to his resolutions, which the House neither debated nor adopted". Many Democrats regarded the resolutions as unpatriotic (can you relate Dixie Chicks?) Lincoln, however, was not speaking out against the war itself, but rather against Polk's conduct of it. In fact, the Whigs would later nominate General Taylor (a hero of the war) as their candidate, whom Lincoln supported.
In Polk's report, the President stated that the American soldiers fell on American soil, but they had actually fallen on disputed territory.
Here's the deal. After Texas was admitted to the Union as a state in the dying days of John Tyler's administration, James K. Polk turned his mind to acquiring more land from Mexico. At first he tried to negotiate for the purchase of Mexican land. In 1845, he sent diplomat John Slidell to Mexico to purchase California and New Mexico for between 20 and 30 million dollars. Slidell's arrival caused political turmoil in Mexico after word leaked out that he was there to purchase additional territory and not to offer compensation for the loss of Texas. The Mexicans refused to receive Slidell, so in January 1846, to increase pressure on Mexico to negotiate, Polk sent troops under General (and future President) Zachary Taylor into the area between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande—territory that was claimed by both the U.S. and Mexico.
Polk regarded this treatment of his diplomat as an insult and an "ample cause of war" and he was about to ask Congress for a declaration of war. In the meantime, Taylor had crossed the Rio Grande River and briefly occupied Matamoros. Taylor caused a blockade, preventing ships from entering the port of Matamoros. Just days before Polk intended to request Congress for a declaration of war, he received word that Mexican forces had crossed the Rio Grande area and killed eleven American soldiers. Polk then made this the "casus belli" (grounds for declaring war) and in a message to Congress on May 11, 1846, he stated that Mexico had "invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil."
Some in Congress thought that this was bogus. Among them a past president (John Quincy Adams) and a future president, then Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln, who made a motion called the "spot resolution". On 22 December 1847 Lincoln, by a resolution in the House, requested President Polk to provide Congress with the exact location (the "spot") upon which blood was spilled on American soil, as Polk had claimed in 1846 when asking Congress to declare war on Mexico. Lincoln was so determined in pushing his "spot resolutions" that some began referring to him as "spotty Lincoln."
According to Lincoln biographer David Herbert Donald, "nobody paid much attention to his resolutions, which the House neither debated nor adopted". Many Democrats regarded the resolutions as unpatriotic (can you relate Dixie Chicks?) Lincoln, however, was not speaking out against the war itself, but rather against Polk's conduct of it. In fact, the Whigs would later nominate General Taylor (a hero of the war) as their candidate, whom Lincoln supported.
In Polk's report, the President stated that the American soldiers fell on American soil, but they had actually fallen on disputed territory.