the Mexican War, and the Conquest of the American Continent (2009)
Mexico agreed to all of the terms in the draft treaty, including $15m from the US for CA and NM. The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo was signed on 2 February 1848 by Trist and the relevant parties in the Mexican government. Trist wanted immediate approval from DC to not only end the whole process, but to also limit the level of humiliation for Mexico. When Polk received the treaty, he didn’t react with outrage towards Trist, but rather in a realistic fashion. Polk spent time with the treaty, making sure he was totally familiar with it and that it was acceptable, and then the President sent the treaty to the Senate for ratification.
The Senate needed to ratify the treaty by a 2/3’s majority, which meant that twenty Senators could kill the treaty (39 - 19 would ratify). Polk was stunned to find out from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that it wanted to renegotiate with Mexico along the same terms, but with someone other than Trist as the US diplomat. Polk was also beyond-stunned to discover that his own Secretary of State, James Buchanan, had been actively working in opposition to not only the treaty, but also in whispering campaigns against Polk in newspapers (Buchanan was trying to position himself for a run for the Presidency in 1848).
The pressure on Polk was immense, and he knew that his historical legacy was on the line. On 10 March 1848, Polk was informed that the treaty had been ratified in the Senate by a vote of 38 -14, with six Senators abstaining. Polk rushed the document to Mexico with a promise to send a new US envoy that would, unlike Trist, have full plenipotentiary powers.
Taylor let it be known that if he wasn’t the Whig nominee, we would run for President as an independent candidate in order to force the Presidential election in the Electoral College to the House of Representatives. On his end, Polk made it very clear to Democrats that were planning the 1848 convention that he was out of the running for the nomination. On 22 May 1848, the Democratic National Convention started in Baltimore. A super-majority of 2/3’s of the delegates was voted on in order to nominate the party’s candidate, this time without any rancor or controversy as had occurred in previous conventions. Rival Democrats from New York, the “Hunkers” vs. the “Barnburners”, made the expansion of slavery a big issue in the convention. Three serious candidates emerged: Lewis Cass, James Buchanan, and Levi Woodbury (an associate Supreme Court justice). The results of the 1st ballot were Cass 125, Buchanan 55, and Woodbury 53; Cass would win the nomination on the 4th ballot.
On 7 June 1848, the Whig National Convention started in Philadelphia. Conventional wisdom had the 71 year old Henry Clay getting the nomination over Zachary Taylor. The result of the 1st ballot was Taylor 114, Clay 97, and like Cass for the Democrats, Taylor captured the Whig nomination on the 4th ballot. Taylor’s nomination blurred the line between Whig and Democrat, which basically helped his overall electability as far as the Whigs were concerned.
The Senate ratified the treaty that was delivered from the Mexican government on 10 June 1848. By that point, Polk’s health had seriously declined due to the physical and psychological toll of US losses in the war. Polk was a politically diminished President, and there was nothing pressing for him to accomplish during his last eight months in office, other than finishing what he considered necessary concerning the war. Polk had no sense of proportion by that time, and little irritations vexed him greatly, which diminished his standing even further.
During August 1848, Polk signed a territory bill for Oregon that did not feature slavery, using the 36/30 line from the Missouri Compromise as justification. A few months later, Polk was very upset that Taylor won the Election of 1848 over Lewis Cass, which meant to the outgoing President that the Polk Era would be reversed. Due to the calendar, 4 March 1849 was Polk’s last full day in office, and he had hoped that he would be presented the territorial bills to sign for California and New Mexico. However, the debate in the Senate over the territorial bills went into the wee hours of 5 March 1849, and Polk was very frustrated that he was not allowed the honor of sealing the deal on the Mexican War.
Zachary Taylor was inaugurated as the 12th President on 5 March 1849, and the Kentuckian didn’t say anything about the slavery debate in his Inaugural Address. The Polks left DC on 6 March 1849 for New Orleans, and then went up the Mississippi River to Tennessee, and then east to Nashville. Polk’s health deteriorated on the trip home with among other ailments diarrhea and severe fatigue. Polk, with fatalist stoicism, accepted his looming death and was baptized and embraced Christianity for the first time. On 5 June 1849, James Knox Polk died in his sleep at the age of 53.
To today’s sensibilities, the Mexican War was not a war defending human rights, but a nationalist war, and Polk is the main villain. However, ignored in all the anti-Polk focus was that the government and military of Mexico royally screwed up in virtually every phase of the war, from beginning-to-end, due to excessive pride/honor. Mexico’s actions with Texas after 1836, especially concerning annexation, were simply and purely tempting fate. Mexico fired the first shots and inflicted the first casualties of the Mexican War, which brought about Polk’s wrath. Added to the mix were voluminous reports beforehand of abuses towards US citizens in Mexico, leading to demands of indemnity, which leads to the question of how much was the US to take from Mexico in that regard. Also conveniently ignored is that Polk (the Chessmaster) was probably the only politician at that time that as President was able to bring the US vision/goal of westward expansion to reality; no other President before Polk had accomplished so much in a single term