James Polk

C

Oregon Settlement

Beginning in 1843, thousands of Americans began settling in the Oregon country, which was claimed jointly by the United States and Great Britain. Britain claimed all the territory south from Canada to the Columbia River, which flowed near the 46th parallel. The United States claimed all the territory north of the Columbia to latitude 54°40'. The crux of the dispute was the triangle of land between the 49th parallel and the Columbia River, which is now part of Washington state. This area had been important to the British because of the fur trade, but when the price of beaver skins fell, Britain moved its trading post to Vancouver Island, north of the 49th parallel. Therefore, in 1846 the British foreign secretary, Lord Aberdeen, offered to compromise and accept the 49th parallel as the boundary (see Aberdeen, George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th earl of). Despite previous demands for 54-40, Polk, on the Senate's advice, accepted the offer, thus extending the northwest boundary of the contiguous United States to its present position.

D

The Texas Question

Three days before Polk took office, President Tyler had signed a bill annexing Texas to the United States. This caused Mexico to break off relations with the United States. Mexico had two reasons for doing so. First, it had granted Texas its independence only on condition that Texas would attach itself to no other country; second, both Texas and Mexico claimed the strip of land between the Río Grande and the Nueces River.

In 1845, Polk sent diplomat John Slidell to Mexico with instructions to settle the boundary dispute and purchase New Mexico and California for up to $40 million. Having already seen its treaty with Texas violated because of U.S. expansionism, Mexico was in no mood to deal with the American emissary.

E

The Mexican War

Slidell's report from Mexico alarmed and angered Polk. In January 1846 he sent troops under General Zachary Taylor into the disputed area between the Río Grande and the Nueces. In late April a Mexican force under General Mariano Arista crossed the Río Grande and attacked an American patrol, killing or wounding 16 soldiers. On May 11, Polk sent a message to Congress and demanded a declaration of war against Mexico, claiming that Mexico had “invaded our territory and shed American blood.” His stated objective was the acquisition of California and New Mexico.

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The war outraged many New Englanders and Whigs. In New England, those who wanted an immediate end to slavery, called abolitionists, viewed the war as a conspiracy to increase slave territory. In Congress a first-term Whig congressman, Abraham Lincoln, challenged Polk to show him the spot on American soil where American blood had been shed. However, the war was immensely popular with most Westerners and with a majority of Southerners.

In August, New Mexico fell to the forces of Brigadier General Stephen Watts Kearny. California, where Mexican rule had always been weak, fell before the combined assault of Commodore Robert Stockton's naval forces and the so-called Bear Flag army of Captain John C. Frémont. General Taylor invaded Mexico from the north, while General Winfield Scott invaded Mexico at Veracruz and marched inland to capture Mexico City.

The capture of Mexico City in September 1847 ended Mexican resistance, but a treaty of peace was not signed until February 1848. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo gave California and all the territory eastward to the existing frontier to the United States. The southern border of Texas was set at the Río Grande. Mexico received $15 million, and the United States agreed to assume responsibility for the claims against Mexico made by American citizens. Many Americans wanted to annex all of Mexico, but Polk resisted this pressure.

F

Wilmot Proviso

In August 1846 David Wilmot, a Pennsylvania Democratic congressman, offered a motion providing that slavery be forever barred in all lands obtained through the Mexican War. Polk, who owned slaves himself, had always looked on slavery as a necessary evil. He opposed with equal vehemence abolitionists from the North and apologists for slavery from the South.

In the debate over the Wilmot Proviso, Polk was determined to stay above the battle and side with no one. For this he was denounced by both sides. His neutrality only furthered the split between the Northern, radical wing of the Democratic Party, led by Van Buren, and the Southern, conservative wing, led by John C. Calhoun. The Wilmot Proviso controversy was finally settled by the Compromise of 1850, which admitted California as a free state and left the question open in the other new territories. However, Polk's refusal to side with the Van Buren wing and the fact that Texas did become a slave state strengthened the Southern wing of the party. Consequently, in 1848 many Northern Democrats who were opposed to slavery joined the new Free-Soil Party organized around that issue. This further solidified the proslavery faction's hold on the Democratic Party.

G

The Use of the Monroe Doctrine

All during Polk's administration, European nations had threatened to intervene in American affairs. There were British warships in California harbors during the Oregon dispute, and both Britain and France were interested in maintaining an independent Texas. Therefore, in December 1845, Polk revived the forgotten words of President James Monroe, who had declared that the American continent was closed to further European interference or colonization. In 1848, when Yucatán temporarily won its independence from Mexico and seemed in danger of becoming a French protectorate, Polk invoked the Monroe Doctrine again, with greater emphasis, making it a cornerstone of American policy in the western hemisphere.

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