Course 2, Volume 1A. American Foreign Policy in Growth and Action Page: 12
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AMERICAN FOREIGN PouCY IN GROWTH AND ACTION
cause of the Mexican War, it was not a prize
of that conflict. Its annexation by the United
States had provoked Mexican hostilities, but it
was already within the Union before the war com-
menced. The real fruits of victory lay further west,
as the next section will show.
When the rash of Latin American wars of in-
dependence which freed the southern half of the
Western hemisphere from Spain between 1790 and
1822 subsided, Mexico was left in
The urge possession of the vast territories con-
to acquire quered by Spain in the American
California southwest. Mexican rule over these
areas stretching to the Pacific was
desultory and spotty. Elements in the United
States early cast covetous glances toward Califor-
nia in particular as another potential Texas. In
1835 President Jackson proposed that the United
States offer $500,000 to Mexico for San Francisco
Bay and the region north to the British claims.
Nothing came of this proposal. Seven years
later President Tyler had a plan for resolving the
Oregon dispute on the line of the Columbia River
if, in turn, Great Britain would induce Mexico
to sell northern California to the United States.
This project likewise was unsuccessful.
With numbers of Americans settling in Cali-
fornia to carry on trade, agriculture, cattle-raising,
and other pursuits it was inevitable that the same
sort of separatist movement would occur there as
in Texas. Likewise, fears of British penetration
from the north caused the State Department to
watch developments in California. With this in
view, James Buchanan indicated the government's
desires.
SECRETARY BUCHANAN, TO THOMAS O.
LARKIN, AMERICAN CONSUL AT MONTE-
REY, CALIFORNIA, WASHINGTON, OCTOBER
17, 1845: I feel much indebted to you for the in-
formation which you have communicated to the De-
partment from time to time in relation to California.
The future destiny of that country is a subject of
anxious solicitude for the Government and people of
the United States. The interests of our commerce
and our whale fisheries on the Pacific ocean demand
that you should exert the greatest vigilance in dis-
covering and defeating any attempts which may be
made by foreign governments to acquire a control
over that country. In the contest between Mexico and
California we can take no part, unless the former
should commence hostilities against the United
States; but should California assert and maintain herindependence, we shall render her all the kind
offices in our power, as a sister Republic. This Gov-
ernment has no ambitious aspirations to gratify and
no desire to extend our federal system over more
territory than we already possess, unless by the free
and spontaneous wish of the independent people of
adjoining territories....
In addition, President Polk's message of 1845,
relating primarily to Oregon, bore unmistakable
reference to what he suspected were British de-
signs on California.
PRESIDENT POLK'S MESSAGE TO CON-
GRESS, WASHINGTON, DECEMBER 2, 1845:
. . . Jealousy among the different sovereigns of Eu-
rope, lest any one of them might become too power-
ful for the rest . . . cannot be permitted to have
any application on the North American continent,
and especially to the United States. We must ever
maintain the principle that the people of this con-
tinent alone have the right to decide their own
destiny. Should any portion of them, constituting an
independent state, propose to unite themselves with
our Confederacy, this will be a question for them
and us to determine without any foreign interposi-
tion. We can never consent that European powers
shall interfere to prevent such a union because it
might disturb the "balance of power" which they
desire to maintain upon this continent. . . . it is
due alike to our safety and our interests that the
efficient protection of our laws should be extended
over our whole territorial limits, and that it should
be distinctly announced to the world as our settled
policy that no future European colony or dominion
shall with our consent be planted or established on
any part of the North American continent. . . .
Late in 1845 President Polk sent John Slidell
to Mexico as a special envoy with instructions,
among others, to offer $25,000,000 for California
and the intervening area. Slidell met
Expansion with no success. When the United
by conquest States went to war with Mexico, the
and purchase Whig opposition to Polk charged
that the President had deliberately
provoked the war to conquer California, having
failed in every other method to acquire that ter-
ritory. Nicholas Trist, as has been mentioned,
negotiated the treaty which closed the war. This
treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848,
ceded New Mexico (as defined by the Adams-
Onis treaty of 1819) and California to the United
States, and confirmed the American title to Texas
as far as the Rio Grande. The United States
agreed to pay $15,000,000 to Mexico and to as-
sume claims of American citizens amounting to12
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Air University (U.S.). Extension Course Institute. Course 2, Volume 1A. American Foreign Policy in Growth and Action, book, April 1959; Alabama. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1077937/m1/26/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting National WASP WWII Museum.