Download now
Many believe that James E. Polk’s statement of Warfare with Mexico was a sensible action. However, a more audio argument may be made applying Lincoln’s “Spot Resolutions” and Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience”; declaring that Polk deliberately proclaimed war in order to expand Combined States’ place and slavery.
Abraham Lincoln used his “Spot Resolutions” to persuade the House of Representatives to present Polk with queries about the accuracy of his statements, specifically in regard to using the “spot” where blood was initially shed. Lincoln’s questions had been never solved but his resolutions certain much of the open public that Polk was not becoming straightforward about his reasons for war. In fact , Polk had a draft written to Congress asking to announce war on South america prior to having gained knowledge of U. T. casualties.
Polk’s original justifications for battle include Mexico’s failure to pay U. S. destruction claims and their refusal to meet with Slidell, yet after he stated that the war was a “defensive measure. ” Other oppositions to the war came from individuals who defended municipal liberties, many prominently by Henry David Thoreau. Through Thoreau’s eye, the government was engaged in a great unjust conflict with the only objective to promote the westward expansion of slavery. Being a protest, Thoreau refused to pay his poll taxes to support an imperialistic warfare, resulting in a night in imprisonment. Thoreau condoned breaking the law in case the law was perceived underhanded.
Thoreau assumed that people have the duty to resolve to a higher law than of your government, their particular set of honnete. Polk appeared to change his reasons for war depending on the actual public hoped to hear, but he hardly ever wavered in the decision to get the statement of War on Mexico. This kind of suggests that he was determined to reap the rewards by a war that he declared in the opposition via both the general public and the legislature.
The analysis of Lincoln’s “Spot Resolutions” infer that James E. Polk declared war to achieve western royaume, especially A bunch of states, despite the effects of combat. Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” as well gives data that Polk orchestrated the War with Mexico to reach slavery out west.
