General Ulysses S. Grant - U.S. War Against Mexico "one of the most unjust [wars] ever waged
Johnny Asia
Note that the ouster-of-invaders process can sometimes take centuries!
While the invaders' descendants may forget what their ancestors did in
terms of wars of aggression, the invaded peoples' descendants commonly
do not forget! Thus simply as a matter of history, the U.S. can expect
Mexicans to attempt to take back their invaded territory.
----------------------------
http://americanhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/abraham_lincolns_opposition_to_the_mexican_war
Abraham Lincoln's Opposition to the Mexican War
James K. Polk: The Manifest Destiny President
America's eleventh president, James K. Polk, was elected in 1844. Like
Illinois congressman Lincoln, Polk vowed only to serve one term in
office. That, however, is where the similarities ended. Unlike
Lincoln, President Polk supported going to war with Mexico. One of the
spoils of this 22-month conflict was the American acquisition of land
that eventually became the states of California, Nevada, and Utah. The
U.S. also acquired portions of what would later become Colorado,
Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming. This land acquisition through war
became known as Manifest Destiny. The U.S. became swept up in it, the
president was very popular, and generals Winfield Scott and Zachary
Taylor-- who became the twelfth president of the United States in
1848-- became celebrated war heroes.
The Voice of Dissent
Congressman Lincoln and some of his fellow Whigs had a very different
opinion of the president, Manifest Destiny, and the war. (Polk was a
Democrat.) Lincoln believed that Polk had started the war based on a
lie. On two notable occasions, Lincoln questioned Polk regarding his
motives for going to war. Lincoln once took the House floor and asked
Polk to prove that the Mexicans had crossed national borders in order
to draw first blood on U.S. soil. This is what Polk claimed was the
reason for the Mexican War. Upon addressing the president, Lincoln
said: "Let the President [Polk] answer the interrogatories I
proposed... Let him answer fully, fairly, candidly. Let him answer
with facts, and not with arguments. Let him remember, he sits where
Washington sat; and so remembering, let him answer as Washington would
answer... so let him attempt no evasion, no equivocation.
---------------------------------------------------
Lincoln vs. U.S. Aggression Against Mexico
by Rep. Abraham Lincoln, Illinois
17 Cong Globe Appx. pp 93-94
30th Cong, 1st Sess (12 January 1848)
http://medicolegal.tripod.com/lincolnvmexwar.htm
General Ulysses S. Grant identified the U.S. Aggression War Against
Mexico as "one of the most unjust [wars] ever waged by a stronger
against a weaker nation. . . . The occupation, separation, and
annexation [of Texas] were, from the inception of the movement to its
final consummation, a [slave-power] conspiracy to acquire territory
out of which slave States might be formed for the American Union
[U.S.A.]. Even if the annexation itself could be justified, the manner
in which the subsequent war was forced on Mexico cannot. . . . The
Southern Rebellion was largely the outgrowth of the Mexican war.
Nations like individuals are punished for their transgressions. We got
our punishment in the most sanguinary [bloody] and expensive war of
modern times. . . . United States troops . . . were sent [by President
Polk] to provoke a fight [war]. . . . Mexico showing no willingness to
come to the Nueces [River] to drive the invaders from her soil, it
became [policy] for the [U.S. troops] to approach [aggress even
further, i.e., to ] . . . occupy a [still-deeper-into-Mexico] position
near the largest centre of population possible." - Grant's Personal
Memoirs (New York: C.L. Webster & Co, 1885-1886), Vol. I, Chapter II,
pp 53-56, et seq.
+
Pucker your lips for the Apocalypse!
Johnny Asia, Guitarist from the Future
-
tschmidtundert
> Note that the ouster-of-invaders process can sometimes take centuries!
> While the invaders' descendants may forget what their ancestors did in
> terms of wars of aggression, the invaded peoples' descendants commonly
> do not forget! Thus simply as a matter of history, the U.S. can expect
> Mexicans to attempt to take back their invaded territory.
> ----------------------------
>
Most American presidentes end up with a long nose, like Pinochio.
T.Schmidt
P.S. [1] Can you imagine the best American was Washington, just
because he did not lie?
P.S. [2] I never told a Lie until I was 18, it took me years of
practice to be able to lie. Now I am 70 and my problem is telling the
truth.