Polk’s Declaration of War with Mexico Essay

Many believe that James K. Polks contract bridge of War with Mexico was a justifiable action. On the contrary, a more conk out argument can be made using capital of Nebraskas Spot Resolutions and Thoreaus Civil Disobedience stating that Polk deliberately proclaimed contend in order to expand United States territory and slavery. Abraham Lincoln use his Spot Resolutions to persuade the House of Representatives to present Polk with queries about the veracity of his statements, curiously in regard to the actual spot where blood was initially shed. Lincolns questions were never answered plainly his resolutions convinced much of the public that Polk was non being straightfor state of ward about his motives for war.In fact, Polk had a draft compose to Congress asking to declare war on Mexico prior to having gained cognition of U.S. casualties. Polks original justifications for war include Mexicos failure to bear U.S. damage claims and their refusal to meet with Slidell, yet later he stated that the war was a defensive measure. Other oppositions to the war came from those who defended civil liberties, most prominently from Henry David Thoreau. Through Thoreaus eyes, the government was engaged in an below the belt war with the sole objective to promote the westward expansion of slavery. As a protest, Thoreau refused to pay his poll tax to support an imperialistic war, resulting in a night in jail.Thoreau condoned breaking the justness if the law was perceive unethical. Thoreau believed that people have the duty to answer to a higher law than of our government, their own set of morals. Polk seemed to change his reasons for war depending on what the public hoped to hear, but he never wavered in his decision for the declaration of War on Mexico. This suggests that he was determined to reap the rewards from a war that he stated over the opposition from both the public and the legislature. The analysis of Lincolns Spot Resolutions infer that James K. Polk declare d war to gain horse opera lands, especially California, despite the repercussions of warfare. Thoreaus Civil Disobedience also gives read that Polk orchestrated the War with Mexico to reach slavery out west.