Today In Western History: Manifest Destiny

May 11 — — 1846

On this day in 1846, President James K. Polk sends a war message to Congress, charging that “Mexico has invaded our territory and shed American blood on American soil”.  He is asking that the United States go to war against Mexico.  At stake was President Polk’s vision of what became known as “Manifest Destiny”.  Essentially this meant that the US was destined to take Mexico’s land in order to expand from “sea to shining sea”.  This war would put a politically divided and militarily unprepared Mexico up against the expansionist-minded administration of U.S. President James K. Polk.  It started with a border skirmish along the Rio Grande and eventually ended with Mexico losing about one-third of its territory, including nearly all of present-day California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico.   

Texas had gained its independence from Mexico in 1836. Initially, the United States declined to incorporate it into the union, largely because northern political interests were against the addition of a new slave state. The Mexican government was also encouraging border raids and warning that any attempt at annexation would lead to war.  In 1844 James K. Polk, the newly-elected president, campaigned that Texas

President James K. Polk, Defender of "Manifest Destiny" and instigator of the Mexican-American War
President James K. Polk, Defender of “Manifest Destiny” and instigator of the Mexican-American War

should be “re-annexed” and  the Oregon Territory should be “re-occupied,” and he quickly initiated annexation procedures.  He also had his eyes on California, New Mexico and the rest of what is today the U.S. Southwest.  He tried to buy the land in question, but Mexico refused to sell.  Polk decided to just take the land he wanted, and he instigated a fight by moving troops into a disputed zone between the Rio Grande and Nueces River that both countries had previously recognized as part of the Mexican state of Coahuila.  This would become the model for US expansion into land held by Native Americans for the next hundred years. 

Not everyone was in favor of this military expansion at the expense of another country.  A brand new Whig  congressman from Illinois,  Abraham Lincoln, had contested the causes for the war and demanded to know exactly where Americans had been attacked and American blood had been shed. “Show me the spot”, he demanded. 

Abraham Lincoln, 16th US President
Abraham Lincoln, 16th US President

Ex-slave Frederick Douglass opposed the war and was dismayed by the weakness of the anti-war movement. “The determination of our slave holding president, and the probability of his success in wringing from the people, men and money to carry it on, is made evident by the puny opposition arrayed against him.  None seem willing to take their stand for peace at all risks.”

Frederick Douglass, born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. He was born a slave, but became an Abolitionist, Suffragist, Author, Editor, and Diplomat
Frederick Douglass, born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. He was born a slave, but became an Abolitionist, Suffragist, Author, Editor, and Diplomat

Most of the opposition came from the Northern politicians and abolitionists, who saw this war as a very thinly veiled attempt to expand slavery.  They lost, we went to war, and our country’s borders moved farther west.

 

To purchase a signed copy of Larry Auerbach’s novel “The Spirit Of Redd Mountain”, Click Here

 Photo courtesy of wikipedia.com

 

Today In Western History: Happy Birthday, Potowatamie John

 May 9,

Today in 1800, the man credited with providing the spark that lit the powder keg known as the Civil War was born in Torrington, Connecticut.  The fourth of the eight children, John was born to Owen and Ruth, and he could trace his ancestry all the way back to 17th-century English Puritans.  The family moved west to Hudson, Ohio, in 1805, where Owen opened a tannery.  Owen soon hired an apprentice, Jesse R. Grant, father of future general and U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant.

Ulysses H. Grant, 18th President
Ulysses S. Grant, Civil War hero and 
18th President of the United States

Owen became a supporter of the Oberlin Institute (the original name of Oberlin College) in its early stage, although he was ultimately critical of the school’s “Perfectionist” leanings, especially renowned in the preaching and teaching of Charles Finney and Asa Mahan.  John withdrew his membership from the Congregational church in the 1840s and he never officially joined another church, but both he and his father Owen were fairly conventional evangelicals for the period with its focus on the pursuit of personal righteousness.  John’s personal religion is fairly well documented in the papers of the Rev Clarence Gee, a family expert, now held in the Hudson [Ohio] Library and Historical Society.

John led a relatively quiet life until he heard about the murder of Elijah P. Lovejoy, in 1837.  In response to the murder, John publicly vowed: “Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery!   From 1846 to 1850, when he left Springfield, John was a regular parishioner at the Free Church, where he attended frequent abolitionist lectures by the noted 

Born a slave as Isabella ("Bell") Baumfree, she became known as Sojourner Truth and was an Abolitionist, author, human rights activist

and celebrated  abolitionists Sojourner Truth and the dynamic Frederick Douglass.  In 1847, after speaking at the “Free Church”, Frederick Douglass spent a night speaking with John, after which he wrote, “From this night spent with John in Springfield, Mass. 1847 while I continued to write and speak against slavery, I became all the same less hopeful for its peaceful abolition. My utterances became more and more tinged by the color of this man’s strong impressions.”

Frederick Douglass, born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. He was born a slave, but became an Abolitionist, Suffragist, Author, Editor, and Diplomat
Frederick Douglass, born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. He was born a slave, but became an Abolitionist, Suffragist, Author, Editor, and Diplomat

Over the next twelve years, all of America came to know John, although not all of America was happy to know him.  In particular, the citizens of Pottawatomie, Kansas were not pleased to see him.  Nor were the citizens of Harpers Ferry, Virginia, a few years later.  Here John had 

Robert E. Lee, General CSA, Hero of the Confederacy
Robert E. Lee, General CSA, Hero of the Confederacy

the opportunity to meet two future Southern heroes, Col. Robert Edward Lee and Lt. James Ewell Brown Stuart, known to his friends as Jeb, when they came to arrest him for his failed insurrection.

James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart, CSA General
James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart, CSA General

John was hung for this, and his death sparked the War Between the States, and an anthem to victory for one side.  Blow out the candles for John “Potowatamie” Brown.

 

 

To purchase a signed copy of Larry Auerbach’s novel “The Spirit Of Redd Mountain”, Click Here

 Photo courtesy of wikipedia.com

 

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