LAD #10: Polk's War Message

This message was sent to Congress five days after Mexico formally protested the joint resolution for the annexation of Texas. When news came of the clash with Mexican soldiers, President Polk announced that the United States had been attacked. "American blood on the American soil," he said in his message to Congress, asking for a declaration of war against Mexico. Congress voted for war after two days, and Polk's party was in the majority. Some members of Congress believed it was the "manifest destiny" of the United States to occupy all the land from the Atlantic states to the Pacific Ocean. Southerners saw an opportunity to create more slave states. The northerners were against the southerners, stating that it was unfair to admit such a large state to the union, and because it was in the South, it would thus create more slave states than free.