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.Taylor was to marchacross northern Mexico to protect the flank of the second column, un-der Brig.Gen.Stephen Watts Kearny, coming down the Santa FéTrail, which would march all the way to California by way of the GilaRiver.Initial American victories under Taylor caused the Mexicans toturn to Santa Anna, who was in exile in Cuba for past political fail-ures.Polk wanted Santa Anna back in Mexico, too.The general had 360 " WAR WITH MEXICOagreed to talk the Centralist government into acceding to Americanterritorial demands.But no sooner had he landed at Vera Cruz than Santa Anna an-nounced that he had come to lead Mexico to victory.He advancednorthward to meet Taylor s forces at Buena Vista.The battle wastouch and go for both sides, but in the end, aided by Col.JeffersonDavis and his Mississippi Rifle Regiment and Capt.Braxton Braggand his light artillery, Taylor won the battle and assured his elevationto the presidency in the upcoming election of 1848.Kearney, meanwhile, marched to Santa Fé and on to California.There he found that an exploration column, under Lt.John CharlesFrémont, in the area from the year before, had stirred up a pro-American Bear Flag Revolt and, in cooperation with the U.S.Navy,had already secured the Mexican province for the United States.Fré-mont was the son-in-law of Senator Thomas Hart Benton, and whenGen.Kearney asked Lt.Frémont to turn everything over to him asmilitary governor, Frémont claimed to be a civilian officer of theBear Flag government and not under the general s command.Fré-mont s court-martial was short and final, despite his father-in-law sefforts to save him.Although Polk had accomplished the extension of the UnitedStates to the Pacific, Mexico refused to yield.This caused Polk tosend Maj.Gen.Winfield Scott on a wildly successful attack ofMexico City from Vera Cruz.Polk kept switching generals becausethey were all so effective and as Whigs, potential Democrat polit-ical opponents.He believed in divide and rule.It did not work.BothTaylor and Scott would run for president on the Whig ticket, Taylorsuccessfully in the election of 1848, Scott not so successfully in theelection of 1852.With the fall of Mexico City, Gen.Santa Anna had lost every bat-tle he participated in.He was on the road to another exile overseas.Anxious for an end to the war before the election of 1848, Polk hadsent Nicholas Trist of the State Department to negotiate a treaty anytime he could get a Mexican delegation to talk.Opportunity came atGuadalupe Hidalgo north of Mexico City.Here Trist got Mexico toagree to make what was called the Mexican Cession.It gave theDesert Southwest to the United States for $15 million, with the inter-national boundary the Gila River.(Trist was supposed to pay $20 mil- WASHINGTON, D.C., SLAVERY IN " 361lion, but he deducted the difference for Mexico s prolonging thewar).Mexico also gave up Alta California and recognized the Texasannexation, with the international border the Río Grande.The UnitedStates assumed all claims of its citizens against the Mexican govern-ment.Although Polk and Congress accepted the provisions of the Treatyof Guadalupe Hidalgo, the South was not satisfied.Many had wantedall of Mexico, but John C.Calhoun had blocked that.The North wasalready angry enough at being short-changed in the Oregon Treaty topropose that slavery be excluded from the Mexican Cession by wayof the Wilmot Proviso.It would take the massive Compromise of1850 to cool everyone off.By 1853, the big issue with Mexico was a railroad route to Cali-fornia.Led by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, the Franklin Pierceadministration sent James Gadsden of Alabama to negotiate a South-ern railroad route.Who should Gadsden meet as head of Mexico sgovernment but General Santa Anna, back from exile once again.Indesperate need of money to maintain himself in power, Santa Annasold the Gadsden Purchase to the United States for $10 million.Thisextended the international boundary south from the Gila to its pres-ent location, roughly at the 31st parallel.Disgusted at this piece ofchicanery, the Mexicans threw Santa Anna out for the last time.The Mexican Cession was opposed by the North as a slave stategrab for political power in Washington.It was the Slave Power Con-spiracy at its worst.The South already had nearly 20 representativesin Congress, thanks to counting slaves in the Three-Fifths Compro-mise in the Constitution.The line was soon to be drawn violently inthe Kansas Missouri Border Wars.The Civil War and Southern se-cession were on the horizon.WASHINGTON, D.C., SLAVERY IN.As the U.S.Constitutiongranted Congress the exclusive governance over the future District ofColumbia (art.I, sect.8), the South was particularly interested inwhere the District would be located
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Tematy
IndexWilliam Faulkner Absalomie, Absalomie
Faulkner William Absalomie,Absalomie
Blatty William Peter Egzorcysta 01 Egzorcysta(1)
William Inboden Religion and American Foreign Policy, 1945 1960, The Soul of Containment (2008)
William Blum Killing Hope, US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II (2003)
Walter Jon Williams Dread Empire's Fall 02 The Sundering
Walter Jon Williams Dread Empire's Fall 01 The Praxis
Hewson Dav
Aleksandrowicz Marianna Chytry dwa razy traci
Gabaldon Diana Obca 07 KoÂść z koÂści