“… I will commence this holy day by writing to you. My heart is filled with gratitude to Almighty God for His unspeakable mercies with which He has blessed us in this day, for those He has granted us from the beginning of life, and particularly for those He has vouchsafed us during the past year. What should have become of us without His crowning help and protection? Oh, if our people would only recognise it and cease from vain self-boasting and adulation, how strong would be my belief in final success and happiness to our country!
But what a cruel thing is war; to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbours, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world! I pray that, on this day when only peace and good-will are preached to mankind, better thoughts may fill the hearts of our enemies and turn them to peace. Our army was never in such good health and condition since I have been attached to it.
I believe they share with me my disappointment that the enemy did not renew the combat on the 13th. I was holding back all day and husbanding our strength and ammunition for the great struggle, for which I thought I was preparing. Had I divined that was to have been his only effort, he would have had more of it. My heart bleeds at the death of every one of our gallant men. ” (General Robert E. Lee). This is a letter to Mary Anna Custis Lee by General Robert E. Lee explaining how cruel war can be. To destroy many families, yet the Americans did not care about that.
The Americans were so selfish to kill many innocent people and only to get more land. They believed that they were “destined” by God, they just said that so people could follow them and help them retrieve more land. God would have never wanted the Americans to kill many innocent lives, he would have wanted that the enemies become friends and that there should be peace in the world. That will never happen though because there are countries like the US that do not care about the lives of others, they just care about themselves and they care about getting more land.
Let us go back to how it all started. In the year of 1821, Mexico won its independence from Spain. Mexico, however, did not have a big population and needed people to work the lands. They offered the United States of America free land for their labor. The United States agreed and many U. S. citizens moved to Texas. Mexico was the opposite of the United States, Mexico was Catholic, anti-slavery, and wanted Texas for their own, while the U. S. was Protestant, pro-slavery, and did not really care what the Mexican laws stated.
The United States was not justified into going to war with Mexico for these reasons, Mexico gave them the land, the U. S. invaded Mexican territory, and the U. S. had no respect towards Mexican laws. The first reason why the United States of America was not justified in going to war with Mexico is that Mexico gave the U. S. citizens the land in the first place. For example, according to the background essay, “Mexican leaders were aware if the near emptiness of their northern lands. One way to increase the population was to welcome settlers from the United States.
A special effort was made to encourage American farmers to settle in the Mexican province of Texas” (Background Essay). This shows that the Mexican government gave the U. S. land and all that they wanted in return was for them to work there. The Mexicans did not realize that what they were doing would lead to many problems. The Mexicans did not like slavery or any people that were slave owners. They also wanted the Americans to obey Mexican laws, unfortunately, the Americans did not listen to the Mexicans and just caused things to go wrong with Mexico and the U. S. Another example is, “Slaveholders crossed the Sabine [river between Louisiana and Texas] with their slaves, in defiance of the Mexican ordinance of freedom” (Document D).
This clearly demonstrates how the United States did not care what the Mexicans thought. They did not care what the Mexicans laws stated, all that they cared for was them. They were so selfish to realize that we they were doing was not correct and it absolutely does not look good for the Americans. America did not make Mexico its enemy for no reason. They did something to Mexico that hurt it the most.
They betrayed Mexico by taking their land when Mexico gave them the land for free. Although Mexico gave the United States the land, there were other reasons why the U. S was not justified into going to war with Mexico. Another reason why the United States was not justified into going to war Mexico because they invaded Mexican territory. This can best be explained in the following quote, “In the eyes of the [Mexican] government, the mobilization of the US army was an outright attack on Mexico” (Document C). This clearly demonstrates that Mexico had no idea that the US army was only checking the land.
After all of the troubles that have been going on between Mexico and the US, the Mexicans believed that the US was attacking them. Another piece of evidence is, “…. As a consequence, the Mexican government reaffirmed the instruction to protect the border, meaning the territory located between the Rio Grande and the Nueces River- and order which led to the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma…. ” (Document C). This means that the Mexican army was ordered to shoot them because they believed that it was an attack.
If Mexico had known that the US was checking the land, they would not have fired on the US army and would have asked them to leave their territory. The US had no reason to go to war with Mexico because, in reality, Mexico did not do anything to the Americans. What the Mexicans did was an accident because they never knew that the Americans were coming. To the Americans it may have seen like the Mexicans were trying to actually kill their soldiers, but in the eyes of the Mexicans, they did it to protect their beloved country.
They fired to protect their citizens from the selfishness of the Americans, they did it because it seemed like a threat to them. That is the reason why they did, they never did it on purpose. Although there are many variables that led to the Mexican-American war, the invasion of the US towards Mexican territory being one of them, another variable would be that the US had no respect towards Mexican laws. The last reason why the US was not justified in going to war with Mexico is that the US had no respect towards Mexico laws and did not really care what their government had to say.
For example, according to Charles Sumner, “Slaveholders crossed the Sabine [river between Louisiana and Texas] with their slaves, in defiance of the Mexican ordinance of freedom” (Doc. D). This clearly demonstrates that even though the Mexicans gave them land and allowed them to live there if they obeyed Mexican laws. The Americans did not care what they said, they just cared about making money and ripping people off. Seeing what the Americans did to the Mexicans does not look good on American History. Who would want to read how selfish the Americans were to the Mexicans?
Probably people who are similar to these types of Americans. Another example from Charles Sumner states, “Certainly [Mexico] … might justly charge our citizens with disgraceful robbery, while, in seeking extension of slavery, [our own citizens denied] the great truths of American freedom…. ” (Doc. D). This clearly demonstrates that there were many Americans who knew that the US was not being the America that they knew and loved. This type of America stole many people’s land, and they stole many innocent lives. This type of America does not care what others have to say.
Some might argue that the US was justified in going to war with Mexico for many reasons. For example, according to John L. O’Sullivan, “… Imbecile and distracted, Mexico never can exert any real government authority over such country… The Anglo-Saxon foot is already on [California’s] borders… armed with the plough and the rifle, and marking its trail with schools and colleges, courts and representative halls, mills and meeting-houses…. ” (Doc. A). This shows that Mexico will never be able to govern these lands on their own.
For a country like Mexico, they deserve to have the smallest piece of land as possible. They do not deserve to have such good territories like California, Nevada, and Texas. They deserve to have the land that is as stupid as them. The weakness in this argument is that it clearly shows that the US is stealing Mexican territory without the Mexicans knowing it. This is only Sullivan’s opinion saying that Mexico cannot govern themselves. The US acts foolishly here because they do not recognize that all of the lands they got was not because they deserve it.
All of the lands that they have is because they stole it, they did not win it or fight for it. The US being selfish stole every single piece of land that belonged to Mexico. They do not deserve all of the honor that they have right now, the people of the US should know what the US did to receive all of this land. We will see the people’s reaction to know that their belonged home (the US) stole pieces of land from innocent people and killed lots of innocent people on the way. To sum up, the US was not justified in going to war with Mexico for those reasons.
To know that an honored country like the US did all of these things is pretty embarrassing for the Americans. To know that the hardworking US we know since 1776 stole land from Mexico is nothing to be proud of. Like Cesar Chavez said, “Preservation of one’s own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures” (Cesar Chavez). This clearly defines the US, they had no respect for the Mexicans laws and cultures. And instead of creating peace with them, they just created more problems with Mexico by stealing their land.
