1. 9.4 War with Mexico Objectives:
To summarize the conflicting attitudes on waging war with Mexico
To describe key battles that helped the United States win the war with Mexico
To identify U.S. territories gained from Mexico.

3. Congressional Scales, 1850
Congressional Scales, 1850
The question of how a war with Mexico might unbalance the nation politically weighed heavily on people's minds as the nation entered the 1850s. In this cartoon, lithographer Nathaniel Currier--who later would found the famous graphic art company Currier and Ives--illustrates the problem. Trying to balance the Wilmot Proviso against Southern Rights, the president seeks to keep congressional representatives from the North and the South in balance as well. (Library of Congress)
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4. War with Mexico! US declares war
Polk wants the whole Texas, Cali. and N. Mexico
Border issue with Mexico – Nueces or Rio Grande? (2:00 min)
President Polk tries to buy California from Mexico and negotiate the true border. His envoy, John Slidell, is refused.
Polk orders Gen. Zachary Taylor and 4,000 men to the Rio Grande (Mexico believes the border is the Nueces River)
April 25, 1846 Mexican troops kill 11 Americans
“They have spilled American blood on American soil!!!”
Spot resolution (Abraham Lincoln)
US declares war
Slavery again becomes a huge issue (Wilmot Proviso)
War with Mexico!

5. Charles Sumner
“The lives of Mexicans are sacrificed in this cause; and a domestic question, which should be reserved for the bloodless debate in our own country, is transferred to the fields of battle in a foreign land.”
What does he mean by this?

6. Map: The Mexican War
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7. The course of the war
Stephen Kearny “liberates” New Mexico without a shot fired
John C. Fremont in Nothern California and declare the “Bear Flag Republic” in 1846.
Gen. Zachary Taylor defeats overwhelming Mexican forces at Buena Vista
Gen. Winfield Scott is victorious at Veracruz. Leads US troops to Mexico City 1847, wins victory against great odds.

8. Map: Major Battles of the Mexican-American War
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9. Peace Now or More War? Debate of 1847
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed in 1848, US to pay $15 million for land gained and assume claims of US citizens against Mexico
Division in Congress
Whigs call for end of war.
Expansionists want to continue the invasion
Gadsden Purchase extends US border south to current boundary for $10 million in 1853.

10. Mexican War: After Effects
Increases the US by 1/3
More land than acquired in LA Purchase
US establishes the power of its military to foreign powers
Slavery issue is increasingly divisive
Bitter relations with Mexico

11. Election of 1848
War Hero Zachary Taylor becomes the 12th President

12. California Gold Rush!!! S.F. 1847, 1850
January 1848 gold discovered at Sutter’s Mill in California.
Americans everywhere drop everything, literally, and rush to California, called the gold rush.
Migration to CA jumps from 400 in to 44,000 in 1850.
New migrants call themselves “forty- niners.”
California applies for statehood as a free state.

13. TERMS James K. Polk Zachary Taylor Objectives: Stephen Kearney
Bear Flag Republic
Winfield Scott
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Gadsden Purchase
Forty-niners
Gold rush
Objectives:
To summarize the conflicting attitudes on waging war with Mexico
To describe key battles that helped the United States win the war with Mexico
To identify U.S. territories gained from Mexico.