Congressman Lincoln and the return of the wooden leg of General Santa Anna

[Rsmyth]

If you Google "cause of the Mexican American War" one of the top answers is from the Univ. of Michigan:
1.The Mexican American War was mainly driven by the idea of “Manifest Destiny”; the belief that the U.S had a God-given right to occupy and civilize the whole continent. As increasingly large number of Americans migrated towards the west in search of land, the fact that most of those areas already had people living in them was ignored. Instead, an attitude and belief that democratic English-speaking America would do a better job of running the lands than the Native Americans or Spanish-speaking Catholic Mexicans prevailed. President Polk shared and led the vision of Manifest Destiny, and did offer to buy much of the southwest land from Mexico. However the Mexican government refused the offer, and an unyeilding desire to populate those southwestern lands caused tensions to continue to rise. (3)


2.The second major cause of the Mexican American War actually started off with the Texas War of Independence and the subsequent inclusion of that area into the United States. During the 1830s, Mexico needed settlers in the under populated northern parts of the country and therefore allowed U.S. citizens to come and live in the Texas area as long as they took an oath of allegiance to Mexico and coverted to Catholicism. Thousands of Americans accepted the invitation and migrated to the Mexican province of Texas. However, not long after, many of the new “Texicans” or “Texians” were not satisfied with the way the Mexican government tried to run the province. So in 1835, the Texas Revolution began as both Mexicans and Americans living in Texas fought for independence from the Mexican government. Sam Houston led the "Texians" in battle against Mexican President Santa Anna and his troops. A final victory resulted in the capture of Santa Anna, who was forced to sign the Treaty of Velasco, granting Texas its independence.

Prior to becoming interested in the Lincoln assassination I was first (at a much younger age) fascinated by the story of the Alamo. After reading more and more i came to view the incident as less a noble and glorius event and more a civil uprising in the annexation of the lands of a sovereign nation. The Alamo was the precursor to more plans for landgrabbing. There were many in this country that felt the time was right to annex not just Northern Mexico but Cuba, all of the Carribean and everything else south (read the new book on the Knights of the Golden Circle). The Knights (more than once) sent companies of armed men to the border with Texas waiting for a signal from our government to head south and stake claims to expand their slave holding areas. There were those in Washington that felt with the Mexican government in dissaray we should help ourselves before the French or English made a bid. The only thing in the way of our Manifest Destiny (which some have liberally interpreted as "if you are not white and speak English, get out of our way"), was a little thing called the Constitution. We could get around that if our peoples were attached or our land invaded. From here it becomes murky with both sides claiming instigation, invasion, attack and defense of their lands (the Thornton Affair). On April 25th 1846 Captain Seth Thornton led a patrol into the contested area and met Mexican Cavalry. Whether this is what our government wanted of not is the contentious argument. Regardless it was the spark that lit the fuse.