Post by Allen Wiener on Jun 13, 2011 18:19:37 GMT -5
I just read "A Country of Vast Designs" by Robert W. Merry, which I highly recommend to anyone interested in the Mexican War. It focuses on Polk, his administration, the friction between him and his commanders in the field (Scott and Taylor), and provides descriptions of the battles. It is a political, rather than military history of the war, but the descriptions of the key battles indicate that the Mexicans were typically out-generaled and out-maneuvered. Santa Anna does not come off as a particularly adroit commander, but he is quite shrewd. He snookered Polk into giving him passage back into Mexico from Cuba by promising he'd broker a deal for the land the U.S. wanted, then switched gears once back in Mexico.
Polk himself is a very interesting character and typically rated among the 10 or 15 best presidents. He certainly was effective. He promised to serve only one term, as Jackson had vowed, but unlike Jackson, Polk kept his word. He set four broad, and quite ambitious, goals for himself: obtaining California from Mexico; obtaining Oregon from England; setting up a national treasury, and fixing the tariff. He accomplished all four, despite rancor in his own party, partisan politics as bad as our is today, undermining by some members of his cabinet (especially Buchanan), and losing his congressional majority in the mid-term election. Polk was a very anal, driven, workaholic, who never seems to have actually enjoyed anything. He didn't even celebrate his triumphs. While he never ceased driving relentlessly toward his goals, he was reluctant to confront his enemies one-on-one and typically allowed them to get away with more than he should have. He should have known that Buchanan was undermining him and gotten rid of him; he may have known it, but was in denial about it. He's also somewhat tragic; he died only months after completeing his term.
A few things strike us as rather odd today. One member of Polk's cabinet (Buchanan, of course) and one of his two field commanders (Taylor) openly campaigned for president while serving Polk, but no one seemed to think that was a serious problem. Polk's diplomatic representative in Mexico, Nicholas Trist, colluded with Winfield Scott to bribe Santa Anna, without telling Polk, then negotiated what became the Guadalupe-Hidalgo Treaty after he'd been dismissed and ordered home! Imagine Polk's mental state when he was presented with the treaty, which gave him virtually everything he'd wanted, and realizing he had to accept it, despite the actions of his runaway envoy!
The book is full of truly unique, eccentric characters, including Thomas Hart Benton, Daniel Webster, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, et al. It also offers an excellent discussion of the status of Texas as a republic, its annexation and the boundary dispute with Mexico, the debate over acquiring more U.S. territory and, perhaps most compelling, how the issues of the day quickly gave rise to the national debate over slavery and the rise of abolitionism. Merry does a great job of showing how these events were setting the stage for the Civil War. Although much of the debate over expansion focused on the spread of slavery, there also were major figures who simply thought it was a mistake for the U.S. to become so big a country and believed it was not the kind of small, homogeneous republic the founders had in mind. Many also oppsed the invasion of another country as imperialistic and contrary to U.S. values. Although some, like Calhoun, used these arguments hypocritically to mask their true fear of a threat to slavery, others were sincere about them. It is interesting to consider how history might have been altered had the U.S. not obtained all of that territory and become the power it did. It's actually a bit frightening to think what might have happened and it shows why Polk is regarded so highly by many historians.
It is ironic that the Civil War has taken such a prominent place in our history that we have brushed the Mexican War to the sidelines. It seems to be a kind of historic step child, but it should not be. The importance of that period really comes through in this book.
Allen
Polk himself is a very interesting character and typically rated among the 10 or 15 best presidents. He certainly was effective. He promised to serve only one term, as Jackson had vowed, but unlike Jackson, Polk kept his word. He set four broad, and quite ambitious, goals for himself: obtaining California from Mexico; obtaining Oregon from England; setting up a national treasury, and fixing the tariff. He accomplished all four, despite rancor in his own party, partisan politics as bad as our is today, undermining by some members of his cabinet (especially Buchanan), and losing his congressional majority in the mid-term election. Polk was a very anal, driven, workaholic, who never seems to have actually enjoyed anything. He didn't even celebrate his triumphs. While he never ceased driving relentlessly toward his goals, he was reluctant to confront his enemies one-on-one and typically allowed them to get away with more than he should have. He should have known that Buchanan was undermining him and gotten rid of him; he may have known it, but was in denial about it. He's also somewhat tragic; he died only months after completeing his term.
A few things strike us as rather odd today. One member of Polk's cabinet (Buchanan, of course) and one of his two field commanders (Taylor) openly campaigned for president while serving Polk, but no one seemed to think that was a serious problem. Polk's diplomatic representative in Mexico, Nicholas Trist, colluded with Winfield Scott to bribe Santa Anna, without telling Polk, then negotiated what became the Guadalupe-Hidalgo Treaty after he'd been dismissed and ordered home! Imagine Polk's mental state when he was presented with the treaty, which gave him virtually everything he'd wanted, and realizing he had to accept it, despite the actions of his runaway envoy!
The book is full of truly unique, eccentric characters, including Thomas Hart Benton, Daniel Webster, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, et al. It also offers an excellent discussion of the status of Texas as a republic, its annexation and the boundary dispute with Mexico, the debate over acquiring more U.S. territory and, perhaps most compelling, how the issues of the day quickly gave rise to the national debate over slavery and the rise of abolitionism. Merry does a great job of showing how these events were setting the stage for the Civil War. Although much of the debate over expansion focused on the spread of slavery, there also were major figures who simply thought it was a mistake for the U.S. to become so big a country and believed it was not the kind of small, homogeneous republic the founders had in mind. Many also oppsed the invasion of another country as imperialistic and contrary to U.S. values. Although some, like Calhoun, used these arguments hypocritically to mask their true fear of a threat to slavery, others were sincere about them. It is interesting to consider how history might have been altered had the U.S. not obtained all of that territory and become the power it did. It's actually a bit frightening to think what might have happened and it shows why Polk is regarded so highly by many historians.
It is ironic that the Civil War has taken such a prominent place in our history that we have brushed the Mexican War to the sidelines. It seems to be a kind of historic step child, but it should not be. The importance of that period really comes through in this book.
Allen