Paul Cooney
Mr. DeCarlo
AP American
8 November 2006


LAD #10- Polk’s war message

On May 11, 1846 President James K. Polk addressed the Senate and House of Representatives regarding the situation in Mexico. The President said that he had sent John Slidell of Louisiana on a peaceful mission to purchase California and New Mexico. When it was discovered in Mexico that Slidell was there to purchase additional territory for the United States and not to compensate them for the loss of Texas, the peaceful trip turned hostile. Mr. Slidell was rejected, sent home with a slap in the face. During this time, Polk began to build up forces in Del Norte in case war did in fact break out. It was because the troops were there that war did break out, because on April 14 Mexican forces killed around 16 American soldiers in the Del Norte area. Polk regarded this as an invasion of U.S soil, on which the blood of America’s soldiers had been spilled all over land claims in Texas. Polk requested that war be declared immediately, and that the hostilities be “terminated” quickly.