Was The Mexican-American War Justified?

As Abraham Lincoln argued, the Mexican-American War was an unjust war. Diplomacy was never exhausted to the point it could have led to war. It was an expensive campaign that caused a large loss and many unnecessary deaths. Many would lose their sons to the 9 battles within the war such as Whig leader Henry Clay and Daniel Webster.

There were however, some that believed the war to be justified. Many believed that the United States was fulfilling their Manifest Destiny by extending their Democratic ideals and to extend the boundaries of the area of freedom. Many also feared, like President Polk, that Great Britain and France would take control of territory—such as that of California—if the United States did not. In addition to this, many believed it to be completely justified due to the fact that Mexican soldiers were the first to fire upon U.S. soldiers initiating the

At the time of the Mexican-American War Anti-Slavery was a large controversial topic. Many critics of the war were against slavery. They believed that slavery may have been implemented in the new territories the America seized from Mexico. This led to an attempt by northerners to try and curb the spread of forced labor from a territory that slavery had already been purged from. Congressman John Quincy Adams had called the Mexican-American War “a most unrighteous war” because it was meant to extend slavery into new territories. The topic of slavery in a newly acquired territory by America caused more support for abolitionist to state their opinions and to give way to a higher number of citizens to be against the Mexican-American War. In addition, another problem northerns had with the Mexican-American War and slavery was that if the newly acquired land became a slave state the slave states would have more representation within Congress and abolitioning slavery would fade into the