Religion as a Tool in American Leadership

There are times in American history that the leaders in charge rely on their interpretation of religion and God to persuade people that something is destined to be. The first time God and religion are used to convey a greater cause than settlement is when John Winthrop delivered a sermon upon reaching North America and Massachusetts telling listeners they were establishing a “city on a hill” as an example for all the world to see (Dunn n. p.). The Puritan philosopher and religious adherent believed God had given them their land in which to live and be a perfect example of a kingdom ruled theocratically according to Protestant Christian philosophy espoused by Puritans. Most wars fought in the United States (U. S.) until the Mexican American

S. in 1845. It had fought for its independence from Mexico ten years earlier and was its own country. Leaders decided to become an U. S. state and Mexico had a problem with that. Or so the propaganda reports. American soldiers were defending the border from Mexicans and to make the excuse for war, Polk insisted the boarder was the Rio Grande and decided to go to war over the boundary dispute. At the same time, Polk was testing his might with Mexico, he was negotiating the Oregon Territory with the British. Little did he know what would occur in California three years in the future (Pletcher n. p.). The Mexican-American War occurred from 1846-1848. The American army was a formidable one and did sack Mexico City at one point, making the entire country part of the U. S. but Polk did not want to do that. Instead, Polk wanted to stop the war because he had gained the territory he wanted so that the nation would be one from sea to sea. The California Gold Rush would make settling the west with Americans much easier than the normal settlement

Because there was no time gap between the news getting out and the world rushing in, the U. S. government did not send agents to negotiate treaties with the over 100 Native groups living in the state. Therefore, all the land on which miners were mining was not American land. In the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Indians in the ceded land were to be citizens of the U. S., but the Americans did not follow that part of the treaty (Office of the Historian n. p.). The U. S. considered Indians members of their own nations and not citizens of the U. S. The Californios living in the state at the time of takeover were accepted as American citizens, and for the time being kept title to the land Mexico had granted them with land grants. However, no treaties were made with the Indians to cede the land to the U. S. Later, after the cacophony had settled down, the U. S. did send three agents to negotiate with the Natives. The treaties were not approved by Congress and lost (Dutchske 8). In 1927, California Natives got the right to sue the federal government for the lands people took from them without compensation. It took until the 1940s and 1950s for the government to settle parts of the case. Then, there were only 18 treaties (8). Manifest Destiny had proved disastrous to California Natives. There was no way to move Natives out of the way for the miners and more than two thirds of them ended up dying because of the Gold Rush