Oval Office Oddities

by Bill Fawcett

  MANIFEST DESTINY

  JAMES POLK AND THE WAR WITH MEXICO (1846–1848)

  by Douglas Niles

  There are times, situations, conflicts when a person can just see that Big Trouble lies not too far over the horizon. One of these circumstances could have been found in Texas, circa 1836–1845, following the Texas Revolution. For this short decade, following the defeat of Santa Anna’s army, Texas—in the eyes of Texans, Americans, and several European powers such as France and England—was a small, independent country.

  To Mexico, however, Texas was a rebellious province that would eventually be returned to control of the central government. Santa Anna had been Sam Houston’s prisoner when he signed the treaty granting Texas independence, so most Mexicans felt the document to be invalid.

  The United States government treated both Texas and Mexico as neutral states, engaging in diplomacy and trade with both. The American population, however, viewed the state of affairs through no such diffuse goggles—to the vast majority of Americans, Texas was destined to become part of the United States, and the sooner the better. In 1845, Texas was annexed by the United States and became the twenty-eighth state in the Union. This was an intolerable insult to proud Mexicans, an insult further aggravated by the American contention that Texas territory extended all the way to the Rio Grande, whereas Mexico maintained that the border lay along the Nueces River.

  The annexation of Texas was virtually the last act of John Tyler’s presidency, but it was perfectly in keeping with newly elected President Polk’s objectives. While the concept of Manifest Destiny—the God-given right of the American people to control North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific—was not new, no president before or since did so much to realize that grand ambition.

  He was elected to office in November 1844 on the slimmest of margins, learning several weeks after the election that New York had gone to his Democratic party by around five thousand votes. Henry Clay and the Whigs were defeated. (It is said that when Polk received word of his victory, he strolled around his Tennessee hometown for an evening without telling anyone that he had been elected president.) The youngest man, at forty-nine, to be elected at the time, Polk had promised to limit himself to one term.

  Although the showdown with Mexico was on the front burner from the first days of his administration, Polk could not be accused of singlemindedness. He was also determined to settle control of the vast “Oregon Territory” in America’s favor. (At the time he was elected, the territory was claimed by both the United States and the British.) The negotiations with England grew so tense that, for several months, the United States was facing the prospect of a two-front war with Mexico in the southwest and Britain in the northwest. Some of the more radical fear-mongers actually saw a potential menace in a British alliance with an independent Texas, which could eventually link up to effectively block the United States from access to the Pacific!

  Fortunately, matters with England were peaceably resolved after the United States agreed to give up Vancouver Island, freeing the government and army to direct its attention against Mexico. Future president Zachary Taylor, commanding about half the total regular force of the U.S. Army, moved from New Orleans into Texas after annexation. Marching southward, he crossed the Nueces River into territory Mexico regarded as not part of Texas. Setting up camp across the Rio Grande from the Mexican city of Matamoros, Taylor awaited developments. Not surprisingly, some skirmishing resulted.

  At the same time, Polk was preparing a message to Congress asking for a declaration of war. His emissary to Mexico, John Slidell, had returned to Washington to report intolerably rude treatment at the hands of the Mexican government (which had changed hands several times during Slidell’s mission). The diplomat had actually been dispatched on a secret mission, and had hoped to purchase California from Mexico. Such a sale was regarded as unacceptable by most Mexicans, and so no matter who held the reins of state, they had all refused to meet Slidell. It is likely that personal pride as much as diplomatic reality was at the root of Slidell’s pique when he returned to Washington.

  Polk was not at all sure that Congress was prepared to declare war, but an accident of timing rendered the issue a nobrainer. Even as Polk was writing the draft of his speech, he received a message from Taylor reporting on the skirmishing around the Rio Grande. The conclusion of the message reported that “American blood has been shed on American soil.” These words found their way into the president’s address, and the declaration of war was almost unanimous.

  The military execution of the war was a new high point in the performance of an American army. Taylor invaded Mexico from the north, winning a series of battles culminating in a decisive triumph at the Battle of Buena Vista. Rejecting Polk’s suggestions that he continue south toward Mexico City, Taylor rested on his laurels. (A prominent Whig, he would win the presidency for his party in the next election.) So Polk dispatched Winfield Scott and another army to Mexico by sea. Scott’s force landed at Veracruz and marched all the way to the capital, winning a series of battles on the way and eventually taking the great city of Mexico. (This, too, is memorialized in the Marine’s Hymn in the phrase “From the halls of Montezuma…”) Other expeditions were ordered into regions that would become New Mexico, Arizona, and California, and all of these met with notable success.

  While the American and Mexican armies were armed with similar weapons and led by competent professional officers, American leadership was among the best this country had ever produced. Many famous Civil War generals, including Grant, Lee, Bragg, Jackson, and Sherman, started their rise to prominence during the Mexican-American War. The morale of the American soldiers was also clearly superior, as was the single-minded focus of the troops on their leaders’ goals. Manifest Destiny was not simply a government policy; it was very much a popular ideal.

  The Mexican government changed hands several times during the course of the war. The territories under dispute were controlled by the Mexican government by virtue of the fact that they had been Spanish territories when Mexico achieved independence in 1821. However, the populations in these territories, especially northern California and Texas, were heavily American, and actively lobbied for the change.

  By the time the war concluded in 1848, American arms had succeeded in all theaters. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed in February 1848, ended hostilities. In exchange for a payment of $15 million, the United States acquired Utah, Nevada, California, and parts of New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. (This was about half of Mexico’s territory.) Mexican families living in the ceded territories were given the option of moving to Mexico or becoming U.S. citizens; the majority chose the latter option.

  President Polk had a few more actions to complete during his one term. He concluded a treaty with New Granada (now Colombia) which secured the right to eventually build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. Finally, during his last address to Congress, Polk declared that an “abundance of gold” had been discovered in California, setting in motion one of the more frenzied migrations in American history. Polk left office at the end of his term, and died a mere three months later.

  As to Mexico, her fate can perhaps be summarized by the proverb, often attributed to President Porfirio Díaz around the end of the nineteenth century: “Poor Mexico. So far from God—and so close to the United States.”

  A GENERAL WHO WILL FIGHT

  ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC

  by Douglas Niles

  Abraham Lincoln is widely regarded as the greatest president in American history. It is ironic that his very election was virtually guaranteed to start the bloody war that would determine his nation’s very survival.

  A former Whig, Lincoln joined the fledgling Republican Party in 1856 and became an eloquent spokesman for that party’s strong anti-slavery stance. An articulate, intelligent, and extremely witty speaker, the six-foot-four-inch Lincoln was vaulted to national prominence during an unsuccessful Senate campaign in 1858. His debates wi
th opponent Stephen Douglas articulated the abolitionist point of view in a way that captured the enthusiasm of many slavery opponents and appalled numerous citizens in the slave-owning Southern states.

  When he won the Republican presidential nomination in 1860, one Georgia magazine stated before the election: “The South will never permit Abraham Lincoln to be inaugurated President of the United States; this is settled and sealed fact.” When Lincoln won the general election in November 1860, it was not surprising that Southern states, beginning with South Carolina, began to break away from the Union. By the time of his inauguration in March, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas had followed suit.

  War was temporarily averted when outgoing President Buchanan agreed not to reinforce Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor, and the South Carolinians agreed not to attack the fort. Lincoln became President on March 4, 1861, and by April he had decided that it was necessary to resupply the fort, which was running low on provisions. That was all the provocation the Confederates required, and they quickly attacked and captured the fort. In the next few days, Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand volunteers and ordered a blockade of Southern ports. Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia responded by seceding from the United States.

  There is a popular perception in the North that the Civil War was fought to free the slaves, while Southerners often maintain that it was a struggle about states’ rights. While neither viewpoint is one-hundred-percent accurate, there was really one specific right in dispute: the right of a state’s wealthy citizens to own slaves. Resolution of this question had been pushed under the rug since the time of the Revolutionary War, but sentiment on both sides had been hardening in the intervening four score plus years. By the time of Lincoln’s election, slavery was regarded as an abomination across most of the world. At the same time, Southern slave owners felt that the institution was crucial to their economic survival and they managed to convince the white citizens of their states (the overwhelming majority of whom did not own a single slave) that their regional pride was at stake.

  The result was the bloodiest, most destructive war (to America) in United States history. Yet when the struggle began, few, if any, of the combatants foresaw anything but a quick and easy victory. The North had huge advantages in population (twenty million to nine million in the South, including four million slaves), materiel, most of the industrial and manufacturing capacity, as well as virtually unchallenged control of the seas. The South possessed strong morale and unity of purpose, motivated soldiers, and a talented cadre of officers—American army leaders trained at West Point who chose to fight for their states instead of for the federal government.

  The next few months were spent in gathering armies and appointing commands. Lincoln offered command of all the Union armies to Robert E. Lee, a Virginian, who decided that he could not fight against his home state. In his stead, General Irvin McDowell became the first commander of the great military force that would soon be called the Army of the Potomac. By July, the Confederates were advancing on Washington, and on July 21, McDowell met them at the small creek known as Bull Run barely two dozen miles south of the nation’s capital. The battle was closely fought for a time, but when the Union troops finally broke, they broke very badly indeed. Their panicked flight carried them all the way to Washington, and this very public flogging by the Confederates gave the president and his citizens a foreshadow of the long struggle ahead.

  McDowell had done nothing to bring credit to himself during the debacle, and Lincoln quickly (July 27) replaced him with General George McClellan, who had won a small victory in the western part of Virginia. Never lacking in self-confidence, McClellan wrote to his wife, “I seem to have become the power of the land.”

  McClellan had significant skills as an army commander: he could very ably train and organize and motivate his men. So impressive was he at restoring the morale and improving the capabilities of the defeated army that Lincoln soon (November 1) appointed him commander of all the Union armies. Said McClellan: “I can do it all.”

  Indeed, he continued to organize and train as the year of 1861 came to a close. On January 31, 1862, the president spurred the “Young Napoleon” with General War Order Number 1, in which he commanded that a general advance against the enemy begin by February 22. McClellan still was not ready to move, however.

  In the western theater, a force under Ulysses S. Grant moved south against two forts guarding the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, both promising paths of invasion into the Confederacy. Fort Henry capitulated on February 6, and Fort Donnelson fell ten days later. Based on his response when the besieged garrisons asked for terms, the Union general became known as “Unconditional Surrender” Grant, and was the North’s first real hero of the war. He moved down the Tennessee River, through Kentucky, Tennessee, and into northern Mississippi.

  Finally McClellan put his own grand plan into operation, moving his army by sea to Fortress Monroe, on the York peninsula of Virginia. From here, Richmond was a short march inland, and the surprised Confederates had very few troops between the powerful Army of the Potomac and the capital of the Confederacy. Spies, reconnaissance, and the president himself were convinced that Mac faced very light opposition.

  Not for the last time in his career, however, George McClellan convinced himself that the troops he was facing far outnumbered his own. Even as he pleaded for reinforcements and stressed the vulnerability of his position, he refused to decamp on the road to Richmond. Finally, under direct orders, he began to creep westward. Every dummy strong point and cavalry skirmish, however, suggested to McClellan that he was facing hundreds of thousands of Rebel troops, and as a result he advanced at little better than a snail’s pace.

  In the west, meanwhile, Grant ran into troubles of his own. Confederate forces surprised his divided army near Shiloh landing; only tenacious defense and the timely arrival of reinforcements prevented a major Union disaster in the two-day battle. Even so, there were some twelve thousand Northern casualties and seven thousand Southern. Together, this two-day tally exceeded all the casualties in all previous American wars combined. Pressed to relieve Grant because of the setback, Lincoln replied: “I can’t spare this general. He fights.”

  McClellan, despite taking careful counsel of his fears, was finally closing in on Richmond by late May. The pace of his advance was so deliberate that the Confederates were able, finally, to muster a sizeable force to defend the city. On May 31, they defeated the Army of the Potomac in the Battle of Seven Pines. The Confederate commander, General Johnston, was grievously wounded, and he was replaced in command of the newly named Army of Northern Virginia by Robert E. Lee.

  In late June a series of chaotic battles raged between the forces. Called the Seven Days’ Battles, these clashes resulted in McClellan falling back from Richmond. At his usual plodding pace, Little Mac pulled back to Fortress Monroe and, ever so slowly, began transporting his army, by ship, back up Chesapeake Bay to Washington.

  In the meantime, Lincoln appointed General John Pope to command the newly created Army of Virginia. Anticipating reinforcement by the Army of the Potomac, Pope began to advance southward. He was met by the fast-moving Lee at the same Bull Run creek where the first battle of the war had been fought; as it turned out, McClellan had no intention of helping his fellow Union general. Though he outnumbered Lee, Pope was soundly smashed, and Lee advanced to Harper’s Ferry on the Potomac. Crossing the river, he commenced to invade Maryland.

  With no alternative, and against the advice of much of his cabinet, Lincoln placed McClellan in command of all the troops in the Washington area. Mac was the beneficiary of an incredible stroke of luck when some of his troops captured a copy of Lee’s strategic plan, which was a risky gamble in which he divided his outnumbered forces in enemy country. Unfortunately for the Union, McClellan again moved too slowly to take advantage of this intelligence coup.

  The vastly outnumbered Confederates were at last brought to bay by McClellan
along Antietam Creek. Correctly assessing his opponent as exceptionally cautious, Lee held his ground. Although a general attack would almost certainly have carried the Rebel position, Mac sent his powerful army corps into battle piecemeal, and one at a time they were chewed up by the steadfast defense of the Southerners. (The two corps he held out of the battle actually outnumbered the whole Confederate army.) The result was the single bloodiest day in American military history. Lee’s army survived, however, and was able to slip away to the south virtually free of pursuit.

  McClellan, convinced he had barely survived a battle with a vastly superior foe, was unwilling to pursue. Lincoln is reported to have remarked to McClellan: “If you don’t want to use the army, I should like to borrow it for awhile.” In the end, Lee’s escape was the last straw for Lincoln, who finally removed McClellan from command, replacing him with one of his corps commanders, General Ambrose Burnside. (Burnside’s men had made a plodding, costly, and ultimately unsuccessful attack at Antietam.)

  One positive outcome for the Union came out of Antietam: President Lincoln used it as the basis for issuing his historical Emancipation Proclamation, which was to take effect on January 1, 1863. This bold order banned slavery outright in all territories of the United States. Regardless of the root causes of the conflict, it was now a war to end slavery. On the diplomatic front, the proclamation dissuaded England and France from allying with the Confederacy at a time when such an alliance was the South’s only real hope for eventual victory.

  General Burnside, the new commander of the Army of the Potomac, was a stolid general, not a poor performer as a division and corps commander, but he was woefully unsuited for command of a large army. (He is probably best remembered for the style of the long whiskers that flanked his cheeks, called “sideburns” to this day.) He consistently failed to properly reconnoiter enemy positions before attacking, and was petulant with subordinates and jealous of his peers. Nevertheless, Burnside took the army on the attack, marching southward into Virginia.