State of the Union AddressesPolk, James K. (James Knox)
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State of the Union Addresses
Polk, James K. (James Knox)
Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
To act otherwise in the existing state of things in Mexico, and to withdraw
our Army without a peace, would not only leave all the wrongs of which we
complain unredressed, but would be the signal for new and fierce civil
dissensions and new revolutions--all alike hostile to peaceful relations
with the United States. Besides, there is danger, if our troops were
withdrawn before a peace was conducted, that the Mexican people, wearied
with successive revolutions and deprived of protection for their persons
and property, might at length be inclined to yield to foreign influences
and to cast themselves into the arms of some European monarch for
protection from the anarchy and suffering which would ensue. This, for our
own safety and in pursuance of our established policy, we should be
compelled to resist. We could never consent that Mexico should be thus
converted into a monarchy governed by a foreign prince.
Mexico is our near neighbor, and her boundaries are coterminous with our
own through the whole extent across the North American continent, from
ocean to ocean. Both politically and commercially we have the deepest
interest in her regeneration and prosperity. Indeed, it is impossible that,
with any just regard to our own safety, we can ever become indifferent to
her fate.
It may be that the Mexican Government and people have misconstrued or
misunderstood our forbearance and our objects in desiring to conclude an
amicable adjustment of the existing differences between the two countries.
They may have supposed that we would submit to terms degrading to the
nation, or they may have drawn false inferences from the supposed division
of opinion in the United States on the subject of the war, and may have
calculated to gain much by protracting it, and, indeed, that we might
ultimately abandon it altogether without insisting on any indemnity,
territorial or otherwise. Whatever may be the false impressions under which
they have acted, the adoption and prosecution of the energetic policy
proposed must soon undeceive them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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