Orders Attack on Mexico
Polk holds 25 Blacks captive as slaves on his Tennessee farm, and he is eager to increase the number of the states where slavery was protected by the law. Polk asks Mexico to sell the United States much of its land between Texas and the Pacific coast, but the Mexicans said "no." At the end of 1845, Texas voted to join the United States. At the time, the Texans and the Mexicans also did not agree about the border between them. The Texans said it was the Rio Grande. The Mexicans said it was the Nueces River, which was 165 miles farther north. In early 1846, Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor and 3,400 soldiers to the north shore of the Rio Grande, an area that was inhabited and goverend at the time by Mexicans. When the Mexican army attacked Taylor's forces there, Polk asked the Congress to delcare war on Mexico. They did. After more than 13,000 Americans and 25,000 Mexican were killed, the leaders of the Mexican government asked for peace. Polk told them that to get it, they would have to agree thta the Rio Grande was the border between Texas and Mexico. He also demands that Mexico sell the U.S. the land currently ocupied by California, Arizona, and New Mexico, plus Utah, Nevada, and western Colorado. Not wanting to continue the war, Mexico agrees.
Polk remains in office until 1849.
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