Sea to Shining Sea 131man saw the war as bolstering US self-respect and believed that a
"true American" would be unable to resist "this pride in our vic
torious armies." Emerson opposed the war as he did all wars. His
opposition to the Mexican War was based, however, not just on his
pacifism but also on his belief that the Mexican "race" would poison
Anglo-Americans through contact, the "heart of darkness" fear.
Emerson supported territorial expansion at any cost but would have
preferred it take place without war.
Most of the writers of the era were obsessed with heroism. Oppo
sition to the Mexican War came from writers who were active abo
litionists such as Thoreau, Whittier, and Lowell. They believed the
war was a plot of southern slave owners to extend slavery, punishing
Mexico for having outlawed slavery when it became independent
from Spain. However, even the abolitionists believed in the "mani
fest destiny of the English race," as Lowell put it in 1859, "to occupy
this whole continent and to display there that practical understand
ing in matters of government and colonization which no other race
has given such proof of possessing since the Romans." 24
President James K. Polk, who presided over the war, saw its sig
nificance as an example of how a democracy could carry on and win
a foreign war with as much "vigor" as authoritarian governments
were able to do. He believed that an elected civilian government with
its volunteer people's army was even more effective than European
monarchies in the quest for empire. The victory over Mexico proved
to the European powers, he felt, that the United States was their
equal. Standing tall through military victory over a weak country:
it was not Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush who thought up that
idea. The tradition is as old as the United States itself.
The US war against Mexico did more than annex half of Mexico.
A debate that turned deadly ensued over whether the acquired terri
tory would allow slavery and it brought on a civil war that produced
a million casualties. The US Civil War allowed for the reorganiza
tion and modernization of the military and streamlined counterin
surgency operations-that is, ones targeting civilians. A rehearsal
for this streamlining is found in the aftermath of the Mexican War
in the US Army counterinsurgency against the fierce resistance of
the Apaches in the portions of the territory annexed from Mexico