The Origin of the Southwest

Today in 1846, the U.S. declared war on Mexico in what is now known as the Mexican-American war (hmmm, I wonder how they came up with that title). The protesters for equal rights to illegal aliens say that we stole California and the Southwest from the Mexicans, and thus we are the aliens, not them.

That’s just a plain lie. The Mexicans invaded Texas and attacked our troops stationed there in April of 1846. They were beaten back, but war tensions had already been brewing for a while, (the Mexicans had broken diplomatic relations) so President Polk declared war.

We had a three-pronged plan of attack: conquer California and New Mexico, and then move on to intimidate the Mexicans into surrender by invading the Mexican frontier. Colonel Stephen Kearny subjugated New Mexico (which then included Arizona, Utah, and parts of Nevada) early in the war. Commodore Robert Stockton declared California secured by August 17. Despite a rebellion afterwards, California was firmly in American hands by January 10, 1847. Mexico had been invaded by General Taylor, and the northern part of it occupied by December 1846. However, in the face of these defeats, the Mexican government still did not surrender, and General Winfield Scott had to invade Mexico City by amphibious landing. The army entered Mexico City on September 14, 1847; and the marines stood guard over the “halls of Montezuma.”

The Mexican government finally made an overture for terms. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ratified by both countries, had the U.S. pay $18¼ million for California and New Mexico, even though they rightly belonged to us and we already occupied them. It also acknowledged the Rio Grande as the official border between Texas and Mexico.

Thus, we overdid ourselves in making sure that we rightfully owned the land. The illegals are incorrect in their denunciations of the U.S. Not to mention that if they really want to be recognized as citizens of this country, they shouldn’t accuse it of being a horrible dictatorship. Waving Mexican flags, chanting anti-American mantras, and mocking the national anthem is not going to endear you to the people of this country.

People say that this country was built on immigrants. That’s true. But those immigrants filled out the forms, and came to this country legally. The controversy is over illegal aliens; we have no problem with productive immigrants who come to this country by the due process of the law. If the aliens did want to get recognized, they should push for less bureaucracy in the immigration process instead of demanding that they get citizenship rights. (See my post) If anyone can become a citizen, the status loses its value and purpose.

We should all remember the ones who died to keep this country free on this, the 160^th anniversary of the Mexican War.