Amy S. Greenberg - A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

Copyright 2012 by Amy Greenberg
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Greenberg, Amy S., [date]
A wicked war : Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. invasion of Mexico / by Amy S. Greenberg.1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
eISBN: 978-0-307-96091-7
1. Mexican War, 18461848. 2. Mexican War, 18461848Political aspectsUnited States. 3. Mexican War, 18461848Influence 4. Polk, James K. (James Knox), 17951849. 5. Clay, Henry, 17771852. 6. Lincoln, Abraham, 18091865. I. Title.
E404.G79 2012
973.62dc23 2012019887

Jacket image: Battle of Buena Vista, Feb. 23, 1847, by James S. Baillie (detail).
Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Jacket design by Wednesday Design
Maps by Mapping Specialists, Ltd.

v3.1

For Rich, Jackson, and Violet

I do not think there was ever a more wicked war than that waged by the United States on Mexico. I thought so at the time, when I was a youngster, only I had not moral courage enough to resign.

U LYSSES S. G RANT , 1879

MAPS

General Taylor and Colonel John J. Hardin in Texas and Mexico

Scotts Advance to Mexico City

Annexing Mexico

IMAGES

Henry Clay, 1844

Whig campaign ribbon, 1844

James K. Polk, 1845

Sarah Polk, 1829

Matty Meeting the Texas Question

John J. Hardin

The United States of Mexico in 1847

Polks cabinet in 1846

Sarah and James Polk

Ashland

Nicholas Trist in 1835 by John Neagle

Zachary Taylor

John Quincy Adams

Richard Caton Woodville, War News from Mexico

Lieutenant Colonel Henry Clay Jr.

Heroic Defense of the City of Monterey

General Wool and staff

Congressman-elect Abraham Lincoln

General Antonio Lpez de Santa Anna

Group of Mexicans with a soldier, 1847

Samuel Chamberlain, Rackensackers on the Rampage

Nathaniel Currier, Battle of Buena Vista

Nathaniel Currier, Death of Col. John J. Hardin

Butler and Lewis, Death of Lieut. Col. Henry Clay, Jr.

E. B. and E. C. Kellogg, Scene in Vera Cruz During the Bombardment

Ellen Hardin

Yankee Doodle, Going to and Returning from Mexico

Capture of Gen. Santa Annas Private Carriage at Battle of Cerro Gordo, April 18, 1847

Carl Nebel, General Scott Entering Mexico City, 1851

Rejon the Ranchero

James Knox Polk

Mexican Family

Nicholas P. Trist, 185565

Henry Clay, ca. 1850

Ellen Hardin Walworth, 1899

THIS IS THE STORY of five men, four years, and one foreign war. Henry Clay, James K. Polk, Abraham Lincoln, John J. Hardin, and Nicholas Trist were bound together in unexpected political and personal battle during the years 184448 as Americas war against Mexico unfolded, then stumbled to an end. That conflict, which breached George Washingtons injunction to avoid entanglements abroad, was an act of expansionist aggression against a neighboring country. It reshaped the United States into lord of the continent and announced the arrival of a new world power. The U.S.-Mexican conflict also tipped an internecine struggle over slavery into civil war. Though both its justification and its consequences are dim now, this, Americas first war against another republic, decisively broke with the past, shaped the future, and to this day affects how the United States acts in the world.

This is also a story about politics, slavery, Manifest Destiny, Indian killing, and what it meant to prove ones manhood in the nineteenth century. It explores the meaning of moral courage in America, the importance of legacies passed between generations, and the imperatives that turn politicians into leaders. And it attempts to explain why the United States invaded a neighboring country and how it came to pass that a substantial number of Americans determined to stop the ensuing war.

This is not a comprehensive history of the U.S.-Mexican War. Military tactics, minor battles, and General Stephen Kearnys Army of the West receive limited coverage in these pages.to them in the name of something greater: justice, morality, and Americas destiny. Their experiences help us understand how the war and its unintended consequences shaped the meanings of American identity, ethics, and patriotism.

Two of these characters will likely be unfamiliar. Colonel John J. Hardin was a congressman from Illinois and the first in his state to volunteer to fight Mexico. During his political career he was well known throughout Illinois and Washington, D.C., and an Illinois county seat was named in his honor. His obscurity today is largely the result of a tragic early death on a Mexican battlefield. Hardin has no published biography, and until now few historians have thought his life worth exploring. But his martyrdom at the Battle of Buena Vista made him a national hero, and in the mid-1840s he was Abraham Lincolns greatest political rival. His death removed a key obstacle from Lincolns rise to power.

John J. Hardin commands attention not only for his military fame and relationship with Abraham Lincoln but also because he was, in many ways, typical of the men who volunteered to fight Mexico. A self-described patriot, Hardin was both a warrior and a member of the opposition Whig Party from a western state where James K. Polks Democratic Party held the balance of power. Like thousands of other Whigs, he volunteered to fight despite distrusting both Polk and his objectives. He firmly believed that patriotism knew no party, and that it was the destiny of the United States to expand into Mexico. But like many other soldiers, Hardin lost his faith in Americas Manifest Destiny during the course of his service. Although his name is now forgotten, this study will reveal the surprising legacy of Hardins life and death, which lives on today.

Nicholas Trist is somewhat better known. His name appears in most studies of the 1846 war, although few people know much about the man who defied his president and his party to bring the war to a close. Trist has not commanded much historical attention, but he was one of the best-pedigreed Democrats in America in the 1840s, grandson-in-law to Thomas Jefferson and an intimate associate of Andrew Jacksons. He was an unlikely rebel. As the only man to single-handedly bring an American war to a close, he deserves recognition for his achievement. But his radical actions also demand explanation. This volume attempts to place Trists evolving perspective on the war in the context of both his experiences in Mexico and personal relationships that long predated his secret assignment to negotiate a treaty with that country.

The literature on Polk, Clay, and especially Lincoln, by contrast, is vast. But the following pages offer a different portrait of each of these men than you are likely to find elsewhere. Relatively little has been written about the web of connections among the five main characters in this book. And with one exception, little has been said about the impact of the war on their lives and the lives of their families. That exception, of course, is President James K. Polk. The war was closely identified with the man who started it, so much so that at the time opponents called it Mr. Polks War. The war defined Polk as well. It was his great project, the culmination of his lifes work, and his legacy to the United States.