Western Expansion and American Politics - Article Example

The turn of events and the feats of the American political affairs at that time were discussed in Michael A. Morrison’s article "'New Territory versus No Territory': The Whig Party and the Politics of Western Expansion, 1846-1848" published in the Western Historical Quarterly.

The important arguments presented in Morrison’s article all revolve around the significant events of the Mexican-American War and the political affairs behind it. It analyses the dispute between important politicians of that time which emphasizes the debate of the US territorial expansion. The pieces of evidence that the author uses in the article explicitly show the partisan politics that delves into the politicians’ conviction on the use of force to achieve more territories and otherwise. Morrison also tackles the views of the Democrat Federal government with concerns to the Congressional opposition that Polk’s policies have met at the duration of the war. It is important to mention that the author discusses these intensified debates within Congress as part of the preparations for the presidential elections of 1848. Morrison associates the conflicting views of the politicians as an implication of the desire of the opposing parties to dominate the political affairs of the developing nation, more so to obtain the highest political seat in the Federal government.

The article, in general, is a political analysis of the early American nation and the accompanying effects which ultimately manifest in the territorial expansion of the country. The author had written it in such a way that his arguments revolve around the different political sides and sentiments of the federal policy to sustain the two-year war with Mexico. More importantly, Morrison’s article creates many areas for debate when it comes to the principles of the respective political parties at that time. It establishes insights on the partisan decisions of the federal government and the gravity of opposition that the policies meet from staunch political rivals in Congress.

In the course of American history, the principle of Manifest Destiny underwent numerous developments which proved its full effect upon the formation of what is known to be the existing territorial expanse of the American nation. The principle simply states the use of conquest or force through military might which can award the nation more territories. The desire for further expansion after the nation’s freedom from British colonial rule had manifested in many policies that the federal government had taken. A perfect example of this can be seen during the presidency of James Monroe and his Monroe Doctrine in the 1820s. The Monroe Doctrine explicitly stated the expulsion of any influence of any European power in the Americas and the propagation of the idea of Pan-Americanism. Although Manifest Destiny was not a direct policy basis for the Monroe Doctrine, the very idea of territorial control was an emergent effect of President Monroe’s policy. The monopoly on the economic flow from the north to the south of the Americas was ultimately supervised by the US (Mecham, 1965: 38). Also, the freedom of the Latin American nations in 1820 was achieved due to the arms trade between the US and Mexico (Whitaker, 1962: 585-588). The indirect influence of the US policies on the affairs of Latin America indicated the strength of Manifest Destiny in the territorial quest of the US against Mexico in the 1840s.

During the Mexican-American War from 1846 to 1848, the full potential of the principle was made use of. The federal government under the Democrat Polk adopted the Democrat Party’s belief in the importance of military conquest to obtain more territories and ultimately seal the vast geography and strong might of the American nation. As what Morrison’s article discussed, the dominating desire for expansion of the administration faced numerous obstacles from the opposing Whig Party (Morrison, 1992: 25-51). However, Morrison argues that the opposition to the federal war policies seemed to have been raised to tear the domineering Democrat - an obvious effort to gain leverage for the 1848 presidential elections. Historical events and records attest to the change of heart of the Whig Party as Whig politicians united with the Democrats to approve the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which officially gave the former Mexican territories to the US (Morrison, 1992: 25-51).