Today in Labor History May 13, 1846: The U.S. declared war on Mexico. Over 1,733 U.S. soldiers and more than 5,000 Mexican soldiers died in the Mexican-American War. However, the Mexican death toll was probably closer to 25,000, if you include deaths from disease and accidents related to the war. As a result of the war, the U.S. conquered Texas, Alta California, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and Utah. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo promised U.S. citizenship to the Mexican and Indigenous Peoples living in these conquered territories. Yet, the U.S. denied citizenship to the Indigenous Peoples of the southwest until the 1930s.
Whigs and Abolitionists opposed the war as a land grab by the slave owners. In 1880, the Republican Campaign Textbook described the war as “Feculent, reeking Corruption…One of the darkest scenes in our history—a war forced upon our and the Mexican people by … President Polk in pursuit of territorial aggrandizement of the slave oligarchy.” In many ways, the Mexican-American War created the conditions for the Civil War and wars against Indigenous Americans that followed. It also paved the way for the brutal exploitation of Chinese and Irish labor in the construction of the transcontinental railroad.
Another lesser-known legacy of this war was the defection of Irishmen from the U.S. Army. Many joined the Saint Patrick’s Battalion fighting for the Mexican side. These defectors were often recent refugees from the Potato Famine and had joined the U.S. army in order to earn enough to feed themselves. However, the wages were low and the Irish recruits were subjected to racism and religious intolerance. The Mexican government offered them higher wages and land grants, as well as a common religion. The San Patricios were responsible for some of the fiercest resistance the U.S. faced in the war. In addition to the Irish, the San Patricios also included other disgruntled Americans, emigres from Europe and escaped slaves.
Frederick Douglass, opposed the war, as did writers Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau, who spent night in jail for his Civil Disobedience against the war. The accompanying video, “Stolen at Gunpoint,” by Tijuana No and Kid Frost, refers to the U.S. states taken from Mexico during the war. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jlO5RqXFLM
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