The white American perspective is often viewed as biased, unruly, and stubborn when it comes to the topic of expansion westward. Were America's white politicians blind to the consequences of their actions or did the simply accept them as necessary towards their cause? A lot of white Americans thought war was an honorable price to pay and did not give much thought to the Mexicans living in these coveted territories. However not all white Americans agreed with the expansion westward and certainly not at the price of war, we will look at documents from both perspectives of white Americans.
John C. Calhoun (1845): Vice President/Secretary of State/Secretary of War/South Carolina Senator http://npgportraits.si.edu/eMuseumNPG/code/emuseum.asp?rawsearch=ObjectID/,/is/,/1125/,/false/,/false&newprofile=CAP&newstyle=single
John C. Calhoun's Speech on the War with Mexico (1848)
Some white American perspectives held a certain white supremacy point of view. John C. Calhoun certainly exemplified this view in his Speech on the War with Mexico. Calhoun was a South Carolina senator at the time of the speech but he had also served as vice president under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Calhoun was actually against the expansion westward of the Mexican territory but his reasons are not what you would expect. In his speech he says "Ours, sir, is the government of a white race. The greatest misfortunes of Spanish America are to be traced to the fatal error of placing these colored races on an equality with the white race...We make a great mistake, sir, when we suppose that all people are capable of self government." Calhoun's grounds for his argument is that accommodating all of the Mexicans by taking their land would not be worth the lesser Mexican race. He believes they are so far beneath the white race that they cannot even govern themselves. This is an example of one point of view, a very radical plea against westward expansion.
John Gast's American Progress 1872 Depicting idea of Manifest Destiny https://aras.org/sites/default/files/docs/00043AmericanProgress_0.pdf
John L. O'Sullivan's Annexation (1845)
Through this document we look into the idea of American destiny, the God ordained mission for the white American to expand west forever. Sullivan was a editor for the New York Morning News and an outspoken citizen during this period of controversial expansion. The God ordained mission for the white American to expand west forever. This specific document looks at the annexation of Texas as a state into the United States. The idea still remains for the justification of expanding into Mexican territory. While the white superiority might not be as apparent as the last document, we still see a superiority through this destiny. Sullivan justifies these expansions when he says that "it is time for the common duty of Patriotism to the Country to succeed...And checking the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence." This white American perspective might recognize the war and the consequences of expansion but Sullivan believes it is all pre-destined, a reference to the promised land of the Hebrews from the Old Testament in the Bible. Those who stand in the way of this expansion will not survive. This was one of the most popular views during the war with Mexico.
Picture of present day Puebla, Mexico https://www.viator.com/Puebla/d5222-ttd
Ralph W. Kirkham's Description of the City of Puebla (1847)
Kirkham was a second lieutenant in the Mexican American war and witnessed first hand many battles and marches through what is today Mexico. This gives us the perspective of a firsthand account of the war, the land America was taking, and the people we were taking it from. I believe this is the most honest and unbiased opinion of a white American. The other two documents show case view points of men that were far from the war and focused on the expansion while overlooking the costs of this expansion. In this document Kirkham talks about the things he took away from his time in the city of Puebla. "I have every day remarked the great fondness of the Mexicans for flowers. The Mexicans are also passionately fond of birds, not only singing birds, but a variety of others. One other passion the Mexicans have and gratify is that for paintings and pictures." The picture displayed above shows the true beauty of this city and Kirkham's perspective shows us that not all white Americans overlooked the beauty of the land being taken. Although he does not voice an opinion on the war, it shows us a different perspective of appreciation for beauty.