When Americans look at past Presidencies, and major transformative historical events, they rarely think of the 1840s. However, that is the decade that America became the country it is today. It was the first time that the United States extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Protege of Andrew Jackson, who became the 11th President of the United States, named James K. Polk, made that happen. It would not happen easily, however. It would led to a war with Mexico and displace many Navajo and Pueblo Native Americans in the process.
Polk was able to become President for two main reasons. Former, and still very popular Andrew Jackson, was supporting him, and he agreed to serve only one term. His campaign promise was that since he would not be running for re-election, no special interests could influence him. He would only be working for the American people, according to him.
Polk got urinary stones as a child, which were removed by an operation using no anesthetic. The operation was successful, but it left him impotent and sterile for the rest of his life. Unable to have children, he devoted all his time to rising in politics and he also used that as a campaign theme.
He would dispatch John Fremont to explore the western part of the continent and to start a war with Mexico for territory. On August 21st, 1821, Spain left Mexico and turned it over to Mexicans to manage their own land. At the time Mexican land included what is now California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona and Colorado, and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming.
The seat of government in Mexico was in Mexico City, which was a long way from their areas in the northern part of their territories. Those areas also had very little population, other than Native American tribes. In order to encourage settlements and to create safe zones from Native Americans, they invited Americans to settle in Mexico’s northern territories for cheap land and low tax rates.
Americans started moving out there in droves, especially after the Sante Fe trail was created. Along the trail there were frequent Native American attacks, who weren’t happy with the notion of sharing this land with American settlers. Many of these attacks came from Navajo, Pueblo, and Ute (where Utah gots it name from) Indians. This would eventually lead to times of conflict and peace with Natives that would last for a time until full scale removal of Indians happened shortly before the Civil War.
John Fremont was ordered to go to California and start an uprising from American settlers against their Mexican controlled government. He would take as his guide successful and well known Mountain Man, Kit Karson.
Kit Carson was well versed in the western provinces and could speak Spanish and the language of the Navajo. The Navajo and Pueblo Indians respected him as a man of peace. Fremont wanted his experience and relationships with the Indians to keep them safe as they traveled across the continent. Kit Carson would become a legend in his own right and have his name etched in a town called Carson City, Nevada and Fort Carson military base named after him.
Fremont would get to California and immediately start turning the American settlers against Mexico. They would start and uprising and takeover most of California with little bloodshed and resistance from Mexico. Fremont was so excited at his success, he sent Carson to Washington D.C. to relay the message to President Polk himself.
However, the Mexican government was not going to let California go so easily. They mustered troops to march to California and get their territory back. As Carson, who was riding mules and walking to Washington to deliver the dispatches to Polk, he, by chance, ran into U.S. Military General, Stephen Kearny. He, and his men, were on the march to California. Kearny had just taken over the New Mexico territory and was proceeding to help Fremont finish the takeover California and bring it into the United States.
During the time that Kit Carson was going to Washington to meet President Polk, Fremont had gone on rampages against Native Americans in California. He would have them shot onsite and even had one killed that was traveling with Fremont. This stirred up resentment among the tribes and local Californians. They would revolt and begin to take back California, who did not have the calming influence of Kit Carson, who would, at times, warn him of his excesses.
General Kearny, based on Kit Carson’s dispatches, trimmed his forces to only 300 and let the rest in Sante Fe New Mexico. Kearny believed that Fremont already had full control over Mexico. He forced Carson to be his guide back to California, which ruined his dream of seeing the East. He would lead them back and Kearny would lead his men to the disastrous fight at the Battle of San Pasqual, which is near present day San Diego.
Kearny’s forces would get bogged down and outnumbered. They would get held up on a hill, which became known as Mule Hill, which is located a little over 20 miles from San Diego. The troops would put up rocks to block incoming gun fire. Those same rocks are still in a standing position from that battle over 150 years later. It is now deemed a historical site.
In San Diego there as an American military base near the harbor. Kearny needed to get reinforcements, so he asked Kit Carson to deliver the message. Carson waiting until it was dark. He would remove his boots to walk past Mexican troops because he felt they made more noise that going barefoot. He tied his boots under his belt.
Those boots would fall out unbeknownst to him, so he would have to walk over 20 miles barefoot, which including silently bypassing enemy lines. By the time he arrived his feet were covered in cactus branches and cutup. He also was borderline delirious and need to be helped by American Soldiers to walk. He was able to deliver the dispatch and reinforcements were sent to Mule Hill and Americans won the battle. Carson became infamous after that.
The war, which became known as the Mexican-American War would drag on, but Americans were ultimately the winners. The Treaty of Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in 1848, which transferred, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona and Colorado, and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming from Mexico to the United States. Making it the largest land grab in history.
Of course, Native Americans weren’t happy as American settlers flooded the area. With Mexico, they were certain of autonomy as there were not too many Mexican settlers coming to the area. This would lead to bloody wars between the various tribes in the area and the United States. It would lead to a repeat of the Trail of Tears that led the Cherokee out of the Southern United States to the West in the 1830s.
John Fremont became the first Republican Presidential nominee in 1856. Kit Carson became a Colonel in the Union Army of the West and fought against Texans who were loyal to the Confederate side. It also led to the creation of Arizona, which broke away from Unionist loyal New Mexico to form a Confederate loyal territory.
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/gadsden-purchase
https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/james-k-polk/
http://www.150.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=27581
