Good morning, it’s Thursday, May 13, 2021.On this date in 1846, Congress overwhelmingly approved President James K. Polk’s request for a declaration of war against Mexico. We were arguing then, as we are today, about the southern border of Texas, which had been granted statehood less than six months earlier.
Certainly, the war that followed produced results highly favorable to the United States: Signed less than two years later, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo established the Rio Grande River as the southern border, added most of present-day New Mexico, Arizona, and California to the United States, and paid Mexico a pittance for it $15 million.