Media Construction of Peace

PowerPoint Slide Show, Unit 2, Lesson 1

Wars of Manifest Destiny:

Indian, Mexican, and Spanish American Wars

Indian Wars

“INDIAN CHIEF: Mr. President, we call here to-day to offer our fealty to you as our recognized Guardian and Ward, and to pray you, Sir, to continue our Good Friend and father.

THE PRESIDENT: You are welcome; and in reference to continuing your ‘Good Father,’ as you say, I must answer that I have long thought that the two nations which you represent, and all those civilized nations in the Indian Country, should be their own Wards and Good Fathers. I am of the opinion that they should become Citizens, and be entitled to all the rights of Citizens – cease to be Nations and become States.”

Mexican War

May 11, 1846 Brooklyn Daily Eagle editorial by Walt Whitman

Who has read the sickening story of those brutal wholesale murders so useless for any purpose except gratifying the cowardly appetite of a nation of bravos, willing to shoot down men by the hundred in cold blood – without panting for the day when the prayer of that blood should be listened to – when the vengeance of a retributive God should be meted out to those who so ruthlessly and needlessly slaughtered his image.

  That day has arrived. We think there can be no doubt of the truth of

yesterday’s news and we are sure the people here, ten to one, are for prompt and effectual hostilities. Tame newspaper comments, such as appear in the leading Democratic print of today, in New York, and the contemptible anti-patriotic criticism of its contemporary Whig organ, do not express the sentiments and wishes of the people. Let our arms now be carried which shall teach the world that, while we are not forward for a quarrel, America knows how to crush, as well as how to expand!

June 12, 1846, New York Tribune editorial by Horace Greeley

No true honour, nor national benefit can possibly accrue from an unjust war. We can clearly defeat the armies of Mexico, slaughter them by thousands, and pursue them perhaps to their capitol; we can conquer and 'annex' their territory; but what then? Have the histories of the ruin of Greek and Roman liberty consequent on such extensions of empire by the sword no less to us? Who believes that a score of victories over Mexico, the annexation of half her provinces, will give us more liberty, a purer morality, a more prosperous industry, than we now have?

How will the millions who must ever live by their daily toil profit by an extension of our away? They may shout and hurrah, and dance around the bonfires that will be lighted, the cannon that will roar in honor of some field of human butchery; but to what end? Is not life miserable enough, comes not death soon enough, without resort to the hideous energy of war?

THE OCCUPATION OF THE CAPITOL OF MEXICO BY THE AMERICAN ARMY

Palo Alto

Resaca De La Palma

Monterey

Buena Vista

“The one qualification for a Whig president”

Philippine American War

Columbia’s Easter bonnet

“No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent. When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government - that is despotism.” Abraham Lincoln,Speech of October 16, 1854

“Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men in all lands everywhere. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves and under a just God cannot long retain it.” Abraham Lincoln, Letter to H.L. Pierce, April 6, 1859

“IF THIS BE TREASON, MAKE THE MOST OF IT” – Patrick Henry

Take up the White Man's burdenSend forth the best ye breedGo bind your sons to exileTo serve your captives' need To wait in heavy harnessOn fluttered folk and wildYour new-caught, sullen peoples half-devil and half-child. Rudyard Kipling

THE WHITE (?) MAN’S BURDEN

GEN. JACOB H. SMITH

“Criminals because they were born ten years before we took the Philippines”

“THE WAY WE GET THE WAR NEWS THE MANILA CORRESPONDENT AND THE MCKINLEY CENSORSHIP”

“Commadore Dewey Crushes the Spanish Squadron in a Terrific Battle off Cavite near the capital of the Philippine Islands, Sunday Morning”

“One of the Great Naval Engagements of the Age”

“About 40 Americans Dead.”

“Beaten Insurgents Torn to Pieces by Dewey’s Guns.”