History of the United States I / Unit 11 USH1 1545 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Opposition to the War
The idea
The small but vocal antislavery faction argued that Polk had deliberately provoked hostilities so that the United States could annex more slave territory. Illinois representative Abraham Lincoln and other members of Congress issued the Spot Resolutions, demanding to know the precise spot on United States soil where American blood had been spilled. Many Whigs also denounced the war, while Democrats supported Polk's decision.
In practice
A first-term congressman asking the president to identify a location on a map.
Where people slip
The Spot Resolutions are a procedural device doing constitutional work. If the spot was not American soil, the war's stated justification collapses, and Lincoln was asking the one question the administration could not answer. Unit 13 covers Thoreau, who refused to pay taxes for this war and wrote Civil Disobedience about it, and that entry is taught there rather than here.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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