USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -A workaholic, America’s new chief executive set an ambitious agenda with four major goals: cut tariffs, reestablish an independent U.S. Treasury, secure the Oregon Territory and acquire the territories of California and New Mexico from Mexico. Polk eventually achieved all his goals.

Detailed explanation-2: -Shared with Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft the four goals of his presidential administration: reducing the tariff; establishing an independent treasury; settling the Oregon boundary question; and acquiring California.

Detailed explanation-3: -President Polk had a short list of “great measures” he intended to accomplish. Among them was the acquisition of Mexican California. Gold had not been discovered there yet, but Polk wanted California and its magnificent San Francisco Bay as the American gateway to trade with China and other Asian nations.

Detailed explanation-4: -Texas is admitted as a slave state, making it the twenty-eighth state in the Union. The Mormon migration to Utah, led by Brigham Young, begins. Congress declares war on Mexico after American troops, under General Zachary Taylor, clash with Mexican troops on the north bank of the Rio Grande.

Detailed explanation-5: -Polk had a three-part plan for the war with Mexico: First, American troops would drive Mexican forces out of the disputed border region in Texas and make the border secure. Second, the United States would seize New Mexico and California. Finally, American forces would take Mexico City, the capital of Mexico.