“This boa-constrictor appetite of swallowing states and provinces”: Anti-Imperialist Opposition to the U.S./Mexican War

Abstract

Viewed in retrospect, opposition to the U.S./Mexican War stands out as the first moment of full-throated anti-imperialist critique leveled against the United States government by an ideological cross-section of its own citizens. This essay explores the nature and operation of that critique as it appears in several political speeches, newspaper editorials, and literary works from the period. Popular backlash against the war in many ways laid the foundation for anti-imperialisms that persist into the twenty-first century; indeed, opposition to the U.S./Mexican War indexes a tradition within the United States of condemning U.S. imperialism, and worrying over its long-term consequences for the political and moral character of the nation. In her recent essay “ Moby-Dick and the War on Terror” (2007), Carolyn Karcher indirectly touches on the political ramifications for our own historical moment, of deepening our engagement with this tradition. Ahab’s methods of overcoming resistance to his mission, Karcher writes, tells us something about “how the politics of fear has served to cow dissenters into silence and frighten humane, thinking people into supporting the war on terror.” But the U.S./Mexican War evoked a cacophony of dissenters who were neither “cowed” nor “frightened” into supporting what they considered to be an anti-republican, imperialist enterprise. In deepening our engagement with such outbursts of anti-imperialist dissent in the United States, we better position ourselves to productively apprehend twenty-first century anti-imperialist rhetoric—whether appearing in academic publications, the popular media, or in the mainstream political discourse—as a vital aspect of U.S. history and cultural identity.