April 10th, 2010 | 
Author: 1.What was the purpose of the Trist mission to Mexico? Why did Polk believe the U.S. diplomat would be a suitable representative of his administration?
2.Why did Scott’s drive toward the Mexican capital stall after the Battle of Cerro Gordo?
3.Why did some expansionists believe the United States should annex all of Mexico?
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From Shmoop History on Manifest Destiny and the Mexican American War
1. President James K. Polk sends Nicholas P. Trist, the chief clerk in the State Department, to Mexico along with Gen. Winfield Scott’s forces in order to negotiate a peace treaty with Mexico. Yet Scott’s invasion of Mexico City so destabilizes the Mexican government that no negotiations can occur until the ensuing Mexican power struggle ends with a stable administration was in place. Polk tries to recall Trist, but Trist disobeys his orders, staying to sign the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in February 1848.
3. The rapid expansion of the nation’s land area, coupled with dramatic military successes and developments in transportation (the railroad) and communication (the telegraph and the postal system), fueled theories of Anglo-Saxon supremacy that fused with national pride to produce Manifest Destiny, the conviction that white Americans were divinely ordained to dominate the continent, from sea to shining sea.