"The First Victim of American Imperialism"

"Many important figures of the epoch, with shame and regret, recognized its nature. That 'most outrageous war' (John Quincy Adams wrote) had been 'actuated by a spirit of rapacity and an inordinate desire for territorial aggrandizement' (Henry Clay), and began with a premeditated attack by President James Polk, thanks to which 'a band of murderers and demons from hell' were 'permitted to kill men, women and children' (Abraham Lincoln).

"After the naval bombardment of the civilian population of Veracruz, Robert E. Lee wrote to his wife, 'My heart bleeds for the inhabitants.' In his memoirs, Ulysses S. Grant lamented that he had not had "the moral courage to resign' from what, as a young officer, he had described as 'the most wicked war.' For a number of other politicians and thinkers, including Henry David Thoreau, the war contradicted the democratic and republican values on which the country had been founded and was opposed to basic Christian ethics."

Enrique Krauze at The New York Times writes about an effort to invalidate the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

James K. Romney?

"Romney, of course, isn’t planning to expand the continental United States, but there is an underlying similarity between Polk’s approach and his own. There are two kinds of nationalism that American administrations have promoted. One kind, practiced by Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt, has stressed national unification through the elimination of invidious differences of wealth or power. The other kind, practiced by Polk, Reagan, and George W. Bush, has stressed national unity through patriotic achievements abroad. The latter kind of nationalism has either ignored or tolerated or even exacerbated internal differences among Americans."

John Judis in The New Republic explores why Mitt Romney's advisors have been comparing their candidate to President James K. Polk.

As does Tom Chaffin at The Atlantic.