Source: Charles Sumner, 'Objections to the Mexican-American War," adopted by the Mass. State B: President Spe...
Legislature, 1847.
Note: Sumner was a young
state legislator from Massachusetts who later served 24 years in the US
Senate. According to an early Texas census, there were 103,000 whites and 38,000 slaves in the state
in 1847
Mexico, on achieving her independence of the Spanish Crown ... decreed the abolition of
human slavery within her dominions, embracing the province of Texas
At this period, citizens of the United States had already begun to (move) into Texas The idea was
that this extensive province ought to become a part of the United States
Current emigration soon followed from the United States. Slaveholders crossed the Sabine (river
between Louisiana and Texas) with their slaves, in defiance of the Mexican ordinance of freedom.
Restless spirits, discontented at home...joined them The work of rebellion sped. Our newspapers
excited the lust of territorial robbery in the public mind.
Certainly (Mexico)... might justly charge
our citizens with disgraceful robbery, while, in seeking extension of slavery, (our own citizens
denied) the great truths of American freedom

What is the central idea of this document? Cite evidence from the text.

According to this document was the United States justified in going to war with Mexico?