te sheer domination by American troops, the Mexican government refused to surrender. The general public and Congress began to convey displeasure with Polk's policies. However, this did not cause the president to modify his course of action; as Graebner points out, "Despite such pressures for changes in policy, President Polk refused to alter the course which he had established at the outset of the war." Polk, though, finally responded to Congress and the public in his annual message (1847), "the doctrine of no territory is the doctrine of no indemnity; and, if sanctioned, would be a public acknowledgment that our country was wrong, and that the war declared by Congress with extraordinary unanimity was unjust". At last, Polk had made public his intention to retain California and New Mexico after the war. The president's decision to uphold his policies of territorial expansion during the Mexican War was affected (rather insignificantly) by two domestic concerns. First, the racist general public equated Mexicans with Indians; most felt that they were unfit to govern themselves and others, like Commodore Robert Stockton (who was sent to Mexico in 1845 by Polk) justified continued intervention by pointing out that the US needed "to promote her own interests and advance the cause of liberty". Second, Polk was influenced by the American ideology of Manifest Destiny. K. Jack Bauer notes that California was a significant attraction to many Americans, "For them it was the natural western limit of the country, a great commonwealth connecting America's heartland with the wealth of the orient." Although Polk understood and took into consideration the above notions, the main reason for his consistent policy, as Price displays, was his personal determination to acquire "the fruits of war". As the war came to an end, and the peace negotiations began, a new foreign policy emerged. Although Polk refused to vacillate from his initial convictions, his mini...
