Lamont Haynes Unit 11 Essay Was Westward Expansion Ethical?

March 29th, 2013

In the early 1800s the United States was a small civilization that only consisted of several states. From the time it started it expanded geographically and became the superpower of the world. A lot of people would say that the U.S expansion was not by the rules or unethical . And they are right. First, during the expansion the U.S got stronger and stronger. And with all that strength they started abusing their power thinking that they can take any piece of land they want. Based on the excerpt that Jose Maria Sanchez(A mexican traveling to Texas wrote). The U.S practically Invaded Texas. They didnt have permission from the authorities and just came in and started living there. The majority of the people who lived there started to become North Americans. The Mexican population was reducing to only a few cities. By this evidence you can see that the U.S probably thought highly of themselves and just took their land. Another piece of evidence I have is from (A Documentary Film on PBS). The U.S told the Indians to leave their land and move to a smaller piece of land to the west. During this the Indians were treated badly and were even killed by some Americans even after they were promised protection and care. The U.S broke their promise and abused their power by thinking they can just move people from their land so they can benefit themselves. The reason why this is unethical is because when you have more power than someone, you basically are in charge of them. And the U.S had more power and strength than the Mexicans and Seminole Indians. They abused it by not letting the Mexicans and Indians make decisions for themselves and just taking their land. And not following their part of the deal. The second reason why the U.S expansion was unethical was because many people were killed for unnecessary reasons. This expansion didnt have to be as violent and have as many deaths as it did. According to the (PBS Documentary We shall remain), When the Indians were moving west this movement resulted in 4,000 deaths. The U.S put the Indians through hard conditions and made them walk for months. Also killing some of them in the process. Every time they stopped for rest they had to bury 14

or 15 Indians. If the U.S really cared about other civilizations and didnt want a lot of killing. They wouldve made a safer and better plan for them to move. Based on the evidence from ( John Quincy Adams Diary, 1818) during the war between the U.S and Spain for Florida. Andrew Jackson treated the Seminoles who lives there like animals. But not only did John Adams not punish Jackson. He also agreed with his actions of hanging the Indian Prisoners and let him get away with it. There was no need for all of this violence and death to happen. They could've just let the Indians go. And thats not even all of it. Based on the evidence from( TLC 2002) Andrew Jackson, the same man who inhumanly hung the Indian Prisoners. Marched into Florida with 1,700 american troops and started killing the Spanish Army without orders from a superior rank. If Jackson was a proper trained leader, he wouldnt have gone against his orders and started fighting and killing the soldiers. And this was John Adams opinion to what Andrew Jackson did from ( The Diary of John Adams). My opinion is that there

was no real violation of his instructions: that his proceedings were justified by the necessity of the case, and by misconduct of the Spanish commanding officers in Florida. Again, you can see how John Adams agreed with Andrew Jacksons terrible acts in Florida. And agreed with all of the unnecessary killing that went on. Even if the Spanish officers werent acting how they should. Why is it their business to go over there and try to change how they are, by killing them and replacing Spanish governors with American governors. They werent harming the U.S thus making making it unnecessary to kill all the people they did. Finally the westward expansion was unethical because the U.S used the states they conquered as states for their dirty work, like slavery, a system that many view as a unethical thing to have. Based on the evidence from (History.com) after Andrew Jackson took Florida and was appointed a military general. Florida was organized as a U.S territory and was admitted into the union as a slave state ( TCI 2002). One of the reasons why the U.S wanted Florida was because thats where all the runaway slaves would run to. This shows that the U.S only wanted Florida for their evil and unnecessary reasons. Even though slavery was good for the economy, its still not a very ethical thing to have, buying and selling human beings and using them for your benefit is just not

human. Also declaring states as slave states is insane. Its not like they treated the slaves with respect. The slaves were whipped and even killed sometimes. Im sure the U.S back then could survive like how we are now without the use of slavery. They were just being plain lazy. In conclusion the U.S expanded very quickly and legally, but the way how they did it was wrong. Innocent people died, people were used, and power was abused. Yes some would argue and say that it was good, but when you compare the good and the bad. The scale is tipped. While the U.S got what they want other peoples lives went downhill.