Describe the historical context surrounding documents 1 and 2


Source 1: James K. Polk, Declaration of War, sent to US Congress on May 11, 1846. From Steven R. Butler,

ed., A Documentary History of the Mexican War (Richardson, TX: Descendants of Mexican War Veterans,

1995) 67-71.


Source 2: Excerpts of U.S. Army Colonel Ethan Allen Hitchcock’s Diary. Quoted in Howard Zinn, A People’s

History of the United States: 1492 to Present (Harper Collins, 2011), Chap​