write:Polk “desired to refresh”his memory about the exact orders that he had givenCommander J. D. Sloat when back in the president’sthird month in oce he had ordered Sloat toimme

andeverything from supplies to strategy demandedimmediate attention. Polk’s rst action was to request“all the orders and letters of instruction to oursquadrons in the Pacic & Gulf of Mexico” and ask thatthese be read to the Cabinet. Polk “desired to refresh”his memory about the exact orders that he had givenCommander J. D. Sloat when
back in the president’sthird month in oce
he had ordered Sloat toimmediately seize San Francisco and other ports inCalifornia if war should break out. Perhaps he was alsoworried about how these orders would look inretrospect if subpoenaed by Congress.45Polk hardly could have been clearer about histerritorial ambitions
but Secretary of State Buchanansomehow missed the hint. In a remarkable display ofobliviousness
Buchanan drafted a message to the greatpowers of Europe disavowing interest in Mexico’sterritory and presented it to the cabinet. Polk wasabbergasted when Buchanan read “that in going to warwe did not do so with a view to acquire either Californiaor New Mexico or any other portion of the Mexicanterritory.” Polk “told him that though we had not goneto war for conquest
yet it was clear that in makingpeace we would if practicable obtain California and suchother portion of the Mexican territory as would besucient … to defray the expenses of the war … it waswell known that the Mexican government had no othermeans of indemnifying us.”This was not what Buchanan had hoped to hear. Thesecretary of state insisted that war “with England as wellas Mexico
and probably with France also
” would be theresult
“for neither of these powers will ever stand byand [see] California annexed to the U.S.” Growing evermore animated
Polk responded that “I would meet the