# Ep. 61: The Vile Mexican War 

**URL:** <https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/liberty-chronicles/ep-61-the-vile-mexican-war>

**By** Anthony Comegna

**Published:** July 10, 2018

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In 1844, America's first libertarians made a serious mistake. The kind of mistake with the potential to destroy their whole movement.

In the end, a few thousand early libertarians in New York made the Mexican War a possibility. And almost right away, Polk began betraying Van Buren defectors. He ignored Van Buren's cabinet suggestions and supported the conservative faction in New York.

## Further Reading:

[For an overview of the later history of locofocoism](https://www.libertarianism.org/columns/loco-foco-movement-lost-chapter-history-liberalism-part-two)

[“The Artist as Exemplar: Thomas Cole’s Voyage of Life”](https://www.libertarianism.org/columns/artist-exemplar-thomas-coles-voyage-life)

[A quick life of Thoreau](https://www.libertarianism.org/encyclopedia/thoreau-henry-david) in the Encyclopedia of Libertarianism

[Walt Whitman’s Democratic Vistas](https://www.libertarianism.org/essays/walt-whitmans-democratic-vistas-greatest-lessons-nature) (1871)

[Polk’s Special Message to Congress](http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=67907) (11 May, 1846)

Lincoln’s “[Spot Resolutions](https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/lincoln-resolutions)” at the National Archives

Music by Kai Engel