President Polk wrote this address to Congress on May 11, 1846 to the Senate and the House of Representatives:
The existing state of the relations between the United States and Mexico renders it proper that I should bring the subject to the consideration of Congress. In my message at the commencement of your present session, the state of these relations, the causes which led to the suspension of diplomatic intercourse between the two countries in March, 1845, and the long-continued and unredressed wrongs and injuries committed by the Mexican Government on citizens of the United States in their persons and property were briefly set forth.
As the facts and opinions which were then laid before you were carefully considered, I can not better express my present convictions of the condition of affairs up to that time than by referring you to that communication.
Explanation: When James K. Polk spoke before Congress on May 11, 1846, he was asking Congress to declare war on Mexico because of a cavalry attack that killed 11 U.S. soldiers north of the Rio Grande river, which was then the disputed border between the two nations.
