Whigs were not averse to extending the blessings of American liberty, even to Mexicans and Indians. But they looked askance at doing so by force. Befitting the evangelical origins of much Whig ideology, they placed their faith in mission more than in annexation. “ ‘As a city set upon a hill,’” the United States should inculcate the ideas of “true republicanism” by example rather than conquest, insisted many Whigs.
