Question

What does Emerson believe the end result of the war will be?

“The United States will conquer Mexico, but it will be as the man swallows the arsenic, which brings him down in turn. Mexico will poison us.”

–Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1846

Answer 1

In this excerpt, Ralph Waldo Emerson expresses a strong belief that while the United States will achieve military victory over Mexico in the war, there will be significant negative consequences for the U.S. He uses the metaphor of a man swallowing arsenic to illustrate that the victory will ultimately be harmful and self-destructive. Emerson suggests that the act of conquering Mexico will lead to moral and ethical degradation for the United States, implying that the war will poison the nation's values and integrity. Therefore, the end result of the war, in Emerson's view, will not be one of pure triumph but rather a toxic legacy that undermines the country from within.