Great (pro-Hispanic) Americans

Thomas Jefferson

• "The ancient part of American history is written chiefly in Spanish."

• ". . . Spanish is most important to an American. Our connection with Spain is already important and will become daily more so."

• "Bestow great attention on (Spanish), and endeavor to acquire an accurate knowledge of it. Our future connections with Spain and Spanish America will render that language of valuable acquisition.

See:
​Jefferson's Spanish Library

Ulyses S. Grant

• "I do not think there was ever a more wicked war than that waged by the United States on Mexico."

• "Bitterly opposed" to the annexation of Mexico. Regarded the Mexican-American war as "one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation . . . an instance of a republic following the bad example of European monarchies, in not considering justice in their desire to acquire additional territory."

See:
The Conveniently 'Forgotten War'

Abraham Lincoln

• Stood against the Mexican-American War, calling it "a war unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun by the president of the United States."

• Returned the Mexican-government-confiscated Spanish missions to the Catholic Church in 1865.

See:
The Conveniently 'Forgotten War'

Walt Whitman

• "We Americans have yet to really learn our own antecedents. Thus far, impressed by New-England writers and schoolmasters, we tacitly abandon ourselves to the notion that our United States have been fashioned from the British Islands only, and essentially from a second England only — which is a very great mistake."

• "To that composite American identity of the future Spanish character will supply some of the most needed parts. No stock shows a grander historic retrospect — grander in religiousness and loyalty, or for patriotism, courage, decorum, gravity, and honor."

See:
​Whitman's Prophetic Letter