Jason's Personal Reflection

Jason Orr

Professor Holmberg

English 352

7 March 2013                            

Staking Claim: President James Polk and Melville’s Vision of Imperialism

            In his “First Annual Message” to Congress on December 2, 1845, President James Polk wrote to Congress of his intention to prevent Europe from claiming territories on the North American to include Oregon, California, and Texas (Richardson). Essentially, he was reinforcing the Monroe Doctrine (1823), which prevented further colonization in the Western Hemisphere by Europeans. Polk’s vision of Manifest Destiny was for “the addition of new states to our confederacy . . . [and] the expansion of free principles” (Polk qtd in Richardson). Specifically, the British desired to colonize Oregon, which would usurp American pioneer claims.  

In Moby-Dick, Captain Ahab can be viewed as an allusion to Polk, who advocated for

supreme control over the continent, while Ahab sought dominance over the whale by way of dominance over the ocean. In chapter fourteen, Melville suggested that the Nantucket whalers were conquerors of the sea; thus, they had “overrun and conquered the watery world like so many Alexanders; parceling out among them the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans, as the three pirate powers did Poland. Let America add Mexico to Texas, and pile Cuba upon Canada . . . two thirds of this terraqueous globe are the Nantucketers” (65). In short, the oceans were fair game for whalers, which allowed America to dominate the whaling industry during whaling’s “golden age” in much the same way an empire would.  

            Melville’s conception of the terms “Fast-Fish” and “Loose-Fish,” in Moby-Dick, relates directly to Manifest Destiny and imperial claims. In the novel, Melville defined a Fast-Fish as a whale claimed, or made fast to the ship, whereas, a Loose-Fish was “fair game” for any ship (308). If one imagines the whales as territory on the American continent, the claimed territory on which American settlers were located, the Oregon Territory for instance, would be considered a Fast-Fish. In other words, the western pioneers would have claim over this territory for the United States in the same way a whaler might claim a whale by killing it and making it fast it alongside the ship.

            One of Polk’s aims in extending power over the continent was to send a message to Europe that Texas was to be a Fast-Fish; however, the dispute with Mexico would lead to the Mexican-American War. Melville, through Ishmael, detailed the history of claims in the Western Hemisphere using his Fast-Fish/Loose-Fish analogy: “. . . [I]s Texas but a Fast-Fish? . . . What was America in 1492 but a Loose-Fish . . . What was Poland to the Czar? What Greece to the Turk? What India to England? What at last will Mexico be to the United States? All Loose-Fish” (310). In other words, Ishmael was arguing that claims over land are always open to disagreement because powerful nations use force to dislocate native peoples regardless of claim.

            While, the annexation of Texas provided a context for Polk’s message to Congress, the United States annexed Native American land as states added and claims made. According to Polk, the pioneers triumphed over Native Americans, overcoming the “. . . privations and dangers [which] lead the way through savage tribes inhabiting the vast wilderness intervening between our frontier settlements and Oregon . . .” (Polk/Richardson). In essence, Polk, and the nation, did not consider the sovereignty of Native American or Mexican claims because they believed it was their divine right to claim this land under the pretext of democracy.

Works Cited

Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick. Ed. Hershel Parker and Harrison Hayford. New York: Norton, 2002. Print.

Richardson, James D., ed. "James K. Polk: Reaffirmation of the Monroe Doctrine." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2013. Web. 23 Feb. 2013.