The Mexican-American War significantly expanded the territories of the United States. This has become common knowledge throughout the public, and the war is frequently left at that defining statement. However, the Mexican-American War was more than a simple war of expansion and territorial disputes. Members of the American elite fiercely debated for the war and against it. Through a combination of both political and moral rhetoric, the Mexican-American War became not only a war for territorial expansion but a war for American values.