The famous American writer who publicly opposed the U.S. war with Mexico was Henry David Thoreau. In his essay "Civil Disobedience," Thoreau criticized the war as an unjust act driven by the desire to expand slavery and Imperialism. He famously refused to pay his poll tax as a form of protest against the war and was briefly jailed for it, advocating for individual conscience over governmental authority. His stance influenced later civil rights movements and thinkers, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi.