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Manifest Destiny, By John O ' Sullivan

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Though the actual term “Manifest Destiny” was coined in 1845 by John O’Sullivan a democrat leader and the editor of “The Morning Post”. It was a concept going back to when the pilgrim fathers landed at Plymouth Rock. From the very first settlements in America the pilgrims, the settlers at Jamestown and all along the eastern seaboard, they began expanding little by little into the interior. Certainly, from the 18th century Americans had come to believe that is was their right, and in fact their duty to bring Christianity and republicanism into the uninhabited western areas of the United States. Of course, what these expansionists did not take into consideration, was that the regions they were expanding into were inhabited by Indians, …show more content…

Even before Jefferson purchased the Louisiana territory, thousands of land hungry Americans had already migrated to the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys. This mass migration displaced many Indian tribes.
Jefferson knew that whoever controlled the port of New Orleans, owned the Mississippi River and had the power to open or close the port to commerce at will, as he phrased it “a hand on the throat of the American economy”.3 He knew the Mississippi would draw the country together. The Louisiana Territory brought 828,000 sq. miles for 15 million dollars (about 3 cents an acre) to the United States. Jefferson’s dream of an “Empire for Liberty” had come to pass. The nation had been more than doubled in size. President Jefferson commissioned Lewis and Clark to explore this vast new territory. From 1804-1805, Lewis and Clark journeyed with the Corps of Discovery to map out the newly purchased territory. Lewis and Clark with 33 individuals began their journey from St. Louis up the Missouri River through the “Stoney Mountains” now the Rockies to the Pacific

Ocean. With this exploration came the realization that there was no easy all water route to the Pacific. That dream which had persisted for centuries had died. However, it would do little to stop the westward expansion. The American west was opened. This large migration

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