Manifest Destiny Civil War

The south losing economic profit was not the only worrisome thing on the rich southern aristocrat’s mind, they also feared their political, and social influences being ripped away from them. The manifest destiny of the 19th century allowed European settlers the ability to expand their territory across North America believing it was their destiny to conquest all things on the north America continent. The liberation of African American from slavery went against the manifest destiny since the destiny focused on European settlers enforcing their political and social authority over others. Comparatively, the south dreaded the rise of free African Americans since the rise would shatter the racial hierarchy put in place by white supremacist of America.

O’Sullivan or anyone who believed in Manifest Destiny, and action that they took was considered just, and nothing would stand in their way. Now what is Manifest Destiny? Manifest Destiny was the belief that any action took to help make the U.S expand from coast to coast was justified. In the painting of Document 5, “American Progress”, there are the Native Americans and buffalo being pushed west, pioneers and farmers clearing, settling, and farming in the land, and wagons, trains, and telegraph lines, the new inventions of the 1800s, are shown being used and headed in the western direction. The telegraph lines, a new invention, were the first form of long distance communication that involved a series of beeps by electronic pulses.

During the 19th century of the American expansion the United States but was heading to stretch from coast to coast. But this attitude helped fuel western settlement, Native American removal and war with Mexico. The belief of the Manifest Destiny had numerous parts for many things, each was serving people in different ways. The Manifest Destiny was supported by many Americans. The components created separate reasons to overcome a new land. Manifest Destiny was used among the Americans in the 1840’s as a defense for U.S. territorial expansion. It was an idea that was taken to be true that God had destined that “the white man” to a godly mission of American movement and defeat in the name of Christianity and democracy. John O’Sullivan first initiated manifest destiny in America in 1845. He edited the annexation of Texas was published on 1845 edition of the United States Magazine and Democratic Review. in 1845 to promote the annexation of Texas and the Oregon Country to the United States. And to give the name and description to the creed of victorious Americans. Though the next two decades of the nation needed more territory, so then began the enormous territory growth. The nation stretched. The

Manifest Destiny is a term coined by John L. Sullivan in 1845 when talking about the annexation of Texas. He believed, along with other expansionists, that it’s inevitable that the US population would spread across North America because the land is given by Providence to the United States and that it’s natural that the land should be part of the country [Doc 1]. The idea of westward expansion and Manifest Destiny had positive and negative effects on the politics, society and the economics of the United States and

With the end of the Mexican war, the United States seized a tremendous amount of land from Mexico, about one third of the country, half a million square miles to be exact. The hundreds of thousands of Mexicans and Indians who continued to live there became strangers in their own homes. This take over of land and the spirit of manifest destiny intensified the political conflict of slavery. Taking over this land intensified racism as some viewed this as signifying the superiority of the “Anglo-Saxon race.” This new idea proved to be detrimental to race relations in these new territories. When these territories still belonged to Mexico, slavery was illegal and Mexicans, Indians and blacks were all equal. When the territory of Texas, once a part

John L. O’Sullivan first coined the phrase manifest destiny in 1845. In these two words, he voiced the idea that it was America’s God-given right to expand across the North American continent. This idea was evident in the Ostend Manifesto of 1854 (Document J) where the writer claims ”[B]y every law, human and divine, we shall be justified in wresting [Cuba] from Spain if we possess the power.” This idea was partially created because of the idea that the Americans were superior to the Native

In order to understand manifest destiny we must first find its’ origin. John O’Sullivan first initiated manifest destiny into America in 1845. This New York editor wrote the phrase that captured this mood when he attempted to explain American’s thirst for westward expansion he wrote: the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly

“American claim to new territory is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federative self-government entrusted to us”. (Brinkly, American History 1, 2012) (Quote of John L. O’Sullivan). Many say that the manifest destiny caused the civil war between the North and South. It was presumed that the northern states did not want slavery in the north. The south however did due to the vast land and propensity to grow cotton. It created tension between the north and south. There was plenty of land out west also. Many Americans were moving west to Texas.

The belief in Manifest Destiny, that settlers were destined to expand across North America, was held by most Americans. At the same time the belief came about, debates in Washington were going on about the future of America. While many debates were held in Washington, there was also a lot of conflicts in states like Kansas and Nebraska. Both the debates in Washington regarding the westward expansion of the new nation and the laws by which it should govern itself, as well as the conflicts on the ground regarding those very same issues, set America on the path that could lead to only one destination; the Civil War.

Industrialization of the United States was in full swing by the 1840s. Which evidenced that the continued expansion of the states was an issue and the idea of a Manifest Destiny was of major importance. John L. O’Sullivan once stated, “Our Manifest Destiny is to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions” (America: A Narrative History). The idea of a Manifest Destiny originated in the 1840s by the Anglo-Saxon Colonists to expand their ideal civilization and institutions across North America to become a super nation. There were conflicts during this expansion, but they only led to major successes that molded the states into the superior country it is today. The Manifest

The O’Sullivan article on Manifest Destiny sparked an initial interest amongst the American people. The idea that it was the United States’ destiny to expand across the continent became an ardent hope. America had a strong Christian belief that God had intended this for the country. The need for more land became vital as an increasing amount of immigrants flocked to the country each year. As the US gained more land, they steadily began to approach the western part of the continent. At the time, the United States was half of what it is now. The other half was owned by a country that would soon be forced into a two year war.

Manifest Destiny is a term that was first coined in 1845 by a journalist named John L. O’Sullivan, and was described as America’s destiny to expand, and that it was God’s will that America was to expand. According to Genovese, “The notion of westward expansion and domination of the white races struck a responsive chord in many Americans” (Genovese, 2017). The idea of expanding America’s territory was so popular that is was even later used in Congress to justify the claiming of Oregon’s territory. While the idea of expanding America seemed great to the Americans, it was not so great for those who were living on the land that the Americans would later claim. According to Hastedt, “The failure to assimilate and prosper was the fault of those receiving America’s goodness” (Hastedt, 2016). The Americans felt that they were superior to those whose lands they were trying to take, such as the Native Americans and Mexicans, and that they should be the ones to adopt American culture, even if they were there before the Americans claimed the land. The Americans even thought that those whose lands they were taking would be happy to convert to their way of living, as is stated by Hastedt, “The inherent superiority of American Values was sure to be recognized by those with whom they came in contact and would gladly be adopted” (Hastedt, 2016). This mindset would ultimately lead to the expansion of America, turning it into what we know today, but it would also ultimately result in conflict with those that the American’s were attempting to take the land from for the sake of expansion.

During the mid-nineteenth century, the rise of new territories increased the desire of Americans to expand into new territories in the western region. The term “Manifest Destiny” was first introduced by a magazine editor, John O’Sullivan, written in the United States Magazine and Democratic Review in 1845 to express the idea that the United States had a unique role in expanding the nation (OpenStax College 316,483). Manifest Destiny is widely defined as a justification of continental expansion as a calling to the American citizens to unify the land into the Union. I view Manifest Destiny as white males expressing their ideals of white supremacy unavoidably expanding new territories not yet defined by others (). With the new western land came the revival of the issue of slavery, should new territories become free or slave states? In several cases, the white settlers inflicted their morals about their policies and views of slavery in new territories acquired and bypassed all other principles of different races. They saw that their morals were above all and that they received a message from God to colonize the new land for themselves. Although Manifest Destiny posed conflict against Native Americans and slaves, new land and trade routes steered the United States to enter a realm of economic prosperity.

The Manifest Destiny was the name given to the Anglo-American (white) expansion into the West. The Manifest Destiny was based on an idea that white Americans were superior people who believed in God. Americans were to populate North America “sea to shining sea” and spread the religion of Christianity. The Manifest Destiny displayed American’s confidence. Americans moved west for more land, the Manifest Destiny also uplifted American’s freedom and democracy. And it encouraged independence. The United States used the Manifest Destiny to start a war with Mexico from1846 until 1848. The Manifest Destiny communicated American claims to western lands, at once highlighting the nation’s superiority and offering a solution to national anxieties. Ironically, the new territories exacerbated sectional divisions and caused the civil war (Bailey et al., 2015, p 319, and Hardesty 2015).

The author’s purpose was to highlight the territories of California, Oregon and Texas with the intention to promote Manifest Destiny and westward expansion in a published Whig journal. Whigs promoted rapid economic and industrial growth, including the expansion of territories through Manifest Destiny, by demanding government support for a more modern, market-oriented economy, suggesting high tariffs, and funding internal improvements. The term Manifest Destiny was coined by John O’Sullivan, the editor of the 1846 Democratic Review. He claimed in his article that California will “fall away from Mexico…and a population will soon be in actual occupation of [it].” In stating this, he was foreshadowing the end of the war and the forced Mexican cession of the territories of California and New Mexico to the United States in exchange of $15 million.