[19][20], Yet Jackson would not be the only president to elaborate on the principles underlying manifest destiny. [31], O'Sullivan's original conception of manifest destiny was not a call for territorial expansion by force. Manifest Destiny was a term coined by John O'Sullivan in 1845. The case study goes on to show that this company could have ceased to exist in the name of territorial expansion. The philosophy describing the necessary expansion of the nation westward was called Manifest Destiny; the belief that it was our duty to settle the continent, conquer and prosper.The idealized depiction of settlers who have reached the promised land of the west is depicted in Emanuel Leutze’s mural study Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way. [38], The second theme's origination is less precise. In his influential 1935 study of manifest destiny, Albert Weinberg wrote: "the expansionism of the [1830s] arose as a defensive effort to forestall the encroachment of Europe in North America".[59]. Historian William E. Weeks has noted that three key themes were usually touched upon by advocates of manifest destiny: The origin of the first theme, later known as American exceptionalism, was often traced to America's Puritan heritage, particularly John Winthrop's famous "City upon a Hill" sermon of 1630, in which he called for the establishment of a virtuous community that would be a shining example to the Old World. Previously, "Manifest Destiny had contained a principle so fundamental that a Calhoun and an O'Sullivan could agree on it—that a people not capable of rising to statehood should never be annexed. "[104] The Philippines was eventually given its independence in 1946; Guam and Puerto Rico have special status to this day, but all their people have United States citizenship. "Treaty with Russia for the Purchase of Alaska", Primary Documents in American History, The Library of Congress, April 25, 2017. O'Sullivan's second use of the phrase became extremely influential. On Manifest Destiny itself, two older books, Albert K. Weinberg, Manifest Destiny (1958) and Frederick Merk, Manifest Destiny and Mission in America (1963) remain useful. [79] William Walker got his start as a filibuster in an ill-advised attempt to separate the Mexican states Sonora and Baja California. This page was last edited on 21 February 2021, at 00:13. The United States had long been interested in acquiring Cuba from the declining Spanish Empire. The transfer ceremony took place in Sitka, Alaska on October 18. [110], "Manifest destiny" is sometimes used by critics of U.S. foreign policy to characterize interventions in the Middle East and elsewhere. Whigs presidents Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore tried to suppress the expeditions. The terms of cession for the Philippines involved a payment of the sum of $20 million by the United States to Spain. And he formulated the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which warned Europe that the Western Hemisphere was no longer open for European colonization. This term was coined by the prominent newspaper editor John O’Sullivan in 1845. Democracy had to be timeless, boundless, and portable. In the early modern times, the manifest destiny of science education would surge in the near future due to the science revolution taking place. Hudson, Linda S. Mistress of Manifest Destiny: A Biography of Jane McManus Storm Cazneau, 1807–1878. Expansion (1820-1860) Columbia, the female figure of America, leads Americans into the West and into the future by carrying the values of republicanism (as seen through her Roman garb) and progress (shown through the inclusion of technological innovations like the telegraph) and clearing native peoples and animals, seen being pushed into the darkness. He believed that the expansion of the United States would happen without the direction of the U.S. government or the involvement of the military. This poem features two characters, Captain Robb and Farmer Cobb. Parkman emphasized that the collapse of Indian power in the late 18th century had been swift and was a past event. Born in the 1840s, Manifest Destiny is the idea that America was destined by God to colonize the whole of North America. ", Lyon Rathbun, Lyon "The debate over annexing Texas and the emergence of manifest destiny. [88][89][90][91] The United States continued the European practice of recognizing only limited land rights of indigenous peoples. [4] In contemporary culture many have condemned manifest destiny as an ideology that was used to justify genocide against Native Americans. When the British refused the offer, American expansionists responded with slogans such as "The whole of Oregon or none" and "Fifty-four forty or fight", referring to the northern border of the region. Sarah P. Remond on January 24, 1859, delivered an impassioned speech at Warrington, England, that the connection between filibustering and slave power was clear proof of "the mass of corruption that underlay the whole system of American government". (The latter slogan is often mistakenly described as having been a part of the 1844 presidential campaign. Originally filibuster had come from the Dutch vrijbuiter and referred to buccaneers in the West Indies that preyed on Spanish commerce. An indispensable source and the best place to begin is Conrad Cherry, God’s New Israel: Religious Interpretations of American Destiny (1998). Thomas Jefferson believed that while American Indians were the intellectual equals of whites,[92] they had to live like the whites or inevitably be pushed aside by them. Phone: (512) 471-3151, Empathy-Focused Phone Calls Alleviate Loneliness, Depression, Anxiety During COVID-19 Pandemic, Asteroid Dust Found in Crater Closes Case of Dinosaur Extinction, Startups Lose Innovative Edge Under Corporate Funding. Some Democrats were also opposed; the Democrats of Louisiana opposed annexation of Mexico,[72] while those in Mississippi supported it. AUSTIN, Texas—Jane McManus Storm Cazneau — journalist, adviser to national political figures and adventurer — is a little-known and under-appreciated 19th-century figure, who played a key role in shaping United States domestic and foreign policy. Manifest destiny was a widely held cultural belief in the 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand across North America.There are three basic themes to manifest destiny: The special virtues of the American people and their institutions; The mission of the United States to redeem and remake the west in the image of the agrarian East Wilson's version of manifest destiny was a rejection of expansionism and an endorsement (in principle) of self-determination, emphasizing that the United States had a mission to be a world leader for the cause of democracy. Before the American Civil War, Manifest Destiny was used to validate continental acquisitions in the Oregon Country, Texas, New Mexico, and California. It is a great mistake. When the Democrats recaptured the White House in 1852 with the election of Franklin Pierce, a filibustering effort by John A. Quitman to acquire Cuba received the tentative support of the president. [86] After the mass resignation of Southern senators and representatives at the beginning of the war, Congress was subsequently able to pass the Homestead Act. This was used to justify "the enslavement of the blacks and the expulsion and possible extermination of the Indians". With American successes on the battlefield, by the summer of 1847 there were calls for the annexation of "All Mexico", particularly among Eastern Democrats, who argued that bringing Mexico into the Union was the best way to ensure future peace in the region.[66]. But manifest destiny is one of history's worst racist slogans and the one this article covers, because you don't have like 500 years to spare. While there had been some filibustering expeditions into Canada in the late 1830s, it was only by mid-century did filibuster become a definitive term. Traditionally, territories were acquired by the United States for the purpose of becoming new states on equal footing with already existing states. The most fervent advocates of manifest destiny had not prevailed along the northern border because, according to Reginald Stuart, "the compass of manifest destiny pointed west and southwest, not north, despite the use of the term 'continentalism'".[61]. On December 27, 1845, in his newspaper the New York Morning News, O'Sullivan addressed the ongoing boundary dispute with Britain. Because of this "choosing" they were entitled to any land they pleased, despite who already owned it (not limited to Native Americans; also including other countries), with the purpose being that they spread their religion of … "[12] Historian Frederick Merk likewise concluded: "From the outset Manifest Destiny—vast in program, in its sense of continentalism—was slight in support. Ask students to consider if the movement of Manifest Destiny would have been different if women were given a louder voice. Instead, she advised working women to educate themselves and take better-paying men’s clerical jobs. Oh, when will Manifest Destiny stop! Historian Frederick Merk, in Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History: A Reinterpretation (1963), argued that the failure of the "All Oregon" and "All Mexico" movements indicates that manifest destiny had not been as popular as historians have traditionally portrayed it to have been. Manifest destiny touched on issues of religion, money, race, patriotism, and morality. "[77] Millard Fillmore's second annual message to Congress, submitted in December 1851, gave double the amount of space to filibustering activities than the brewing sectional conflict. In a policy formulated largely by Henry Knox, Secretary of War in the Washington Administration, the U.S. government sought to expand into the west through the purchase of Native American land in treaties. )[60] When Polk moved to terminate the joint occupation agreement, the British finally agreed in early 1846 to divide the region along the 49th parallel, leaving the lower Columbia basin as part of the United States. [24], Six years later, in 1845, O'Sullivan wrote another essay titled Annexation in the Democratic Review,[25] in which he first used the phrase manifest destiny. [49], The phrase "manifest destiny" is most often associated with the territorial expansion of the United States from 1812 to 1867. [65], After the election of Polk, but before he took office, Congress approved the annexation of Texas. The British rejected a proposal by U.S. President John Tyler (in office 1841–1845) to divide the region along the 49th parallel, and instead proposed a boundary line farther south, along the Columbia River, which would have made most of what later became the state of Washington part of their colonies in North America. In the past, manifest destiny had been seen as necessary to enforce the Monroe Doctrine in the Western Hemisphere, but now expansionism had been replaced by interventionism as a means of upholding the doctrine. (Expansionists in the North were more inclined to promote the occupation of Oregon, while Southern expansionists focused primarily on the annexation of Texas.) The war was over some 525,000 square miles of land including all or part of what is now California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. There are three basic themes to manifest destiny: Historian Frederick Merk says this concept was born out of "a sense of mission to redeem the Old World by high example ... generated by the potentialities of a new earth for building a new heaven". One of the goals of the War of 1812 was to threaten to annex the British colony of Lower Canada as a bargaining chip to force the British to abandon their fortifications in the Northwestern United States and support for the various Native American tribes residing there. The process was validated by the Insular Cases. That is why slavery became one of the central issues in the continental expansion of the United States before the Civil War. Manifest destiny is an unofficial doctrine that characterized the U.S. attitude toward territorial expansion during the 19th and 20th centuries. While many writers focused primarily upon American expansionism, be it into Mexico or across the Pacific, others saw the term as a call to example. In the 1896 election, however, the Republicans recaptured the White House and held on to it for the next 16 years. Manifest Destiny marches on imposing its will on the defenseless countries of the world. a child and another woman walks as a member of the Native tribe, bare-breasted ... “American Progress” is bound to the concept of “Manifest Destiny” first ... visitors the world over. Whigs denounced manifest destiny, arguing, "that the designers and supporters of schemes of conquest, to be carried on by this government, are engaged in treason to our Constitution and Declaration of Rights, giving aid and comfort to the enemies of republicanism, in that they are advocating and preaching the doctrine of the right of conquest". As with Texas, Oregon, and California, American policy makers were concerned that Cuba would fall into British hands, which, according to the thinking of the Monroe Doctrine, would constitute a threat to the interests of the United States. Ours, sir, is the Government of a white race.... We are anxious to force free government on all; and I see that it has been urged ... that it is the mission of this country to spread civil and religious liberty over all the world, and especially over this continent. While Manifest Destiny is a philosophy embraced by many, there are still proponents with opposing views. you may only be dimly aware of what manifest destiny actually is, so let's start with a definition. To end the War of 1812 John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and Albert Gallatin (former treasury secretary and a leading expert on Indians) and the other American diplomats negotiated the Treaty of Ghent in 1814 with Britain. Like the "All Oregon" movement, the "All Mexico" movement quickly abated. MiJeL anon77523 April 14, 2010 Therefore, many Americans held the belief that the U.S. had to expand its territories westward and dominate the entire of North America. Whether or not this version of manifest destiny was consistent with the continental expansionism of the 1840s was debated at the time, and long afterwards. Best known under the pseudonym Cora Montgomery, Cazneau also often wrote anonymously. Seward initially offered $5 million to Stoeckl; the two men settled on $7 million and on March 15, 1867, Seward presented a draft treaty to the U.S. When the public learned of the Ostend Manifesto in 1854, which argued that the United States could seize Cuba by force if Spain refused to sell, this effectively killed the effort to acquire the island. The Monroe Doctrine and "manifest destiny" formed a closely related nexus of principles: historian Walter McDougall calls manifest destiny a corollary of the Monroe Doctrine, because while the Monroe Doctrine did not specify expansion, expansion was necessary in order to enforce the doctrine. Americans increasingly believed that Native American ways of life would "fade away" as the United States expanded. [97], For example, when President William McKinley advocated annexation of the Republic of Hawaii in 1898, he said that "We need Hawaii just as much and a good deal more than we did California. And as is with every ideology, there are pros and cons. [26] In this article he urged the U.S. to annex the Republic of Texas,[27] not only because Texas desired this, but because it was "our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions". 1. Manifest destiny had serious consequences for Native Americans, since continental expansion implicitly meant the occupation and annexation of Native American land, sometimes to expand slavery. [43], However, not all Americans or their political leaders believed that the United States was a divinely favored nation, or thought that it ought to expand. The idea of God's chosen people is not an invention of the United States; Lincoln's "Eulogy to Henry Clay", June 6, 1852, provides the most cogent expression of his reflective patriotism. Lincoln opposed anti-immigrant nativism, and the imperialism of manifest destiny as both unjust and unreasonable. Whether a tribe actually had a decision-making structure capable of making a treaty was a controversial issue. Wealthy American expansionists financed dozens of expeditions, usually based out of New Orleans, New York, and San Francisco. By then, declared the New-York Daily Times "the fever of Fillibusterism is on our country. [citation needed], Despite the earlier clamor for "All Oregon", the Oregon Treaty was popular in the United States and was easily ratified by the Senate. [23] This destiny was not explicitly territorial, but O'Sullivan predicted that the United States would be one of a "Union of many Republics" sharing those values. "[37] To Americans in the decades that followed their proclaimed freedom for mankind, embodied in the Declaration of Independence, could only be described as the inauguration of "a new time scale" because the world would look back and define history as events that took place before, and after, the Declaration of Independence. Quickly, the idea became very popular around America. This view also held that "inferior races were doomed to subordinate status or extinction." The thesis that it embodied nationalism, found in much historical writing, is backed by little real supporting evidence. Manifest destiny, he said, “was the belief that the United States was destined to … During the 1800s, and maybe a little now, many if not most Americans believed that Manifest Destiny was God's will. With the divisive question of the expansion of slavery, Northerners and Southerners, in effect, were coming to define manifest destiny in different ways, undermining nationalism as a unifying force. Yet these isolated cases only solidified opposition in the North as many Northerners were increasingly opposed to what they believed to be efforts by Southern slave owners—and their friends in the North—to expand slavery through filibustering. However, the American victories at the Battle of Lake Erie and the Battle of the Thames in 1813 ended the Indian raids and removed the main reason for threatening annexation. [81], Filibustering continued to be a major concern for presidents after Polk. Ulysses S. Grant, served in the war with Mexico and later wrote: In the mid‑19th century, expansionism, especially southward toward Cuba, also faced opposition from those Americans who were trying to abolish slavery. "[96] What was meant by "manifest destiny" in this context was not clearly defined, particularly since the Republicans lost the election. I think we all realize that the day has come when Democracy is being put upon its final test. This adventurer invited controversy in her day by divorcing her first husband. Stoeckl's superiors raised several concerns; to induce him to waive them, the final purchase price was increased to $7.2 million and on March 30, the treaty was ratified by the U.S. Senate. "The War of 1898, and U.S. Manifest destiny was a widely held cultural belief in the 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand across North America. [85] Before the American Civil War, Southern leaders opposed the Homestead Acts because they feared it would lead to more free states and free territories. If you slept through high school history (and really, who didn't?) Woman who coined phrase “Manifest Destiny” described in new TSHA book Jane McManus Storm Cazneau — journalist, adviser to national political figures and adventurer — is a little-known and under-appreciated 19th-century figure, who played a key role in shaping United States domestic and foreign policy. A popular expression of America's mission was elaborated by President Abraham Lincoln's description in his December 1, 1862, message to Congress. [44] In July 1848, Alexander Stephens denounced President Polk's expansionist interpretation of America's future as "mendacious".[45]. Merk, Frederick, and Lois Bannister Merk. Faragher's analysis of the political polarization between the Democratic Party and the Whig party is that: Most Democrats were wholehearted supporters of expansion, whereas many Whigs (especially in the North) were opposed. A shocked Henry Goulburn, one of the British negotiators at Ghent, remarked, after coming to understand the American position on taking the Indians' land: Till I came here, I had no idea of the fixed determination which there is in the heart of every American to extirpate the Indians and appropriate their territory.[55]. ", James Mitchell Clarke, "Antonio Melendrez: Nemesis of William Walker in Baja California. It followed that Americans owed to the world an obligation to expand and preserve these beliefs. [42], With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, which doubled the size of the United States, Thomas Jefferson set the stage for the continental expansion of the United States. A more positive-sounding phrase devised by scholars at the end of the twentieth century is "nation building", and State Department official Karin Von Hippel notes that the U.S. has "been involved in nation-building and promoting democracy since the middle of the nineteenth century and 'Manifest Destiny'". Only the Federal Government could purchase Indian lands and this was done through treaties with tribal leaders. According to Frederick Merk, these colonial acquisitions marked a break from the original intention of manifest destiny. 2021. [98], In 1898, the United States intervened in the Cuban insurrection and launched the Spanish–American War to force Spain out. Clay's son, a diplomat in Portugal, reported that the invasion created a sensation in Lisbon.[78]. [32], Ironically, O'Sullivan's term became popular only after it was criticized by Whig opponents of the Polk administration. The angel in the painting represents Gd's wish for Americans to move across North America and settle those areas. The annexation of Texas was attacked by anti-slavery spokesmen because it would add another slave state to the Union. William Marcy, secretary of war in the Polk administration, described Cazneau as a “prodigiously smart and keen writer for the newspapers in New York.” In a letter of introduction to Judge James Workman, the unofficial director of immigration into Mexican Texas, Burr praised Cazneau as “A Lady!” and “a woman of business” who could “send out one or two hundred substantial settlers in less time . "[105], The belief in an American mission to promote and defend democracy throughout the world, as expounded by Jefferson and his "Empire of Liberty", and continued by Lincoln, Wilson and George W. Bush,[106] continues to have an influence on American political ideology. "Manifest Destiny" was the social theory in the USA in the 19th century which claimed that the USA and its white, Christian citizens were chosen by God. Her pulse beats like a hammer at the wrist, and there's a very high color on her face. The treaty was highly contentious and denounced by William Jennings Bryan, who tried to make it a central issue in the 1900 election. He was defeated in landslide by McKinley. ", https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/lebensraum#:~:text=In%20the%20Nazi%20state%2C%20Lebensraum,American%20expansion%20in%20the%20West, "U.S. Grant, Memoir on the Mexican War (1885)", "1820s – Continentalism | Savages & Scoundrels", "Manifest Mirth: The Humorous Critique of Manifest Destiny, 1846–1858", "Teaching With Documents:The Homestead Act of 1862". He disapproved of the Mexican–American War in 1846, although he came to believe that the outcome would be beneficial to both countries. In this usage, "manifest destiny" is interpreted as the underlying cause of what is denounced by some as "American imperialism". She vigorously fought for the causes that she supported, whether working behind enemy lines during the Mexican War, filibustering for Cuba or Nicaragua, promoting Mexican revolution from a dugout in Eagle Pass, or urging free blacks to emigrate to the Dominican republic. In one memorable case, Quitman simply explained that the state of Mississippi had "lost" its state arsenal, which began showing up in the hands of filibusters. Roosevelt's corollary contained an explicit rejection of territorial expansion. This unexpectedly led to Van Buren being dropped by the Democrats in favor of Polk, who favored annexation. [22] O'Sullivan wrote an article in 1839 that, while not using the term "manifest destiny", did predict a "divine destiny" for the United States based upon values such as equality, rights of conscience, and personal enfranchisement "to establish on earth the moral dignity and salvation of man". Nevertheless, Spain declined to sell the island, which ended Polk's efforts to acquire Cuba. [41], Another possible influence is racial predominance, namely the idea that the American Anglo-Saxon race was "separate, innately superior" and "destined to bring good government, commercial prosperity and Christianity to the American continents and the world". than any man or half a dozen men whom I this day know.”, William H. Goetzmann, Jack S. Blanton Professor of History and American Studies at UT Austin, calls the new book “absolutely riveting history of the first order.”. Manifest Destiny is what the mindset of the American people where in the 19th century, wherein they believed in the expansion of American territory from coast to coast and that time, to the West. However, due to threats of violence, Cobb surrenders his land and leaves grumbling that "might should be the rule of right among enlightened nations."[84]. Moreover, "the sovereignty of the Stars and Stripes can be nothing but a blessing to any people and to any land. [5][6][7][8], Historians have emphasized that "manifest destiny" was a contested concept—Democrats endorsed the idea but many prominent Americans (such as Abraham Lincoln,[9] Ulysses S. Grant,[10] and most Whigs) rejected it. Many began to see this as the beginning of a new providential mission: If the United States was successful as a "shining city upon a hill", people in other countries would seek to establish their own democratic republics. [17], According to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia, Adolf Hitler's Lebensraum was the "Manifest Destiny" for Germany's romanticization and imperial conquest of Eastern Europe. Manifest destiny played its most important role in the Oregon boundary dispute between the United States and Britain, when the phrase "manifest destiny" originated. [63] In 1836, the Republic of Texas declared independence from Mexico and, after the Texas Revolution, sought to join the United States as a new state. As president, however, Polk sought compromise and renewed the earlier offer to divide the territory in half along the 49th parallel, to the dismay of the most ardent advocates of manifest destiny. The controversy was eventually ended by the Mexican Cession, which added the territories of Alta California and Nuevo México to the United States, both more sparsely populated than the rest of Mexico. The word 'manifest,' in this sense, means clear, or obvious, and 'Providence' is another word for God's help. Polk tied the Texas annexation question with the Oregon dispute, thus providing a sort of regional compromise on expansion. On the other hand, many Democrats feared industrialization the Whigs welcomed... For many Democrats, the answer to the nation's social ills was to continue to follow Thomas Jefferson's vision of establishing agriculture in the new territories to counterbalance industrialization. After Americans immigrated to new regions, they would set up new democratic governments, and then seek admission to the United States, as Texas had done. Manifest destiny attempted to make a virtue of America’s lack of history and turn it into the very basis of nationhood. The Old World is just now suffering from a wanton rejection of the principle of democracy and a substitution of the principle of autocracy as asserted in the name, but without the authority and sanction, of the multitude.
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