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Manifest destiny
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Manifest destiny
Manifest Destiny was the belief widely
held by Americans in the 19th century that
the United States was destined to expand
across the continent. The concept, born out
of "a sense of mission to redeem the Old
World", was enabled by "the potentialities
of a new earth for building a new heaven".[1]
The phrase itself meant many different
things to many different people. The unity
of the definitions ended at "expansion,
prearranged
by
Heaven".[2]
Mid-19th-century Democrats would use it to
explain the need for expansion beyond the
Louisiana Territory.
This painting (circa 1872) by John Gast called American Progress, is an allegorical
Manifest destiny provided the dogma and
representation of the modernization of the new west. Here Columbia, a
tone for the largest acquisition of U.S.
personification of the United States, leads civilization westward with American
territory. It was used by Democrats in the
settlers, stringing telegraph wire as she sweeps west; she holds a school book. The
different stages of economic activity of the pioneers are highlighted and,
1840s to justify the war with Mexico and it
especially, the changing forms of transportation.
was also used to acquire portions of Oregon
from the British Empire. But Manifest
Destiny always limped along because of its internal limitations and the issue of slavery, says Merk, and never
became a national priority. By 1843 John Quincy Adams, a major supporter, had changed his mind and repudiated
Manifest Destiny because it meant the expansion of slavery in Texas.[3]
The legacy is a complex one. The belief in an American mission to promote and defend democracy throughout the
world, as expounded by Abraham Lincoln and later by Woodrow Wilson and George W. Bush, continues to have an
influence on American political ideology.[4][5]
Context
Manifest Destiny was always a general notion rather than a specific policy. There were never a set of principles
defining Manifest destiny. Ill-defined but keenly felt, Manifest destiny was conviction in expansionism alongside
other popular ideas of the era, including American exceptionalism and Romantic nationalism. Andrew Jackson, who
had first spoken of "extending the area of freedom", typified the conflation of America's greatness, the nation's
budding sense of Romantic self-identity and expansion. To some 19th‑century Americans his presence rested upon
the "whole territory" from the valleys of Oregon to the frontier of the Rio Grande.[6]
Yet Jackson would not be the only President to elaborate on the principles underlying Manifest destiny. Owing in
part to the lack of a definitive narrative outlining its rationale, proponents offered divergent or seemingly conflicting
viewpoints. 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. Without an agreed upon interpretation, much less an elaborated
political philosophy, these conflicting views of America's destiny were never resolved. This variety of possible
meanings was summed up by Ernest Lee Tuveson, who wrote:
A vast complex of ideas, policies, and actions is comprehended under the phrase 'Manifest Destiny'.
They are not, as we should expect, all compatible, nor do they come from any one source.[7]
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Journalist John L. O'Sullivan, an influential advocate for Jacksonian
democracy and a complex character described by Julian Hawthorne as
"always full of grand and world-embracing schemes",[8] wrote an
article in 1839,[9] which, 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". 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.[10]
Six years later, in 1845, O'Sullivan wrote another essay entitled
Annexation in the Democratic Review,[11] in which he first used the
phrase Manifest Destiny.[12] In this article he urged the U.S. to annex
the Republic of Texas,[13] 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".[14] Overcoming Whig opposition, Democrats
annexed Texas in 1845. O'Sullivan's first usage of the phrase "Manifest
Destiny" attracted little attention.[15]
John L. O'Sullivan, sketched in 1874, was an
influential columnist as a young man, but is now
generally remembered only for his use of the
phrase "Manifest Destiny" to advocate the
annexation of Texas and Oregon.
O'Sullivan's second use of the phrase became extremely influential. On December 27, 1845, in his newspaper the
New York Morning News, O'Sullivan addressed the ongoing boundary dispute with Britain. O'Sullivan argued that
the United States had the right to claim "the whole of Oregon":
And that claim 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
federated self-government entrusted to us.[16]
That is, O'Sullivan believed that Providence had given the United States a mission to spread republican democracy
("the great experiment of liberty"). Because Britain would not use Oregon for the purposes of spreading democracy,
thought O'Sullivan, British claims to the territory should be overruled. O'Sullivan believed that Manifest Destiny was
a moral ideal (a "higher law") that superseded other considerations.[17]
O'Sullivan's original conception of Manifest Destiny was not a call for territorial expansion by force. 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. After Americans emigrated to new regions, they would set up new democratic
governments, and then seek admission to the United States, as Texas had done. In 1845, O'Sullivan predicted that
California would follow this pattern next, and that Canada would eventually request annexation as well. He
disapproved of the Mexican-American War in 1846, although he came to believe that the outcome would be
beneficial to both countries.[18]
Ironically, O'Sullivan's term became popular only after it was criticized by Whig opponents of the Polk
administration. 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".[19] On January 3, 1846, Representative Robert Winthrop ridiculed the concept in Congress,
saying "I suppose the right of a manifest destiny to spread will not be admitted to exist in any nation except the
universal Yankee nation". Winthrop was the first in a long line of critics who suggested that advocates of Manifest
Destiny were citing "Divine Providence" for justification of actions that were motivated by chauvinism and
self-interest. Despite this criticism, expansionists embraced the phrase, which caught on so quickly that its origin was
Manifest destiny
soon forgotten.
Themes and influences
Historian William E. Weeks has noted that three key themes were usually touched upon by advocates of Manifest
Destiny:
1. the virtue of the American people and their institutions;
2. the mission to spread these institutions, thereby redeeming and remaking the world in the image of the United
States.; and
3. the destiny under God to do this work.[20]
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. In his influential 1776
pamphlet Common Sense, Thomas Paine echoed this notion, arguing that the American Revolution provided an
opportunity to create a new, better society:
We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation, similar to the present, hath not
happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of a new world is at hand...
Many Americans agreed with Paine, and came to believe that the United States' virtue was a result of its special
experiment in freedom and democracy. Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to James Monroe, wrote that "it is impossible
not to look forward to distant times when our rapid multiplication will expand itself beyond those limits, and cover
the whole northern, if not the southern continent".[21] 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.[22] It followed that American owed to the world an obligation to expand and
preserve these beliefs.
The second theme's origination is less precise. A popular expression America's mission was elaborated by President
Abraham Lincoln's description, in his December 1, 1862 message to Congress. He described the United States "the
last, best hope of Earth" The "mission" of the United States was elaborated on in Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, in
which he interpreted the Civil War as a struggle to determine if any nation with democratic ideals could survive, has
been called by historian Robert Johannsen "the most enduring statement of America's Manifest Destiny and
mission".[23]
The third theme can be viewed as a natural outgrowth of the belief that God had a direct influence in the foundation
and further actions of the United States. Clinton Rossiter, a scholar, described this view as summing "that God, at the
proper stage in the march of history, called forth certain hardy souls from the old and privilege-ridden nations...and
that in bestowing His grace He also bestowed a peculiar responsibility". Americans presupposed that they were not
only divinely elected to maintaining the North American continent but "spread abroad the fundamental principles
stated in the Bill of Rights".[24] In many cases, this meant neighboring colonial holdings and countries were seen as
obstacles not the destiny God had provided the United States.
Alternative interpretations
Not all Americans who believed that the United States was a divinely favored nation thought that it ought to expand.
Whigs opposed territorial expansion. Many in the party "were fearful of spreading out too widely", and they
"adhered to the concentration of national authority in a limited area".[25] Expansionists, such as President James Polk
were criticized by Congressional Whigs. In one famous speech Alexander H. Stephen, after the war with Mexico,
denounced the President's interpretation of America's future as "mendacious" of the United States was only to serve
as virtuous example to the rest of the world. If the United States was successful as a shining "city on a hill", people
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in other countries would seek to establish their own democratic republics. 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. Many began to see this as the beginning of a new mission.
Some, such as Thomas Jefferson, made explicit that Manifest destiny was not only a belief that the United States was
a rejection of the monarchist traditions of Europe in favor of republicanism but Europe's social conditions from its
densely packed population.[21] The view was not universally shared, especially in later years as big cities began to
dominate the political landscape of America.
In the mid‑19th century, expansionism, especially southwards, faced opposition from those who opposed slavery. As
more territory was added to the United States in the following decades, whether or not "extending the area of
freedom" also meant extending the institution of slavery became a central issue in the continental expansion of the
United States.
During the Civil War both sides claimed that America's destiny were rightfully their own. Lincoln opposed Southern
sectionalism, anti-immigrant nativism, and the imperialism of Manifest Destiny as both unjust and unreasonable. He
believed each of these disordered forms of love threatened the inseparable moral and fraternal bonds of liberty and
Union that he sought to perpetuate through a patriotic love of country guided by wisdom and critical self-awareness.
Lincoln's "Eulogy to Henry Clay", June 6, 1852 provides the most cogent expression of his reflective patriotism.[26]
Henry Beecher Stowe identified the South as only doing "the Devil's work" while the North was left "to do the work
of God". Alternatively, men like Benjamin Morgan Palmer, minister of the First Presbyterian Church in New
Orleans, were championing the destiny God had made for the Confederate States. Palmer delivered a sermon in New
Orleans that described the God's mission was inseparable from the South's.
Era of continental expansion
The phrase "Manifest Destiny" is most often associated with the
territorial expansion of the United States from 1812 to 1860. This era,
from the end of the War of 1812 to the beginning of the American
Civil War, has been called the "Age of Manifest Destiny".[27][28]
During this time, the United States expanded to the Pacific
Ocean—"from sea to shining sea"—largely defining the borders of the
contiguous United States as they are today.[29]
War of 1812
To end the War of 1812 John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and Albert
Gallatin (a leading anthropologist) and the other American diplomats
negotiated the Treaty of Ghent in 1814 with Britain. They rejected the
British plan to set up an Indian state in U.S. territory south of the Great
Lakes. They explained the American policy toward acquisition of
Indian lands:
John Quincy Adams, painted above in 1816 by
Charles Robert Leslie, was an early proponent of
continentalism. Late in life he came to regret his
role in helping U.S. slavery to expand, and
became a leading opponent of the annexation of
Texas.
The United States, while intending never to acquire lands from
the Indians otherwise than peaceably, and with their free
consent, are fully determined, in that manner, progressively, and
in proportion as their growing population may require, to reclaim
from the state of nature, and to bring into cultivation every
portion of the territory contained within their acknowledged boundaries. In thus providing for the support of
millions of civilized beings, they will not violate any dictate of justice or of humanity; for they will not only
give to the few thousand savages scattered over that territory an ample equivalent for any right they may
Manifest destiny
surrender, but will always leave them the possession of lands more than they can cultivate, and more than
adequate to their subsistence, comfort, and enjoyment, by cultivation. If this be a spirit of aggrandizement, the
undersigned are prepared to admit, in that sense, its existence; but they must deny that it affords the slightest
proof of an intention not to respect the boundaries between them and European nations, or of a desire to
encroach upon the territories of Great Britain. . . . They will not suppose that that Government will avow, as
the basis of their policy towards the United States a system of arresting their natural growth within their own
territories, for the sake of preserving a perpetual desert for savages.[30]
Continentalism
The 19th-century belief that the United States would eventually encompass all of North America is known as
"continentalism".[31] An early proponent of this idea was John Quincy Adams, a leading figure in U.S. expansion
between the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and the Polk administration in the 1840s. In 1811, Adams wrote to his
father:
The whole continent of North America appears to be destined by Divine Providence to be peopled by
one nation, speaking one language, professing one general system of religious and political principles,
and accustomed to one general tenor of social usages and customs. For the common happiness of them
all, for their peace and prosperity, I believe it is indispensable that they should be associated in one
federal Union.[32]
Adams did much to further this idea. He orchestrated the Treaty of 1818, which established the United States-Canada
border as far west as the Rocky Mountains, and provided for the joint occupation of the region known in American
history as the Oregon Country and in British and Canadian history as the New Caledonia and Columbia Districts. He
negotiated the Transcontinental Treaty in 1819, purchasing Florida from Spain and extending the U.S. border with
Spanish Mexico all the way to the Pacific Ocean. And he formulated the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which warned
Europe that the Western Hemisphere was no longer open for European colonization.
The Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny were closely related ideas: 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. Concerns in the United States that European powers
(especially Great Britain) were seeking to acquire colonies or greater influence in North America led to calls for
expansion in order to prevent this. In his influential 1935 study of Manifest Destiny, Albert Weinberg wrote that "the
expansionism of the [1830s] arose as a defensive effort to forestall the encroachment of Europe in North
America".[33]
All Oregon
Manifest Destiny played its most important role in, and was coined during the course of, the Oregon boundary
dispute with Britain. The Anglo-American Convention of 1818 had provided for the joint occupation of the Oregon
Country, and thousands of Americans migrated there in the 1840s over the Oregon Trail. The British rejected a
proposal by President John Tyler to divide the region along the 49th parallel, and instead proposed a boundary line
farther south along the Columbia River, which would have made what is now the state of Washington part of British
North America. Advocates of Manifest Destiny protested and called for the annexation of the entire Oregon Country
up to the Alaska line (54°40ʹ N). Presidential candidate James K. Polk used this popular outcry to his advantage, and
the Democrats called for the annexation of "All Oregon" in the 1844 U.S. Presidential election.
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. 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. (The latter slogan is often mistakenly described as having been
a part of the 1844 presidential campaign.) When Polk moved to terminate the joint occupation agreement, the British
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finally agreed to divide the region along the 49th parallel in early 1846, keeping the lower Columbia basin as part of
the United States, and the dispute was settled by the Oregon Treaty of 1846, which the administration was able to
sell to congress because the United States was about to begin the Mexican-American war, and the president and
others argued it would be foolish to also fight the British Empire.
Despite the earlier clamor for "All Oregon", the treaty was popular in
the United States and was easily ratified by the Senate. 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'."[35]
Mexico and Texas
Manifest Destiny played an important role in the expansion of Texas
American westward expansion is idealized in
and American relationship with Mexico. In 1836, the Republic of
Emanuel Leutze's famous painting Westward the
Course of Empire Takes Its Way (1861). The title
Texas declared independence from Mexico and, after the Texas
of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop
Revolution, sought to join the United States as a new state. This was an
Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of
idealized process of expansion which had been advocated from
Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief
Jefferson to O'Sullivan: newly democratic and independent states
that civilization had steadily moved westward
[34]
throughout history. (more)
would request entry into the United States, rather than the United
States extending its government over people who did not want it. The
annexation of Texas was controversial as it would add another slave state to the Union. Presidents Andrew Jackson
and Martin Van Buren declined Texas's offer to join the United States in part because the slavery issue threatened to
divide the Democratic Party.
Before the election of 1844, Whig candidate Henry Clay and the presumed Democratic candidate, former President
Van Buren, both declared themselves opposed to the annexation of Texas, each hoping to keep the troublesome topic
from becoming a campaign issue. This unexpectedly led to Van Buren being dropped by the Democrats in favor of
Polk, who favored annexation. Polk tied the Texas annexation question with the Oregon dispute, thus providing a
sort of regional compromise on expansion. (Expansionists in the North were more inclined to promote the
occupation of Oregon, while Southern expansionists focused primarily on the annexation of Texas.) Although
elected by a very slim margin, Polk proceeded as if his victory had been a mandate for expansion.
All Mexico
After the election of Polk, but before he took office, Congress approved the annexation of Texas. Polk moved to
occupy a portion of Texas which had declared independence from Mexico in 1836, but was still claimed by Mexico.
This paved the way for the outbreak of the Mexican-American War on April 24, 1846. 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.[36]
This was a controversial proposition for two reasons. First, idealistic advocates of Manifest Destiny like John L.
O'Sullivan had always maintained that the laws of the United States should not be imposed on people against their
will. The annexation of "All Mexico" would be a violation of this principle. And secondly, the annexation of Mexico
was controversial because it would mean extending U.S. citizenship to millions of Mexicans. Senator John C.
Calhoun of South Carolina, who had approved of the annexation of Texas, was opposed to the annexation of Mexico,
as well as the "mission" aspect of Manifest Destiny, for racial reasons. He made these views clear in a speech to
Congress on January 4, 1848:
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[W]e have never dreamt of incorporating into our Union any but the Caucasian race—the free white
race. To incorporate Mexico, would be the very first instance of the kind, of incorporating an Indian
race; for more than half of the Mexicans are Indians, and the other is composed chiefly of mixed tribes. I
protest against such a union as that! 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. It is a great
mistake.[37]
This debate brought to the forefront one of the contradictions of Manifest Destiny: on the one hand, while racist
ideas inherent in Manifest Destiny suggested that Mexicans, as non-whites, were a lesser race and thus not qualified
to become Americans, the "mission" component of Manifest Destiny suggested that Mexicans would be improved
(or "regenerated", as it was then described) by bringing them into American democracy. Racism was used to
promote Manifest Destiny, but, as in the case of Calhoun and the resistance to the "All Mexico" movement, racism
was also used to oppose Manifest Destiny.[38] Conversely, proponents of annexation of "All Mexico" regarded it as
an anti-slavery measure.[39]
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. Like the All Oregon
movement, the All Mexico movement quickly abated. 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.
Merk wrote that, while belief in the beneficent mission of democracy was central to American history, aggressive
"continentalism" were aberrations supported by only a very small (but influential) minority of Americans. Merk's
interpretation is probably still a minority opinion; scholars generally see Manifest Destiny, at least in the 1840s, as a
popular belief among Democrats and an unpopular one among Whigs.
Filibusterism
After the Mexican-American War ended in 1848, disagreements over the expansion of slavery made further
annexation by conquest too divisive to be official government policy. Some, such as John Quitman, governor of
Mississippi, offered what public support they could offer. 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. 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.
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".[40] The Wilmot Proviso and the continued "Slave Power" narratives thereafter, indicated the
degree to which Manifest Destiny had become part of the sectional controversy.
Without official government support the most radical advocates of Manifest Destiny increasingly turned to military
filibustering. Originally filibuster had come from the Dutch vrijbuiter and referred to buccaneers in the West Indies
that prayed on Spanish commerce. 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. By then, declared the New-York Daily
Times "the fever of Fillibusterism is on our country. Her pulse beats like a hammer at the wrist, and there's a very
high color on her face." 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. The eagerness of the
filibusters, and the public to support them, had an international hue. Clay's son, diplomat to Portugal, reported that
Lisbon had been stirred into a "frenzy" of excitement and were waiting on every dispatch.
Although they were illegal, filibustering operations in the late 1840s and early 1850s were romanticized in the
United States. The Democratic Party's national platform included a plank that specifically endorsed William
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8
Walker's filibustering in Nicaragua. Wealthy American expansionists financed dozens of expeditions, usually based
out of New Orleans, New York, and San Francisco. The primary target of Manifest Destiny’s filibusters was Latin
America but there were isolated incidents elsewhere. Mexico was a favorite target of organizations devoted to
filibustering, like the Knights of the Golden Circle.[41] William Walker got his start as a filibuster in an ill-advised
attempt to separate the Mexican provinces Sonora and Baja California.[42] Narciso López, a near second in fame and
success, spent his efforts trying to secure Cuba from the Spanish Empire.
The United States had long been interested in acquiring Cuba from the
declining Spanish Empire. 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.
Prompted by John L. O'Sullivan, in 1848 President Polk offered to buy
Cuba from Spain for $100 million. Polk feared that filibustering would
hurt his effort to buy the island, and so he informed the Spanish of an
attempt by the Cuban filibuster Narciso López to seize Cuba by force
and annex it to the United States, foiling the plot. Nevertheless, Spain
declined to sell the island, which ended Polk's efforts to acquire Cuba.
O'Sullivan, on the other hand, continued to steal money for
filibustering expeditions, eventually landing him in legal trouble.[43]
Filibustering continued to be a major concern for presidents after Polk.
Whigs presidents Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore tried to
suppress the expeditions. 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. Pierce backed off, however, and instead renewed the offer to buy the island, this time for
$130 million. 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 public now
linked expansion with slavery; if Manifest Destiny had once enjoyed widespread popular approval, this was no
longer true.[44]
Filibuster William Walker, who launched several
expeditions to Mexico and Central America,
ruled Nicaragua, and was captured by the British
Navy before being executed in Honduras.
Filibusters like William Walker continued to garner headlines in the late 1850s, but with the outbreak of the
American Civil War in 1860, the "Age of Manifest Destiny" came to an end. Expansionism was among the various
issues that played a role in the coming of the war. 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. According to Frederick Merk, "The doctrine of Manifest Destiny, which in the 1840s
had seemed Heaven-sent, proved to have been a bomb wrapped up in idealism."[45]
Homestead Act
The Homestead Act of 1862 encouraged 600,000 families to settle the West by giving them land (usually 160 acres)
almost free. They had to live on and improve the land for five years.[46] Before the Civil War, Southern leaders
opposed the Homestead Act because they feared it would lead to more free states and free territories.[47]
Native Americans
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. The United States continued the
European practice of recognizing only limited land rights of indigenous peoples. In a policy formulated largely by
Manifest destiny
Henry Knox, Secretary of War in the Washington Administration, the U.S. government sought to expand into the
west through the nominally legal (by United States law) purchase of Native American land in treaties. Indians were
encouraged to sell their vast tribal lands and become "civilized", which meant (among other things) for Native
American men to abandon hunting and become farmers, and for their society to reorganize around the family unit
rather than the clan or tribe. The United States therefore acquired lands by treaty from Indian nations, usually under
circumstances which suggest a lack of voluntary and knowing consent by the native signers, and in many cases a
lack of authority by the signers to make any such transaction.
Advocates of civilization programs believed that the process of settling native tribes would greatly reduce the
amount of land needed by the Native Americans, making more land available for homesteading by white Americans.
Thomas Jefferson believed that while American Indians were the intellectual equals of whites,[48] they had to live
like the whites or inevitably be pushed aside by them.[49] Jefferson's belief, rooted in Enlightenment thinking, that
whites and Native Americans would merge to create a single nation did not last his lifetime, and he began to believe
that the natives should emigrate across the Mississippi River and maintain a separate society, an idea made possible
by the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.[49]
In the age of Manifest Destiny, this idea, which came to be known as "Indian Removal", gained ground. Although
some humanitarian advocates of removal believed that American Indians would be better off moving away from
whites, an increasing number of Americans regarded the natives as nothing more than savages who stood in the way
of American expansion. As historian Reginald Horsman argued in his influential study Race and Manifest Destiny,
racial rhetoric increased during the era of Manifest Destiny. Americans increasingly believed that Native Americans
would fade away as the United States expanded. As an example, this idea was reflected in the work of one of
America's first great historians, Francis Parkman, whose landmark book The Conspiracy of Pontiac was published in
1851. Parkman wrote that Indians were "destined to melt and vanish before the advancing waves of Anglo-American
power, which now rolled westward unchecked and unopposed".[50]
Beyond North America
As the Civil War faded into history, the term Manifest Destiny experienced a brief revival. Protestant missionary
Josiah Strong, in his best seller of 1885 Our Country elucidated these obligations. Strong argued that the future was
devolved upon America since it had perfected the ideals of civil liberty, "a pure spiritual Christianity", and
concluded "My plea is not, Save America for America's sake, but, Save America for the world's sake." principle[51]
In the 1892 U.S. presidential election, the Republican Party platform proclaimed: "We reaffirm our approval of the
Monroe doctrine and believe in the achievement of the manifest destiny of the Republic in its broadest sense." What
was meant by "manifest destiny" in this context was not clearly defined, particularly since the Republicans lost the
election.
In the 1896 election, however, the Republicans recaptured the White House and held on to it for the next 16 years.
During that time, Manifest Destiny was cited to promote overseas expansion. 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.[52]
For example, when President William McKinley advocated annexation of the Territory of Hawaii in 1898, he said
that "We need Hawaii as much and a good deal more than we did California. It is manifest destiny." On the other
hand, former President Grover Cleveland, a Democrat who had blocked the annexation of Hawaii during his
administration, wrote that McKinley's annexation of the territory was a "perversion of our national destiny".
Historians continued that debate; some have interpreted the overseas expansion of the 1890s of other Pacific island
groups as an extension of Manifest Destiny across the Pacific Ocean. Others have regarded it as the antithesis of
Manifest Destiny and merely imperialism.[53]
9
Manifest destiny
Spanish–American War and the Philippines
In 1898, following its expansion, the United States intervened in the Spanish–American War. Following the Treaty
of Paris Spain relinquished sovereignty over Cuba and ceded the Philippine Islands, Puerto Rico, and Guam to the
United States. The terms of cession for the Philippines involved a payment of the sum of $20 million by the United
States to Spain. The treaty re-sparked the debate over Manifest destiny, and especially what it meant to Americans in
the United States.
The Teller Amendment, passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate before the war, which proclaimed Cuba "free and
independent", forestalled annexation of the island. The Platt Amendment (1902), however, established Cuba as a
virtual protectorate of the United States.
The United States did annex Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines after the war with Spain. The acquisition of
these islands marked a new chapter in U.S. history. Traditionally, territories were acquired by the United States for
the purpose of becoming new states on equal footing with already existing states. These islands, however, were
acquired as colonies rather than prospective states. The process was validated by the Insular Cases. The
U.S. Supreme Court ruled that full constitutional rights did not automatically extend to all areas under American
control. Nevertheless, in 1917, "Puerto Ricans were collectively made U.S. citizens" via the Jones Act. This also
provided for a popularly elected Senate to complete a bicameral legislative assembly, a bill of rights and authorized
the election of a Resident Commissioner who has a voice (but no vote) in Congress.
According to Frederick Merk these colonial acquisitions marked a break from the original intention of Manifest
destiny. 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. That was the principle
thrown overboard by the imperialism of 1899."[54] Albert J. Beveridge maintained the contrary at his September 25,
1900 speech in the Auditorium, at Chicago. He declared that the current desire for Cuba and the other acquired
territories was identical to the views expressed by Washington, Jefferson and Marshall. Moreover, "the sovereignty
of the Stars and Stripes can be nothing but a blessing to any people and to any land".[55] 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.
Rudyard Kipling's poem "The White Man's Burden", which was subtitled "The United States and the Philippine
Islands", was a famous expression of imperialist sentiments,[56] which were common at the time. The nascent
revolutionary government desirous of independence, however, resisted the United States in the Philippine-American
War in 1899. After the war began, William Jennings Bryan, an opponent of overseas expansion, wrote that "‘Destiny’
is not as manifest as it was a few weeks ago".[57]
Later usage
After the turn of the nineteenth century to the twentieth, the phrase Manifest Destiny declined in usage, as territorial
expansion ceased to be promoted as being a part of America's "destiny". Under President Theodore Roosevelt the
role of the United States in the New World was defined, in the 1904 Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, as
being an "international police power" to secure American interests in the Western Hemisphere. Roosevelt's corollary
contained an explicit rejection of territorial expansion. 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.
President Woodrow Wilson continued the policy of interventionism in the Americas, and attempted to redefine both
Manifest Destiny and America's "mission" on a broader, worldwide scale. Wilson led the United States into World
War I with the argument that "The world must be made safe for democracy." In his 1920 message to Congress after
the war, Wilson stated:
10
Manifest destiny
...I think we all realize that the day has come when Democracy is being put upon its final test. 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. This is the time of all others when Democracy should prove its purity and its spiritual power
to prevail. It is surely the manifest destiny of the United States to lead in the attempt to make this spirit
prevail.
This was the only time a president had used the phrase "Manifest Destiny" in his annual address. 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. This U.S. vision
of itself as the leader of the "Free World" would grow stronger in the 20th century after World War II, although
rarely would it be described as "Manifest Destiny", as Wilson had done.[58]
Today, in standard scholarly usage, Manifest Destiny describes a past era in American history, particularly the 1840s.
However, the term is sometimes used by the political left and by critics of U.S. foreign policy to characterize
interventions in the Middle East and elsewhere. In this usage, Manifest Destiny is interpreted as the underlying cause
of what is perceived by some as "American imperialism".
German Lebensraum
German geographer Friedrich Ratzel visited North America beginning in 1873[59] and saw the effects of American
manifest destiny.[60] Ratzel sympathized with the results of "manifest destiny", but he never used the term. Instead he
relied on the Frontier Thesis of Frederick Jackson Turner.[61] Ratzel promoted overseas colonies for Germany in
Asia and Africa, but not an expansion into Slavic lands.[62] Later German publicists misinterpreted Ratzel to argue
for the right of the German race to expand within Europe; that notion was later incorporated into Nazi ideology, as
Lebensraum.[60] Harriet Wanklyn, (1961) argues that Ratzel's theory was designed to advance science, and that
politicians distorted it for political goals.[63]
Notes
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
Merk 1963, p. 3
Merk 1963, p. 24
Merk 1963, p. 215
Stephanson 1996, pp. 112–29 examines the influence of Manifest Destiny in the 20th century, particularly as articulated by Woodrow Wilson.
Scott, Donald. "The Religious Origins of Manifest Destiny" (http:/ / nationalhumanitiescenter. org/ tserve/ nineteen/ nkeyinfo/ mandestiny.
htm). National Humanities Center. . Retrieved 2011-10-26.
[6] Ward 1955, pp. 136–137
[7] Tuveson 1980, p. 91 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=-FM8cDl9g00C& pg=PA91).
[8] Merk 1963, p. 27
[9] O'Sullivan, John. "The Great Nation of Futurity" (http:/ / digital. library. cornell. edu/ cgi/ t/ text/
pageviewer-idx?c=usde;cc=usde;idno=usde0006-4;node=usde0006-4:6;view=image;seq=350;size=100;page=root). The United States
Democratic Review Volume 0006 Issue 23 (Nov 1839). . Retrieved 2011-10-29.
[10] O’Sullivan, John L., A Divine Destiny for America (http:/ / www. newhumanist. com/ md4. html), 1845.
[11] O'Sullivan, John L. (July–August 1845). "Annexation" (http:/ / web. grinnell. edu/ courses/ HIS/ f01/ HIS202-01/ Documents/ OSullivan.
html). United States Magazine and Democratic Review 17 (1): 5–10. . Retrieved 2008-05-20.
[12] See Julius Pratt, "The Origin Of "Manifest Destiny", American Historical Review, July 1927, pp. 795–98 in JSTOR (http:/ / www. jstor. org/
pss/ 1837859). Linda S. Hudson has argued that it was coined by writer Jane McManus Storm; Greenburg, p. 20 (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=EQV6wPzlyOcC& pg=PA20); Hudson 2001; O'Sullivan biographer Robert D. Sampson disputes Hudson's claim for a variety of
reasons (See note 7 at Sampson 2003, pp. 244–245 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=d1y5ew93xxIC& pg=PA244)).
[13] Adams 2008, p. 188 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=9SE_zwYlXrQC& pg=PA188).
[14] Quoted in Thomas R. Hietala, Manifest design: American exceptionalism and Empire (2003) p. 255
[15] Robert W. Johannsen, "The Meaning of Manifest Destiny", in Johannsen 1997.
[16] McCrisken, Trevor B., Exceptionalism: Manifest Destiny (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=QHDkqb-myscC& pg=PA68) (accessed
2008-05-20), in Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy, Vol. 2, p. 68. (2002).
[17] Weinberg 1935, p. 145; Johannsen 1997, p. 9.
11
Manifest destiny
[18] Johannsen 1997, p. 10
[19] "Prospectus of the New Series," The American Whig Review Volume 7 Issue 1 (Jan 1848) p 2
[20] Weeks 1996, p. 61.
[21] Ford 2010, pp. 315–319
[22] Somkin 1967, pp. 68–69
[23] Johannsen 1997, pp. 18–19.
[24] Rossiter 1950, pp. 19–20
[25] Merk 1963, pp. 40
[26] Joseph R. Fornieri, "Lincoln's Reflective Patriotism," Perspectives on Political Science, Apr–June 2010, Vol. 39#2 pp 108–117
[27] United States History – Part A: Native Americans and European Settlers Through Civil War and Industrialization (http:/ / books. google.
com/ books?id=Nwa6CHLW2WcC). PediaPress. pp. 205 (http:/ / books. google. com. ph/ books?id=Nwa6CHLW2WcC& pg=PA205), 341
(http:/ / books. google. com. ph/ books?id=Nwa6CHLW2WcC& pg=PA341). GGKEY:HKTW8A0FQA3. .
[28] Kurt Hanson, Robert L. Beisner. American Foreign Relations since 1600: A Guide to the Literature, Second Edition (http:/ / books. google.
com/ books?id=rCQsQdqFyMYC). ABC-CLIO. pp. 313 (http:/ / books. google. com. ph/ books?id=rCQsQdqFyMYC& pg=PA313).
ISBN 978-1-57607-080-2. .
[29] Stuart and Weeks call this period the "Era of Manifest Destiny" and the "Age of Manifest Destiny", respectively.
[30] Charles M. Gates, "The West in American Diplomacy, 1812–1815," Mississippi Valley Historical Review (1940) 26#4 pp. 499-510 in
JSTOR (http:/ / www. jstor. org/ stable/ 1896318), quote on page 507
[31] Continental and Continentalism (http:/ / www. sociologyindex. com/ continental. htm), sociologyindex.com.
[32] Adams quoted in McDougall 1997, p. 78.
[33] McDougall 1997, p. 74; Weinberg 1935, p. 109.
[34] http:/ / americanart. si. edu/ t2go/ 1lw/ 1931. 6. 1. html
[35] Treaty popular: Stuart 1988, p. 104; compass quote p. 84.
[36] Merk 1963, pp. 144–47; Fuller 1936; Hietala 2003.
[37] Calhoun, John C. (1848). "Conquest of Mexico" (http:/ / teachingamericanhistory. org/ library/ index. asp?document=478).
TeachingAmericanHistory.org. . Retrieved 2007-10-19.
[38] McDougall 1997, pp. 87–95.
[39] Fuller 1936, pp. 119, 122, 162 and passim.
[40] Ripley 1985
[41] Crenshaw 1941
[42] Greene 2006, pp. 1–50
[43] Crocker 2006, p. 150.
[44] Weeks 1996, pp. 144–52.
[45] Merk 1963, p. 214 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=GhYJTaZiuxwC& pg=PA214).
[46] Lesli J. Favor (2005). A Historical Atlas of America's Manifest Destiny (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=hZ2dZHbLgVkC&
pg=PA1864). Rosen. . ch 6
[47] "Teaching With Documents:The Homestead Act of 1862" (http:/ / www. archives. gov/ education/ lessons/ homestead-act/ ). The U.S.
National Archives and Records Admnistration. . Retrieved 2012-06-29.
[48] Prucha 1995, p. 137 (http:/ / books. google. com. ph/ books?id=iSeWGTYsFcsC& pg=PA137), "I believe the Indian then to be in body and
mind equal to the white man", (Jefferson letter to the Marquis de Chastellux, June 7, 1785).
[49] American Indians « Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello (http:/ / www. monticello. org/ site/ jefferson/ american-indians)
[50] Fisher 1985, p. 26 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Y5msex2MZFAC& pg=PA26)
[51] Strong 1885, pp. 107–108
[52] Republican Party platform (http:/ / www. presidency. ucsb. edu/ showplatforms. php?platindex=R1892); context not clearly defined, Merk
1963, p. 241 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=GhYJTaZiuxwC& pg=PA241).
[53] McKinley quoted in McDougall 1997, pp. 112–13; Merk 1963, p. 257 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=GhYJTaZiuxwC&
pg=PA257).
[54] Merk 1963, p. 257 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=GhYJTaZiuxwC& pg=PA257).
[55] Beveridge 1908, p. 123
[56] Kipling, Rudyard The White Man's Burden (http:/ / www. poetryloverspage. com/ poets/ kipling/ white_mans_burden. html).
[57] Bryan 1899.
[58] "Safe for democracy"; 1920 message (http:/ / www. presidency. ucsb. edu/ ws/ index. php?pid=29561); Wilson's version of Manifest
Destiny: Weinberg 1935, p. 471.
[59] Mattelart 1996, pp. 212–216.
[60] Klinghoffer 2006, p. 86 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=WhyPBHJV5VYC& pg=PA86).
[61] The Atlantic Monthly, January 1895, pp. 124–128. "A German Appraisal of the United States." (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=z5ERAAAAMAAJ& pg=PA124) Retrieved 2009-10-17.
[62] Woodruff D. Smith, "Friedrich Ratzel and the Origins of Lebensraum," German Studies Review, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Feb., 1980), pp. 51–68 in
JSTOR (http:/ / www. jstor. org/ stable/ 1429483)
12
Manifest destiny
[63] Wanklyn 1961, pp. 36–40.
References
• Adams, Sean Patrick (2008). The Early American Republic: A Documentary Reader (http://books.google.com/
books?id=9SE_zwYlXrQC). Wiley–Blackwell. ISBN 9781405160988.
• Bryan, William Jennings (1899). Republic or Empire? (http://books.google.com/books?id=lTk-B-lwmnUC).
• Beveridge, Albert J. (1908). The Meaning of the Times and Other Speeches. Indianapolis: The Bobbs–Merrill
Company.
• Crenshaw, Ollinger (1941). "The Knights of the Golden Circle: The Career of George Bickley". The American
Historical Review 1 (42): 23–50.
• Crocker, H. W. (2006). Don't tread on me: a 400-year history of America at war, from Indian fighting to terrorist
hunting (http://books.google.com/books?id=tFYWAQAAIAAJ). Crown Forum. ISBN 9781400053636.
• Cheery, Conrad (1998). God's New Israel (http://www.amazon.com/
Gods-New-Israel-Religious-Interpretations/dp/0807847542/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&
qid=1343940477&sr=1-1&keywords=God's+New+Israel). The University of North Carolina Press. pp. 424.
ISBN 978-0807847541. Retrieved 2012-08-02.
• Greene, Laurence (2008). The Filibuster (http://www.amazon.com/The-Filibuster-Career-William-Walker/dp/
1436695317). New York: Kessinger Publishing, LLC. pp. 384. ISBN 978-1436695312. Retrieved 2012-08-02.
• Fisher, Philip (1985). Hard facts: setting and form in the American novel (http://books.google.com/
books?id=NhvdAAAAIAAJ). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195035285.
• Fuller, John Douglas Pitts (1936). The movement for the acquisition of all Mexico, 1846–1848 (http://books.
google.com/books?id=uTDJAAAAMAAJ). Johns Hopkins Press.
• Greenberg, Amy S. (2005). Manifest manhood and the antebellum American empire (http://books.google.com/
books?id=EQV6wPzlyOcC+). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521840965.
• Hietala, Thomas R. (February 2003). Manifest Design: American Exceptionalism and Empire (http://books.
google.com/books?id=hhMlmAM7tOYC). Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801488467. Previously
published as Hietala, Thomas R. (1985). Manifest design: anxious aggrandizement in late Jacksonian America
(http://books.google.com/books?id=iLXtAAAAMAAJ). Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801417351.
• Hudson, Linda S. (2001). Mistress of Manifest Destiny: a biography of Jane McManus Storm Cazneau,
1807–1878 (http://books.google.com/books?id=FAELAAAAYAAJ). Texas State Historical Association.
ISBN 9780876111796.
• Johannsen, Robert Walter (1997). Manifest destiny and empire: American antebellum expansionism (http://
books.google.com/books?id=YumVQgAACAAJ). Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 9780890967560.
• Klinghoffer, Arthur Jay (2006). The power of projections: how maps reflect global politics and history (http://
books.google.com/books?id=WhyPBHJV5VYC). Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780275991357.
• Ford, Paul L., ed. (2010). Works of Thomas Jefferson, IX (http://books.google.com/
books?id=_cfQake7FYAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false). Cosmo Press Inc..
ISBN 9781616402105.
• May, Robert E. (2004). Manifest Destiny's Underworld (http://www.amazon.com/
Manifest-Destinys-Underworld-Filibustering-Antebellum/dp/0807855812). The University of North Carolina
Press. pp. 448. ISBN 978-0807855812. Retrieved 2012-08-02.
• Mattelart, Armand (1996). The Invention of Communication (http://books.google.com/
books?id=kOduCi83O5QC). U of Minnesota Press. ISBN 9780816626977.
• McDougall, Walter A. (1997). Promised land, crusader state: the American encounter with the world since 1776
(http://books.google.com/books?id=rwZ26AJl-0oC). Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 9780395830857.
• Merk, Frederick; Bannister, Lois (1963). Manifest destiny and Mission in American History (http://books.
google.com/books?id=GhYJTaZiuxwC). Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674548053.
13
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• Prucha, Francis Paul (1995). The great father: the United States government and the American Indians (http://
books.google.com/books?id=iSeWGTYsFcsC). U of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-8734-1.
• Ripley, Peter C. (1985). The Black Abolitionist Papers (http://www.questia.com/library/95265957/
the-black-abolitionist-papers). Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. pp. 646.
• Rossiter, Clinton (1950). "The American Mission". The American Scholar (The American Scholar) (20): 19–20.
• Sampson, Robert (2003). John L. O'Sullivan and his times (http://books.google.com/
books?id=d1y5ew93xxIC). Kent State University Press. ISBN 9780873387453.
• Stephanson, Anders (1996). Manifest destiny: American expansionism and the empire of right (http://books.
google.com/books?id=J3m9ByBK-NIC). Hill and Wang. ISBN 9780809015849.
• Stuart, Reginald C. (1988). United States expansionism and British North America, 1775–1871 (http://books.
google.com/books?id=C3B1AAAAMAAJ). University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 9780807817674.
• Somkin, Fred (1967). Unquiet Eagle: Memory and Desire in the Idea of American Freedom, 1815–1860. Ithaca,
N.Y..
• Strong, Josiah (1885). Our Country (http://books.google.com/books/about/Our_country.
html?id=PNhr7fU_egwC). Baker and Taylor Company.
• Tuveson, Ernest Lee (1980). Redeemer nation: the idea of America's millennial role (http://books.google.com/
books?id=-FM8cDl9g00C). University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226819211.
• Weeks, William Earl (1996). Building the continental empire: American expansion from the Revolution to the
Civil War (http://books.google.com/books?id=vcsk8UsgNRsC). Ivan R. Dee. ISBN 9781566631358.
• Ward, John William (1955). Andrew Jackson: Symbol for an Age. New York.
• Weinberg, Albert Katz; Walter Hines Page School of International Relations (1935). Manifest destiny: a study of
nationalist expansionism in American history (http://books.google.com/books?id=F3N1AAAAMAAJ). The
Johns Hopkins Press. ISBN 0404147062.
• Wanklyn, Harriet (1961). Friedrich Ratzel: A Biographical Memoir and Bibliography.
Further reading
Journal articles
• Dunning, Mike (2001). "Manifest Destiny and the Trans-Mississippi South: Natural Laws and the Extension of
Slavery into Mexico.". Journal of Popular Culture 35 (2): 111–127. doi:10.1111/j.0022-3840.2001.00111.x.
ISSN 0022-3840. Fulltext: Ebsco.
• Pinheiro, John C (2003). "'Religion Without Restriction': Anti-catholicism, All Mexico, and the Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo". Journal of the Early Republic 23 (1): 69–96. doi:10.2307/3124986. ISSN 0275-1275.
• Sampson, Robert D (2002). "The Pacifist-reform Roots of John L. O'Sullivan's Manifest Destiny". Mid-America
84 (1-3): 129–144. ISSN 0026-2927.
Books
• Brown, Charles Henry (January 1980). Agents of manifest destiny: the lives and times of the filibusters (http://
books.google.com/books?id=WNgMAAAAYAAJ). University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 9780807813614.
• Burns, Edward McNall (1957). The American idea of mission: concepts of national purpose and destiny (http://
books.google.com/books?id=25F1AAAAMAAJ). Rutgers University Press.
• Fresonke, Kris (2003). West of Emerson: the design of manifest destiny (http://books.google.com/
books?id=1ar_OqzDUJAC). University of California Press. ISBN 9780520231856.
• Gould, Lewis L. (1980). The Presidency of William McKinley (http://books.google.com/
books?id=vnV3AAAAMAAJ). Regents Press of Kansas. ISBN 9780700602063.
• Graebner, Norman A. (1968). Manifest destiny (http://books.google.com/books?id=6z92AAAAMAAJ).
Bobbs–Merrill. ISBN 0672509865.
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Manifest destiny
• Heidler, David Stephen; Heidler, Jeanne T. (2003). Manifest destiny (http://books.google.com/
books?id=TEd2AAAAMAAJ). Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313323089.
• Hofstadter, Richard (1965). "Cuba, the Philippines, and Manifest Destiny" (http://books.google.com/
books?id=xSNPRAAACAAJ). The paranoid style in American politics: and other essays. Knopf.
• Horsman, Reginald (1981). Race and manifest destiny: The origins of American racial Anglo-Saxonism (http://
books.google.com/books?id=9TSc3iKP3ZkC). Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674948051.
• May, Robert E. (2002). Manifest destiny's underworld: filibustering in antebellum America (http://books.
google.com/books?id=gpoMAAAAYAAJ). University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 9780807827031.
• Morrison, Michael A. (18 August 1999). Slavery and the American West: The Eclipse of Manifest Destiny and the
Coming of the Civil War (http://books.google.com/books?id=YTaxzMlkVEMC). UNC Press Books.
ISBN 9780807847961.
• Sampson, Robert (2003). John L. O'Sullivan and his times (http://books.google.com/
books?id=d1y5ew93xxIC). Kent State University Press. ISBN 9780873387453.
• Smith, Gene A. (2000). Thomas Ap Catesby Jones: commodore of Manifest Destiny (http://books.google.com/
books?id=moSfw360JOEC). Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9781557508485.
External links
• Manifest Destiny and the U.S.–Mexican War: Then and Now (http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/
educators/md3_war.html)
• President Polk's Inaugural Address (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/polk.asp)
15
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