Manifest destiny: Difference between revisions

{{Other uses|Manifest Destiny (disambiguation)}}

[[File:American progress.JPG|thumb|300px|This painting (circa 1872) by [[John Gast (painter)|John Gast]] called ''American Progress'', is an allegorical representation of the modernization of the new west. Here [[Historical Columbia|Columbia]], a personification of the United States, leads civilization westward with American settlers, stringing telegraph wire as she sweeps west; she holds a school book as well. The different stages of economic activity of the pioneers are highlighted and, especially, the changing forms of transportation.]]

In the 19th century, '''Manifest Destiny''' was the widely held belief in the [[United States]] that American settlers were destined to expand throughout the continent. Historians have for the most part agreed that there are three basic themes to Manifest Destiny:

* The special virtues of the American people and their institutions;

* America's mission to redeem and remake the west in the image of [[Agrarianism#United States|agrarian]] America;

* An irresistible destiny to accomplish this essential duty.<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert J. Miller|title=Native America, Discovered And Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, And Manifest Destiny|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=ccnP7tWU7hwC&pg=PA120|year=2006|publisher=Greenwood|page=120}}</ref>

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".<ref>{{Harvnb|Merk|1963|page=[http://books.google.com/books?id=GhYJTaZiuxwC&pg=PA3 3]}}</ref>

Historians have emphasized that "Manifest Destiny" was a contested concept&mdash;many prominent Americans (such as [[Abraham Lincoln]], [[Ulysses S. Grant]], and most [[Whig Party (United States)|Whigs]]) rejected it. Historian [[Daniel Walker Howe]] writes, "American imperialism did not represent an American consensus; it provoked bitter dissent within the national polity.... ''Whigs'' saw America's moral mission as one of democratic example rather than one of conquest."<ref>Daniel Walker Howe, ''What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America 1815-1848,'' (2007) pp 705-6</ref> <!-- Nationwide, probably most Democrats supported Manifest Destiny and most Whigs strongly opposed it.{{citation needed}} -->

Manifest Destiny provided the [[Wiktionary:rhetorical#Pronunciation|rhetorical]] tone for the largest acquisition of U.S. territory. It was used by [[History of the Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]] in the 1840s to justify the [[Mexican–American War|war with Mexico]] and it was also used to divide half of Oregon with Great Britain. But Manifest Destiny always limped along because of its internal limitations and the issue of slavery, says Merk. It never became a national priority. By 1843 [[John Quincy Adams]], originally a major supporter, had changed his mind and repudiated Manifest Destiny because it meant the expansion of slavery in Texas.<ref>{{harvnb|Merk|1963|p=[http://books.google.com/books?id=GhYJTaZiuxwC&pg=PA215 215]}}</ref>

Merk concludes:

:From the outset Manifest Destiny—vast in program, in its sense of [[Continentalism#Continentalism in North America|continentalism]]—was slight in support. It lacked national, sectional, or party following commensurate with its magnitude. The reason was it did not reflect the national spirit. The thesis that it embodied nationalism, found in much historical writing, is backed by little real supporting evidence.<ref>{{cite book|author=Frederick Merk|title=Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History: A Reinterpretation|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=GhYJTaZiuxwC&pg=PA215|year=1963|publisher=Harvard University Press|page=215}}</ref>

==Context==

Manifest Destiny was always a general circular notion rather than a specific policy. There were never a set of principles defining manifest destiny.1822-defined but keenly felt, manifest destiny was an expression of conviction in the morality and value of expansionism that complemented other popular ideas of the era, including [[American exceptionalism]] and [[Romantic nationalism]]. [[Andrew Jackson]], who spoke of "extending the area of freedom", typified the conflation of America's potential greatness, the nation's budding sense of Romantic self-identity and its expansion.<ref>{{harvnb|Ward|1962|pp=[http://books.google.com.ph/books?id=vQQ_uxoWdpYC&pg=PA136 136–137]}}</ref>

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 writes:

<blockquote>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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Tuveson|1980|p=[http://books.google.com/books?id=-FM8cDl9g00C&pg=PA91 91]}}.</ref> </blockquote>

[[File:John O'Sullivan.jpg|right|thumb|[[John L. O'Sullivan]], sketched in 1874, was an influential columnist as a young man, but he is now generally remembered only for his use of the phrase "manifest destiny" to advocate the annexation of Texas and Oregon.]]

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",<ref>{{Harvnb|Merk|1963|p=[http://books.google.com/books?id=GhYJTaZiuxwC&pg=PA27 27]}}</ref> wrote an article in 1839,<ref>{{cite web|last=O'Sullivan|first=John|title=The Great Nation of Futurity|url=http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=usde;cc=usde;idno=usde0006-4;node=usde0006-4%3A6;view=image;seq=350;size=100;page=root|work=The United States Democratic Review Volume 0006 Issue 23 (Nov 1839)|accessdate=2011-10-29}}</ref> 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.<ref>O’Sullivan, John L., [http://www.newhumanist.com/md4.html A Divine Destiny for America], 1845.</ref>

Six years later, in 1845, O'Sullivan wrote another essay entitled ''Annexation'' in the ''Democratic Review'',<ref name = Annex>{{Cite journal

| last = O'Sullivan

| first = John L.

| title = Annexation

| journal = United States Magazine and Democratic Review

| volume = 17

| issue = 1

| pages = 5–11

| date = July–August 1845

| url = http://web.grinnell.edu/courses/HIS/f01/HIS202-01/Documents/OSullivan.html

| accessdate = 2008-05-20

| ref = harv}}</ref> in which he first used the phrase ''manifest destiny''.<ref>See Julius Pratt, "The Origin Of "Manifest Destiny", ''American Historical Review,'' (1927) 32#4, pp. 795–98 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/1837859 in JSTOR]. Linda S. Hudson has argued that it was coined by writer Jane McManus Storm; Greenburg, p. [http://books.google.com/books?id=EQV6wPzlyOcC&pg=PA20 20]; Hudson 2001; O'Sullivan biographer Robert D. Sampson disputes Hudson's claim for a variety of reasons (See note 7 at {{Harvnb|Sampson|2003|pp=[http://books.google.com/books?id=d1y5ew93xxIC&pg=PA244 244–245])}}.</ref> In this article he urged the U.S. to annex the [[Republic of Texas]],<ref>{{Harvnb|Adams|2008|p=[http://books.google.com/books?id=9SE_zwYlXrQC&pg=PA188 188]}}.</ref> not only because Texas desired this, but because it was "our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by [[Divine providence|Providence]] for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions".<ref>Quoted in Thomas R. Hietala, ''Manifest design: American exceptionalism and Empire'' (2003) p. 255</ref> Overcoming Whig opposition, Democrats [[Annexation of Texas|annexed Texas]] in 1845. O'Sullivan's first usage of the phrase "manifest destiny" attracted little attention.<ref>Robert W. Johannsen, "The Meaning of Manifest Destiny", in {{Harvnb|Johannsen|1997}}.</ref>

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 [[Oregon boundary dispute|ongoing boundary dispute]] with Britain. O'Sullivan argued that the United States had the right to claim "the whole of Oregon":

<blockquote>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.<ref name = McCrisken>McCrisken, Trevor B., [http://books.google.com/books?id=QHDkqb-myscC&pg=PA68 ''Exceptionalism: Manifest Destiny''] in ''Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy'' (2002), Vol. 2, p. 68</ref></blockquote>

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 spread 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Weinberg|1935|p=145}}; {{Harvnb|Johannsen|1997|p=9}}.</ref>

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.&nbsp;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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Johannsen|1997|p=10}}</ref>

Ironically, O'Sullivan's term became popular only after it was criticized by [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] opponents of the [[James K. Polk|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".<ref>"Prospectus of the New Series," ''The American Whig Review'' Volume 7 Issue 1 (Jan 1848) p 2</ref> On January 3, 1846, Representative [[Robert Charles Winthrop|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 soon forgotten.

==Themes and influences==

Historian William E. Weeks has noted that three key themes were usually touched upon by advocates of manifest destiny:

* the '''virtue''' of the American people and their institutions;

* the '''mission''' to spread these institutions, thereby redeeming and remaking the world in the image of the United States;

* the '''destiny''' under God to do this work.<ref>{{Harvnb|Weeks|1996|p=61}}.</ref>

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]].<ref>Justin B. Litke, “Varieties of American Exceptionalism: Why John Winthrop Is No Imperialist,” ''Journal of Church and State,'' 54 (Spring 2012), 197–213.</ref> In his influential 1776 pamphlet ''[[Common Sense (pamphlet)|Common Sense]]'', [[Thomas Paine]] echoed this notion, arguing that the [[American Revolution]] provided an opportunity to create a new, better society:

<blockquote>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...</blockquote>

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."<ref name=ford2010pp315-319>{{Harvnb|Ford|2010|pp=315–319}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{harvnb|Somkin|1967|pp=68–69}}</ref> It followed that Americans owed to the world an obligation to expand and preserve these beliefs.

The second theme's origination is less precise. A popular expression of America's mission was elaborated by President [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s description in his December 1, 1862 message to Congress. He described the United States as "the last, best hope of Earth." The "mission" of the United States was further elaborated during Lincoln's [[Gettysburg Address]], in which he interpreted the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] as a struggle to determine if any nation with democratic ideals could survive; this has been called by historian Robert Johannsen "the most enduring statement of America's Manifest Destiny and mission".<ref>{{Harvnb|Johannsen|1997|pp=18–19}}.</ref>

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 maintain the North American continent, but also to "spread abroad the fundamental principles stated in the Bill of Rights".<ref>{{Harvnb|Rossiter|1950|pp=19–20}}</ref> In many cases this meant neighboring colonial holdings and countries were seen as obstacles rather than the destiny God had provided the United States.

[[John Mack Faragher|Faragher's]] analysis of the political polarization between the [[History of the United States Democratic Party|Democratic Party]] and the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig Party]] is that:

:"Most Democrats were wholehearted supporters of expansion, whereas many Whigs (especially in the North) were opposed. Whigs welcomed most of the changes wrought by industrialization but advocated strong government policies that would guide growth and development within the country's existing boundaries; they feared (correctly) that expansion raised a contentious issue the extension of slavery to the territories. 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 in order to counterbalance industrialization."<ref>John Mack Faragher et al. ''Out of Many: A History of the American People,'' (2nd ed. 1997) page 413</ref>

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." This view also held that "inferior races were doomed to subordinate status or extinction." This was used to justify "the enslavement of the blacks and the expulsion and possible extermination of the Indians."<ref>Race and Manifest Destiny, Reginald Horsman, pg. 2 & 6</ref>

==Alternative interpretations==

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 [[providentialism|providential]] mission: If the United States was successful as a "[[City upon a Hill|shining city upon a hill]]," people in other countries would seek to establish their own democratic republics.<ref>Witham, Larry. A City Upon a Hill: How Sermons Changed the Course of American History. New York: Harper, 2007. </ref>

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. For example, many [[Whig Party (United States)|Whigs]] opposed territorial expansion based on the Democratic claim that the United States was destined to serve as a virtuous example to the rest of the world, and also had a divine obligation to spread its superordinate political system and a way of life throughout North American continent. Many in the Whig party "were fearful of spreading out too widely", and they "adhered to the concentration of national authority in a limited area".<ref>{{Harvnb|Merk|1963|p=[http://books.google.com/books?id=GhYJTaZiuxwC&pg=PA40 40]}}</ref> In July 1848, [[Alexander H. Stephens|Alexander Stephens]] denounced [[James K. Polk|President Polk's]] expansionist interpretation of America's future as "mendacious".<ref>Byrnes, Mark Eaton. James K. Polk: A Biographical Companion. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2001, p. 145.</ref>

In the mid‑19th century, expansionism, especially southward toward Cuba, also faced opposition from those Americans who were trying to abolish slavery. As more territory was added to the United States in the following decades, "extending the area of freedom" in the minds of [[Southern United States|southerners]] also meant extending the institution of [[history of slavery in the United States|slavery]]. That is why slavery became one of the central issues in the continental expansion of the United States before the [[American Civil War|Civil War]].<ref>Morrison, Michael A. Slavery and the American West: The Eclipse of Manifest Destiny and the Coming of the Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997. </ref>

Before and during the Civil War both sides claimed that America's destiny were rightfully their own. Lincoln opposed [[History of the Southern United States|Southern sectionalism]], anti-immigrant [[Nativism (politics)|nativism]], and the imperialism of manifest destiny as both unjust and unreasonable.<ref>Mountjoy, Shane. Manifest Destiny: Westward Expansion. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2009.</ref> He objected to the Mexican War and believed each of these disordered forms of patriotism 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 "[[s:Life and Works of Abraham Lincoln/Volume 3/Eulogy of Henry Clay|Eulogy to Henry Clay]]", June 6, 1852 provides the most cogent expression of his reflective patriotism.<ref>Joseph R. Fornieri. Lincoln's Reflective Patriotism. In: ''Perspectives on Political Science,'' Apr–June 2010, Vol. 39, #2, p. 108–117.</ref>

==Era of continental expansion==

[[File:John Quincy Adams.jpeg|thumb|[[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 phrase "manifest destiny" is most often associated with the [[United States territorial acquisitions|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".<ref>{{cite book|author=Kurt Hanson, Robert L. Beisner|title=American Foreign Relations since 1600: A Guide to the Literature, Second Edition|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=rCQsQdqFyMYC|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-080-2|pages=[http://books.google.com.ph/books?id=rCQsQdqFyMYC&pg=PA313 313]}}</ref> 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.<ref>Stuart and Weeks call this period the "era of manifest destiny" and the "age of manifest destiny", respectively.</ref>

===War of 1812===

''Main Article: [[War of 1812]]''

One of the causes of the War of 1812 may have been an American desire to annex or threaten to annex British Canada in order to stop the Indian raids into the Midwest, expel Britain from North America, and gain additional land.<ref>{{harvnb|Nugent|pp=74–79}}</ref><ref>The acquisition of Canada this year, as far as the neighborhood of Quebec, will be a mere matter of marching, and will give us experience for the attack of Halifax the next, and the final expulsion of England from the American continent.—To William Duane. vi, 75. Ford ed., ix, 366. (M., Aug. 1812.)</ref> The American victories at the [[Battle of Lake Erie]] and the [[Battle of the Thames]] in 1813 ended the Indian raids and one of the reasons for annexation. The American failure to occupy any significant part of Canada prevented them from annexing it for the second reason, which was largely ended by the [[Era of Good Feelings]] which ensued after the war between Britain and the United States.

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. They rejected the British plan to set up an Indian state in U.S.&nbsp;territory south of the Great Lakes. They explained the American policy toward acquisition of Indian lands:

: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 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.<ref>Charles M. Gates,『The West in American Diplomacy, 1812–1815,』Mississippi Valley Historical Review (1940) 26#4 pp. 499-510 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1896318 in JSTOR], quote on page 507</ref>

===Continentalism===

The 19th-century belief that the United States would eventually encompass all of North America is known as "continentalism".<ref>[http://www.sociologyindex.com/continental.htm Continental and Continentalism], sociologyindex.com.</ref> 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 [[James K. Polk|Polk administration]] in the 1840s. In 1811, Adams wrote to [[John Adams|his father]]:

<blockquote>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.<ref>Adams quoted in {{Harvnb|McDougall|1997|p=78}}.</ref></blockquote>

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 (Canada)|New Caledonia]] and [[Columbia District]]s. He negotiated the [[Adams–Onís Treaty|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".<ref>{{Harvnb|McDougall|1997|p=74}}; {{Harvnb|Weinberg|1935|p=109}}.</ref>

====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 north|49th&nbsp;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 (U.S. state)|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 [[U.S. presidential election, 1844|1844 U.S.&nbsp;Presidential election]].

As president, however, Polk sought compromise and renewed the earlier offer to divide the territory in half along the 49th&nbsp;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 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.

[[File:Emanuel Leutze - Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way - Smithsonian.jpg|thumb|American westward expansion is idealized in [[Emanuel Leutze]]'s famous painting ''[[Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way]]'' (1861). The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by [[George Berkeley|Bishop Berkeley]], was a phrase often quoted in the era of manifest destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history. [http://americanart.si.edu/t2go/1lw/1931.6.1.html (more)] ]]

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'."<ref>Treaty popular: {{Harvnb|Stuart|1988|p=104}}; compass quote p. 84.</ref>

===Mexico and Texas===

Manifest Destiny played an important role in the expansion of Texas and American relationship with [[History of Mexico|Mexico]]. In 1836, the [[Republic of Texas]] [[Texas Declaration of Independence|declared independence]] from Mexico and, after the [[Texas Revolution]], sought to join the United States as a new state. This was an idealized process of expansion which had been advocated from Jefferson to O'Sullivan: newly democratic and independent states 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 [[Texas Annexation|annexation of Texas]]. Polk moved to occupy a portion of Texas which had [[Texas Declaration of Independence|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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Merk|1963|pp=[http://books.google.com/books?id=GhYJTaZiuxwC&pg=PA144 144–147]}}; {{Harvnb|Fuller|1936}}; {{Harvnb|Hietala|2003}}.</ref>

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.&nbsp;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:

<blockquote>We 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.<ref name = Calhoun>{{Cite web| last = Calhoun | first = John C. | title = Conquest of Mexico | publisher = TeachingAmericanHistory.org | year = 1848 | url = http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=478 | accessdate = 2007-10-19 }}</ref></blockquote>

This debate brought to the forefront one of the contradictions of manifest destiny: on the one hand, while identitarian ideas inherent in manifest destiny suggested that Mexicans, as non-whites, would present a threat to white racial integrity and thus were 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. Identitarianism was used to promote manifest destiny, but, as in the case of Calhoun and the resistance to the "All Mexico" movement, identitarianism was also used to oppose manifest destiny.<ref>{{Harvnb|McDougall|1997|pp=87–95}}.</ref> Conversely, proponents of annexation of "All Mexico" regarded it as an anti-slavery measure.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fuller|1936|pp=119, 122, 162 and ''passim''}}.</ref>

The controversy was eventually ended by the [[Mexican Cession]], which added the territories of [[Alta California]] and [[Santa Fe de Nuevo México|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 [[filibuster (military)|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".<ref>{{harvnb|Ripley|1985}}</ref> 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 [[filibuster (military)|military filibustering]]. Originally filibuster had come from the Dutch ''vrijbuiter'' and referred to buccaneers in the West Indies that preyed 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.

[[File:WilliamWalker.jpg|thumb|220px|left|Filibuster [[William Walker (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]].]]

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 Walker's filibustering in [[Nicaragua]]. Wealthy American expansionists financed dozens of expeditions, usually based out of [[New Orleans]], [[New York City|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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Crenshaw|1941}}</ref> William Walker got his start as a filibuster in an ill-advised attempt to separate the Mexican provinces Sonora and Baja California.<ref>{{Harvnb|Greene|2006|pp=1–50}}{{citation not found|date=October 2010<!-- possibly should be Greene 2008, for which there is a cite in the article -->}}</ref> [[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&nbsp;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 eventually landed in legal trouble.<ref name="Tread">{{Harvnb|Crocker|2006|p=150}}.</ref>

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&nbsp;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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Weeks|1996|pp=144–52}}.</ref>

Filibusters like [[William Walker (filibuster)|William Walker]] continued to garner headlines in the late 1850s, but to little effect. Expansionism was among the various [[origins of the American Civil War|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."<ref>{{Harvnb|Merk|1963|p=[http://books.google.com/books?id=GhYJTaZiuxwC&pg=PA214 214]}}.</ref>

===Homestead Act===

{{Main|Homestead Acts}}

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.<ref>{{cite book| author=Lesli J. Favor| title=A Historical Atlas of America's Manifest Destiny| url=http://books.google.com/books?id=hZ2dZHbLgVkC|chapter=6. Settling the West|chapterurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=hZ2dZHbLgVkC&pg=PA1864| year=2005| publisher=Rosen}}</ref> Before the Civil War, Southern leaders opposed the [[Homestead Acts]] because they feared it would lead to more free states and free territories.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/homestead-act/| title= Teaching With Documents:The Homestead Act of 1862| publisher= The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration| accessdate=2012-06-29}}</ref> After the mass resignation of Southern senators and representatives at the beginning of the war, Congress was subsequently able to pass the Homestead Act.

===Native Americans===

Manifest destiny had serious consequences for [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]], since continental expansion implicitly meant the occupation and annexation of Native American land, sometimes to expand slavery. This ultimately led to the ethnic cleansing of several groups of native peoples via [[Indian removal]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert E. Greenwood PhD|title=Outsourcing Culture: How American Culture has Changed From "We the People" Into a One World Government|publisher=Outskirts Press|date=2007|pages=97}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor=Rajani Kannepalli Kanth|title=The Challenge of Eurocentrism|publisher=Palgrave MacMillan|date=2009|author=Rajiv Molhotra|chapter=American Exceptionalism and the Myth of the American Frontiers|pages=180,184,189,199}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|authors=Paul Finkelman and Donald R. Kennon|title=Congress and the Emergence of Sectionalism|publisher=Ohio University Press|date=2008|pages=15,141,254}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Ben Kiernan|title=Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur|publisher=Yale University Press|date=2007|pages=328,330}}</ref> The United States continued the European practice of recognizing only limited land rights of [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous peoples]]. In a policy formulated largely by [[Henry Knox]], [[Secretary of War]] in the Washington Administration, the U.S.&nbsp;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,<ref>{{Harvnb|Prucha|1995|p=[http://books.google.com.ph/books?id=iSeWGTYsFcsC&pg=PA137 137]}}, "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).</ref> they had to live like the whites or inevitably be pushed aside by them.<ref name=autogenerated1>[http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/american-indians American Indians « Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Jefferson's belief, rooted in [[Age of Enlightenment|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.<ref name=autogenerated1 />

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 ''[[Pontiac's Rebellion|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".<ref>{{Harvnb|Fisher|1985|p=[http://books.google.com/books?id=Y5msex2MZFAC&pg=PA26 26]}}</ref>

==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 (book)|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."<ref>{{Harvnb|Strong|1885|pp=107–108}}</ref>

In the [[U.S. presidential election, 1892|1892 U.S.&nbsp;presidential election]], the [[United States Republican Party|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."<ref>{{cite book|title=Official Manual of the State of Missouri|year=1895|publisher=Office of the Secretary of State of Missouri|page=245|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=AtWgAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA245&lpg=PA245&dq=%22achievement+of+the+manifest+destiny+of+the+Republic%22&source=bl&ots=JokhmOK2BP&sig=-TeCPIiiyKC2RNFtzUUzeEKcw3k&hl=en&sa=X&ei=vmx7UZz_Oqi0iQLRyIGwCA&ved=0CF8Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=%22achievement%20of%20the%20manifest%20destiny%20of%20the%20Republic%22&f=false}}</ref> What was meant by "manifest destiny" in this context was not clearly defined, particularly since the Republicans lost the election.

In the [[U.S. presidential election, 1896|1896 election]], however, the Republicans recaptured the White House and held on to it for the next 16&nbsp;years. During that time, manifest destiny was cited to promote [[history of United States overseas expansion|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.<ref>Republican Party [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showplatforms.php?platindex=R1892 platform]; context not clearly defined, {{Harvnb|Merk|1963|p=[http://books.google.com/books?id=GhYJTaZiuxwC&pg=PA241 241]}}.</ref>

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 American acquisition of other Pacific island groups in the 1890s as an extension of manifest destiny across the [[Pacific Ocean]]. Others have regarded it as the antithesis of manifest destiny and merely [[imperialism]].<ref>McKinley quoted in {{Harvnb|McDougall|1997|pp=112–13}}; {{Harvnb|Merk|1963|p=[http://books.google.com/books?id=GhYJTaZiuxwC&pg=PA257 257]}}.</ref>

===Spanish–American War and the Philippines===

In 1898, following its expansion, the United States intervened in the [[Spanish–American War]]. According to the terms of the [[Treaty of Paris (1898)|Treaty of Paris]], Spain relinquished sovereignty over Cuba and ceded the [[The Philippines|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.&nbsp;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 acquisition of [[Guam]], [[Puerto Rico]], and the [[Philippines]] after the war with [[Spain]] marked a new chapter in U.S.&nbsp;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 [[colonialism|colonies]] rather than prospective states. The process was validated by the [[Insular Cases]]. The [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;citizens" via the [[Jones–Shafroth Act|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."<ref>{{Harvnb|Merk|1963|p=[http://books.google.com/books?id=GhYJTaZiuxwC&pg=PA257 257]}}.</ref> [[Albert Beveridge|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".<ref>{{harvnb|Beveridge|1908|p=123}}</ref> 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,<ref>Kipling, Rudyard ''[http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/white_mans_burden.html The White Man's Burden]''.<!-- supports assertion re subtitle --></ref> which were common at the time. The nascent [[First Philippine Republic|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".<ref>{{Harvnb|Bryan|1899}}.</ref>

===20th century ===

The belief in an American mission to promote and defend democracy throughout the world, as expounded by [[Thomas Jefferson]] and his "[[Empire of Liberty]]" and [[Abraham Lincoln]], was continued by Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Under Harry Truman (and [[Douglas MacArthur]]) it was implemented in practice in the American rebuilding of Japan and Germany after World War II. George W. Bush in the 20th century applied it to the Middle East, in Afghanistan and Iraq. Tyner argues that in proclaiming a mission to combat terror, Bush was continuing a long tradition of prophetic presidential action to be the beacon of freedom in the spirit of Manifest Destiny.<ref>{{cite book|author=James A. Tyner|title=Iraq, Terror, and the Philippines' Will to War|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=jijeKx19cIMC&pg=PA62|year=2005|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|page=62}}</ref>

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 (politics)|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&nbsp;I]] with the argument that "The world must be made safe for democracy." In his 1920 message to Congress after the war, Wilson stated:

<blockquote>...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.</blockquote>

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&nbsp;II]], although rarely would it be described as "manifest destiny", as Wilson had done.<ref>[[s:President Wilson's War Address|"Safe for democracy"]]; [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29561 1920 message]; Wilson's version of manifest destiny: {{Harvnb|Weinberg|1935|p=471}}.</ref>

"Manifest Destiny" is sometimes used by critics of U.S.&nbsp;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 denounced by some as "[[American imperialism]]". The positive phrasing 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'."<ref>Karin Von Hippel, ''Democracy by Force: U.S. Military Intervention in the Post-Cold War World'' (Cambridge U.P. 2000), p 1</ref>

The legacy is a complex one. The belief in an American mission to promote and defend democracy throughout the world, as expounded by [[Thomas Jefferson]] and his "[[Empire of Liberty]]", and by [[Abraham Lincoln]], [[Woodrow Wilson]] and [[George W. Bush]],<ref>{{cite book|author=Charles Philippe David and David Grondin|title=Hegemony Or Empire?: The Redefinition of Us Power Under George W. Bush|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=4_J6gQcqXtUC&pg=PA129|year=2006|publisher=Ashgate |pages=129–30}}</ref> continues to have an influence on American political ideology.<ref>{{Harvnb|Stephanson|1996|pp=112–29}} examines the influence of manifest destiny in the 20th century, particularly as articulated by Woodrow Wilson.</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Scott|first=Donald|title=The Religious Origins of Manifest Destiny|url=http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/mandestiny.htm|publisher=National Humanities Center|accessdate=2011-10-26}}</ref> Bush looked at the American success after 1945 in imposing democracy in Japan as a model. Under [[Douglas MacArthur]], the Americans "were imbued with a sense of manifest destiny" says historian John Dower.<ref>{{cite book|author=John W. Dower|title=Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=MqbNicpQKUoC&pg=PT217|year=2000|publisher=W. W. Norton|page=217}}</ref>

==Relationship with German ''Lebensraum'' ideology==

German geographer [[Friedrich Ratzel]] visited North America beginning in 1873<ref name=Mattelart>{{Harvnb|Mattelart|1996|pp=212–216}}.</ref> and saw the effects of American manifest destiny.<ref name=Klinghoffer>{{Harvnb|Klinghoffer|2006|p=[http://books.google.com/books?id=WhyPBHJV5VYC&pg=PA86 86]}}.</ref> 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]].<ref>''The Atlantic Monthly'', January 1895, pp. 124–128. [http://books.google.com/books?id=z5ERAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA124 "A German Appraisal of the United States."] Retrieved 2009-10-17.</ref> Ratzel promoted overseas colonies for Germany in Asia and Africa, but not an expansion into Slavic lands.<ref>Woodruff D. Smith, "Friedrich Ratzel and the Origins of Lebensraum," ''German Studies Review,'' Vol.&nbsp;3, No.&nbsp;1 (Feb., 1980), pp. 51–68 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1429483 in JSTOR]</ref> 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]]''.<ref name=Klinghoffer/> Harriet Wanklyn (1961) argues that Ratzel's theory was designed to advance science, and that politicians distorted it for political goals.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wanklyn|1961|pp=36–40}}.</ref>

==See also==

{{AmericanEmpire}}

'''Authors and literature'''

* [[Thomas Hart Benton (senator)|Thomas Hart Benton]]—Missouri senator, proponent of western expansion

* [[Stephen A. Douglas]]—prominent spokesman of "Young America"

* [[Horace Greeley]]—popularized the phrase "Go West, young man."

* [[Duff Green]]—writer, politician, and prominent manifest destiny advocate

* [[Frances Fuller Victor]]—prominent western historian and fiction writer who captured the spirit of western expansion

* "[[The White Man's Burden]]"—an influential poem by [[Rudyard Kipling]] advocating colonization by the United States

'''Topics'''

* [[Colonialism]]

* [[Young America movement]]—a political and literary movement with connections to manifest destiny

* [[Expansionism]]—for expansionist ideas in other countries

* [[American imperialism]]

* [[American exceptionalism]]

* [[The West As America Art Exhibition]]

* [[Golden Circle (proposed country)]]

* [[Territories of the United States on stamps]]

==Notes==

{{Reflist|2}}

==References==

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|first=Philip

|title=Hard facts: setting and form in the American novel

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=NhvdAAAAIAAJ

|year=1985

|publisher=Oxford University Press

|isbn=9780195035285

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last=Fuller

|first=John Douglas Pitts

|title=The movement for the acquisition of all Mexico, 1846–1848

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=uTDJAAAAMAAJ

|year=1936

|publisher=Johns Hopkins Press

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last=Greenberg

|first=Amy S.

|title=Manifest manhood and the antebellum American empire

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=EQV6wPzlyOcC+

|year=2005

|publisher=Cambridge University Press

|isbn=9780521840965

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last=Hietala

|first=Thomas R.

|title=Manifest Design: American Exceptionalism and Empire

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=hhMlmAM7tOYC

|date=February 2003

|publisher=Cornell University Press

|isbn=9780801488467

|ref=harv}} Previously published as {{cite book

|last=Hietala

|first=Thomas R.

|title=Manifest design: anxious aggrandizement in late Jacksonian America

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=iLXtAAAAMAAJ

|year=1985

|publisher=Cornell University Press

|isbn=9780801417351

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last=Hudson

|first=Linda S.

|title=Mistress of Manifest Destiny: a biography of Jane McManus Storm Cazneau, 1807–1878

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=FAELAAAAYAAJ

|year=2001

|publisher=Texas State Historical Association

|isbn=9780876111796

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last=Johannsen

|first=Robert Walter

|title=Manifest destiny and empire: American antebellum expansionism

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=YumVQgAACAAJ

|year=1997

|publisher=Texas A&M University Press

|isbn=9780890967560

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last=Klinghoffer

|first=Arthur Jay

|title=The power of projections: how maps reflect global politics and history

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=WhyPBHJV5VYC

|year=2006

|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group

|isbn=9780275991357

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|editor-last=Ford

|editor-first=Paul L.

|title=Works of Thomas Jefferson, IX

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=_cfQake7FYAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

|year=2010

|publisher=Cosmo Press Inc.

|isbn=9781616402105

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|title=Manifest Destiny's Underworld

|last=May

|first=Robert E.

|year=2004

|publisher=The University of North Carolina Press

|isbn=978-0807855812

|pages=448

|accessdate=2012-08-02

|url=http://www.amazon.com/Manifest-Destinys-Underworld-Filibustering-Antebellum/dp/0807855812

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last=Mattelart

|first=Armand

|title=The Invention of Communication

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=kOduCi83O5QC

|year=1996

|publisher=U of Minnesota Press

|isbn=9780816626977

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last=McDougall

|first=Walter A.

|title=Promised land, crusader state: the American encounter with the world since 1776

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=rwZ26AJl-0oC

|year=1997

|publisher=Houghton Mifflin

|isbn=9780395830857

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last1=Merk

|first1=Frederick

|last2=Bannister

|first2=Lois

|title=Manifest destiny and Mission in American History

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=GhYJTaZiuxwC

|year=1963

|publisher=Harvard University Press

|isbn=9780674548053

|ref={{harvid|Merk|1963}}}}

*{{cite book

|last=Prucha

|first=Francis Paul

|title=The great father: the United States government and the American Indians

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=iSeWGTYsFcsC

|year=1995

|publisher=U of Nebraska Press

|isbn=978-0-8032-8734-1

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last1=Ripley

|first= Peter C.

|year=1985

|title=The Black Abolitionist Papers

|url=http://www.questia.com/library/95265957/the-black-abolitionist-papers

|publisher=University of North Carolina Press

|place=Chapel Hill, NC

|pages=646

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite journal

|last1=Rossiter

|first1=Clinton

|year=1950

|title=The American Mission

|journal=The American Scholar

|issue=20

|pages=19–20

|publisher=The American Scholar

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last=Sampson

|first=Robert

|title=John L. O'Sullivan and his times

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=d1y5ew93xxIC

|year=2003

|publisher=Kent State University Press

|isbn=9780873387453

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last=Stephanson

|first=Anders

|title=Manifest destiny: American expansionism and the empire of right

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=J3m9ByBK-NIC

|year=1996

|publisher=Hill and Wang

|isbn=9780809015849

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last=Stuart

|first=Reginald C.

|title=United States expansionism and British North America, 1775–1871

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=C3B1AAAAMAAJ

|year=1988

|publisher=University of North Carolina Press

|isbn=9780807817674

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last=Somkin

|first=Fred

|title=Unquiet Eagle: Memory and Desire in the Idea of American Freedom, 1815–1860

|location=Ithaca, N.Y.

|year=1967

|ref={{harvid|Somkin|1967}}}}

*{{cite book

|last=Strong

|first=Josiah

|title=Our Country

|url=http://books.google.com/books/about/Our_country.html?id=PNhr7fU_egwC

|year=1885

|publisher=Baker and Taylor Company

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last=Tuveson

|first=Ernest Lee

|title=Redeemer nation: the idea of America's millennial role

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=-FM8cDl9g00C

|year=1980

|publisher=University of Chicago Press

|isbn=9780226819211

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last=Weeks

|first=William Earl

|title=Building the continental empire: American expansion from the Revolution to the Civil War

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=vcsk8UsgNRsC

|year=1996

|publisher=Ivan R. Dee

|isbn=9781566631358

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last=Ward

|first=John William

|title=Andrew Jackson : Symbol for an Age: Symbol for an Age

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=vQQ_uxoWdpYC

|year=1962

|publisher=Oxford University Press

|isbn=978-0-19-992320-5

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last1=Weinberg

|first1=Albert Katz

|author2=Walter Hines Page School of International Relations

|title=Manifest destiny: a study of nationalist expansionism in American history

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=F3N1AAAAMAAJ

|year=1935

|publisher=The Johns Hopkins Press

|ref={{Harvid|Weinberg|1935}}

|isbn=0404147062 }}

*{{cite book

|last=Wanklyn

|first=Harriet

|title=Friedrich Ratzel: A Biographical Memoir and Bibliography

|year=1961

|ref=harv}}

==Further reading==

===Journal articles===

*{{cite journal

|doi=10.1111/j.0022-3840.2001.00111.x

|last=Dunning

|first=Mike

|title=Manifest Destiny and the Trans-Mississippi South: Natural Laws and the Extension of Slavery into Mexico.

|journal=Journal of Popular Culture

|year=2001

|volume=35

|issue=2

|pages=111–127

|issn=0022-3840

|id=Fulltext: Ebsco}}

*{{cite journal

|doi=10.2307/3124986

|last=Pinheiro

|first=John C

|title='Religion Without Restriction': Anti-catholicism, All Mexico, and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

|journal=Journal of the Early Republic

|year=2003

|volume=23

|issue=1

|pages=69–96

|issn=0275-1275}}

*{{cite journal

|last=Sampson

|first=Robert D

|title=The Pacifist-reform Roots of John L. O'Sullivan's Manifest Destiny

|journal=Mid-America

|year=2002

|volume=84

|issue=1-3

|pages=129–144

|issn=0026-2927}}

===Books===

*{{cite book

|last=Brown

|first=Charles Henry

|title=Agents of manifest destiny: the lives and times of the filibusters

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=WNgMAAAAYAAJ

|date=January 1980

|publisher=University of North Carolina Press

|isbn=9780807813614

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last= Burns

|first=Edward McNall

|title=The American idea of mission: concepts of national purpose and destiny

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=25F1AAAAMAAJ

|year=1957

|publisher=Rutgers University Press

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last=Fresonke

|first=Kris

|title=West of Emerson: the design of manifest destiny

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=1ar_OqzDUJAC

|year=2003

|publisher=University of California Press

|isbn=9780520231856

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last=Gould

|first=Lewis L.

|title=The Presidency of William McKinley

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=vnV3AAAAMAAJ

|year=1980

|publisher=Regents Press of Kansas

|isbn=9780700602063

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last=Graebner

|first=Norman A.

|title=Manifest destiny

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=6z92AAAAMAAJ

|year=1968

|publisher=Bobbs–Merrill

|ref=harv

|isbn=0672509865}}

*{{cite book

|last1=Heidler

|first1=David Stephen

|last2=Heidler

|first2=Jeanne T.

|title=Manifest destiny

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=TEd2AAAAMAAJ

|year=2003

|publisher=Greenwood Press

|isbn=9780313323089

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last=Hofstadter

|first=Richard

|title=The paranoid style in American politics: and other essays

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=xSNPRAAACAAJ

|year=1965

|publisher=Knopf

|chapter=Cuba, the Philippines, and Manifest Destiny

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last=Horsman

|first=Reginald

|title=Race and manifest destiny: The origins of American racial Anglo-Saxonism

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=9TSc3iKP3ZkC

|year=1981

|publisher=Harvard University Press

|isbn=9780674948051

|ref=harv}}

* McDonough, Matthew Davitian. ''Manifestly Uncertain Destiny: The Debate over American Expansionism, 1803–1848''. PhD dissertation, Kansas State University, 2011.

* Merk, Frederick, and Lois Bannister Merk. ''Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History: A Reinterpretation''. New York: Knopf, 1963.

*{{cite book

|last=May

|first=Robert E.

|title=Manifest destiny's underworld: filibustering in antebellum America

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=gpoMAAAAYAAJ

|year=2002

|publisher=University of North Carolina Press

|isbn=9780807827031

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last=Morrison

|first=Michael A.

|title=Slavery and the American West: The Eclipse of Manifest Destiny and the Coming of the Civil War

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=YTaxzMlkVEMC

|date=18 August 1999

|publisher=UNC Press Books

|isbn=9780807847961

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last=Sampson

|first=Robert

|title=John L. O'Sullivan and his times

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=d1y5ew93xxIC

|year=2003

|publisher=Kent State University Press

|isbn=9780873387453

|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book

|last= Smith

|first=Gene A.

|title=Thomas Ap Catesby Jones: commodore of Manifest Destiny

|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=moSfw360JOEC

|year=2000

|publisher=Naval Institute Press

|isbn=9781557508485

|ref=harv}}

==External links==

{{Wikiquote}}

* [http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/educators/md3_war.html Manifest Destiny and the U.S.–Mexican War: Then and Now]

* [http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/polk.asp President Polk's Inaugural Address]

* [http://zinnedproject.org/materials/the-expansion-of-empire/ Gayle Olson-Raymer, “The Expansion of Empire”], 15-page teaching guide for high school students, Zinn Education Project/Rethinking Schools

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