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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 U.S.; and
the destiny under God to accomplish this work.Template:Fn

The origin of the first theme, also 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 had embarked upon a special experiment in freedom and democracy—and a rejection of Old World monarchy—which was of world-historical importance. President Abraham Lincoln's description of the United States as "the last, best hope of Earth" is a well-known expression of this idea. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, in which he interpreted the Civil War as a struggle to determine if any nation with America's ideals could survive, has been called by historian Robert Johannsen "the most enduring statement of America's Manifest Destiny and mission".Template:Fn

The belief that the United States had a mission to spread its institutions and ideals through territorial expansion—what Andrew Jackson in 1843 famously decribed as "extending the area of freedom"—was a fundamental aspect of Manifest Destiny. Many believed that American-style democracy would spread without any effort by the United States government. American pioneers would take their beliefs with them throughout North America, it was thought, and other countries in the world would seek to emulate American institutions. Thomas Jefferson initially did not believe it necessary that the United States itself should expand, since he believed that other republics similar to the United States would be founded in North America, forming what he called an "empire for liberty". With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, however, he embraced expansion. 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 area of slavery became a central issue in a growing divide over the interpretation of America's "mission".

The mottos on the Great Seal of the United States, Annuit coeptis and Novus Ordo Seclorum expressed the mission, which Stephanson translates as: God has blessed this undertaking; a new order for the ages" (p.5-6)

American Romanticism, reaction to Age of Enlightenment
Ralph Waldo Emerson was a major influence on John O'Sullivan (they were acquaintances) and the concept of Manifest Destiny in general.
"One recent scholar has concluded that Transcendental thought, of which Emerson was the principal representative, gave Manifest Destiny its ideological base, by popularizing geographical determinism, the active role of Divine Providence in the nation's destiny, the natural progress of the human race, and the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race in promoting that progress" (Johannsen, p. 12).

Continental expansion

Manifest Destiny and British North America

Before 1815

At the outset of the American Revolution, the American revolutionaries hoped French Canadians would join the Thirteen Colonies in the effort to throw off the rule of the British Empire. The Canadian provinces were invited to send representatives to the Continental Congress, and Canada was pre-approved for joining the United States in the Articles of Confederation. When Canada was invaded during the war in an attempt to expel the British from North America, Americans hoped French Canadians would join them in the effort. None of these measures proved successful in bringing Canada onto the side of the Thirteen Colonies, and so in the Paris peace negotiations, Benjamin Franklin unsuccessfully attempted to convince British diplomats to cede Canada to the United States. The continued presence of the British Empire on the northern border of the United States led to a second unsuccessful U.S. invasion of British North America during the War of 1812.

These attempts to expel the British Empire from North America are sometimes cited as early examples of Manifest Destiny in action, although Canadian historian Reginald Stuart argues that these events were different in character than those during the "Era of Manifest Destiny". Before 1815, writes Stuart, "what seemed like territorial expansionism actually arose from a defensive mentality, not from ambitions for conquest and annexation." From this point of view, Manifest Destiny was not a factor in the outbreak of the War of 1812, but rather the reverse was true: the war produced a greater sense of nationalism in the United States, which was one of the factors leading to the emergence of a popular belief in Manifest Destiny after the war.Template:Fn Template:Fnb Stuart, p. 76.

Filibustering in Canada

Americans became increasingly accepting of the presence of British colonies to the north after the War of 1812, although Anglophobia continued to be widespread in the United States. Many Americans, especially those along the border, were hopeful that the Rebellions of 1837 would bring an end to the British Empire in North America and the establishment of a democratic government in Canada. Of those events John O'Sullivan wrote: "If freedom is the best of national blessings, if self-government is the first of national rights, ... then we are bound to sympathise with the cause of the Canadian rebellion." Americans like O'Sullivan viewed the Rebellions as a reprise of the American Revolution, and—unlike most Canadians at the time—considered Canadians to be living under oppresive foreign rule.^[1]

Despite this sympathy with the cause of the rebels, belief in Manifest Destiny did not result in widespread American reaction to the Rebellions, in part because the Rebellions were over so quickly. O'Sullivan, for his part, advised against U.S. intervention. Some American "filibusters"—unauthorized volunteer soldiers often motivated by a belief in Manifest Destiny—went to Canada to lend aid to the rebels, but President Martin Van Buren sent General Winfield Scott to arrest the filibusters and keep peace on the border. Some filibusters persisted in secretive groups known as the Hunters' Lodges, and tried to stir up war in order to "liberate" Canada—the so-called "Patriot War" was one such event—but American sentiment and official government policy were against these actions. The Fenian raids after the American Civil War shared some resemblances to the actions of the Hunters, but were otherwise unrelated to the idea of Manifest Destiny or any policy of American expansionism.^[2]

^ O'Sullivan and the U.S. view of the uprisings: Stuart, pp.128-46.
^ O'Sullivan against intervention: Stuart p. 86; Filibusters: Stuart, ch. 6; Fenians unrelated: Stuart 249.

Oregon Country

Manifest Destiny played a role in the border dispute with Great Britain in the Oregon Country. While the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 had provided for the joint occupation of the region, as increasing numbers of Americans migrated there in the 1840s over the Oregon Trail, President John Tyler proposed dividing the region between the U.S. and British North America along 49th parallel, the boundary earlier suggested by John Quincy Adams. When the British refused this offer, instead proposing a boundary line further south along the Columbia River, advocates of Manifest Destiny protested, and called for the annexation of the entire Oregon Country. Presidential candidate James K. Polk used this popular outcry to his advantage, embracing the slogan Fifty-Four Forty or Fight! in the 1844 U.S. Presidential election, referring to the northern border of the region.

However, the dispute was settled diplomatically with the Oregon Treaty of 1846, setting the border at the 49th parallel, the original U.S. proposal. Although there had earlier been much sabre rattling, the treaty was popular in the U.S. and was easily ratified by the Senate. (st 104) Many Americans believed that British North America might eventually merge with the United States, and that war was unnecessary to achieve this goal. The most fervent advocates of Manifest Destiny had not prevailed along the northern border. War was avoided in part because, in the words of Stuart, "the compass of Manifest Destiny pointed west and southwest, not north, despite the use of the term 'continentalism'..." (84).

Manifest Destiny and Spanish North America

Belief in Manifest Destiny was one of the driving factors behind

the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, during which the United States captured Alta California and Nuevo Mexico from Mexico.

Discovery of gold in 1849 in California (see California gold rush)

Filibuster (military)

Manifest Destiny and American Indians

There can be no doubt ... that the Creator intended the earth should be reclaimed from a state of nature and cultivated; that the human race should spread over it, procuring from it the means of comfortable subsistence, and of increase and improvement. -- Lewis Cass, in an article advocating Indian Removal in 1830.

Manifest Destiny shaped the ideas and writings of one of America's first great historians, Francis Parkman, whose landmark book The Conspiracy of Pontiac was published in 1851. Parkman believed that after the French defeat in the French and Indian War, Indians were "destined to melt and vanish before the advancing waves of Anglo-American power, which now rolled westward unchecked on unopposed". (p.xxi)

Manifest Destiny and various other statements of moral, political, and often racial superiority were used to justify the displacement of Native Americans. Similar doctrines (such as the white man's burden) were concurrently being used by Europeans elsewhere in the world to justify colonial conquests in Africa and Asia.

Manifest Destiny beyond North America

We reaffirm our approval of the Monroe doctrine and believe in the achievement of the manifest destiny of the Republic in its broadest sense.

Republican Party Platform of 1892 [3]

Hawaii
Spanish-American War, 1898

After the outbreak of the Philippine-American War in 1899, William Jennings Bryan, an opponent of overseas expansion, acidly wrote that "'Destiny' is not as manifest as it was a few weeks ago." (Weinberg 283)

After the turn of the century, the phrase "Manifest Destiny" was used less frequently, and territorial expansionism was increasingly not proposed as a part of America's "destiny." Emphasis was placed upon the "mission" of the United States to spread democracy and freedom.

Under President Theodore Roosevelt, emphasis was placed upon the mission of the United States for promoting "civilization" by being an "international police power", as called for in 1904 in his so-called Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. interventionism

President Woodrow Wilson, in his April 2, 1917 speech calling for the United States to enter World War I, argued that, "The world must be made safe for democracy." [4] After the war, in his 1920 message to Congress, Wilson stated:

...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. [5]

Weinberg writes that Wilson's version of Manifest Destiny rejected expansionsim and emphasized that the United States had a mission to be a world leader for the cause of democracy (471).

Related quotes

For wee must consider that wee shall be as a citty upon a hill. The eies of all people are uppon us.

John Winthrop, "City upon a Hill" sermon, 1630

It is the manifest destiny of the English race to occupy this whole continent.

James Russell Lowell, 1859

The United States is of necessity the sample democracy of the world, and the triumph of Democracy depends upon its success.

Woodrow Wilson, 8th Annual Message to Congress, 1920 [6]

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

John F. Kennedy, inaugural address, January 20, 1961 [7]

[O]ne people under God, dedicated to the dream of freedom that He has placed in the human heart, called upon now to pass that dream on to a waiting and hopeful world.

Ronald Reagan