It's Our Right!

Manifest Destiny - a name that came to mean America's destiny to expand and rule from coast to coast.  Long before it was given the name by John O'Sullivan in 1865, Manifest Destiny was already in the hearts of millions of Americans in the 1830s.  God had created white, English, Scotch Protestants, democratic in beliefs, to rule the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico and California. 

That is how the belief went.  Providence had given this land to Americans!

So where did this belief come from that sounded so selfless but in reality was so selfish?  As early as the 17th century colonists began to seize Indian lands.  In the 18th century the migration over the Appalachians Mountains, the purchase of the Louisiana Territory, and the acquisition of Florida from Spain,  demonstrated the hunger of Americans for land.   Beginning in 1830 this hunger became a belief in the moral superiority of white Americans and their right to continental conquest.  Both California and Texas were conquered because America thought that they could be better ruled than by "foreigners".  In 1844 James Polk was elected on his promise to add the Northwest Pacific territory (Oregon and Washington) to the United States. 

Meanwhile the Indians were becoming fearful of losing their homelands...

Next time...new troubles out west. 

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Today in Pioneer History:  On March 12 1865, the Congress approves black soldiers to fight for the Union Army. 



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Pioneer Pieces: It's Our Destiny!

In the 1840s the entire nation had one collective thought - Manifest Destiny.  Today we talk about exploring space, universal health care, and immigration.  Our ancestors talked about Manifest Destiny.

The origin of the term came from the editor of the New York Morning News, John 0'Sullivan in 1845, who said "It is our manifest destiny to overspread and possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the great experiment of liberty"

Just as America was realizing the vastness of the Lousiana Purchase, O'Sullivan expanded America's minds to include what is now Oregon and California, along with Spanish Mexico.
This included in today's geography: Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, California, Oregon and parts of Texas, a territory greater than the Louisana Purchase 40 years before.

How did America go about realizing O'Sullivan's Manifest Destiny?  Next time we will begin the journey...