Planting the American Flag: Twelve Men Who Expanded the United States Overseas

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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.

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. With the Louisiana Purchase in , 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 providential mission: If the United States was successful as a " shining city upon a hill ", people in other countries would seek to establish their own democratic republics. 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 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". As more territory was added to the United States in the following decades, "extending the area of freedom" in the minds of southerners also meant extending the institution of slavery. That is why slavery became one of the central issues in the continental expansion of the United States before the Civil War.

Before and during the Civil War both sides claimed that America's destiny were rightfully their own.

Lincoln opposed anti-immigrant nativism , and the imperialism of manifest destiny as both unjust and unreasonable. Lincoln's " Eulogy to Henry Clay ", June 6, , provides the most cogent expression of his reflective patriotism. The phrase "manifest destiny" is most often associated with the territorial expansion of the United States from to This era, from the end of the War of to the beginning of the American Civil War , has been called the "age of manifest destiny".

One of the causes of the War of 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. 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.

They rejected the British plan to set up an Indian state in U. 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. A shocked Henry Goulburn , one of the British negotiators at Ghent, remarked, after coming to understand the American position on taking the Indians' land:.

Till I came here, I had no idea of the fixed determination which there is in the heart of every American to extirpate the Indians and appropriate their territory. The 19th-century belief that the United States would eventually encompass all of North America is known as "continentalism," [45] [46] a form of tellurocracy.

An early proponent of this idea, John Quincy Adams , became a leading figure in U. In , 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.

Adams did much to further this idea. He orchestrated the Treaty of , which established the Canada—US 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. And he formulated the Monroe Doctrine of , which warned Europe that the Western Hemisphere was no longer open for European colonization.

The Monroe Doctrine and "manifest destiny" formed a closely related nexus of principles: 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 study of manifest destiny, Albert Weinberg wrote: Manifest destiny played its most important role in the Oregon boundary dispute between the United States and Britain, when the phrase "manifest destiny" originated.

The Anglo-American Convention of had provided for the joint occupation of the Oregon Country , and thousands of Americans migrated there in the s over the Oregon Trail. The British rejected a proposal by U. 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. When the British refused the offer, American expansionists responded with slogans such as "The Whole of Oregon or None!

The latter slogan is often mistakenly described as having been a part of the presidential campaign. When Polk moved to terminate the joint occupation agreement, the British finally agreed in early to divide the region along the 49th parallel, leaving the lower Columbia basin as part of the United States. The Oregon Treaty of formally settled the dispute; Polk's administration succeeded in selling the treaty 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.

Manifest destiny

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'". In , American historian Frances Fuller Victor published Manifest Destiny in the West in the Overland Monthly , arguing that the efforts of early American fur traders and missionaries presaged American control of Oregon.

She concluded the article as follows: Manifest destiny played an important role in the expansion of Texas and American relationship with Mexico. This was an idealized process of expansion that had been advocated from Jefferson to O'Sullivan: The annexation of Texas was attacked by anti-slavery spokesmen because it would add another slave state to the Union. Before the election of , 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. After the election of Polk, but before he took office, Congress approved the annexation of Texas. Polk moved to occupy a portion of Texas that had declared independence from Mexico in , but was still claimed by Mexico. This paved the way for the outbreak of the Mexican—American War on April 24, With American successes on the battlefield, by the summer of 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.

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. 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.

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 It is a great mistake.

This debate brought to the forefront one of the contradictions of manifest destiny: 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. Like the All Oregon movement, the All Mexico movement quickly abated. A Reinterpretation , 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 minority of Americans, all of them Democrats. Some Democrats were also opposed; the Democrats of Louisiana opposed annexation of Mexico, [59] while those in Mississippi supported it. After the Mexican—American War ended in , 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. Remond on January 24, , 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".

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 preyed on Spanish commerce. While there had been some filibustering expeditions into Canada in the late s, it was only by mid-century did filibuster become a definitive term.

Her pulse beats like a hammer at the wrist, and there's a very high color on her face. 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 s and early s were romanticized in the United States. The Democratic Party's national platform included a plank that specifically endorsed William Walker's filibustering in Nicaragua. 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. 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. 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. Filibustering continued to be a major concern for presidents after Polk. Whigs presidents Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore tried to suppress the expeditions. Quitman to acquire Cuba received the tentative support of the president.

When the public learned of the Ostend Manifesto in , 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. Filibusters like William Walker continued to garner headlines in the late s, but to little effect. 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 s had seemed Heaven-sent, proved to have been a bomb wrapped up in idealism.

The Homestead Act of encouraged , families to settle the West by giving them land usually acres almost free.

Manifest destiny - Wikipedia

They had to live on and improve the land for five years. 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. This ultimately led to confrontations and wars with several groups of native peoples via Indian removal. Only the Federal Government could purchase Indian lands and this was done through treaties with tribal leaders. Whether a tribe actually had a decision-making structure capable of making a treaty was a controversial issue.

The national policy was for the Indians to join American society and become "civilized", which meant no more wars with neighboring tribes or raids on white settlers or travelers, and a shift from hunting to farming and ranching. 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, [74] they had to live like the whites or inevitably be pushed aside by them. In the age of manifest destiny, this idea, which came to be known as " Indian removal ", gained ground. Humanitarian advocates of removal believed that American Indians would be better off moving away from whites. As historian Reginald Horsman argued in his influential study Race and Manifest Destiny , racial rhetoric increased during the era of manifest destiny.

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Americans increasingly believed that Native American ways of life 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 Parkman wrote that after the British conquest of Canada in , Indians were "destined to melt and vanish before the advancing waves of Anglo-American power, which now rolled westward unchecked and unopposed". Parkman emphasized that the collapse of Indian power in the late 18th century had been swift and was a past event.

As the Civil War faded into history, the term manifest destiny experienced a brief revival. Protestant missionary Josiah Strong , in his best seller of Our Country , 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. In the U. 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 s was debated at the time, and long afterwards.

For example, when President William McKinley advocated annexation of the Republic of Hawaii in , he said that "We need Hawaii as much and a good deal more than we did California. It is manifest destiny.

Historians continued that debate; some have interpreted American acquisition of other Pacific island groups in the s as an extension of manifest destiny across the Pacific Ocean. Others have regarded it as the antithesis of manifest destiny and merely imperialism. The treaty was highly contentious and denounced by William Jennings Bryan , who tried to make it a central issue in the election.

He was defeated in landslide by McKinley. The Teller Amendment , passed unanimously by the U.

Senate before the war, which proclaimed Cuba "free and independent", forestalled annexation of the island. 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 Supreme Court ruled that full constitutional rights did not automatically extend to all areas under American control. This also provided for a popularly elected legislature, 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. In the Library Request this item to view in the Library's reading rooms using your library card. Details Collect From YY YY pbk Main Reading Room. Order a copy Copyright or permission restrictions may apply.

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