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America 's "Manifest Destiny"
In the mid 1800s. many t\merica ns
llrml¡ be li eved in Ameríca's "maní–
fes! destí ny" - that Ameríca wa
de!>tíncd lo ínheril al! the land from
th c Atlantic to the Paciflc.
Six of the origina l Thirtcen Colo–
ní cs had received roya l grants giv–
in g th em "sea to sea" rights. Those
six states were: Massachuse tts. Con–
nccticut. Virginia, North and South
Carolina a nd Georgia. But in acrua l
practice. those royal gra nts only ex–
tended westward to the Mississippi
Ri vc r . since France a nd Spain
cla imed a l! of the land west of the
Mí ss íss íppi during Ameríca's ea rly
h
i~to ry.
lt was duríng the 1840 · that thí s
idea of ··manífest dcstíny" S\\ept the
na t íon líke a religious rev iva!.
"Manifest destiny, a persisten!
and cherished trad itíon of U.S. hís–
tory which, in íLs broadest concep–
Lion. declared thaLAmcrícans are a
cho ·en people, blessed wíth free in–
st.ítutíons and ordaíncd by God to
create a model society in the wilder–
ness. In this sense Manífest Destíny
The PLAIN TRUTH July 1976
may be a id to have begun with the
Purítan landings a t Massachusetts
bay in 1630. In íts more restrícted
gcographica l ·ense. the phrase refers
Lo the dcsire of Ameri can cx pan–
sío ní Ls in the 1840's Lo extend the
bo unda ri cs of the United Sta tes to
th c Pac ifi c ocean .. ."
(Encyc!o–
paedia Brirannica,
1970 cd.).
In 1845, John O'Sullivan, writing
in
The Unired Stares Magazine and
De111ocraric Review
prophe ied ''the
fu lfillment of our
manifesr desriny
to
ove rsprcad the contincnt allotted by
Providence
for the free dcvc lopment
of our yea rly multiplyíng mí llíons
[ami] for the development of líberty
and fcde ratíve self-government."
The Mexican War
With th e id ea of "manífest destiny"
poundíng in man y Ame ri ca n
breasts. ít was only a ma tter of time
untíl Lhese dynamíc. rambu nct íous.
land-hungry Americans would spill
over ínto Mexican Lcrrítory. provok–
ing a bloody conftíct wí th Mexíco.
Duríng th e Presídency of Jame
K. Polk , the wa r hawks llnally suc–
ceeded in pushíng America ínto a
INDUSTRIAL PROWESS:
Abraham
Lincoln , preserver of America
's
unity,
guaranteeing a new age of great–
ness;
the Golden Spike links America
by rai/, 1869; the Panama Canal
(showing the big cut at Culebra)
forms a water bridge between two
oceans, 1914 (inset: its biggest booster.
Theodore Roosevelt); Henry Ford
develops the assembly fine, 1913.
Cred•rs Reproduced by permJSsron
ol
Huntmoron Llbrary
San Msrmo.
Ca
W1de World. Panama Ganar Co Ford Mo·
ror Company ((nse/ Curver PIC/ures lnc
J
war wi th Mcxíco. The Mexican War
sta rtcd out as a mere borde r ín–
cidcnt duríng December 1846. but
soon ít escalatcd ínto a fu ll -sca le
wa r. On March 9. 1847. General
Wínfie ld Scott landed a force of
about 10.000 men a t Veracruz and
set out to capture Mexíco CiLy.
reach ing hís goal on Sept. 14. 1847 .
At thc Treaty of Guadalupe Hi–
dalgo, sígned on February 2, 1848.
Mcxíco agreed to cede to the U.S.
wha t is now Cali forni a. Nevada,
Aríi'Ona. Uta h and New Mexíco,
a long wit h pa n s of what was to be–
come Colorado and Wyoming. The
United States agreed to pay Mexíco
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