Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny, a phrase coined by journalist John L. O’ Sullivan in 1845, was used to express the notion/belief that the United States was destined to expand from the Atlantic Seaboard to the Pacific Ocean. The phrase “Manifest Destiny” was popular among the Jackson Democrats during the annexation of what is now much of Western America, using it to help promote the expansion of the United States in to the west, but more so it was an idea/notion. Supporters or advocates of Manifest Destiny thought that the expansion was not only good, it was clear and evident that the US was meant to expand throughout North America. It was and idea that went deeper the just the notion that the US should own the west, thou that’s the general interpretation of it. Actually, there were three main or more popular ideas associated with manifest destiny. The first was virtue of the American people and their institutions, the second was their mission to spread these institutions and in turn remake the world in the image of the US, and the third was the destiny of god to accomplish this work. It was the idea of spreading a republican democracy to John O’ Sullivan, to Abraham Lincoln it meant a country of higher complexity and education, not just the expansion of simple farms.

Before becoming more familiar with it’s origin, the phrase “manifest destiny” to me was the justification used by the former leaders of this country for taking land from the Indians. I can see it much different now. It’s not just the idea that America should own, posses, or control North America. It is more founded then that. It expresses how Americans (especially of the time) believed that the US’s idea of life was the best and by god’s will the US should spread their ideas of a democratic republic, or better put, the great experience of liberty.

This being the ideology that lies at the very core of the development of this