Manifest Destiny

Senses of Entitlement

Before the Civil War, Americans started moving westward and this expansion became known as “Manifest Destiny – a term coined by, journalist, John O. Sullivan. Between the 1840's and 1860's, known as the Antebellum Era, growth was abundant economically, socially, and industrially for Americans and their national pride grew strong. The Romantic Era contributed to drawing people westward through inspirational art and writings. Many other factors, some justified and others not so much, contributed to this rapid migration. The Gold Rush, the fertile Mexian soil and the cotton kingdom all played major roles in westward expansion. The question is were the thoughts and/or actions of certain Americans, such as Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk justified? Arguably, America was bound to move westward, but did God ordain them to or did they just feel entitled to the land? Westward expansion brought about progress but at the high cost of many values and Native American lives and therefore the movement could not have been ordained by God and should most accurately be described as entitlement gone too far. Manifest Destiny is a betrayal to Americas ideals because it betrayed some individuals rights to equality, justice, and freedom in the process.

Americans felt they were destined to the westward lands and felt a pressure to claim them before Great Britain or anybody else, rather, had a chance. “What friend of human liberty, civilization, and refinement, can cast his view over the past history of the monarchies and aristocracies of antiquity, and not deplore that they ever existed?” (O'Sullivan, 3). They feared the monarchs would encroach on the land before they had a chance and that America would end up the same as other aristocratal societies. He goes on to say, “the nation of many nations is destined to manifest to mankind the excellence of diving principles. . . equality of rights. . . equality of individuals. . . freedom of conscience, freedom of person...” (O'Sullivan, 4). These rights that O'Sullivan speaks of are the foundation of America; they are the values laid out for the country and Manifest Destiny betrayed them all. Directly stated in the Preamble of the United States Constitution, it reads: “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,” (Cornell Law School). Manifest desinty put the white man and his goals ahead of all other which is seen with the Indians, the Mexicans, and the African Amerian slaves. “Indians, Mexicans, and Filipinos became merely obstacles in the path to a better world,” (Torr, 94). Equality and general welfare were only considered for the dominant, white race. Anyone else were obstacles – just problems needed to get around or move out of the way.

The Indian Removal Act of 1830, under President Andrew Jackson, gave him power to negotiate removal options with the Indians already occupying the land – the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chicasaw and Seminole tribes. Jackson wanted to use their home lands to develop cotton industries. “I suggest for your consideration the propriety of settling apart an ample district west of the Mississippi...to be guaranteed to the Indian tribes as long as they shall occupy it...” (Jackson, 2). The Cherokee were an established tribe and were not willing to just sit back and be treated so unfairly. They went to the Supreme Court, who eventually ruled in their favor, but the ruling was ignored and the Cherokee, like the other Indian tribes, were forced to leave their homes. Over 46,000 Indians were removed and forced to migrate. The path the Cherokee took in their migrations became known as “The Trail of Tears” because of how horrifying and upsetting it was to have to leave their homes. Chief Seattle, the leader of the Suquamish and Duwamish tribes, wrote, “...but why should I mourn at the untimely fate of my people? Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless. Your time of decay may be distant, but it will surely come, for even the White Man whose God walked and talked with him as friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny,” (chief Seattle, 9). The growth of the cotton kingdom was made possible by the removal of Indians and America prospered greatly but that same progress cost America values and many Native American lives.

Texans desire for independence spring-boarded the countries debate over slavery. “In the 1840s Manifest Destiny was used to justify war with Mexico for control of Texas; in the years that followed it was used to justify war with American Indians,” (Torr, 96). The war with Mexico is a strong example of how Manifest Destiny betrayed the values of equality and justice that Americans laid out in their constitution.

“In 1833, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna made himself ruler of Mexico. Santa Anna believed in strong central power. Late in 1835, he declared a new constitution that put the national government firmly in charge. Many Texans resented this move. On December 20, 1835, a group of Texans met and declared their wish to become independent from what they called Santa Anna's illegal government.” (Anderson 39-40).

Anderson goes on to explain how the anti-slavery northerners did not want to annex Texas because Texas was a slave state and southerners tempers heightened at the prospect of slavery limitations. “The Panic of 1837 caused tens of thousands of Americans to lose their farms in the South and their factory jobs in the North, and scores of settlers and adventurers poured into Texas,” (Wexler, 118). With so many Americans now living in Texas, and few of them pleased with the rulings of General Antonio Lopez, they sought after annexation. The Mexican government was not pleased when “new secretary of state, John C. Calhoun, negotiated an annexation treaty with Texas,” (Woodworth 4). Mexico saw the annexation as hostile.The tensions over Texas and a disagreement over borders between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande led to what is now known as the Mexican-American War. It was the first war over land and was driven by the idea that America had a right to Mexicos land. Many called this “Polks War” because it was president Polk who was the driving force behind it as he is the one who sent troops initially.

“Some favored it because they felt Mexico had provoked the war or because they felt it was the destiny of America to spread blessings of freedom to oppressed people. Others opposed the war. Some, primarily Polk's political enemies the Whigs, accused the President of having provoked it. Others, generally northern abolitionists, saw in the war the work of a vast conspiracy of southern slaveholders greedy for more slave territory,” (Woodworth, 12). 

 

After an ugly war with 15,000 US casualties and 50,000 mexican casualities, the US managed to acquire half of Mexico (our current California, and New Mexico states). The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was the result of the war and stated that Mexico handed over the northern land – our current California, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada states -to the U.S. Afterwards, many Americans remained unsatisfied because they wanted all of Mexico. Americans, at the time, felt entitled to more land and evidently were willing to go to extreme measures, such as war, to attain it. “And while race imposed no political distinctions, there was an 'aristocracy of color,'” (Servin 14). Servin points out that although race was not exaclty in the discussion, persay, as Manifest Destiny took place, it was still there and it still played a vital role. He went on to explain that certain prejudices came off a lot stronger in the Mexican territories during the late 1840's. The war with Mexico is a prime example of the power of manifest destiny and a clear visual of how it betrayed the American values of equality. “Why should we precipitate this fearful struggle, by continuing a war the results of which must be to force us at once upon it? Sir, rightly considered, THIS is treason,” (Corwin 7). In Thomas Corwins speech against the Mexican-American War, he called Americans out on the dissconnect between the principles the country was founded on and the actions taking place through manifest destiny.

Another location the Americans sought after was Oregon due to rumors of good soil and climate. President Polk, believing the agriculture wasn't good enough, did not promote any interest in the travels to Oregon but Andrew Jackson supported the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Still, many flocked there expecting land and patriotism or hoping to convert the Native Americans to Christianity. “During the first half of the 1840's, some 6000 Americans had taken the 2000-mile, six-month journey on the Oregon trail...” (Woodworth 6). The general outlook on it was for the natives to either assimilate or migrate – whether or not the white migrants would allow the natives to stay if they assimilated is another question. One of the grandest migrations, dubbed “The Great Migration,” in Americas history took place on the Oregon Trail, but it was an exhausting trek and many arrived with little to start off with. Oregon, at the time of this great migration, was still a land claimed by Great Britain so Polk decided to lay claim to that land as well. “They agreed on a border along the 49^th Parallel, that was farther north than the British wanted and farther south than Polk had claimed,” (Anderson 43). The Oregon Trail directly contributed to westward expansion because so many commuted there, believing the land was rightfully theirs, that President Polk had to claim it as such. The Oregon Treaty resulted, claiming Oregon as all land below the 49^th parallel. In later months, the trail would expand with a route veering towards Califronia which in turn contributed to the large migration westward sparked by the findings of gold. 

 

The Mormans also took part in Westward expansion being that they accounted for a large number of indivduals migrating together seeking religious freedom. Mormans, members of a religion founded by Joseph Smith, often found themselves mistreated in their neighborhoods. Many Americans disliked their religion and disrespected their beliefs in, primiarily, polygomy so they followed Smith around seeking a more peaceful place to live. “...Mormons, often in trouble with their neighbors, had been forced to migrate to Kirtland, Ohio; Clay Country, Missouri; and finally, Nauvoo, Illinois. There, on the banks of the Mississippi River, they built the largest city in the state...” (Woodworth 8). Eventually, Smith was arrested and later killed by intruders in his jail, and the Mormons new leader, Bringham Young, led them out of the United States. According to Woodworth, in 1846, 85,000 Mormons followed Young to their new city westward in, then Mexico, and present-day Utah. 

 

In the second half of the 1840's, California, or Alta California as it was then called, became the new hot spot for westward migration. Mexico granted the Alta Californian land to both Mexican and foreign immigrants in the late 1840s but the Mexican-American war expanded to that region and soon would fall into American hands. John Sutter, an immigrant who received a land grant and developed agricultural trade with it made quite the discovery after asking his construction supervisor, James Marshall, to find a location for a sawmill. “On January 24, 1848, a mere nine days before the treaty ending the war with Mexico would be signed, Marshall discovered gold nuggets among the debris...” (Lloyd 16). Many Americans who migrated seeking quick riches were sorely disappointed. Few who took the expensive trip to California even broke even after finding gold and even fewer found gold and became rich over night, as was the dream. “As immigrants poured into California in search of gold, cities and towns were forced to grow quickly to accommodate them,” (Lloyd 140). Through the westward migration, the country grew socially, economically, and industrially. Although the finding of gold was extraordinary, to say the least, it also prompted more arguments than possibly any other westward migration had, thus far.

“The question of slavery's status in the western territories was made more immediate when, on January 24, 1848, gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill, not far from Sacramento, California. The next year gold-seekers from the eastern U.S. and from many foreign countries swelled California's population from 14,000 to 100,000” (Woodworth, 19).

Southerners took their ways of life westward as cottom began to transform their economy. Many southern slave oweners migrated west to set up cottom plantations on new, cheap land and they brought their slaves with them. Northerners shipped and traded the cotton which tied the two economies together but the disagreements the northerners and southerners had on the issue of slavery would eventually tear the country apart. Slavery not only remained a hot-button issue as extreme westward migrations and expansions took place, it became an intolerable disagreement throughout the country. “Under its [the fugitive slave law] provisions blacks living in the North and claimed by slave catchers were denied trial by jury and many of the other protections of due process,” (Woodworth, 28). This law heated the debate over slavery. Cotton development helped develop the South as it gave financial power and strength to the southerners, it became the source of social and cultural authority, and it tied the South to the nations economy. Cotton development had other effects too: it created distinctions and divided the country and it gave smaller farmers the idea they could get plantations and prosper so many relocated and brought their slaves with them, initiating a domestic slave trade in the nation. 

 

Some Americans opposed Westward expansion. The Whig Party members were the foremost opposers of expansionism ideas. The northern Whig party members seemed to be aware that westward expansion would only reopen the discussion of slavery and territorial boundary lines. David Wilmot, a democratic congressman, proposed that all states acquired through the Mexican-American war be initiated as slave-free states. This was called the 'Wilmot Proviso.'

“In fact, by the 1840s virtually all destinarian thought entailed implicit or explicit references to 'race.' A proliferation of pseudoscientific theories of race in the Western world at the time generated . . . This discourse accomplished two things, in our context. First, it gave rise to a widening movement in the North not only to eliminate slavery but also to remove blacks from the republic of freedom through colonization schemes, curtailment of the rights of free blacks, or even the annexation of Texas as an aqueduct for 'drainage' of blacks southward into the presumably more climatically suitable tropics. The Wilmot Proviso was only one expression of this vision,” (Stephanson 55).

 

As Stephanson points out, racism was a strong underlying issue that took the forefront through Manifest Destiny, and not to our pride. America was a country founded on the ideals of freedom and equality and manifest destiny betrayed those ideals in an attempt to gain power and prestige as a new nation.

The 1850's proved to be a trying time for the nation. The Compromise of 1850 an attempt to stop controversy over slavery. “The Compromise of 1850 could only delay the inevitable separation of North and South,” (Wexler, 178). The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed the states to use popular sovereignty to determine if they were slave states or free states. The compromises that took place were unacceptable to most southerners and they were extremely dissatisfied because they wanted to see slavery expand, not recede. Stephen A. Douglas, from Illinois, created the idea. Initially it was created to expand midwestern trade routes with a railroad (preferably, to Douglas, straight through his home state of Illinois).

“The construction of the railroads brought income to western residents... facilitated western colonization and settlement... stimulated the development of cattle grazing, mining, and other industries... and... made it profitable to locate factories nearer to the sources of raw materials and encouraged the development of western manufacturing activities,” (Torr, 152).

In order for the railroad to run through Chicago, the land west of Iowa and Missouri had to be determined and organized. Upon voting time, Missourians claimed land with a pro-slavery status and swarmed Kansas' elections. “Southern Democrats seized the opportunity to acquire more slave-holding territory when the Kansas-Nebraska bill was presented...” (Wexler, 178). Kansas, who had been closed to slavery since the Missouri Compromise in 1820, was overtaken by both pro- and anti-slavery efforts and a bloody civil war broke out. Over 150 violent deaths took place as well as 500 rapes.The act was an awful failure and basically over turned the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850 as well as pointed the nation towards further civil war. 

 

Westward expansion came about from many arenas such as settlement in Oregon, the war with Mexico over Texas, and the California gold rush. Primarily democrats championed the ideaology of Manifest Destiny, being that they sought power and prestige as a newly developed nation. Throughout the 1820's-1860's, many attempts were made by Americans to migrate westward and establish new territories. In the process of expanding, many, native americans, mormons, mexicans, slaves, and southerners, chose or were forced to migrate. The Native Americans, Mexicans, and slaves took the hardest beating and are easily victims of this idea that American was destined to expand westward. It would seem, though most likely ill-intended, that expanding westward became a primary pre-cursor to the Civil War. The disagreements and tensions that arose between the North and South over the issues of slavery took over all national pride and patriotism. Greed and false senses of entitlement overtook many Americans. To this day, immigration is still a tense issue in America. The discussion of illegal immigrants is particularly relevant, ironically, with the Mexicans coming to America. Ironic because roughly only 50 years ago it was Americans trying to migrate into Mexican territory; the Mexicans offered Americans land grants but America wanted to claim the land and started a war over it. In the Constitution of the United States, written in 1787, the founding fathers wrote that all should be considered equal yet continuing to 2012, America still struggles with these ideals.Thus, Manifest Destiny was a direct betrayal to American ideals.

 ©May 2012

Works Cited

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"U.S. Constitution." LII. Web. 01 May 2012. <http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/>.

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Woodworth, Steven E. The Essentials of United States History: 1841-1877 Westward Expansion and the Civil War. Piscataway, NJ: Research and Education Association, 2002. Print.