John O Sullivan's Manifest Destiny

Words: 638
Pages: 3
Open Document
The term "manifest destiny" was first used by journalist John O'Sullivan in the New York Democratic Review in 1845. O'Sullivan wrote in favor of the U.S. annexing Texas, a region that the U.S. recognized as independent of any other nation. (Mexico believed that the region was Mexican territory.) For more than 20 years, Anglo-Americans had migrated into the region, bringing ever-increasing numbers of enslaved men and women with them, tying the region to the economics and politics of the U.S. Sentiment for and against annexation reached fever pitch in 1845 and became a major feature of the presidential election campaigns of Henry Clay and James Polk. It was in this climate that O'Sullivan wrote his column for the July-August edition of the Review. …show more content…
In simple terms, Manifest Destiny was the idea that Americans were destined, by God, to govern or rule the North American continent. This idea, with all the accompanying transformations of landscape, culture, and religious belief it implied, had deep roots in American culture. In 1630, John Winthrop, writing decades before the 13 original …show more content…
Even O'Sullivan himself talked about Manifest Destiny in broad terms before he coined that particular phrase: "The expansive future is our arena," he wrote in 1839. "We are entering on its untrodden space, with the truths of God in our minds. . . . We are the nation of human progress, and who will, what can, set limits to our onward march? Providence is with us, and no earthly power
Show More

Related Documents: John O Sullivan's Manifest Destiny

John O Sullivan's Manifest Destiny

(474) Manifest Destiny was a phrase said by John o' Sullivan. He said this to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent. Also white settlers began to settle far to the pacific ocean. IN 1830 congress pass the removal act which it allowed united states government to remove native Americans such as Cherokee nation. By 1838 most native Americans had forced lands that designated for Indian Territory, Also they forced relocation to Cherokee people. John O’Sullivan meant to clearly destined…

Words 349 - Pages 2

John L. O Sullivan's Manifest Destiny

The article “Manifest Destiny,” written by John L. O’Sullivan, the book Undaunted Courage, written by Stephen E. Ambrose, and the painting “American Progress,” by John Gast, all exemplify Manifest Destiny and westward expansion. Both of these events changed the United States forever. In all three materials, each one shows the the Americans’ relationship with the land can be seen, and they materials also show the Americans’ desire to control and own something they could not truly possess. In the…

Words 692 - Pages 3