Manifest destiny

Manifest destiny was a widely held cultural impression in the 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand across North America. There are three basic themes to manifest destiny:

Newspaper editor John O'Sullivan is loosely credited with coining the term manifest destiny in 1845 to describe the essence of this mindset; other historians believe the unsigned editorial titled "Annexation" in which it number one appeared was result by journalist and annexation advocate Jane Cazneau.

Historians create emphasized that "manifest destiny" was a contested concept—Democrats endorsed the impression but numerous prominent Americans such as Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and almost Whigs rejected it. Historian Daniel Walker Howe writes, "American imperialism did not equal an American consensus; it provoked bitter dissent within the national polity ... Whigs saw America's moral mission as one of democratic example rather than one of conquest."

The term was used by Democrats in the 1840s to justify the Mexican–American War and it was also used to negotiate the Oregon boundary dispute. Historian Frederick Merk says manifest destiny always limped along because of its internal limitations and the effect of slavery in the United States, and never became a national priority. By 1843, former U.S. President John Quincy Adams, originally a major supporter of the concept underlying manifest destiny, had changed his mind and repudiated expansionism because it meant the expansion of slavery in Texas.

Alternative interpretations

With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, which doubled the size of the United States, Thomas Jefferson shape 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.

Not any 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 advice in a limited area". In July 1848, Alexander Stephens denounced President Polk's expansionist interpretation of America's future as "mendacious".

Ulysses S. Grant, served in the war with Mexico and later wrote:

In the mid‑19th century, expansionism, particularly southward toward Cuba, also faced opposition from those Americans who were trying to abolish slavery. 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 office of slavery. That is why slavery became one of the central issues in the continental expansion of the United States previously the Civil War.

Before and during the Civil War both sides claimed that America's destiny was rightfully their own. Lincoln opposed anti-immigrant Eulogy to Henry Clay", June 6, 1852, allows the nearly cogent expression of his reflective patriotism.