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Article: Manifest destiny: many 19th-century Americans believed their young nation was destined to extend the benefits of freedom and opportunity across the continent--from sea to shining sea.(History--Struggle For Freedom)
- Article from:
- The New American
- Article date:
- July 28, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 American Opinion Publishing, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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It was in 1845 that a New York editor spoke for the nation by coining the phrase Manifest Destiny. According to editor John L. O'Sullivan, it was "our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions." Expansion of the United States was looked at, variously, as reaching our natural frontiers at the Pacific and Rio Grande, conveying the benefits of republican government to those anxious to embrace them, and just plain pioneering.
"Many felt that it was the right, the duty, and the opportunity of Americans," reported historian Glyndon G. Van Deusen in The Jacksonian Era, 1828-1848, "to ...