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Article: Manifest destiny.(Letter to the Editor)
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- March 19, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 National Catholic Reporter. 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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Americans who are ignorant of history are bound to repeat its errors. This paraphrase of a famous dictum backs up Bishop Tom Gumbleton's theme in his sermon of Jan. 4, as quoted in the Jan. 23 issue of NCR. As a nation, we seem to forget that a religious mandate called "manifest destiny," which matured in the 1840s, had already become the enlightened Anglo-Saxon's guiding principle for a justified expansion of territory and influence under God's patronage.
Early in the 20th century, this doctrine had so matured that Sen. Albert J. Beveridge, a Republican from Indiana, could ...