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Article: Manifest Destiny or MUSCLE FLEXING?
- Article from:
- Cobblestone
- Article date:
- December 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Carus Publishing Co. 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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In 1845, newspaper editor John L. O'Sullivan wrote in the New York Morning Star that it was the "right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole continent which providence [God] has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self government."
O'Sullivan and Walker, like many Americans of their day, believed that God had selected the United States for greatness. Part of that "divine plan" involved settling North America with Americans. These Americans believed that their political, social, and economic systems were the best in the world. The United States used this idea of manifest destiny to rationalize its ...