Manifest+Destiny-MB

INTRODUCTION Manifest Destiny was the American Expansion into the west and the idea that it was God's will. Manifest Destiny was used to inspire expansion, but became a historical term. Now, Manifest Destiny represents the spread of Democracy across the Earth and give insight into the American Political ideology.

THE CREATION OF MANIFEST DESTINY Journalist John O'Sullivan, an influential advocate for the Democratic Party, wrote an article in 1839 which, while not using the term "Manifest Destiny", did predict a "divine destiny" for the United States based upon values such as equality, rights of conscience, and personal enfranchisement-- "to establish on earth the moral dignity and salvation of man". This destiny was not explicitly territorial, but O'Sullivan predicted that the United States would be one of a "Union of many Republics" sharing those values. O'Sullivan's second use of the phrase became extremely influential. Ironically, O'Sullivan's term became popular only after it was criticized by Whig opponents of the Polk Administration. On January 3, 1846, Representative Rinthrop ridiculed the concept in Congress, saying "I suppose the right of a manifest destiny to spread will not be admitted to exist in any nation except the universal Yankee nation." Winthrop was the first in a long line of critics who suggested that advocates of Manifest Destiny were citing "Divine Providence" for justification of actions that were motivated by chauvinism and self-interest.

Historian William E. Weeks has noted that three key themes were usually touched upon by advocates of Manifest Destiny:
 * 1) the **virtue** of the American people and their institutions;
 * 2) the **mission** to spread these institutions, thereby redeeming and remaking the world in the image of the U.S.; and
 * 3) the **destiny** under God to accomplish this work.

EFFECTS OF MANIFEST DESTINY Manifest Destiny played its most important role in, and was coined during the course of, the Oregon boundary dispute with Great Britain. The Anglo-American Convention had provided for the joint occupation of the Oregon Country, and thousands of Americans migrated there in the 1840s over the Oregon Trail.