Manifest Destiny History Lab

How justifiable was U.S. expansion in the 1800’s?

Background: During the nineteenth century, the U.S. greatly expanded its territory by purchasing land from other countries, taking land from countries it defeated in war, and adding independent territories that wanted to become part of the United States. Manifest Destiny – a phrase used by leaders and politicians in the 1840s to explain continental expansion by the United States – revitalized a sense of "mission" or national destiny for Americans.

The people of the United States felt it was their mission to extend the "boundaries of freedom" to others by imparting their idealism and belief in democratic institutions to those who were capable of self-government. It excluded those people who were perceived as being incapable of self-government, such as Native American people and those of non-European origin.

But there were other forces and political agendas at work as well. As the population of the original 13 Colonies grew and the U.S. economy developed, the desire and attempts to expand into new land increased. For many colonists, land represented potential income, wealth, self-sufficiency and freedom. Expansion into the western frontiers offered opportunities for self-advancement.

Source 1: John Gast’s Painting American Progress Other titles: Westward and the course of destiny and Westward ho!

Circa1872

digital file from original print

Source 2: John O’Sullivan’s article “The Great Nation of Futurity”

(Underlined words are defined below passage)

Definitions from

enfranchisement- to set free, giving rights or privileges to someone

cynosure- A center of attraction or attention

correlative- reciprocally related; regularly used together but typically not adjacent

effulgence- radiant splendor: Brilliance

retrograde- tending toward or resulting in a worse or previous state

subverting- to overturn or overthrow from the foundation: Ruin

beneficence-the quality or state of doing or producing good

smite-to kill or severely injure

enviable-highly desirable

futurity-the quality or state of being future

Source 3: Plucked, or The Mexican eagle before the war! The Mexican eagle after the war!”

Source 4: January 12, 1848, Abraham Lincoln speech in Congress about President Polk’s war against Mexico

Source 5:March 4th 1845: Inaugural Address of James K. Polk:

Source 6: J.J. Warner, Report on Railroads to the California Senate, 1851

…a railroad, from some point on the Mississippi, or its tributaries, to some point on the bay of San Francisco, is the best route that can be adopted for the purpose of securing the Commerce of China and India; . . . to open a great national highway from California to the Atlantic coast, [and] would be a greater defense and protection than all other military works. It would also be the means of great daily intercourse between the East and West coast of this Republic…to prevent those sectional feelings which have ever been the destruction of wide-extended governments…. [I]t is the duty of this Legislature to encourage the speedy building of a Railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific, across the territory of the United States.

Intercourse: communication or dealings between individuals or groups

Source 7: A pile of American bison skulls from the mid 1870’s

Source 8: Letter from Cherokee Chief John Ross, “To the Senate and House of Representatives”

September 28, 1836

Source / Does this source support, condemn or stary neutral on Manifest Destiny? / What evidence from the source proves this? / What important point of view is missing from this source?
Source 1: John Gast’s Painting American Progress
Source 2: John O’Sullivan’s article “The Great Nation of Futurity”
Source 3: Plucked, or The Mexican eagle before the war! The Mexican eagle after the war!”
Source 4: January 12, 1848, Abraham Lincoln speech in Congress about President Polk’s war against Mexico
Source 5: March 4th 1845: Inaugural Address of James K. Polk
Source 6: J.J. Warner, Report on Railroads to the California Senate, 1851
Source 7: A pile of American bison skulls from the mid 1870’s
Source 8: Letter from Cherokee Chief John Ross, “To the Senate and House of Representatives”

How justifiable was U.S. expansion in the 1800’s? Use specific examples from this lab!