Manifest Destiny
A newspaper phrase that became foreign policy
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Manifest Destiny is a phrase from 1845 holding that the United States had a God-given calling to spread from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The phrase is worth knowing because it shows how a justification can arrive after the act and still shape what follows: expansion was well under way before 1845, but the idea made it a duty rather than a choice. It was contested at the time — the Whigs rejected it, and the debate was as much about whether new territories would permit slavery. The phrase was reused for overseas expansion in 1898.
For children
A journalist wrote in 1845 that it was America's "manifest destiny" to spread across the continent. The phrase was picked up by politicians and used to justify war with Mexico and the displacement of Indigenous nations.
Sources
- Merk, Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History (1963)
- O’Sullivan, United States Magazine and Democratic Review (1845)
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