Passage: Manifest Destiny

Preview Vocabulary
Enfranchisement: the right to vote
Tyranny: cruel and oppressive government
Endure: suffer
Thwarting: opposing
Hampering: slowing down
Allotted: given
Providence: God

“Manifest Destiny” and the Writing of John O’Sullivan (Modified)
John O’Sullivan, "The Great Nation of Futurity," 1839.

Our national birth (and the Declaration of Independence) was the beginning of a new history, which separates us from the past and connects us only with the future.

We are the nation of progress, of individual freedom, of universal enfranchisement. Our future history will be to establish on earth the moral dignity and salvation of man -- the undeniable truth and goodness of God. America has been chosen for this mission among all the nations of the world, which are shut out from the life-giving light of truth. Her high example shall put an end to the tyranny of kings, and carry the happy news of peace and good will to millions who now endure an existence hardly better than that of beasts of the field. Who, then, can doubt that our country is destined to be the great nation of the future?

John O’Sullivan, “Annexation,” 1845.

It is time now for all opposition to annexation of Texas to stop. . . Texas is now ours. She is no longer to us a mere geographical space. She is no longer to us a mere country on the map The time has come for everyone to stop treating Texas as an alien, and to stop thwarting our policy and hampering our power, limiting our greatness and checking the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.

Source: John O’Sullivan was a writer and editor of a well-known newspaper around the time of the Mexican-American war. Most people give him the credit for coining the term “Manifest Destiny.”

Questions:

Guided Questions Instructions: Using Blue font, insert your answers beneath the questions.

John O’Sullivan, "The Great Nation of Futurity," 1839.

1. What does John O’Sullivan think America stands for?

2. What, according to John O’Sullivan, is America’s mission?

John O’Sullivan, “Annexation,” July 1845.

3. What do you think John O’Sullivan means by “our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions”?

4. Based on these two documents, how did Americans feel about expanding westward?