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The Components of Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny
2/6 The Components of Manifest Destiny
By Michael T. Lubragge
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The notion of Manifest Destiny had many components, each serving people in
different ways. Manifest Destiny reflected both the prides that characterized
American Nationalism in the mid 19th century, and the idealistic vision of social
perfection through God and the church. Both fueled much of the reform energy of
the time. Individually, the components created separate reasons to conquer new
land. Together they exemplified Americas ideological need to dominate from pole
to pole.
To some, the Manifest Destiny Doctrine was based on the idea that America had a
divine providence. It had a future that was destined by God to expand its borders,
with no limit to area or country. All the traveling and expansion were part of the
spirit of Manifest Destiny, a belief that it was God's will that Americans spread
over the entire continent, and to control and populate the country as they see fit.
Many expansionists conceived God as having the power to sustain and guide human
destiny. "It was white man's burden to conquer and christianize the land"
(Demkin, Chapter 8). For example, the idea that
the Puritan notion of establishing a "city on a hill" was eventually secularized
into Manifest Destiny--a sort of materialistic, religious, utopian destiny.
While some were driven by what they considered God's will, others saw Manifest
Destiny as the historical inevitability of American domination of North America
from sea to sea. It was an altruistic way to extend American liberty to new realms.
North West expansion started with the American fur trappers. In their search for new
reserves of beaver, they blazed new trials and passages through the mountains. In
doing so, they traversed new and fertile valleys of the Far West. Their exaggerated
stories and accounts of their travels publicized the newly found region of the West
and aroused interest in people contemplating agricultural possibilities. It also gave
the land an air of romance and adventure.
By the 1840's, expansion was at it highest. The
Santa Fe Trail
went from Independence to the Old Spanish Trail, which went into Los Angeles. The
Oxbow Route headed from Missouri to California. Others headed out on the
Oregon Trail to the Pacific Northwest. In 1845,
approximately 5,000 people traveled the Oregon Trail to Oregon's Willamette Valley.
The Oregon Trail was the longest of the pioneer trail that went West. It traversed
more than 2,000 miles' trough prairie, desert, and rugged mountain land from Independence,
Missouri to the Northwest. In its short life, 300,000 settlers traveled this trail,
marking their path by the landmarks first identified by
Lewis and Clark.
Thirty thousand graves mark the trial of these pioneers. In the wake of continual
death and hardship the allure of Manifest Destiny continued to drive expansionist
interests. Beginning with the first wagon in 1831, to the formation of the territorial
government in 1848, Manifest Destiny was responsible for making America grow.
Manifest Destiny was the reason for the revived interest in territorial expansion.
With a sense of mission, people were tempted by the boundless tracts and sparsely
settled land lying just beyond the borders of their country. There was also the growing
desire to develop trade with the Far East. Going West would eventually open new trade
routes. Last but not least, there was a renewed fear that the security of the United
States might be impaired by foreign intervention in areas along its borders. The easiest
way to conquer those fears was to conquer land beyond its borders and expand American
territories.
For all the positive atmosphere and grand spirit Manifest Destiny created, it also created
the dark side of American History, non darker than the plight of the American Indian. While
the positive side of Manifest Destiny was a surge of enthusiasm and energy for pushing West,
the negative side was the belief that the white man had the right to destroy anything and
anyone -- namely Indians -- who got in the way. Tracing the path of Manifest Destiny across
the West would highlight mass destruction of tribal organizations, confinement of Indians to
reservations, and full blown genocide. The dark side of Manifest Destiny revealed the white
man's belief that his settlement of the land and civilization of its native peoples was preordained.
The settlements that extended across the Western territories promised the American dream:
the freedom and independence of a seemingly limitless land. This, coupled with the Agrarian
spirit produced an attitude that nothing was gong to stand in the way of progress, the progress
of Manifest Destiny. In the name of this doctrine, Americans took what ever land they wanted.
With a belief that Manifest Destiny gave them a right and power to do so, many simply settled,
planted and farmed Indian land.
The large-scale annihilation and movement of Native American onto
Indian reservations reached its peak in the late 19th
century. The U.S. government intended to destroy tribal governments and break up Indian
reservations under, what was then considered, the progressive Manifest Destiny Doctrine.
The arrogance that flowed from the Manifest Destiny philosophy was exemplified when Albert
T. Beveridge rose before the U.S. Senate and announced:
"God has not been preparing the English-speaking and Tectonic peoples for
a thousand years for nothing but vain and idle self-admiration. No! He has made us the master
organizers of the world to establish system where chaos reigns... He has made us adepts in
government that we may administer government among savages and senile peoples.
Theodore Roosevelt, John Cabot Lodge, and John Hay, each
in turn, endorsed with a strong sense of certainty the view that the Anglo-Saxon [Americans]
was destined to rule the world. Such views expressed in the 19th century and in the early 20th
century continues to ring true in the minds of many non-Indian property owners. The superiority
of the "white race" is the foundation on which the Anti-Indian Movement organizers and right-wing
helpers rest their efforts to dismember Indian tribes." (Ryser).
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