JULY 24: Manifest Destiny Arises

The July-August 1845 issue of The United States Magazine and Democratic Review is notable for containing the first published use of the phrase "Manifest Destiny". John O'Sullivan, the magazine's editor and co-founder, used the term in an article advocating for the annexation of Texas. He criticized opposition that  lingered against annexation and urged national unity.

John L. O’Sullivan. (Credit: Library of Congress)

O’Sullivan wrote: “…Why, were other reasoning wanting in favor of now elevating this question of the reception of Texas into the Union, out of the lower region of our past party dissensions, up to its proper level of a high and broad nationality, it surely is to be found, found abundantly, in the manner in which other nations have undertaken to intrude themselves into it, between us and the proper parties to the case, in a spirit of hostile interference against us, the avowed object of 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 the free development of our yearly multiplying millions…”

By the time Texas was admitted to the Union as a state in December 1845, the idea that the United States must inevitably expand westward all the way to the Pacific Ocean had taken firm hold among people from different regions, classes and political persuasions.

That December, a New York Morning News article mentioned “manifest destiny” in reference to the Oregon Territory, another new frontier over which the United States was eager to assert its dominion.

‘American Progress’ by George A. Crofutt (1873.) (Credit: Library of Congress)

By the time the Oregon question was settled, the United States had entered into all-out war with Mexico, driven by the spirit of Manifest Destiny and territorial expansion.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War in 1848, added an additional 525,000 square miles of U.S. territory, including all or parts of what is now California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.

Eventually, the philosophy of Manifest Destiny was used to justify removal of Native Americans and other groups from their homes and land.

O’Sullivan later served as U.S. Ambassador to Portugal. He died on March 24, 1895 at the age of 81 in New York City.