Analysis Of The Manifest Destiny Movement

With Antebellum America followed a desire for Manifest Destiny. The people soon wanted to own all of the land in the country and began moving west. While this westward movement seemed euphoric for the Americans, advertised nearly as a getaway from the already crowded east, such a feeling did not exist for the Indians. Manifest Destiny was an aggressive imperialism pursued at the expense of others due to the facts that it was made out to be an expansion prearranged by Heaven when it simply was the craving of more land, it took the Indians only home that was promised to them by a previous treaty, and when the Manifest Destiny movement was created, it entitled the American people ownership of the Indian’s themselves. John O’Sullivan, an enthusiastic
yet scheming columnist, was the first to coin the movement’s title. While he had not used the actual words “Manifest Destiny,” he was extremely close, predicting a “divine destiny.” It was only six years later, when writing an essay that he used the phrase of Manifest Destiny. While it has meant many things to people, Manifest Destiny has been translated as “an expansion prearranged by Heaven.” While it was used on advertisements for the new movement, the Democrats also used it to explain their need for expansion. Not only this, but the Democrats used it to justify the war with Mexico and even gain portions of Oregon from the British. While the common people of America may not have known much of it at the time, the government was crooked, exploiting the term and the movement, when honestly the movement did not include much good for anyone other than the Americans. The group that the Manifest Destiny created the worst circumstances for was the Indians. The Indians had just previously been pushed west when the U.S. Congress passed an Act to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indians and to preserve peace of the frontiers. The act set aside all land west of the Mississippi River as permanent Indian Territory; however, before the law could be put into effect, the line between U.S. and Indian lands was moved many miles to the west. The treaty forbade any white person from entering Indian country without their permission. The movement of course broke this treaty. This “permanent Indian territory” was diminished in just a couple of decades. Paintings, also used in the advertisement of Manifest Destiny, show the Indians and their buffalo and horses as darkness and evil against the angel that represents America. Ridiculous manipulation of the Americans led to the shrinkage of Indian homes and land. Not only though did the American’s take the Indian’s land, they even decided that Manifest Destiny meant they could own the Indians. The people of America believed that the Manifest Destiny entitled the Europeans and their descendants, by destiny, to rule America. This included the lands, forests, minerals and water rights. Many included the Indian people themselves in the ownership. It is said that once before, the Indians’ harmonious song could be heard all through the country as the song enveloped it. Then, afterwards, it was rarely heard echoing through the barren valleys. The Indians had been pushed out of every home they had since the colonists first settled in America. The Manifest Destiny movement basically took all that was left and promised to the Indians. It shows that the Americans were crooked, breaking promises for their own benefit. This proves Manifest Destiny was an aggressive imperialism pursued at the expense of others through the advertising that the movement was an expansion prearranged by heaven, the breaking of the treaty that entitled the western land to the Indians, and the self proclaimed ownership of the Indians to the Americans.