Manifest Destiny
Even while the United States were crowded along the Atlantic coast, Americans developed the idea that the nation was destined to stretch across the continent. This idea was called ‘Manifest Destiny.’ Examine the images below, read the two texts by Joseph O’Sullivan, and try to determine why many Americans supported Westward expansion.
Map of the United States with the contiguous British & Spanish Possessions by John Melish (1816)
Source: A map of the United States made by John Melish in 1816. According to the David Rumsey Collection, this is “the first large scale detailed map made in the U.S. that showed the entire country from the Atlantic to the Pacific.”(Figure below).
A map of the United States made by John Melish in 1816
Map of the United States – Ormando Gray (1872)
Source: Map of the United States made by Ormando Willis Gray, published in Philadelphia in 1872. (Figure below).
Map of the United States made by Ormando Willis Gray
Section Questions:
- Sourcing: When was Melish’s map made?
- Contextualization: What territory was part of the United States at that point?
- Close Reading: Compare Melish’s map to Gray’s 1872 map. What land did Melish include, even though it was not part of the United States?
- Why would Melish draw a map that included land that was not yet a part of the United States in 1816?
American Progress – John Gast
Source: John Gast painted American Progress 1872 to represent the spirit of Manifest Destiny. This image is of a chromolithograph made around 1873 by George A. Croffut, based on Gast’s painting.(Figure below).
This image is of a chromolithograph made around 1873 by George A. Croffut
Questions:
- What do you think the woman in this painting represents? How is this symbolized in the painting?
The Great Nation of Futurity – John O’Sullivan
Source: An article by John O’Sullivan called “The Great Nation of Futurity,” from The United States Democratic Review in 1839. 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.” As you read the quotes below, try to figure out what he thinks of America.
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?
Vocabulary
- Enfranchisement
- the right to vote
- Tyranny
- cruel and oppressive government
- Endure
- suffer through
Questions:
- What does John O’Sullivan think America stands for?
- What, according to John O’Sullivan, is America’s mission?
Annexation – John O’Sullivan
Source: An article by John O’Sullivan, “Annexation,” from the United States Magazine and Democratic Review, 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.
Vocabulary
- Thwarting
- opposing
- Hampering
- slowing down
- Allotted
- given
- Providence
- God
Questions:
- Close Reading: What do you think John O’Sullivan means by the following phrase: “our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions”?
Section Question:
- Based on all of these documents, how did Americans feel about expanding westward?
Irish Immigration
In the , a disease killed most of the potato plants in Ireland, leaving the Irish without enough food to eat. To escape the so-called Irish Potato Famine, many Irish immigrated to the United States. Once there, however, they faced strong anti-Irish discrimination. The Irish had long been oppressed and looked down on by neighboring Britain, and many Americans were of British ancestry. Most Irish were Catholic, and most Americans were Protestants with a strong anti-Catholic prejudice. Most Irish were poor and entered American life at the bottom of the social ladder. Today, it seems obvious that people of Irish descent are racially ‘white,’ but this was not so clear to the people of the 1840s. Examine the following documents and try to determine whether the Irish were considered ‘white’ in the
century.
Black vs. Irish - Thomas Nast
Source: A cartoon drawn by Thomas Nast for the cover of Harper’s Weekly, December 7, 1876.(Figure below).
Questions:
- The man in the “white” scale is supposed to be Irish. What is the message of this cartoon?
- Thomas Nast, the cartoonist, drew for Harper’s Weekly. Based on this cartoon, what sort of people do you think read Harper’s Weekly?
Cartoon in a Newspaper, 1883
Source: Political cartoon published in Puck humor magazine on May 9, 1883.(Figure below).
THE IRISH DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE THAT WE ARE ALL FAMILIAR WITH.
Questions:
- The angry woman in the cartoon is supposed to be Irish. Describe what she looks like and how she’s acting.
- Based on this cartoon, what job do you think many Irish women had in the 1880s? What were some stereotypes about Irish women?
Excerpt from The Know-Nothing and American Crusader – July 29, 1854
Source: An item that ran in The Know-Nothing and American Crusader, a nativist, anti-Catholic newspaper published in Boston.
THINGS WHICH ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS AND ALL TRUE ROMAN CATHOLICS HATE
Providence, July 22, 1854
- They HATE our Republic, and are trying to overthrow it.
- They HATE our Flag, and they grossly insulting it.
- They HATE the liberty of the Press.
- They HATE the liberty of speech.
- They HATE our Public School system.
- They HATE the Bible, and would blot it out of existence if they could!
- They HATE Protestants, and are sworn to exterminate them from our country and the earth.
- They HATE all rulers that do not swear allegiance to the Pope of Rome.
- They HATE to be ruled by Americans, and say ‘WE WILL NOT BE RULED BY THEM!'
- They HATE to support their own paupers and they are left to be supported by the tax paying Americans.
- They HATE, above all, the ‘Know-Nothings’, who are determined to rid this country from their cursed power.
—UNCLE SAM
Questions:
- Why did the ‘Know-Nothings’ hate the Catholics so much?
- According to the ‘Know-Nothings’ could the Irish ever be true Americans? Why or why not?
New York Times Advertisement, 1854
Source: An advertisement that ran in the New York Times on March 25, 1854.(Figure below).
Jensen, Richard.
Modified Transcript:
GROCERY CART AND HARNESS FOR SALE
They are in good condition.
One chestnut horse,
old, is also for sale. Excellent saddle horse; can be ridden by a lady.
Also, young man wanted, from
to
of age, able to work. No Irish need apply.
CLUFF & TUNIS, No. 270 Washington St., corner of Myrtle Ave., Brooklyn.
Questions:
- What does the advertisement mean when it says: “No Irish need apply?”
- Based on this advertisement, how do you think the Irish were treated when they looked for jobs? Why might this be the case?
Wages of Whiteness – David Roediger
Source: Excerpt from the book Wages of Whiteness, written by historian David R. Roediger and published in 1991.
Irish-Americans were sometimes used as substitutes for slaves in the South. Gangs of Irish immigrants worked ditching and draining plantations, building levees and sometimes clearing land because of the danger of death to valuable slave property (and, as one account put it, to mules) in such work. One Southerner explained the use of Irish labor as follows: ‘n-----s are worth too much to be risked here; if the Paddies (Irish) are knocked overboard... nobody loses anything.’
Irish youths were likely to be indentured servants from the early 1800s through the Civil War. In that position they were sometimes called ‘Irish slaves’ and more frequently ‘bound boys.’ In New York City, Irish women made up the largest group of prostitutes, or as they were sometimes called in the 1850s, ‘white slaves.’
Questions:
- Why were Irish used to do difficult labor in the South?
- Based on this document, do you think the Irish were treated like slaves?
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