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Title: Manifest Destiny
Type of document: overview
Annotation:
In 1845, John L. O'Sullivan (1813-1895), editor of the Democratic Review, referred in his magazine to America's "manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions." The idea that America had a special destiny to stretch across the continent motivated many Americans to dream big dreams and migrate West. "We Americans," wrote the novelist Herman Melville, "are the peculiar, chosen people--the Israel of our time." Aggressive nationalists invoked manifest destiny to justify Indian removal, war with Mexico, and American expansion into Texas, California, the Pacific Northwest, Cuba, and Central America. More positively, the idea also inspired missionaries, farmers, and pioneers who dreamed only of transforming plains and fertile valleys into farms and small towns.
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