Was Manifest Destiny Justified?
To refresh your memory about Manifest Destiny please watch this link.
In your book, read pages 364-365.
Please use critical thinking and discuss if you believe that the idea of Manifest Destiny was morally correct. Do you believe the United States had this right? At what costs did the U.S. go through to achieve this westward expansion from God? etc.
The idea of the “Manifest Destiny” came from John O’Sullivan in 1845. John O’Sullivan declared it was the “Manifest Destiny” of Americans to expand westward to the Pacific Ocean. The Manifest Destiny is the idea that God had given the continent to the Americans and wanted them to settle in the western land. Many Americans believed the Manifest Destiny was true. The Manifest Destiny were taken up by those wanting to secure Oregon Territory, California, and Mexican land in the Southwest. Two people wrote their opinion on the Manifest Destiny. One of these men, Albert Gallatin, disagreed with the Manifest Destiny. John O’Sullivan, who came up with the idea of the Manifest Destiny, agreed with it. I do not believe the United States had a right to do this. I think that John O’Sullivan and many Americans just wanted more and more land, which, I think, is why John O’Sullivan came up with this idea. To achieve the westward expansion, it costed the U.S: many battles, wars, and lives of many Americans. (words: 174)
ReplyDeleteThe idea of the Manifest Destiny started in 1845. John L. O'Sullivan declared it was the "manifest destiny of Americans to expand westward to the Pacific Ocean." Many Americans believed this. Two of the arguments involving the Manifest Destiny were written by John L. O'Sullivan and Albert Gallatin. John L. O'Sullivan, the guy who came up with the idea, obviously, agreed with it. Albert Gallatin is the other guy who disagreed with it. He argued we were equal with the Natives and didn't have a right to take their land. I think it was wrong for Americans to take land that belonged to the Native Americans, but God has blessed America greatly. (127)
ReplyDeleteJohn O’ Sullivan was the first one to come up with the idea of the “Manifest Destiny” around the 1840’s. John O’ Sullivan was of course for the idea that the Americans should expand westward toward the Pacific Ocean. But as we all know, not everyone will agree with our ideas. Albert Gallatin was against this idea. Now, Albert believes that we had equal rights with the Native Americans. ( I mean, we are all humans, just a different race so I kinda agree with him ). He says we should not take over their land. I mean ok, America did not really have the right, considering it was already the Natives land, not ours. I guess I agree more with Albert because we are all equal and as Americans, we do not need to go pushing people around acting like we are better when really, we are all sinners. ( sorry I had to get spiritual ). So in my perspective, America did not really have the right, even if we were more powerful. Yes, God did provide the Americans with this continent, but like God, we need to be able to love others and share land! (198)
ReplyDeleteThem manifest destiny was very controversial over whether it was justified or not. It basically said that since we are in fact Americans we have the God given right to the west. This idea was made up by John O'Sullivan in 1845. The problem was that although almost everyone believed that this was true the west didn't even belong to us. The southern part of the west was owned by Mexico and the upper part of the west was given to the Natives by Andrew Jackson during the Indian removal. So if you look at it like that you see that if we had to fight other nations for "our land" just to get possession of it, it probably wasn't ours to begin with. This is why I believe it was not justified.
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The Manifest Destiny was the idea of a Newspaper editor John O Sullivan coined the term Manifest Destiny in 1845 to describe the essence of this mindset. His mindset was that we as Americans God gave us the west so we should take it from who ever has it, their idea was to remake the west in their image. Witch was good for the Americans becaue back then the more land you had the more though of you were. But the people that already had the land would we mad because we are invading and talking their land, I know how they would feel because if someone tryed to take the land that we lived on today we would all try to fight back (124)
ReplyDeleteI think the Manifest Destiny was not justified. All it was was an opinion of a magazine editor. It also gave the Americans the big head, which made them think they were better than everyone. And by everyone, I’m mainly talking about the Mexicans. America went to war with them, when instead, they could have worked out a treaty, or incorporate them into the Union, but the United States wanted to be selfish. War should’ve been a last resort. Even if it was our God-given destiny, we could’ve obtained our goal in a better way. In short, the Manifest Destiny wasn’t justified.(102)
ReplyDeletethe manifest destiny was justified. I think that we had the right because we won the war, but, the way we went about it was not right at all. it all came from a magazine editor, and it made us think we could take land from wherever we wanted to. We basically destroyed potential allies/friendships, made lots of enemies, and almost dug us a hole we couldn't get out of. Also, if God really wanted it to be ours, I don't think he would have had us destroy tons of innocent peoples homes, families, and possesions. I think it was justified, but wasn't carried out correctly. (107)
ReplyDeleteThe Manifest Destiny was very important to this country because if we didn't have it we wouldn't be as great and big as we are today, we would be practically nothing. Even though the so called Manifest Destiny was handled the wrong way, it turned out to be a good thing. America at the time thought they could just waltz in anywhere and just claim some land as theirs, but it doesn't work like that and America was hurt for it. We did get the land in the end and learned a lesson from it and that's what I think is important. Now it doesn't really matter anymore but it should not be taken lightly. Anyway, I think the Manifest Destiny was justified. (123)
ReplyDeleteThe Manifest Destiny wasn’t actually anything written on some sort of official document, unless you count the article written by John O’Sullivan in 1845. The idea started with the revolution of Texas Independence. The Americans felt they had the right to take over more land, particularly the expansion westward, because it was “God’s destiny for them.”
ReplyDeleteOkay, let’s get real: None of this exactly sounds like something God would have wanted. Yes, he wants America to flourish, as he wants all his children to be blessed, but the morals the Americans had back then were not humble. Albert Gallatin, however, was against this idea. Why? Because the Americans had become cocky, even to the point that they thought they were better than the Native Americans and could just force ‘em away! Sound like something God wants? Didn’t think so. Read Galatians 3:28 for proof: “There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” This Manifest Destiny is what caused us to kick out Mexico in the west and to spread slavery. Now you have a large country that’s against each other, which led to another war, and all in all, Americans just simply got too prideful and thought themselves better than everyone else. God doesn’t want that. Any moral person shouldn’t want discord, OR they should think about what it was like to be in the shoes of everyone they forced out of the country!
BUT…America is a big country now, and that’s still kinda cool. It’s just sad that we had a bit of a dark past to lead up to it. (274)
He manifest destiny is a very contriversal topic. Really it could go either way depending on the individual. I personally think that it destroyed out country completely. The way that we took the victory after the war was absolutely terrible. We were very arougent in our ways. Now that we have destroyed our nations name after the war. None of the nations around the world wants to be our allies and we will absolutely be terrible in wa . 108
ReplyDeleteThe Term manifest destiny was originated in the 1840. It expressed the belief that it was Anglo Saxon Americans providential mission to expand their civilization and institutions across the breadth of North America. This expansion would involve not merely territorial aggrandizement but the progress of liberty and individual economic opportunity as well. This term came from John o’ Sullivan. He agreed strongly with the manifest destiny, but I do not agree that the United States had the right to do this, and it was very wrong for America to take land that rightfully belonged to the Native Americans. They just needed more land well not need but wanted more land. The destiny coast America a lot of deaths and such.(120)
ReplyDeleteJohn L Sullivan was all for the idea of manifest destiny! This term manifest destiny means that God had given the continent to Americans and wanted them to settle western land. Many Americans believed this idea just like Sullivan did. But not everyone thought this was a good idea! A man by the name of Albert Gallatin was strongly against the idea of manifest destiny or any type of expansion westward. I think this idea of manifest destiny is morally wrong because you can't invade on the Native Americans land since you forced them there. And that's exactly what this idea would do. If I live in this time I would be on the side of Albert Gallatin! 116
ReplyDeleteJohn L. O’Sullivan started the idea of the Manifest Destiny. It was the idea that God had given the continent to Americans and wanted them to settle western land. Some people believed in the Manifest Destiny like Sullivan. However the Manifest Destiny did have opponents especially Mexico that’s one of the reasons the Mexican War started. Part of it yes I think the U.S. was right but they could have solved it peacefully to reach their goal. They had a lot of troubles to get western expansion. Besides Mexico they also had to deal with Native Americans. They also had to deal with harsh weather.(105)
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