Manifest Destiny

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In the ' for, Charles and Mary Beard rn The Beards' New Basic History of the United States."In less than one-third that span of years seven new states were established in the region immediately westward and occupied by a population larger than that of the whole United States when the census of 1790 was taken. In less than half that number of years five additional states were formed in the Louisiana Territory, still further west, Texas was brought into the Union, a vast arcato the southwest wrested from Mexico, and California admitted to statehood." Armed with liberty There was something special about the character of the early American, armed with liberty and a will to succeed, that even a foreigner could sense. Alexis de Tocqueville. a French aristocrat, visited us and wrote of our countrymen during the Jacksonian era in Democracy in America: In the United States, the greatest undertakings and speculations are executed without difficulty, because the poorest as well as the most opulent members of the commonwealth are ready to combine their efforts for these purposes. The consequence is, that a stranger is constantly amazed by the immense public works executed by a nation which contains, so to speak, no rich men. The Americans arrived but as yesterday on the territory which they inhabit, and they have aheady changed the whole order of nature for their own advantage. They have joined the Hudson to the Mississippi, and made theAtlantic Ocean communicate with the Gulf of Mexico, across a continent of more than Keeping European powets at bay: Following America's "Second War of Independence" in 1812, President James Monroe (above) and his Secretary of State John Quincy Adams boldly declared an end to further European colonization of the Americas. The "Monroe Doctrine" also wisely enjoined the United States to refrain from entanglements in Europe's wars. five hundred leagues in extent which separates the two seas. Even earlier than de Tocqueville's visit to this country, President James Monroe and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams spelled out the now-famous doctrine that proclaimed there would be no future European colonies in theAmericas; nor transfer to other European powers of possessions already held; and, that the United States would in turn stay out of European wars just as the U.S. expected Europeans to stay out of conflicts in this Hemisphere. President Monroe and Secretary Adams proposed this policy, but it would have to be left to others - especially James Polk - to enforce it. In Monroe's second Inaugural, says Pulitzer Pnze historian George Dangerfield in The Era of Good Feelings,the president ''recalled the passing of the War of 1812. the building of coast fortifications from the St. Croix to the Sabine in a spirit of 'peace and -eoodwill,'the ratification of the Florida Treaty, the 'peculiar felicity' of the United States in being altogether unconnected with the causes of war which seemed to menace Europe. He noted that he had been able to repeal the internal taxes, and he expressed his belief that 'the present depression in prices'would be temporary; while, as a proof of the 'extraordinary prosperity' of the nation, he offered the payment of nearly $67,000,000 of the public debt. He declared that no serious conflict had arisen between national and state governments, and announced that a c) c o -6 E J 34 THE NEW AMERICAN . JULY 28, 2003
,''j il+ Pushing back the ftontiet, immigrants from Europe moved westward, across the "Great American Desert," in search of opportunity and prosperity. "Millions of men are marching at once towards the same horizon," wrote Alexis de Toqueville. "Their language, theireligion, their manners differ; their object is the same. Fortune has been promised them somewhere in the West, and to the West thev go to find it." 'there is every reason to believe that our system will soon attarn the highest degree of perfection of which human institutions are capable."' So, at times, it seemed. The Erie Canal, for example, was built without federal help. But the success of this project only motivated those who would have a central government finance similar internal improvements. "The American republic had come into existence," noted George Dangerfield, "by overthrowing a tyrant who ruled from afar: was it now to put itself into the hands of another tyrant, ruling only a little less remotely on the borders of Virginia and Maryland? Was it not always true that political power in remote hands was almost certain to be abused? Before the dismayed eyes of those who remembered and cherished the warnings of Thomas Jefferson, and before the eyes of Jefferson himself at Monticello, there spread a vision of a mass of internal-improvement legislation, entangled in local schemes, confused by jealousies, and saturated with greed and corruption." There is nothing new under the sun. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams was in factanexpansionist not only for the United States but also for American government. It is of course well known that during the Monroe administration he pressed the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819. Through that treaty, Spain, as recounted by Frederick Merk in Manifust <strong>Destiny</strong> and Mission in American History, "ceded East Florida to the United States, gave recognition to an American seizure of West Florida, and transferred Spanish claims to the Pacific Northwest north of the line of 42o to the United States." Less well known is the fact that later, as president, John Quincy Adams asked Congress in his first annual message for what were then considered vast national powers - including scientific expeditions, an astronomical observatory, a national university, various internal improvements, and creation of a Department of the Interior. These measures, complained Thomas Jefferson, "will be to them [the Federalists] a next blessing to the monarchy of their first aim, and perhaps the surest stepping stone to it." Adams had affronted representative government by demanding that the Establishment of the day not be "palsied by the will of our constituents. ..." Such sentiments, aired in public, led many to believe that theAdams family was a nest of monarchists. And all of this prepared the climate for the 1828 election of war hero Andrew Jackson. Old Hickory's policy was simply summarized by him: "The Federal Constitution must be obeyed, state rights preserved, our national debt must be paid, direct taxes and loans avoided, and the Federal Union preserved. These are the objects I have in view, and regardless of all consequences, will carry into effect." Growth and change in the nation before Jackson became president were profound, and they continued dramatically during his term in office. "While General Jackson was President.'' reports Bray Hammond tn Banks and Politics in America, "the federal union came to include twice as many states as it had begun with and held territory that recenrlr had belonged to Spain and France. It u a,* shortly to add regions in the South and West taken from Mexico and regions in the Northwest that Great Britain claimed. Its expansion seemed irresistible." Indeed, migration, growth. and expansion were watchwords of the era. John Quincy Adams had spoken of "our natural dominion in North America." But all did THE NEW AMERICAN o JULY 28, 20a3
Page 1: Manifest Destiny Many 19th-century
Page 5 and 6: that President Andrew Jackson sent
Page 7: Merk inThe Monroe Doctrine and Amer

Manifest Destiny

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