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building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

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favoured <strong>the</strong> manufacturing system and put <strong>the</strong> agricultural economy of <strong>the</strong> lands<br />

used for intensive cultivation to <strong>the</strong> test.<br />

However, Jackson’s policy of laissez faire was particularly intended to oppose <strong>the</strong><br />

financial and banking system. In fact, he believed that <strong>the</strong> central government<br />

should not favour social imbalance by financing or encouraging <strong>the</strong> creation of<br />

banks. On <strong>the</strong> contrary he believed it should guarantee an increased number of<br />

opportunities for individuals and should incentivise social mobility. The Bank War<br />

was supposed to have been identified as <strong>the</strong> primary element and was at times<br />

becoming an unmotivated obsession for <strong>the</strong> Jackson movement.<br />

The presidency of Martin Van Buren (1782‐1862), <strong>the</strong> first president born in <strong>the</strong><br />

independent republic of <strong>the</strong> USA, was also founded on <strong>the</strong> same political basis. Van<br />

Buren found he was facing <strong>the</strong> problem of a request for annexation by <strong>the</strong> newly<br />

created republic of Texas (proclaimed in 1836). However, he never tackled <strong>the</strong><br />

question and delayed recognition of <strong>the</strong> new state, due to complex reasons of<br />

foreign policy (recognition of Texas would have been a declaration of war against<br />

Mexico) and internal politics (<strong>the</strong> American colonists who had settled in Texas<br />

practised slavery). Tensions regarding <strong>the</strong> recognition of <strong>the</strong> Republic of Texas<br />

exploded with <strong>the</strong> Mexican‐American War, fought between 1846 and 1848, which<br />

also involved <strong>the</strong> Mexican provinces of California and New Mexico.<br />

Behind all <strong>the</strong>se political upheavals lay <strong>the</strong> ideology of Manifest Destiny, sponsored<br />

by local politicians and publicised by <strong>the</strong> newspapers. The citizens of <strong>the</strong> United<br />

States became convinced <strong>the</strong>ir actions were predestined and this corroborated and<br />

fired expansionist aims and <strong>the</strong> rush towards <strong>the</strong> West.<br />

This was a collective, mass phenomenon, which had a profound effect on <strong>the</strong> young<br />

American nation and crept into political action like a genetic aberration over a<br />

number of decades in <strong>the</strong> nineteenth century.<br />

Various hypo<strong>the</strong>ses exist regarding <strong>the</strong> appearance of <strong>the</strong> expression of Manifest<br />

Destiny. The most reliable one insists on <strong>the</strong> term having been adopted in 1845 by<br />

<strong>the</strong> journalist, John Louis O’Sullivan (1813‐1895), an influential ideologist of<br />

Jackson’s supporters at <strong>the</strong> time. In one of his articles entitled “Annexation”,<br />

published in United States Magazine and Democratic Review 17, no.1 (July‐August<br />

120

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