Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny is a phrase used to express the belief that the United States was destined to expand from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. It was used to justify territorial expansion during the 19th century.All Empires: Was it Manifest Destiny?

The term was allegedly first used by John L. O'Sullivan, the editor of The Democratic Review just after The Battle of the Alamo, in order to gain support for the annexation of Texas.Digital History: Manifest Destiny

"Why, were other reasoning wanting, in favor of now elevating this question of the reception of Texas into the Union, out of the lower region of our past party dissensions, up to its proper level of a high and broad nationality, it surely is to be found, found abundantly, in the manner in which other nations have undertaken to intrude themselves into it, between us and the proper parties to the case, in a spirit of hostile interference against us, for the avowed object of 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."— John O'Sullivan, 1845Google Books: The Antebellum Era: Primary Documents on Events...

The country will someday be "bound East and West by a chain of Americans which can never be broken."—President James Buchanan, 1858Emayzine: Manifest Destiny

• UC Santa Cruz: Manifest Destiny and Expansion in the Americas