Manifest Destiny Research Paper

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Manifest Destiny was created during the 19th century and was the attitude held by many Americans of the time. The term itself was coined by the journalist John O’Sullivan and it was a way of explaining the ideology that the United States should expand westward across the continent and that this expansion was destined. Much of the artworks, such as that of "American Progress" by John Gast, depicted an ethereal being or guiding light that was leading Americans across the country to the far west. However, this expansion was not created out of a vacuum and there were many factors involved in its start, duration, and end. The start of Manifest Destiny mostly originated from a mixture of propaganda, to entice people to move westward, and necessity. Americans would have received different publications illustrating and speaking of the west as fertile and untouched land. This encouraged many Americans to move west in search of requiring more land for farming or logging. During the 19th century many of the cities in the Eastern coast were becoming crowed and access to jobs was becoming more competitive. The draw of the West was due to its vast amounts of unused resources that were in high demand in the East and by selling these resources a person could create lucrative business. Though, to…show more content…
California was to join the Union as a free state. However, Texas was to give up Santa Fe, NM. Slavery was not to be ended, just the slave trade within DC. Congress was to enforce harsh laws for the return of run-away slaves. Lastly, the Compromise stated that the slavery question was to be left up to the white male inhabitants of each territory wishing to enter into the Union. This not only ended the dream that Manifest Destiny offered more opportunities to those who ventured westward but it also was a precursor to the Civil War by means of how it addressed the slave

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