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Manifest Destiny

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Submitted By ryanbarker8
Words 298
Pages 2
Ryan Barker
Professor Todd Leahy
History 110
22 Nov 2014
Manifest Destiny
John L. O’Sullivan’s vision of Manifest Destiny seems almost to be an interpretation of god’s will in his propaganda of why we should take more land and expand the United States.
The negative tone that is conveyed on Mexico is flagrantly abundant as he states that Texas is already in the occupation of the United States and we should clear away any remnants of Spain. He states that the territories are sparsely populated and are of more use to a country that will have more than 250 million residents in the future. He leads on to say that California is also freely available as it is being settled by Americans. Slavery is pointed out to not be an issue in this, but racial undertones line the entire 3 pages. He refers to “Anglo Saxon” or white people as those who are destine to take the rest of this continent and even slurs the French in Canada stating that they can be attacked as well. From the words used in this paper O’Sullivan was not intending to spark a cohabitation with Mexican and African Americans in these new states. The overall purpose of this piece in my opinion is to stir the expansionist feelings inside of Americans to start an empire and further the United States power through violent means. It seemed to be a way to light a fire in the white puritans hearts that they are better than the rest of the world and should spread and multiply because of this. This is obviously a very effective strategy as it has worked throughout history in the most violent and bloody growths of power of churches and nations. This was the beginning of American

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