![]() Her high example shall put an end to the tyranny of kings, and carry the happy news of peace and goodwill to millions who now endure an existence hardly better than that of beasts of the field. America has been chosen for this mission among all the nations of the world, which are shut out from the life-giving light of truth. Our future history will be to establish on earth the moral dignity and salvation of man - the undeniable truth and goodness of God. We are the nation of progress, of individual freedom, of universal enfranchisement. “Our national birth (and the Declaration of Independence) was the beginning of a new history, which separates us from the past and connects us only with the future. Suggesting that expansion from coast to coast was inevitable. Giving a geography lesson of where states currently existed.ĭ. ![]() ![]() Outlining the place of the United States in the world.Ĭ. Showing the various terrain of the United States.ī. This map most accurately depicts Manifest Destiny byĪ. The map had great aesthetic value and symmetry.Ģ. The map made expansion of the United States seem probable.ĭ. The map showed the distinct topographies and terrain of the country.Ĭ. The map made citizens aware of how large the country was with the addition of the Louisiana Territory.ī. According to Melish, why did he decide to draw the map of the United States this way?Ī. It also adds to the beauty and symmetry of the map which will, it is confidently believed, be found one of the most useful and ornamental works ever executed in this country.” The view is complete, and leaves nothing to be wished for. The map so constructed, shows at a glance the whole extent of the United States territory from sea to sea and in tracing the probable expansion of the human race from east to west, the mind finds an agreeable resting place on its western limits. “To present a picture of it was desirable in every point of view. However, as the domestic slave trade flourished and the allure of cotton as a cash crop grew exponentially, the question of the expansion of slavery will not be settled until the Civil War. This compromise also established the 36✣0’ parallel as a boundary slavery would not exist above that line. So when Maine was made a state, so was Missouri (ergo, the Missouri Compromise). The Missouri Compromise and the Expansion of SlaveryĪll this new land brought up some new questions for the fledgling country: which parts of this new land would be slave and which would be free? In 1820, the government reached a solution: for every free state admitted into the Union, a slave state would also be admitted. The explorers were a part of a tradition that justified exploration under the banner of Manifest Destiny, the idea that US expansion was inevitable and ordained by God. Although they failed in their main mission to find a water way from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean, they documented many other discoveries (largely due to the assistance of the aforementioned Sacagawea). Beginning in May 1804 and ending in September 1806, Merriwether Lewis and William Clark traversed this new territory with 33 people (including Sacagawea and one slave). Here enters the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The Lewis and Clark Expedition and Manifest Destiny Was it suitable for farming? What kind of crops could one grow there? Jefferson was like ¯_(ツ)_/¯. But there was just one problem: most people literally had NO CLUE what this territory looked like. This was an awesome deal for Thomas Jefferson, President at the time. This event would come to be known as the Louisiana Purchase in the United States. It is within this context that the United States government got the real estate deal of a lifetime: France would sell the Louisiana Territory – which covered the area from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains (east-west) and the Canadian border to New Orleans (north-south) – for a cool $15 million. Not only did he have the British nipping at his heels for power in mainland Europe, he also had a full on rebellion mounted by enslaved people in his most profitable colony: Saint Domingue (present day Haiti). In 1803, French leader Napoleon Bonaparte found himself in quite a bind. Furthermore, I will quickly go over these topics in a narrative form, so that the connections between each can be clear. I will not touch on The Indian Removal Act, since I have covered it in that blog post, or the Mexican-American War, which is an application of the concept of Manifest Destiny I won’t even have time for the Transcontinental Railroad (remember how BIG I told you this topic is?). The Missouri Compromise/the Expansion of Slavery I will cover the following topics in this section:Ĥ. “Spirit of the Frontier” painting depicting the ideas of Manifest Destiny.
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