What is "Manifest Destiny"?

Manifest destiny was an 18th and 19th century belief in the United States that America was destined to expand all the way across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. Newspaper editor John O'Sullivan is credited with creating the actual term in 1845.

Historian Fred Merk felt that the concept was born out of a sense that it was up to America to "redeem the Old World by high example...of a new earth for building a new heaven". The concept was supported by three themes: The special virtues of the American people and institutions; the mission of the US to redeem and remake the North American west; and an irresistible destiny to accomplish a divine duty.

The concept was by no means universally accepted by Americans. Highly placed individuals such as Abraham Lincoln, US Grant and most Whigs rejected it. However, the concept managed to keep moving forward, from generation to generation, until the goal had become at least a geographical reality.