America Expanding

By the 1820s parties became an accepted and expected vehicle in American politics for determining policy agendas between candidates.  The expanded suffrage added to the sense of direct participation and the broadening of democracy, extending opportunities for direct involvement in politics to more average white male citizens. 

Voters came out in increasingly large numbers and continued to do so through the 1840s and 1850s because politics became the central arena for publicly discussing economic and social conditions and change.  Urban growth, industrialism, and westward expansion became primary issues.  After 1842, the nation’s attention turned briefly from domestic affairs to foreign policy problems, particularly with Texas and Mexico.  More importantly, Americans began to act on an idea beginning to be articulated:  the idea that the United States should spread its boundaries from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Manifest Destiny

In 1845 a New York newspaper editor named John L. O’Sullivan gave the spirit of expansion a name, calling it Manifest Destiny. He said, “Our manifest destiny is to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.” The concept of Manifest Destiny was soon used by others and became a familiar idea throughout the United States.

For Americans living during the time, Manifest Destiny represented:

Why go West?

Why did Americans want to go West?  One of the main reasons was for personal economic gain. Many Americans believed that if they could not succeed where they were, they could always move West and start over. After all, that was how the nation had grown so large.  The Panic of 1837 was an incentive for many, but the migration had begun before then.

Another reason why Americans wanted to move West was because of population pressure.  Increasing immigration rates put pressure on cities and little land was available in the East for these new settlers.  Dissatisfaction with the enlarging urban population led many Americans to move West.

There was also a political motivation to the westward expansion.  Jacksonian Democrats tended to resist national authority in favor of state’s rights, so the move West for them was a move toward independence where there were no Whigs trying to tell them what to do.  Additionally, the fact that there were Indians and Mexicans already living in western North America did not impact most white American’s belief that the land was open and available.  Anglos declared that it was their right to take the land.

Some people moved West for religious reasons. Many missionaries to the Indians liked the West and stayed. The Latter Day Saints (Mormons) moved West to escape religious persecution in the Midwest, building their earthly Zion in Utah.  At that time, Utah was part of Mexico.  Their trek was hard and hazardous, but hard work turned their barren land in Utah into a paradise.

For most people, a move West represented a combination of motivations, including the chance to start over in a land where no one could tell them what to do and where they could follow their religion as they pleased.

In addition to these personal motivations for westward expansion there was also an external factor, that of the prospect of trade across the Pacific.  Shipping technology had led to Clipper ships that could sail from New York to China in three months. In these ships, tea arrived that was still fresh.  San Francisco became a major port for cow hides and tallow made from beef fat.  Entrepreneurs in the US wanted to capture the market in the Far East, and operating shipping yards from the West coast became the first step.