Daniel Foil

Mr. Blackwell

APUSH - 4th Period

1/15/2009

Sullivan's Manifest Destiny: An Indirect Cause of the Civil War

Although many atrocities have been attributed to Sullivan, there are no essays showing the rather odd

link (and there is one) between Manifest Destiny and the Civil War. Now, it must be said that Manifest Destiny

was not as great a contributing factor as the terrible economic threat abolition posed to the South, but it did

indirectly add to the drama and tension in the years preceding the war. This argument takes a rather circuitous

route, so please bear with me. The subsequent text of this essay will show the effect of Manifest Destiny on

19th Century, discuss the Ostend Manifesto, and attempt to demonstrate how these tie together to enrage the

Northerners, which eventually lead to war.

Manifest Destiny was (and still is, arguably) the primary justification for an extremely expansionist

American foreign policy, almost to the point of hegemony. It was a repackaging of the idea of continentalism,

that America should occupy all of North America, but with the moral basis that America as a nation was

inherently morally superior to any other polity, rather than the idea that the inhabitants of North America were a

homogeneous group who should share one government, as was espoused by John Quincy Adams. 1. The

Mexican-American War was fought based on Manifest Destiny, and all of Mexico probably would have been

brought into the Union, were it not for the racism of Sen. John C. Calhoun. He argued that the principles of

government which for whites and Mexicans are fundamentally different, and that it would be a great mistake to

have such “an Indian race” in the Union.2 The argument over “All Mexico” ended with the Mexican Cession,

but it did not bring a close to the issue, especially for many in the South, especially after the failure of the

Wilmot Proviso, which would have guaranteed slavery in the territory gained from Mexico (this was a

frightening idea for Northerners, one we will return to).

1 McDougall, Walter A. Promised Land, Crusader State: The American Encounter with the World Since 1776. New York: Houghton
Mifflin, 1997.
2 "Conquest of Mexico By John C. Calhoun." Teaching American History. 16 Jan. 2009 <teachingamericanhistory.org>.
 After the failures of “All Mexico” and “All Oregon,” southern radicals turned filibustering in

order to carry out Manifest Destiny. Filibustering, when referred to in the military sense, means unauthorized,

illegal military operations carried out in foreign countries, usually with the goal of overthrowing the ruling

government, in order to gain territory for one's nation. These filibusters concentrated their efforts to Mexico,

Latin America, and Cuba, and were a constant thorn in the side of Whig Presidents Taylor and Fillmore, who

were unable to control them. Franklin Pierce, however, was of a different mind when it came to expansion.

Pierce supported a filibustering effort in Cuba, lead by John Quitman, former Governor of Mississippi.

As Quitman's preparations were underway, Pierce dropped his support for the filibuster, and instead offered to

buy Cuba from Spain for $130 million (Polk had offered $100m six years earlier). Shortly thereafter, the

Ostend Manifesto was leaked to the public. The document contained plans for a military takeover of Cuba if

Spain did not accept the offer. Those in the North were appalled, and the great majority (for a minority had

been saying so all along) finally recognized that expansion demanded by supporters of Manifest Destiny only

wished to expand the number of slave states. Whereas there had previously been widespread support for the

idealism of Manifest Destiny, it now became a dividing line. Northerners now saw it as an attempt to expand

slavery, circumventing federal statutes by targeting areas outside the federal jurisdiction. Southerners saw the

shock and horror from the North as blatant and snide disdain for the founding principles of America.3

The destruction of Manifest Destiny as a uniting force and the scandal with the Ostend Manifesto proved

yet again, that the issue of slavery was beginning tearing the nation apart. One by one, the threads were starting

to strain. They snapped seven years later.

3 p.214 Merk, Frederick. Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History: A Reinterpretation. New York, Knopf, 1963.