From sea to shining sea? Damn straight.
Back in the day, the U.S. didn't need excuses like WMDs or evildoers to invade territories that didn't belong to us. We took it because it was our destiny!
Who do we have to thank for that idea? The press. Journalist John O'Sullivan penned two articles in 1845 in which he argued in favor of the annexation of Texas and Oregon. "That claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent," O'Sullivan wrote.
White people didn't actually latch on to the concept of manifest destiny, however, until a ornery Whig named Robert Winthrop ridiculed the notion in Congress. "I suppose the right of a manifest destiny to spread will not be admitted to exist in any nation except the universal Yankee nation," he quipped.
Whatever you say, Winthrop. After that, it was westward ho for many an adventurous white person, who believed America had a mission to spread its Republican democracy across this great land (hmm, sound familiar?).
The term was eventually put to rest after white people had had their fill of land grabbing. O'Sullivan, sadly, died destitute in 1895 after a battle with the flu.
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