Editing Manifest destiny (section)

== Debate over Manifest destiny ==
With the [[Louisiana Purchase]] in 1803, which doubled the size of the United States, [[Thomas Jefferson]] set the stage for the continental expansion of the United States. Many began to see this as the beginning of a new [[providentialism|providential]] mission: If the United States was successful as a "[[City upon a Hill|shining city upon a hill]]", people in other countries would seek to establish their own democratic republics.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Witham |first=Larry |title=A City Upon a Hill: How Sermons Changed the Course of American History |publisher=Harper |year=2007 |location=New York}}</ref> Not all Americans or their political leaders believed that the United States was a divinely favored nation, or thought that it ought to expand. For example, many [[Whig Party (United States)|Whigs]] opposed territorial expansion based on the Democratic claim that the United States was destined to serve as a virtuous example to the rest of the world, and also had a divine obligation to spread its superordinate political system and a way of life throughout North American continent. Many in the Whig party "were fearful of spreading out too widely", and they "adhered to the concentration of national authority in a limited area".<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Merk|1963|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=GhYJTaZiuxwC&pg=PA40 40]}}</ref> In July 1848, [[Alexander H. Stephens|Alexander Stephens]] denounced [[President Polk]]'s expansionist interpretation of America's future as "mendacious".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Byrnes |first=Mark Eaton |title=James K. Polk: A Biographical Companion |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2001 |location=Santa Barbara, Calif |page=145}}</ref>

In the mid‑19th century, expansionism, especially southward toward Cuba, also faced opposition from those Americans who were trying to abolish slavery. As more territory was added to the United States in the following decades, "extending the area of freedom" in the minds of southerners also meant extending the institution of slavery. That is why slavery became one of the central issues in the continental expansion of the United States before the Civil War.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morrison |first=Michael A. |title=Slavery and the American West: The Eclipse of Manifest Destiny and the Coming of the Civil War |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=1997 |location=Chapel Hill}}</ref>

Before and during the Civil War both sides claimed that America's destiny was rightfully their own. [[Abraham Lincoln]] opposed anti-immigrant [[Nativism (politics)|nativism]], and the imperialism of manifest destiny as both unjust and unreasonable.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mountjoy |first=Shane |title=Manifest Destiny: Westward Expansion |publisher=Chelsea House Publishers |year=2009 |location=New York}}</ref> He objected to the Mexican war and believed each of these disordered forms of patriotism threatened the inseparable moral and fraternal bonds of liberty and union that he sought to perpetuate through a patriotic love of country guided by wisdom and critical self-awareness. Lincoln's "[[s:Life and Works of Abraham Lincoln/Volume 3/Eulogy of Henry Clay|Eulogy to Henry Clay]]", June 6, 1852, provides the most cogent expression of his reflective patriotism.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fornieri |first=Joseph R. |date=April–June 2010 |title=Lincoln's Reflective Patriotism |journal=Perspectives on Political Science |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=108–117 |doi=10.1080/10457091003685019 |s2cid=159805704}}</ref>

[[Ulysses S. Grant]] served in the war with Mexico and later wrote:
<blockquote>I was bitterly opposed to the measure [to annex Texas], and to this day regard the war [with Mexico] which resulted as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. It was an instance of a republic following the bad example of European monarchies, in not considering justice in their desire to acquire additional territory... The Southern rebellion was largely the outgrowth of the Mexican war. Nations, like individuals, are punished for their transgressions. We got our punishment in the most sanguinary and expensive war of modern times.<ref>See [http://www.wwnorton.com/college/history/america7_brief/content/multimedia/ch14/research_01d.htm "U.S. Grant, Memoir on the Mexican War (1885)"]</ref></blockquote>