Manifest Destiny, filibusters, Young America Manifest Destiny, filibusters, Young America and the Golden Circle: interlude in the and the Golden Circle: interlude in the

Imperial MarchImperial March

Embracing EmpireAs the Nation Breaks Apart

Towards Civil War

The New Atlantis: Oneida, The New Atlantis: Oneida, Romanticism, Utopianism, Theosophy Romanticism, Utopianism, Theosophy

and Filibustersand Filibusters

Seeking the “New Man”Seeking the “New Man”Utopian Communities and Dreams of PowerUtopian Communities and Dreams of Power

Albert PikeAlbert Pike Jesse and Frank Jesse and Frank

JamesJames

John Humphrey Knowles Stirpiculture

An American Empire?• Conquering the West

– The Frontier Thesis

• The Isolationist Myth– Classical Liberalism and the Empire of Liberty– Manifest Destiny

• The War with Mexico

• Expanding the Frontier

Classical Liberalism: Free markets, free trade, free men

“The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign Nations is in extending our commercial relations [but] to have with them as little political connection as possible.”

– George Washington, “Farewell Address, 1786.

“We shall seek peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.”

– Thomas Jefferson, 1801

How did we go from this . . .

. . . To This In a Little Over 100 Years?

“I am persuaded no constitution was ever before so well calculated as ours for extensive empire & self government.”

“By enlarging the empire of liberty, we. . . provide new sources of renovation, should its principles, at any time, degenerate, in those portions of our country which gave them birth.”

-- Jefferson on the U.S. as an “Empire for liberty,” 1809

The Components of EmpireThe Components of Empire 1. a. 1. a. A political unit having an extensive territory or comprising a number A political unit having an extensive territory or comprising a number

of territories or nations and ruled by a single supreme authority.of territories or nations and ruled by a single supreme authority. b. b. The territory included in such a unit.The territory included in such a unit. 2. 2. An extensive enterprise under a unified authority: a publishing empire.An extensive enterprise under a unified authority: a publishing empire. 3. 3. Imperial or imperialistic sovereignty, domination, or controlImperial or imperialistic sovereignty, domination, or control

Economic Economic Military Military IdeologicalIdeological

Is the US an Empire? Does the US act like an empire? Is the US an Empire? Does the US act like an empire? Have Imperial Aspirations been a part of our history and Have Imperial Aspirations been a part of our history and since when?since when?

Precedents to the Open Door: The Empress of China and the Need for Deep Water Ports

An Empire of LibertyIn a letter to James Madison of April 27, 1809, Jefferson expressed that if Napoleon Bonaparate, would:

"give us the Floridas to withhold intercourse with the residue of [the Spanish] colonies…and…will consent to our receiving Cuba into our union to prevent our aid to Mexico and the other provinces….  We should then have only to include the North in our confederacy, which would be of course in the first war, and we should have such an empire for liberty as she has never surveyed since the creation.“

-Thomas Jefferson, 1809

"The far-reaching, the boundless future will be the era of American greatness. In its magnificent domain of space and time, the nation of many nations is destined to manifest to mankind the excellence of divine principles; to establish on earth the noblest temple ever dedicated to the worship of the Most High -- the Sacred and the True. Its floor shall be a hemisphere -- its roof the firmament of the star-studded heavens, and its congregation an Union of many Republics, comprising hundreds of happy millions, calling, owning no man master, but governed by God's natural and moral law of equality, the law of brotherhood -- of "peace and good will amongst men.". . . John L. O'Sullivan, 1839

Young America

The New Religion of Manifest Destiny:The New Religion of Manifest Destiny:Where Slavery Intersected the March of EmpireWhere Slavery Intersected the March of Empire

"Providence has given to the American people a great and glorious mission to perform, of extending the blessings of Christianity and of civil and religious liberty over the whole North American continent.... This will be a glorious spectacle to behold.... This spirit cannot be repressed, ... We must fulfill our destiny."

James Buchanan, speaking in the

Senate,

12 March 1844

To us it was an empire and of incalculable value; but it might have been obtained by other means.  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.

U.S. Grant, 1885

Was the Slaveocracy's Hunger for More Slave Territory a Cause?

The Annexation of Texas by joint resolution of Congress, February 27-28, 1845

Senator Ambrose Sevier, a Democrat from Arkansas, argued in an executive session of the Senate on 7 June 1844 that annexing Texas would enable America "to monopolize, through the instrumentality of slave labor, the production of cotton and sugar, and other Southern productions, not only for the supply of our own markets, but the markets of the world."

"As regards the slaves, the African being from a tropical climate, and from the region of the burning sands and sun, his comfort and condition would be greatly improved, by a transfer from northern latitudes to the genial and most salubrious climate of Texas"

Robert Walker

Senator Robert M. T. Hunter of Virginia: "There is not a respectable system of civilization known to history whose foundations were not laid in the institution of domestic slavery."

"I do not think there ever was a more wicked war than that waged by the United States in Mexico. I thought so at the time, when I was a youngster, only I had not moral courage enough to resign."

Ulysses S. Grant

The Mexican-American War, 1846-48:

The March Toward Empire

James Polk

As war exists, and, notwithstanding all our efforts to avoid it, exists by the act of Mexico herself, we are called upon by every consideration of duty and patriotism to vindicate with decision the honor, the rights, and the interests of our country. . . .

"This war is a nondescript." Whig leader Robert Toombs of Georgia. "We charge the President with usurping the war-making power . . . with seizing a country . . . which had been for centuries, and was then in the possession of the Mexicans. . . . Let us put a check upon this lust of dominion. We had territory enough, Heaven knew." - Whig leader Robert Toombs of Georgia

Dissidents

Lincoln, Thoreau, and Adams

" . . . bigger pens to cram with slaves."

Spots Resolution

Spot Resolution, United States House of RepresentativesAbraham Lincoln

Congressman from the State of Illinois Whereas the President of the United States, in his message of May 11th, 1846, has declared that "The Mexican Government not only refused to receive his envoy, or listen to his propositions, but, after a long continued series of menaces, have at last invaded our territory, and shed the blood of our fellow citizens on our soil." And whereas this House desires to obtain a full knowledge of all the facts which go to establish whether the particular spot of soil on which the blood of our citizens was so shed, was, or was not, our own soil, at that time; therefore Resolved by the House of Representatives, that the President of the United States be respectfully requested to inform this House -- First: Whether the spot of soil on which the blood of our citizens was shed, as in his messages declared, was, or was not, within the territories of Spain, at least from the treaty of 1819 until the Mexican revolutionSecond: Whether that spot is, or is not, within the territory which was wrested from Spain, by the Mexican revolution Third: Whether that spot is, or is not, within a settlement of people, which settlement had existed ever since long before the Texas revolution, until its inhabitants fled from the approach of the US Army. Fourth: Whether the People of that settlement, or a majority of them, had ever, previous to the bloodshed, submitted themselves to the government or laws of Texas, or, of the Untied States, by consent, or by compulsion, either by accepting office, or voting at elections, or paying taxes, or in any other way. Fifth: Whether our citizens, whose blood was shed, as in his messages declared, were, or were not, at that time, armed officers and soldiers, sent into that settlement, by the military of the President through the Secretary of War... Lincoln's resolution was read before the House of Representatives, but "laid on the table." Congress took no action on it. Lincoln was defeated in the next election.

Opposition on Basis of Race

• [W]e have never dreamt of incorporating into our Union any but the Caucasian race—the free white race. To incorporate Mexico, would be the very first instance of the kind, of incorporating an Indian race; for more than half of the Mexicans are Indians, and the other is composed chiefly of mixed tribes. I protest against such a union as that! Ours, sir, is the Government of a white race.... We are anxious to force free government on all; and I see that it has been urged … that it is the mission of this country to spread civil and religious liberty over all the world, and especially over this continent. It is a great mistake. - John C. Calhoun

Propaganda 1840s Style

Consecrated with The Blood of MartyrsOr at least with really gauche wallpaper of Heroes

Heroica Defensa del Castillo

The San Patricio Battalion

"Be not deceived by the prejudice of a nation that is at war with Mexico, for a friendlier and more hospitable people than the Mexicans you will not find on the face of the earth." - John Riley

After the battle of Churubusco, near the end of the war, 85 San patricio soldiers were captured and 72 were tried by a court martial. Fifty were hanged and another 16 were flogged and branded on the face with the letter "D" for deserter.

Martyrs to Manifest Destiny

• The call to War, the raising of nationalistic fervor, and the raising of the new of Goddess of Manifest Destiny required the blood of martyrs to unify both the United States and Mexico in the conflict.

Civil Religion

• According to Robert Bellah, civic religion is a set of religious beliefs through which a society interprets its own history in light of some conception of ultimate reality. It usually consists of "god-language used in references to the nation," including historical myths about the society's divine origins, beliefs about its sacred historical purpose, and occasionally religious restrictions on societal membership (Wuthnow).

• Habits of the Heart , by Robert C. Bellah

The community of the army standing in the field today feels itself . . . to be a community unto death, and the greatest of its kind. Death on the field of battle differs from death that is only man's common lot .... Death on the field of battle differs from this merely unavoidable dying in that in war, and in this enormity only in war, the individual can believe that he knows he is dying "for" something. The why and the wherefore of his facing death can, as a rule, be so indubitable to him that the problem of the "meaning" of death does not even occur to him. (1920, 1:548; 1946:335)

Max Weber

Propaganda, Sacrifice, Meaning and War

Civil Religion and Manifest Destiny

• God] has made us adept in government that we may administer government among savage and senile peoples. Were it not for such a force this world would relapse into barbarism and night. And of all our race he has marked the American people as his chosen nation to finally lead in the regeneration of the world.

Senator Beveridge, 1896

Do you remind me of the precious blood that must be shed, the lives that must be given, the broken hearts of loved ones for their slain? And this is indeed a heavier price than all combined.

And, yet, as a nation, every historic duty we have done, every achievement we have accomplished has been by the sacrifice of our noblest sons.

Every holy memory that glorifies the flag is of those heroes who have died that its onward march might not be stayed. It is the nation's dearest lives yielded for the flag that makes it dear to us; it is the nation's most precious blood poured out for it that makes it precious to us.

That flag is woven of heroism and grief, of the bravery of men and women's tears, of righteousness and battle, of sacrifice and anguish, of triumph and of glory. It is these which make our flag a holy thing.

ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE In Support of an American Empire: Symbol and Rhetoric in Action

It is the nation's dearest lives yielded for the flag that makes it dear to us; it is the nation's most precious blood poured out for it that makes it precious to us.

La Llorona

On the March to Mexico City

The End of the Mexican-American War

WILMOT PROVISO

Provided, territory from That, as an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any the Republic of Mexico by the United States, by virtue of any treaty which may be negotiated between them, and to the use by the Executive of the moneys herein appropriated, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted.

[Passed by the U.S.House of Representatives, 1846 and 1847, never passed by the U.S.Senate]

The Grand Visions of William Henry Seward

I chant the world on my Western sea,I chant copious the islands beyond, thick as stars in the sky,I chant the new empire grander than any before,

as in a vision

It comes to me,I chant America the mistress, I chant a greater supremacy,I chant projected a thousand blooming cities yet in time on

those    groups of sea-islands,My sail-ships and steam-ships threading the archipelagoes,My stars and stripes fluttering in the wind,Commerce opening, the sleep of ages having done its work,

races    reborn, refresh'd,Lives, works resumed--the object I know not--but the old, the Asiatic renew'd as it must be,Commencing from this day surrounded by the world - Walt Whitman, “A Broadway Pageant,” Leaves of Grass

Empire and Culture