Reading Questions #1 | Amy Greenberg – Manifest Destiny

Reading Questions #1 | Amy Greenberg – Manifest Destiny
The reading questions are designed to direct you to important passages of the reading, and to prepare you for the
argumentative paper about Manifest Destiny. You should have these questions open while you read the text, and answer them
as you go. Most of the questions are written with the intent of you quoting the book directly. If you do this, and cite the page
number as well, you will find you understand the book well and you already have most of the supporting evidence you will need
for the paper.
Type your answers beneath the questions without changing the document. You should type your answers in a colored font, or
in bold and highlighted text, to make it easy for your professor to read your answers.
Finally, note that any students who turn in identical (or very nearly so) sets of answers, particularly on the questions calling for
your own reasoning, will receive grades of zero.
Introduction
1. According to Greenberg (beginning on bottom of p.1) what did Manifest Destiny do?
2. What role did Manifest Destiny play in causing the Civil War
The Ideological Origins of Manifest Destiny
3. How does Greenberg define American Exceptionalism and what group of people established this belief?
4. Greenberg identifies five things that “prove to Americans that their nation, above all others, was unique and marked by God for a special
destiny.” What are they?
Territorial Expansion in the Early Republic
5. Why did Thomas Jefferson pursue the Louisiana Purchase?
“ But his concern for about the potential therate from the french”
6. Why did the Federalist Party oppose the Louisiana Purchase?7. Immediately following the Louisiana Purchase, what areas
most appealed to “land-hungry citizens and Democratic politicians” and why?
8. What was the Monroe Doctrine and what role would it play much later in American policy?
Factors Driving Early Expansionism
9. What two major forces drove early expansion?
10. How did speculators and squatters contribute to expansion?
U.S. Expansion in a World Context
11. What is “Settler Colonialism” and where was it practiced?
Expansionism and Indian People
12. What is the history of American Expansionism regarding Indian people?
13. How was race used to justify taking over land from Indians (as well as mixed-race Mexicans)?
Social Transformations and the Birth of Aggressive Expansionism
14. The transformation from a passive to an aggressive vision of expansionism “was grounded in a host of changes.” What are these changes? How
did they contribute?
15. A now-famous essay in an 1845 edition of the Democratic Review asserted what three things?
16. How did the expulsion of the Cherokees in the 1830s change how Americans justified taking land from Indian people?
17. How did transformation in race relations within the United States drive expansionism?
18. Why were Southerners enthusiastic about expansion?
Opposing Voices
19. What group of people most protested Manifest Destiny, and what methods did this group use?
20. Why did the Whigs fear expansion? How did they believe America’s future greatness should be developed?
Andrew Jackson and the March to the Southwest
21. What groups of people did the Democratic party appeal to? What did Democrats think would best preserve American democracy and individual
prosperity?
The Overland Trail
22. What expansionist goals did the Young America group have?
Annexation and War With Mexico
23. What series of events led to Congress declaring war on Mexico? Why did Whigs support it?
24. What was David Wilmot’s proviso, and why was it important?
25. What were the outcomes of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848?
Filibustering: Taking Matters Into Their Own Hands
26. What did filibusters do? Why did they do it?
27. What role did the California Gold Rush play in increasing filibustering?
Sectionalism Checks Manifest Destiny
28. Who was Narciso López, and how was he important?
29. How did Millard Fillmore differ from other Whigs on expansion and filibustering?
30. What was the Ostend Manifesto? How did it affect American expansion?
31. Why did William Walker become one of the greater cultural heroes of the 1850s?
32. What nations and territories did the U.S. government at least contemplate annexing in the 1850s?
After the Civil War: Manifest Destiny Reevaluated and Redeemed
33. Why was commercial expansion (and not territorial expansion) more appealing to most Americans in the decades after the Civil War?
34. What effect did the collapse of Reconstruction have on expansion and the remembrance of Manifest Destiny?
35. Why did Manifest Destiny revive in the 1890s?
The Documents
Chapter 1: Ideological Origins
1. William Bradford, “Of Plimouth Plantation”
36. How does Bradford depict the role of the Indians in the Pilgrims’ arrival? How does he depict God’s role?37. According to Winthrop, what must
Puritans consider about their venture being “as a citty
2. John Winthrop, “A Modell of Christian Charity”
upon a hill”?
Chapter 2: Expansion in the Early Republic
3. Richard Butler, “A Commissioner’s View of the Ohio River Valley”
38. What does Butler think the “old States” ought to do to ensure the people already living in Ohio join the United States?
39. How does Butler describe the land along the Ohio River? What does he say “the Divine hand” intends for this land?
4. Council of 1793, “To the Commissioners of the United States”
40. What do the “Brothers” (the confederation of Indians) suggest the Council of 1793 do with the cash payment they offered to purchase large swaths
of Indian land in Ohio?
41. What concession did the Council make to the Indian confederation? What did they expect to get as a consequence of that concession?
5. Jedidiah Morse, “The American Geography”
42. Why does Morse think that the land west of the Mississippi will not be forever lost to the United States?
43. What is Morse’s vision of an American Empire?
44. According to Morse, what did God never intend?
6. Fisher Ames, “Letter to Thomas Dwight”
45. What are Ames’ concerns regarding the Louisiana Purchase?
7. Thomas Jefferson, “Second Inaugural Address”
46. What points does Jefferson use to argue in favor of the Louisiana Purchase?
47. What does he say should be the future of the various Indian people presently living in Louisiana? What are the “powerful obstacles” to this vision?
8. Tecumseh, “Appeal to the Osages”
48. Why does Tecumseh want union with the Osages?
49. How does Tecumseh’s Great Spirit compare with the “God of nature” or “Divine hand” of previous documents? – how are they similar, how are
they dissimilar?
9. John Quincy Adams, Diary Entry
50. Adams writes in his diary that “it was impossible that centuries should elapse without” what?
Chapter 3: Pushing West
10. Andrew Jackson, “State of the Union Address”
51. What does Jackson say will be the positive consequences of Indian removal to white people?
52. What are the (to Jackson) positive consequences for the Indians themselves?
53. How does Jackson use the common fact of white men migrating to justify the removal of Indians from their ancestral homes?
11. Black Hawk, “Encroachment by White Settlers”
54. How did Black Hawk and his people view the ownership of land?
55. What was Black Hawk’s complaint about white settlers? Do you think he had a valid complaint?
12. “Memorial and Protest of the Cherokee Nation”
56. What is the Cherokee Nation protesting in this document?
57. In what ways is this document different from Black Hawk’s account of white encroachment?
13. Lyman Beecher, “A Plea for the West”
58. According to Beecher, what will be “The conflict which is to decide the destiny of the West”?
59. What are the problems with the “northern barbarians”?
14. Harriet Martineau, “On Land-Lust in America”
60. Martineau claims that “the possession of land” is what in America? Why does she find this “natural enough”?
15. Pathiñ Nañpaji, “An Encounter between Omaha Hunters and White Squatters in Iowa”
61. What is the fundamental dispute recounted here?
62. In your opinion, what kind of agreement between these parties could have been reached? What leads you to think that?
16. Zenas Leonard, “A Fur Trapper’s View of Manifest Destiny”
63. What does Leonard want the United States government to do concerning the Far West?
17. Richard Henry Dana, “Two Years before the Mast”
64. How does Dana depict the Indians of California?
18. Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The Young American”
65. What are all the things that Emerson says the great American land can do?
66. How is Emerson’s depiction of the value of land different from the other writers we have read thus far?
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