What does the term Manifest Destiny mean?
In 1845, shortly after Polk's inauguration as president, Congress approved Texas's statehood. During the debate over Texas, John L. O'Sullivan, a Democratic journalist in New York City, wrote an editorial supporting annexation. In O'Sullivan's famous phrase, gaining Texas was the United States' Manifest Destiny. This term, which soon became widely popular, suggested that the U.S. would obviously and inevitably control Texas, as well as other portions of the West. O'Sullivan considered the U.S. a rapidly growing nation, which had a right to take land away from what he regarded as an inferior country, Mexico. O'Sullivan's editorial on Manifest Destiny also argued that white Americans were superior to Mexicans, Indians, and African-Americans, and that whites should govern the U.S. in their own interest